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As Congress Takes Up Sweeping Financial Reform, Report Urges Fundamental Change of Ratings Agency Model

Washington, DC — With the House of Representatives and a key Senate committee poised to vote on sweeping financial industry reforms, a new report by Demos finds that the proposed remedies fail to fully address the problems that led the credit rating agencies to become key enablers of the housing bubble and Wall Street meltdown.

High Court Threatening to Overturn Key Precedents Protecting Citizens Against Corporate Control of Politics

H.R. 1 contains innovative programs that would stay within the lines drawn by the Court and still curb the harmful influence of big money.

Washington, DC — As the United States Congress considers the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009, which aims to establish national regulatory reforms for American ground transportation, a newly published study details the widespread failures of port trucking deregulation. Port Trucking Down the Low Road: A Sad Story of Deregulation, published by Demos, a national public policy research center

Felony disenfranchisement is one of several ways people get stripped of their power.

Arguments Heard Today Suggest Precedents Limiting Corporate Political Influence Under Threat

Washington, DC — Today's argument in Citizens United v. FEC suggests that the Roberts Court is poised to sweep aside century-old restraints on corporate domination of the political marketplace — unless the wisdom of the Court's newest member proves persuasive when the decision is ultimately written.

Demos Issues Statement on CARD Act and Upcoming Financial Regulation Debate; Publishes Background Paper on Consumer Financial Protection Agency

In 2016, a report from the progressive think tank Demos found that most campaign dollars in local elections were coming from contributors who are white, male and high-income.

Washington, DC — Today, thousands of Americans are gathering on the streets of Chicago to march against financial service industry excess that has cost the American taxpayers trillions of dollars, destabilized the economy and undermined the stability of millions of US households.

In response to the public outcry against excesses in the financial services industries, dubbed "The Showdown in Chicago", the following statement was issued from Heather McGhee, director of the Washington DC, Office for the public policy and research center Demos:

Resources to make sense of the student debt crisis, the administration's Public Charge rule, the realities of our big-money political system, and more

The auto dealer-loan industry's exemption from CFPA oversight leaves families vulnerable to widespread financial abuse.

Our new Economic Democracy agenda is about building economic power and liberation for Black and brown people in the United States.

Congress must include small-donor matching in final For the People package

"Although credit scores never formally take race into account, they draw on data about personal borrowing and payment history that is shaped by generations of discriminatory public policies and corporate practices that limit access to wealth for Black and Latinx families."

Congress must act swiftly to advance this pro-democracy legislation. The Freedom To Vote Act is a significant structural voting rights reform package that advances racial equity and moves us toward an inclusive democracy.

"The Freedom to Vote Act — the most significant voting rights bill in generations — would be a giant step toward our goal of creating a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy."

"For the sake of millions — people watching their rents go up while their wages don’t, parents who need support in tackling the ever-rising cost of child care, and seniors who regularly must decide whether they can afford their bills or their pills — the Senate must pass this legislation.”