The Pew Charitable Trusts blew a major opportunity to condemn the exploitative practice of payday lending when it issued a major report on this issue a few days ago -- the culmination of over two years of careful research.
Payday lenders have found a powerful friend in the Pew Charitable Trusts. In a recent report on payday lending -- the culmination of two years of work -- Pew embraces reforms to this industry that would still allow the poorest Americans to be charged annual interest rates in the triple digits.
Congress resolved the shutdown and debt ceiling crisis (for now) by agreeing to hash out a budget agreement by mid-December. Already, hopes are dim. Budget experts say that if any deal at all is worked out to replace the deep budget cuts that went into effect in March, the most likely outcome will be a short-term plan involving slightly less severe spending cuts—but with no new revenue, a big Democratic priority.
Washington is in its usual state of hysteria this week -- now over the Obamacare rollout -- so, as usual, few people in power are talking about the biggest problem facing the country: a still-stagnant labor market that has stranded millions in a jobless hell, with real unemployment rates for some groups at Great Depression levels.
Millions of workers across Indonesia are joining a national strike this week to press for a higher minimum wage and universal health coverage. This is actually a big deal for Americans, not that any of us are paying a lick of attention.
The most likely consequence of the sequestration will be be slower growth and lower tax revenues, and it’s a distinct possibility that the sequestration could actually increase the deficit.
Shaun McCutcheon is everywhere. First he challenged aggregate contribution limits in a case currently before the Supreme Court that threatens to remove one of the last remaining reigns on campaign spending.
Defenders of Social Security say all the time that this program has nothing to do with the deficit, and thus cuts to Social Security shouldn't be part of any long-term fiscal deal.
In fact, though, Social Security's future costs will drive future deficits, and that reflects a monumental blunder by Washington that can still be corrected.
As a retiree with a defined-benefit pension; a former public employee who defended public workers’ pension benefits for decades; and an advocate who, after leaving the Service Employees International Union, chose to spend several years trying to create a national effort to build a new all-American retirement system, I want to offer my perspective on some of the recent pension issues in Rhode Island.
Progressives focus a lot on the need to "defend" government. But we can be curiously indifferent to the urgent task of making government work better -- and, in fact, have a long history of treating such efforts with suspicion. In that sense, progressives share blame for the HealthCare.gov debacle -- an episode that showcases why fixing a dysfunctional public sector needs to be near the top of the progressive "to do" list.
Discussion is growing of an empathy gap rooted in our society's dramatic increase in inequality. As David Madland argues in Democracy, "Studies across U.S. states, of the United States over time, and across countries all find that societies with a strong middle class and low levels of inequality have greater levels of trust of strangers." This trust brings about economic advantages.
Not long ago, there were barely any progressive think tanks -- and certainly none on par with the Heritage Foundation. When Demos started in 1999, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities was the biggest policy shop around, but steered clear -- and still does -- of entire issue areas, like foreign policy and the environment.
Wal-Mart Stores is the country’s biggest private employer. Its low wages have incited labor protests and congressional criticism, and have created a cottage industry of public policy research.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark paper that helped delineate the federal poverty line. A huge leap forward in its day, the poverty line established credible criteria for what constituted an acceptable standard of living.
Are the technical problems of HealthCare.gov more evidence that big government can't do anything right? That's the claim of many critics of Obamacare. In fact, though, problems with complex information and software systems are extremely common, both in the public and private sector.
