Connecticut has offered a voluntary public financing system for state-wide constitutional and General Assembly offices since 2008. Through financing from the Citizens' Election Fund, candidates that obtain the required number of small donations can receive a lump sum to fund their campaign. The program is very popular and in 2012, 77 percent of successful candidates were publicly financed.
The financial services industry is second to none in dreaming up ways to rip off Americans. Show me a a financial product—credit cards, mortgages, checking accounts, 401(k)s, annuities—and I'll show you a stack of consumer complaints documenting how banks and other firms have sought to bleed dry the American public.
Bet if I asked, the odds are good that many people could tell me to the penny what they just paid for a gallon of gas.
So how much did it cost you to invest in your 401(k) last year? I don't know myself. And you likely don't know either.
Over the years, most of us have heard that if we just start saving a few hundred dollars a month in our 20s, we can retire a millionaire. Compound interest is your best friend.
I watched the disturbing Frontline documentary on PBS,The Retirement Gamble, and not surprisingly, I got to thinking about the fees I pay for investing in my retirement accounts.
A new report from Mayor Bloomberg's Office of Economic Opportunity shows that parts of New York City are nearly as economically stratified as anywhere in the world.
The fast food conglomerate Yum! Brands is one of the largest private employers in the United States, with nearly some half million workers, most of whom make near poverty-level wages. Which is why some workers at Yum! restaurants -- which include Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut -- joined a strike this week in Chicago.
The interaction of economics research and ideological politics has once again brought to the forefront the blurring of advocacy and academic integrity that has become so prevalent since the financial crisis. Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff published research in 2010 that has been used widely to assert that austerity is needed for economies that are both in a recession and carry a debt to GDP ratio that exceeds 90%.
On a normal day, Sonia Acuña, a petite 41-year old mother of four, puts on her bright red McDonald’s cap and reports to work at a branch of the giant hamburger chain in Chicago’s main rail terminal, Union Station. But today, in cold and drizzling early morning weather, Acuña—still wearing her McDonald’s hat—was out on the street in front of the terminal, striking.
ALBANY, N.Y.—With the recent indictment of New York politicians like Senator Malcolm Smith and Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, many wonder, can they trust state lawmakers?
"We do a random sample of more than 800 registered voters and our sample looks like the New York electorate both in terms of geography, bipartisan break up, gender, age, income etc. so we do it very carefully to ensure we get a representative sample," said Greenberg. "Voters don't feel really strongly about that legislature and don't have great confidence in them right now."
Americans owe more than $1 trillion in student loans — a total that surpasses credit card debt — but millions who are past due on payments are not taking advantage of a program designed to make their debt manageable.
The federal income-based repayment program reduces an eligible borrower’s monthly payment based on income, and it forgives the loan balance after up to 25 years. Those who owe more than they earn in a year are probably eligible. And those working in public service fields, such as teachers, can have loans forgiven after 10 years.
Think of predatory lending and you probably think of pawn shops and check cashing stores in run down strip malls in poor neighborhoods.
Time to expand your thinking—like, say, to include the fancy office tower in downtown San Francisco that houses Wells Fargo's headquarters. Wells Fargo is one of a handful of banks that offer Checking Account Advances, which can carry eye-popping interest rates.
Representative Martha Roby has an op-ed in Politico today making the case for her “Working Families Flexibility Act.” The bill would allow businesses to pay their workers in comp time, rather than higher wages, for the overtime hours they work.
Roby has argued that her bill would make it easier for workers who want flexible schedules. As proof, she offers the example of Karen DeLoach, a bookkeeper who works at an accounting firm in Alabama.
NerdWallet underlies its findings with a report by public policy organization Demos from last summer, which added the further frightening fact that among folks investing in 401(k) plans, a full two-thirds had no idea they were payinganything at all for their 401(k) (which actually makes all of the folks who guessed wrong in NerdWallet's poll look pretty smart by comparison).
According to numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the beginning of April, American employers added only 88,000 jobs in March, compared to 268,000 in February. While it's certainly better than losing the same number of jobs, it does very little to reassure Americans still looking for work. Also, while we've had about 30 months of job growth, it doesn't appear to have improved overall incomes.
The advocacy group Small Business Majority is out this morning with a new survey that bolsters efforts to raise the minimum wage.
President Obama ignited the debate earlier this year when he proposed raising the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $9, arguing that it would help working families. Congressional Democrats countered with a higher bid, suggesting $10.10. Both proposals would tie the minimum wage to inflation so it keeps up with the cost of living.
A big reason that Citizens United was such a blow to equal democracy is that it enabled corporations to pump money into elections in new and anonymous ways. Even before that Supreme Court decision, though, campaign finance law already included a major loophole that allows for gigantic -- and perfectly legal -- corporate donations to a sitting president or president-elect.
