Rags to rags: Economic mobility hard to come by
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Are you better off than your parents? You might not think so, but new data from the Pew Center on the States suggests that for most people, the answer is yes. But the report also shows if your parents were poor, you are likely to be poor, as well, and ...
Homelessness takes it toll on Florida's youngest
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
As a big part of the housing boom, Florida now stands at the epicenter of the fallout. The state's high unemployment and widespread foreclosures have a unique impact on the most vulnerable of Florida's residents — its children. Susannah Nesmith reports in the Broward Bulldog. Photo by Mike Kane for ...
Older workers face challenges in Silicon Valley
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
While the Silicon Valley area has regained all its jobs lost in the recession, some older workers in the tech sector are feeling left out. An Economic Policy Institute report estimates over 450,000 jobs were lost or displaced over the past decade in California because of the growing trade deficit ...
Michigan pursues wind energy with tax policy
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
President Obama laid out a vision in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night that includes job creation through support for renewable energy. Michigan has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates at 9.8 percent. A new tax ruling in the state could cost counties millions in revenue but ...
How the new poverty measures stack up
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Kat Aaron, project editor of our ongoing What Went Wrong: The Betrayal of the American Dream series, will be interviewed today at noon on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU-FM 88.5. Earlier this week, Aaron wrote about how the new poverty measures were constructed and what they revealed.
Tuesday elections show labor still a force
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
While off-year elections rarely garner headlines, national attention had been drawn to yesterday's vote on Issue 2 in Ohio. The measure sought to repeal State Bill 5, passed with Republican support in March, which prohibited striking by public employees and limited the subjects of collective bargaining for public employees. Labor unions in ...
Slumlords in New Haven taking Section 8 cash
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Photo by Neena Satija. Diamond Properties Managment told Nicole Dennis and her family not to cover up this hole because maintenance would do it. They haven't. Loose lending standards over the past decade had many implications, not just for the average homeowner but for those who used them to exploit ...
Day of action in Oakland
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Occupy Oakland has gained national attention because of contentious exchanges between protestors and police. While labor unions expressed solidarity with the movement through a “mass day of action”, some labor contracts contain no-strike clauses. Vanessa Rancano writes in the Oakland Local: Richard Mead, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse ...
What we're reading - October 21, 2011
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Here's what Kat Aaron, What Went Wrong's project editor, was reading this week: This week, I’ve been reading about the 1 percent and about the poor. The Census Bureau released a brief (pdf) this week mapping the percentages of people living in poverty by state, and the geographic concentration of ...
What we're reading - Oct. 14, 2011
Friday, October 14th, 2011
Here's what Kat Aaron, What Went Wrong's project editor, was reading this week: Last week, I mentioned an article from the Wall Street Journal about people cutting back on diapers. This week, American Public Media's Marketplace radio show focused on other off-beat indicators of how the economy is doing. The ...
