Special Report

We need to update our social contract for the real lives of working families in a brutal economy.

After a decade of economic change and fresh thinking, it’s time for a new national effort to fight poverty.

The classroom is where poor and middle-class kids should meet — to the benefit of both.

Can Mayor Bloomberg pay people to do the right thing?

Why has helping the single, childless workers become the darling of poverty policy?

It’s still hard for politicians to speak clearly about the poorest Americans.

Neighborhood-based approaches can succeed, if they’re part of a broader urban strategy.

Britain’s national goal of reducing child poverty was a political success. Did it work?

Sub-prime lending was racially targeted and demolished decades of progress made by America’s most diligent and striving people of color. How will America make amends?