Blog: Policy Shop

Economic inequality is a famously complex phenomenon, but some parts of this trend are quite simple: Like how today’s rich are benefiting from a rare confluence of record high compensation and record low taxes. The most striking example can be found on Wall Street, where hedge fund managers have scored mind-boggling paydays — three of […]

Voter ID isn’t the only law unjustly limiting citizen’s voting rights. In an excellent piece for Salon, Erik Nielson illuminates the widespread disenfranchisement of convicted felons. Although state laws vary in severity, all but two have some sort of restrictions preventing convicted felons from voting. The biggest state-by-state differences lie in whether an ex-con is […]

New York continues to suffer from high unemployment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has new data that indicates that, of all the states, only New York had a “statistically significant over-the-year increase in its unemployment rate (+0.9%).” New York isn’t alone in struggling. The West continued to record the highest regional unemployment rate in July, […]

One clear path to retirement security is to buy a home early in life and pay off it before you retire — at which point you can either live there at a pretty low cost or cash out and use the wealth to help cover living expenses in a cheaper place. But this path is […]

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a recall for over 2.3 million toilets after hundreds of people were injured. The recall applies to units manufactured between October 1997 and February 2008. Aside from being my own personal nightmare, that is an astonishing amount of manufacturer neglect in terms of number of units […]

Jay Z and Beyonce at a Nets gameA New York Times story this week about the business acumen of Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, has sent a splash, or at least a ripple, through the blogosphere. The article talks about Carter’s investment and wide-ranging input into the birth of the Brooklyn Nets and their brand spanking […]

There’s a common misconception that unemployment insurance uniformly lasts 99 weeks. Not so! From a new Center on Budget Policy Priorities report:

It’s well known that seniors are easy prey for scam artists of every kind. What is less well-known is how big this problem is and how many of the scam artists wear suits and work for major financial service firms. Seniors were major targets of mortgage brokers seeking to push homeowners into subprime loans and […]

Today, the last state enrolled in a federal program designed to keep unemployment checks flowing, Idaho, lost its eligibility. In 2010, Federal-State Extended Benefits program enrolled over a million people. Why stop the benefits while the national unemployment rate remains over 8%? The Wall Street Journal reports on the reason for its demise: The Extended […]