I got a chance to speak with Sabeel Rahman, a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute who is working on a project outlining progressive values and goals. We talked about how the Occupy Wall Street protests represent some important forms of political engagement, how progressives can best interact with...

Last week's jobs report was pretty bleak, and talk of a double dip recession looms. But for all the doom and gloom, there has been a slight uptick in jobs numbers in recent months. Some people are starting to get back to work, even if it's a very,...

As Elizabeth Warren says, "Nothing will ever replace the role of personal responsibility." Just as the FDA doesn't prevent overdoses, the point of consumer protection regulations isn't to come to the rescue of people who simply don't want to pay back the money they owe. But debt collection...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

It's pretty much common knowledge that one of the biggest reasons to get a credit card is that it helps boost your credit score. When I tell people that I don't have a credit card, that's the first thing they point...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

When picturing people who are so far into debt they can't get on top of their bills, many likely see images of flat screen TVs, Escalades, and giant, unnecessary houses. But the sad truth is that one of the biggest reasons Americans carry...

Whenever I bring up the predatory bank practices that keep people stuck in debt, usually the first push back I get is that credit cards can be useful. Cards with rewards are a way to get things in return for spending money; if you open an account with...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

The GOP won lots of concessions in the deal to avert a shutdown late Friday night, but one of them might at first seem surprising: a requirement that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau be audited annually and

Bryce Covert sat down with Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Bo Cutter, who was Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President from 1992-1996 during the Clinton Presidency and the last government shutdown. He explains why the current shutdown is small potatoes compared to the...

Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 warrants allowing borrowers who don't pay to be jailed since the start of 2010. Portfolio Recovery Associates, a debt buyer, made $44 million last year on $281 million in revenue, a 16% net margin.

You wouldn't be crazy...

A new report came out recently on what the U.S. can learn from the countries that most successfully educate their children. The most important recommendation? "Make a concerted effort to raise the status of the teaching profession." While the U.S. is only second to Luxembourg in OECD countries'...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

The ability to stay away from credit cards is a privilege, as is being offered banking products, including checking accounts. Indeed, minorities and women have historically been shut out of the products others take for granted. And this problem was one...

We may be trying to Win the Future, be we sure do like to get our young people mired in debt at an early age. And we're doing less to help them stay out of it.

President Obama's recent budget proposal included ending an experiment that gave out...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

You might think that if you're on food stamps, big banks won't be very interested in you. What could they possibly want with someone who's struggling just to put food on the table? But it turns out that you're actually part of

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

A Bloomberg article from yesterday compared some numbers that should serve as a stark wake-up call: traders and investment bankers (read: people on Wall Street) make more in this country than neurosurgeons, cancer researchers, engineers, and four-star generals. That's right, folks...

Detroit's history tells the story of the rise of manufacturing and economic prowess in the US. It is the story of the American middle class, built on the back of a booming industrial sector. But today it's become an omen of the struggles for middle- and lower-class Americans and the...

On a visit to see my mother recently, our conversation turned to finances. She divulged that she doesn't know how she's going to retire, something that will likely happen within the next ten years. When she first started teaching at a public school, she had a decent retirement plan and...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

Welcome to the club, eight million new people without a credit card! CNNMoney reported yesterday that credit card use is in decline, with the number of cardless people jumping up to 78 million this year from 70 million last...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

There was a lot of pre-election worry that women would stay home on November 2nd, along with polls suggesting that women were ditching Democrats along with the rest of the country. And indeed, women did vote for Republicans in higher numbers...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

You can now count the hours until Election Day. In this home stretch, pundits, politicians, and people of all ages are trying to read the tea leaves. That the GOP will make big gains -- very possibly taking one, if not both, of...

Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0.

As construction and manufacturing jobs crumble, many have dubbed this downturn a "mancession." It's even prompted some to declare that we are facing the "end of men." But women shouldn't celebrate their economic victory just yet. It's true that...