This summer, Social Security – the government program that provides a steady check for seniors – turned 75. In Washington, lawmakers celebrated its platinum anniversary not with champagne, but with a heated argument over whether to reform the costly entitlement program by slashing benefits or raising the retirement age. Indeed, More…
A new report shows that the income gap between rich and poor in America is at an eight-decade high — the largest differential since the period immediately preceding the Great Depression. And economists fear that the education and job-creation programs that could bridge this gap are lacking in the More…
Dean Baker thinks so. In a talk at the DC bookstore Politics and Prose last night, the progressive economist suggested that we could save billions on Medicare and Medicaid payments by giving retirees a financial incentive to move abroad. It’s an intriguing idea — video after the jump:
For the past year, Republicans have insisted that Congress take up legislation to stop the losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the government-sponsored enterprises that buy up and repackage mortgages, keeping loan prices stable. Fannie and Freddie have incurred more than $150 billion in losses since the burst More…
Yesterday, the Senate passed by overwhelming margins two amendments to Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill: One sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), to ensure no further taxpayer dollars go to Wall Street bailouts, and one agreed to by Dodd and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to drop the More…
With the Home Affordable Modification Program faltering in its effort to stem the foreclosure crisis, Dean Baker, the co-chair of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, argues for a simple and free way for Congress to aid banks and underwater homeowners.
Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Housing More…
As job creation continues to be the caboose of economic recovery, employment experts of all stripes are hiking the pressure on Congress to tackle the crisis by encouraging employers to cut hours rather than firing workers. And more and more lawmakers are taking heed.
Seventeen states have already adopted so-called More…
The failure of Washington lawmakers to recognize the severity of the Great Recession has slowed the recovery and allowed unemployment to reach double-digit levels, according to some of the nation’s leading economists. The experts hope that the latest effort — in the form of a new “jobs bill” being crafted More…
Last night, Dave showed that the looming hold on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is no partisan matter, with Rep. Joe “You Lie” Wilson (R-S.C.) and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) also supporting the procedural move by the liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). But More…
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae’s recent announcement that it will give homeowners facing foreclosure the chance to stay in their properties as renters for as long as a year is the latest aggressive move by the government to help troubled borrowers and tenants avoid being evicted. But as More…
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