While Washington debates cutting Social Security and Medicare the facts are in on the “recovery” – it’s a bust. Not only has unemployment remained historically high – 7.7% officially, 23% by the old metrics – but poverty has spiked to historic highs. The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels [...]

An article in today’s New York Times tells us about two new reports, one from the Rockefeller Institute (RI), the other from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), which together tell us about the fiscal health of state and local governments.  The RI report gives us data on the amount of tax revenues [...]