Upcoming New America Events

With the big guns in the financial services industry in turmoil, it’s a good time to ask hard questions about the nature of our finance system. Does bigger always mean better? Or does small-scale "relationship" banking, in which individual savers and borrowers are members of the same community, help to make a better banking sector? Community banks and credit unions were regarded until recently as vestigial players in a new world of global consumer finance. But today they… more

America's path to becoming a broadband leader is uncertain. Few dispute that deploying fast, universal, and affordable broadband is imperative, but the costs of robust network infrastructure are daunting for the private sector and governments. In a forthcoming New America Foundation working paper, authors Tim Wu and Derek Slater propose an innovative way to drive broadband deployment: a model that encourages consumers to purchase and own the "last-mile" connection that runs into their home. By purchasing their own fiber… more

Americans like to pride ourselves that we live in a land of equal opportunity. Yet we also know that many children come into the world with the deck stacked heavily against them. Data show that children who are born in poverty to young, poorly educated parents have much lower chances of succeeding in school, college, and the workforce than their less-disadvantaged peers. They are also at greater risk for a host of negative outcomes, including poor academic performance, being held… more

A large and diverse array of stakeholders in America's broadband future will announce the formation of the U.S. Broadband Coalition and release a Call to Action that provides President-elect Obama and the incoming Congress a framework for a comprehensive national broadband strategy. The Coalition includes prominent communications providers, high technology companies, manufacturers, consumers, labor unions, public interest groups, educators, state and local governments, utilities, content creators, foundations, and other stakeholders in America's broadband future. These organizations believe… more

A discussion with the book's author, Bart Gellman.

The media is increasingly pervasive in the lives of children and adolescents. The average child today spends nearly 45 hours per week with media, compared with 17 hours with parents and 30 hours in school. However, until now there has been very little comprehensive analysis of the research tracking the impact of media on children’s health. On Tuesday, December 2, researchers from Yale University School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health will discuss… more