The front page of today's American Banker (subscription required) shows their headline writers having some fun (perhaps too many CFPB related articles has them looking to keep things fresh?) There are three articles highlighted in today's daily briefing:
Sheldon Garon, who was our guest at a recent discussion of his new book "Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves" has a very interesting piece up on CNN.com that centers on his call to support small dollar savings in the United States by establishing a system of postal savings banks (a common and effective institution in the rest of the world):
Pennsylvania is going backwards, and people are going to be hurt because of it and it is probably going to cost the state money. The state recently announced to the USDA the return of a stringent asset for the SNAP (formerly Food Stamp program.)You can read all about in today's Philadelphia Inquirer. Money quote:
Bob Friedman has a really nice post up over at CFED's in-house blog, The Inclusive Economy. In it he commemorates the 20th anniversary of the publication of Michael Sherraden's seminal work, "Assets and the Poor," the book that essentially launched the asset building field and details his introduction to the book.
Last week amid all the drama of the Senate procedural vote on Richard Cordray's nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), I noted that the CFPB continues to go about it's business as they released their draft, model credit card disclosure form.
New York City (the Mayor’s office, that is, with whom we have partnered in the past) just released a report about some of the financial empowerment work—including savings, banking and financial counseling initiatives—that it has been pushing into its core social service programs. The report, Municipal Financial Empowerment: A Supervitamin for Public Programs, focuses on professional, one-on-one financial counseling.
Next Tuesday (December 13th at 4pm) we'll be hosting Princeton Professor Sheldon Garon and discussing his new book, "Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves." At the core of our work there are a host of questions about why and how people save or don't save. A variety of theories have been developed to address those questions over time. People save because of individual choices and pressures. People save because of the institutions and mechanisms that are available to them. People save because they are morally virtuous. I'm frequently confronted with questions about these core issues, primarily those questions take the form of "Isn't it just culture?" I provided my answer and highlighted comments made by Cornell economist Robert Frank here on the Ladder. Now we have an opportunity to dig more deeply into the history of the US and the development of attitudes and policies that shape savings behavior, thanks to Professor Garon. His book amounts to a comparative case study of changing trends in savings behavior in the US and in other countries.
I'm looking forward to moderating the discussion between Professor Garon and Ray Boshara on Tuesday. You can RSVP and join us in person, or watch the event live online here. In the meantime, here's a sample of what's to come, as Professor Garon sat down with NPR to discuss his book, and the nature of savings behavior:
I have a pet theory that time speeds up after Thanksgiving and slows down again after New Year's Day. Data supporting this theory includes this week, when there's been a tremendous amount of news, releases and interesting developments and not nearly enough time to keep up with it all. The only way to keep up with the increased pace is a list, and, gasp, bullet points:
The Wall Street Journal has a good, foundational piece up on the varying nature of state tax benefits in the various 529 programs offered by the states. Here's Annamaria Andriotis
How are families really doing since the Great Recession? That's a question we're going to try to answer at an event tomorrow.
A flurry of new data are calling attention to the pervasive poverty and growing inequality that are markers of the post-recession economy. According to a recently released supplementary measure from the U.S. Census Bureau, 49.1 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010. The Congressional Budget Office reports the income gains made during times of economic growth were heavily concentrated at the top 1 percent of the distribution scale. While the income picture is bleak, some have countered that trends in mobility, rather than income, are the best indicator of economic health. What about trends in and the impact of wealth inequality?
Tomorrow we're going to explore the strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches to learn how families are really doing, and how we might design more effective public policies.
RSVP to join us in person on Tuesday, November 22nd at 3:30pm.
The event will also be webcast live and speakers will be taking questions from our online audience during the event via email and Twitter. Please send questions or comments to emple@newamerica.net or Tweet them @AssetsNAF.
That's a question I waved at in a post yesterday about the Equity Summit 2011, specifically in reference to the roots of the massive inequality of wealth we see in the US. I wrote:
I just returned from Detroit where I was happy to attend part of The Equity Summit 2011 (#equity11 on twitter). There were more than 2000 people in attendance and an excellent group gathered to discuss economic security including colleagues of ours from CFED, CBPP, the Insight Center, Aspen Institute and many many more. I wanted to take a minute to point out one of the big highlights of the event which was yesterday's plenary featuring Geoffrey Canada and Shaun Donovan.
At the very core of our work lays the idea that everyone deserves equal opportunity. From an assets perspective that means we need to take steps to expose all children to the benefits of assets in the household (and the "wealth effect" that accompanies those assets) beginning very early in life. That's why we've championed the idea of a universal system of children's savings accounts, specifically the ASPIRE Act, for years now.
Those were the topics on tap at yesterday's Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection hearing. As I mentioned yesterday, our own Ray Boshara (well, he's not all ours anymore) was on a crowded but extremely informative panel alongside Ida Rademacher from CFED.
The Senate Banking subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection is hosting a hearing today on "Consumer Protection and Middle Class Wealth Building in an Age of Growing Household Debt." The hearing is scheduled from 3 until 5pm and will feature our founding Director, Ray Boshara (now with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) as well as Ida Rademacher from CFED, Susan Weinstock from Pew and a number of other notable figures. It's great to see Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the chairman of the subcommittee, organizing a hearing like this. As seen at September's House hearing on the availability of consumer credit, and our June event on "Rebuilding the Road to Financial Stability," issues of household debt and basic financial stability are a major piece of the puzzle when we look at the nation's current economic troubles and are incredibly important as we look to build a more stable future.
The House Financial Services Committee is holding a hearing today on the availability of consumer credit. Their website either isn't cooperating or they aren't interested in actually webcasting this event, but I'm sure a video will be available before too long. In the meantime I'd highlight the presence of two of our close colleagues on the second panel, Melissa Koide from CFSI and Ida Rademacher from CFED are both testifying.
Elizabeth Warren announced her campaign for Senate today via video. Her takeaway message is summed up squarely by the banner on her homepage, "A Champion for the Middle Class."
Richard Cordray is headed to the Senate Banking Committee this afternoon for hearings on his nomination to be chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Politico says that there could well be some fireworks at the nomination hearing.
Former IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg and Peter Tufano, formerly of Harvard Business School but now Dean of the Saïd Business School at Oxford University, have a terrific op-ed at the New York Times today on the issues around the purchase of paper savings bonds.
Brad Tuttle over at Time Magazine's Money section points us to a new poll confirming what we already knew, Americans don't have enough savings.The National Foundation for Credit Counseling's poll (done online) showed just 36% of respondents saying they'd take $1000 out of savings if they needed it quickly.
Sometimes you need a great story to give life to facts, figures and data. That's one of the things I loved about the couple in Florida who foreclosed on Bank of America. You have this real, absurd, illuminating tale that helps you better understand some of what has occured through the recent mortgage mess.
