Detroit Free Press

"Women can feel like they have lost respect for their partners, like they aren't doing enough," said Liza Mundy, who wrote "Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners is Transforming Sex, Love and Family." "And it can be hard for the man, ...

"There's a familiar saying in the petroleum industry, 'Up like a rocket, down like a feather,' " said Lisa Margonelli, a fellow at the New America Foundation and author of "Oil on The Brain." "It takes days for oil that is purchased at a given price to ...

Christopher Hayes of The Nation magazine was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann show last week and pointed out what he called “the ...

A lot of people are angry at the Detroit Three automakers, including many members of Congress. And why not?

GM, Ford and Chrysler seem still too bloated and old-fashioned, their workers too pampered. For too long the carmakers have failed to design and bring to market the smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles we now want to buy. Yet it is important to put the blame where it really belongs, not on management or labor, but on Congress.

Rising living standards are part of the American story. Over the past century, the steady growth created the middle class, defused economic unrest and helped the nation absorb millions of working-class and immigrant families into the mainstream.

Against this backdrop, Jacob Hacker, a political scientist at the University of California at Berkeley who studies the risks facing Americans, says he sees a broad decline in the economic security of most Americans.

On the "Today" show, Obama acknowledged he might have to phase in some parts of his program, though he later said that middle-class tax relief must occur, and quickly. Maya MacGuineas, with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said she thought Obama's suggestion that the economic problems could delay some of his program was a "very promising step for his campaign to make." LINK

Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget -- and a McCain adviser in the 2000 election -- has heard lots of promises from both candidates for new initiatives and lower taxes.

What she hasn't heard enough of from either is what will be cut or what taxes will be raised to pay for new programs.

Her group looked at all promises both campaigns have made. The gap between promises and money to pay for them is more than $300 billion each.

Full article

. . . Len Nichols of the Washington-based New America Foundation, a public policy institute, said at a panel discussion on health care in Washington last week: "If we could just agree to cover everyone, we could talk about how." . . .

I just paid off the last of my student loans. Today, I start saving for my children's college education, and I'm already behind. Like millions of Americans, by the time I retire, I will have spent over 75% of my life either paying or saving for college. It shouldn't be this hard.