Issues

The Fed's dual mandate aims for maximum sustainable employment and an inflation rate of 2 percent, as measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE). Employment has increased impressively over the past six years since its low point in early 2010, and the unemployment rate has hovered near 5 percent since August of last year, close to most estimates of the full-employment rate of unemployment. more »

Doris O'Brien writes: Trump, an inveterate risk taker, refuses to play it safe. He often repeats phrases, as if to nail them down. And while his supporters profess admiration for his talking 'extemporaneously,' he is technically doing no such thing. By definition, 'extemporaneous' means to speak from notes, as opposed to memorization or reading from a script. Hillary's speaking style suffers from being the reverse. She is too predictably 'on script,' making her delivery sound mechanically driven, rather than 'in the moment' inspiring. When she does veer from her teleprompter, she measures her words carefully, punctuating them with a lot of annoying "uhs". more »

The move to deinstitutionalize care [for those with disabilities] has provided care that is more personalized while also saving states money. Average costs for care in a state-run institution, in 2013, ranged from about $129,000 a year in Arizona to about $603,000 in New York, while the average state costs of community-based services nationally is $43,000. About 198,000 people were waiting for home- or community-based services in the 34 states that reported data in 2013. The longest waiting lists were in Ohio (41,500), Illinois (23,000) and Florida (22,400).  more »

While women faded into the background at the Republican Convention, they were front and center at the Democrats'. Women were everywhere, and not just sitting in the seats. There were more events aimed at women each day of the Democratic Convention than on all the days of the Republican Convention. more »