Issues

Editor's Note: We have, for decades, watched Consuelo Mack's informative business programs on Public Television, helping investors to build and protect wealth over the long-term. During her tenure hosting the Wall Street Journal Report it won the Overseas Press Club award, the Gracie award and was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy award for excellence in background and analysis. These series of videos may aid you in future tax years prepare for both planning and investing. more »

There is no single explanation for the rise in inequality and the decline in the share of jobs that provide a middle-class standard of living. Economists generally agree that technological change and globalization have played a role. Both of these forces have reduced the demand for workers whose jobs had involved routine work that can easily be mechanized or offshored while, at the same time, increasing the productivity of higher-skilled workers. However, it is less clear whether technology and globalization are sufficient explanations for the increased share of income going to those at the very top of the income distribution. more »

Marsha Mercer writes: "From World War II to the early 1960s, men 20 to 64 were very, very heavily relied upon" by women and families, Gary Burtless at Brookings said. Men without a high school diploma were able to hold a stable career and support a family by working in construction and heavy manufacturing. Over the last few decades, many of those jobs have disappeared, and women have become more equal in the workplace. When manufacturers of cardboard boxes, wire bagel baskets and other products said they needed workers with technological expertise and strong social skills, Maryland officials agreed to set up manufa… more »

Judge Donna Quigley Groman on the need to treat children who have been trafficked as victims. "It is important to understand that these youth are not criminals. They are children who are being abused by sex traffickers, and they deserve the same protections and resources to which other child victims of sexual or physical abuse and neglect are entitled. Child victims of sexual abuse are comforted by assurances that they are not responsible for the abuse. Child victims of commercial sexual exploitation deserve the same assurances." more »