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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Day: August 10, 2018

Employment of Less-Educated Workers

Workers hardest hit by recession are joining in recovery, By Nelson D. Schwartz and Ben Casselman, August 3, 2018, New York Times: “The least educated American workers, who took the hardest hit in the Great Recession, were also among the slowest to harvest the gains of the recovery. Now they are a striking symbol of a strong economy…”

Public Housing – East St. Louis, IL

Ben Carson declared mission accomplished in East St. Louis — where public housing is still a disaster., By Molly Parker, August 8, 2018, The Southern Illinoisan: “The city’s administrative building was decorated for a festive affair when U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson arrived here last September. An Americana themed banner draped the back of a raised stage. Red, white and blue balloons floated in the foreground. ‘This is really an exciting day,’ Carson told a crowd of a few dozen city and community leaders. ‘It is a day of transition and a day of progress.’ In October 1985, HUD officials arrived here unannounced and seized control of the East St. Louis Housing Authority, citing poor living conditions and fraud. Carson was in town to return it to local control…”

Financial Literacy

It’s hard to manage your credit when you’ve never heard of ‘interest’, By Marsha Mercer, August 7, 2018, Stateline: “When Kentucky state Treasurer Allison Ball and a colleague talked with high school seniors last year about credit cards and other pieces of the personal finance puzzle, something wasn’t right. “We kept using the word ‘interest’ and we kept getting blank stares,” Ball recalled. Finally, she asked the students who knew what interest is. No one did…”