Politics

By Greg Reichenbach

The big banks are scared. They might actually be regulated. The new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has that potential, if it's headed by someone who:

(a) understands economics and the effects on ordinary people and,

(b) has the backbone to stand up to powerful interests. That person is Elizabeth Warren.

By Wendy Chapell-Dick

Andy and Wendy Chappell-Dick and Jonah Agner travelled to New Orleans in early December to do some volunteer re-building. These are their observations on the situation in New Orleans:

The poorest people living in New Orleans don’t need volunteers. They need money. Not that highly skilled folks or willing college students aren’t nice to have around, but there is such a thing as the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.  The fed, state, local, celebrity, and charity programs are still not reaching the majority of people who need it most: renters, former public housing residents, and families who have owned homes for generations but do not have the legal red-tape paper trail to prove it.