Source: Amy Traub, Catherine Ruetschlin, Dēmos, May 2012

From the summary:
The conventional wisdom says that American households are deleveraging - after years of living beyond our means, Americans are finally paying down debt and getting our financial house in order.

But as Demos' 2012 National Survey on Credit Card Debt of Low-and Middle-Income Households reveals, that's only part of the story. In February and March 2012 Demos surveyed a nationally representative sample of 997 low- and middle-income American households who carried credit card debt for three months or more. The research builds on our previous surveys in 2005 and 2008, providing a picture of how the recession, its aftermath, and the passage of major new consumer credit card protections have impacted the financial lives of American households.

Key findings:
Among Low- And Middle-Income Households Carrying Credit Card Debt

- Average credit card debt has declined, but many households still rely on credit cards to pay basic living expenses.
- Since the financial crisis, credit is tighter: half of affected households cut spending as a result.
- Unemployment and medical bills were among the leading contributors to credit card debt.
- People of color report worse credit scores. medical debt is a major contributor to poor credit for all indebted households.
- The 2009 Credit Card act is helping households pay down balances faster and avoid fees.

Source: Steven A. Sass, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, IB#12-10, May 2012

The brief's key findings are:
- Households now retiring need to transform their 401(k) and IRA savings into retirement income.
- One way is to delay claiming Social Security to increase their monthly benefit, using savings to pay current expenses while they wait.
- In effect, they are buying an annuity from Social Security: The savings used is the "price" and the increase in their monthly benefit the annuity income it "buys."
- Buying an annuity from Social Security is generally the best deal in town, especially in today's low interest-rate environment.

Source: Amy Traub, Dēmos, Policy Shop Blog, September 7, 2011

... [T]he fundamental problem with our economy is the same: a lack of consumer demand means substantial investment and hiring in the U.S. are often irrational from a business perspective. The nation's sky-high unemployment and underemployment rates are the biggest immediate cause of the anemic demand. But a closer look at the long-term trends underlying consumer spending power suggests another, less recognized culprit lurking in the weeds: union busting.

To understand how a decades-long legacy of union busting is making our recovery harder, consider the role that organized labor has traditionally played in ensuring that working people - who make up most consumers -- receive a larger share of the economy's gains and thus have money to spend consuming. Unions bargain collectively for better wages and benefits for their members. But unions also raise compensation for workers they don't represent: a recent study by professors Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld finds that by scaring non-union employers into raising wages to avoid unionization, promoting norms of fair pay, and lobbying for public policies that raise wages, unions substantially boost compensation for non-union employees in addition to their own members.

...An analysis of union elections from 1999 to 2003 revealed that when workers attempted to organize a union, 96 percent of employers mounted a campaign against their effort. Three quarters of employers hired outside consultants....

Source: Filipe R. Campante Do Quoc-Anh, HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP12-016, May 2012

From the abstract:
We show that isolated capital cities are robustly associated with greater levels of corruption across US states. In particular, this is the case when we use the variation induced by the exogenous location of a state's centroid to instrument for the concentration of population around the capital city. We then show that different mechanisms for holding state politicians accountable are also affected by the spatial distribution of population: newspapers provide greater coverage of state politics when their audiences are more concentrated around the capital, and voter turnout in state elections is greater in places that are closer to the capital. Consistent with lower accountability, there is also evidence that there is more money in state-level political campaigns in those states with isolated capitals. We find that the role of media accountability helps explain the connection between isolated capitals and corruption. In addition, we provide some evidence that this pattern is also associated with lower levels of public good spending and outcomes.
See also:
AJR's 2009 Count of Statehouse Reporters - State-by-state numbers
Source: American Journalism Review April/May 2009

Source: Jonathan D. Miller, Deborah Myerson, Rachel MacCleery, Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young, 2012

...In this year's report, we highlight examples of infrastructure leadership, exploring how six u.s. regions are approaching infrastructure in the new economy. Infrastructure 2012 also examines key trends influencing infrastructure globally and reviews the massive projects underway in the rapidly urbanizing and developing countries of china, India, and Brazil..... ...Aggressive government belt-tightening and financial market deleveraging restrain worldwide infrastructure investments for 2012 and probably the next five years. the need to invest the dollars that are available on projects that have the greatest effect on economic productivity, real estate demand, and global competitive position has never been more urgent. However, financial austerity and political fractures can stand in the way of better infrastructure decision making.... In the United States, tightened budgets and daunting challenges begin to force government officials to rethink infrastructure
approaches, especially at state and local levels where the already heavy funding burden is growing. they can no longer depend on generous handouts from a congress embroiled in partisan battling over the depth of federal deficit reduction...

Source: Paul Fronstin, Employee Benefit Research Institute, EBRI Notes, Vol. 33, No. 5, May 2012

From the summary:
- Between December 2007-August 2009, the percentage of workers with employment-based coverage in their own name fell from 60.4 percent to 55.9 percent, recovering to 56.5 percent by December 2009. However, by April 2011, the percentage of workers with employment-based coverage had slipped back to 55.8 percent.
- Most uninsured workers reported that they did not have coverage because of cost: anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent over the December 1995-July 2011 period.
- Uninsured workers reporting that they were not offered employment-based health benefits totaled roughly 40 percent from the mid-1990s through 2003, reaching 23 percent in mid-2011.

Source: Jon Haveman, Micah Weinberg, Bay Area Council Economic Institute, May 2012

This report provides an assessment of how the California economy might have been different in 2010 had the ACA been fully implemented in that year. On net, this analysis suggests that upon full implementation in California, the Affordable Care Act will have a positive impact on California's economy with variation across regions based largely on their socioeconomic makeup. Full implementation of the Affordable Care Act as compared to the non-reform scenario in 2010 would have resulted in 98,861 new jobs in California (a 0.6% increase in total employment) and $4.4 billion in additional gross state output.
See also:
The Future of Colorado Health Care: An Economic Analysis of Health Care Reform and the Impact on Colorado's Economy
Source: New America Foundation and the University of Denver's Center for Colorado's Economic Future, 2011