New America Policy Papers: 2010

Papers and other formal publications from our policy programs are available below. To jump to another year in the archives, please use the links at right.

Selling Out Uncle Sam

  • By
  • Janine Wedel,
  • New America Foundation
August 18, 2010

It’s 2010. Do you know where your government is? The answer is that, increasingly, government power that should be in the hands of the American people is now in the hands of private companies. This year, we saw lives lost and habitats destroyed from what were widely seen as spectacular regulatory failures: the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But in both cases, the companies were not simply skirting regulation. Often, they were the de facto regulators, not the civil servants.

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Secure Retirement for All Americans

  • By
  • Steven Hill,
  • New America Foundation
August 16, 2010

For more and more Americans, the dream of a secure retirement has become increasingly threatened. The Great Recession has taken its toll on a retirement system which has been in place in the United States since WWII. Retirement was conceived as a "three-legged stool," with the three legs being Social Security, pensions and personal savings centered around homeownership.

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Quick Credit

  • By David Stoesz, Virginia Commonwealth University and policyAmerica
August 9, 2010

Rapid growth of the “fringe economy”—check-cashers, payday lenders, buy-here-pay-here auto sales, refund anticipation loans, rent-to-own furniture and appliances, auto title loans, and pawnshops—has precipitated a volatile debate about whether such financial services represent an adaptive response to the credit needs of low- and moderate-income families or predatory exploitation of economically hard-pressed consumers.

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The 2010 Medicare Trustees Report

August 9, 2010

Last week, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their 2010 reports on the financial status of both programs. Last Friday, we offered an analysis of the Trustees’ Social Security projections. We also recently looked at CBO’s interpretation of the effect of health reform on the long-term. This paper will focus on the Trustees’ projections for Medicare.

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Analysis of the 2010 Social Security Trustees Report

August 6, 2010

Yesterday, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their 2010 report on the financial status of both programs. Both programs remain on unsustainable paths.

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An Information Community Case Study: Washington, D.C. - Content Analysis

August 5, 2010

A short study we conducted of three daily newspapers and four local and neighborhood blogs revealed differing patterns in local news coverage across media.

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Washington, D.C.

  • By
  • Kristine Gloria,
  • Kara Hadge,
  • New America Foundation
August 5, 2010

The District of Columbia, containing a wealth of intellectual capital, national political institutions, and expansive support for innovative industries is well positioned to develop a healthy information ecology in the digital age. Washington’s high concentration of leading political actors, paired with a high volume of influential information hubs, maintains a supply of and demand for information. Within its 61 square mile area, the District of Columbia hosts hundreds of media outlets transmitting news to the rest of the world.

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An Information Community Case Study: Washington, D.C. - Television

August 5, 2010

PUBLIC TELEVISION

The District of Columbia has 15 television stations with the majority privately and/or commercially owned. Television stations included in this study are all based within the D.C. area and service areas including metro D.C., Maryland and/or Virginia. Of these, two are public television properties: WETA and WHUT. Between them, WETA and WHUT are served by 230 working journalists.

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An Information Community Case Study: Washington, D.C. - Broadband and Library Access

August 5, 2010

BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY & DIGITAL LITERACY

Several major Internet service providers (ISPs) offer wireline and wireless access in the District of Columbia, including Verizon, Comcast and RCN (which operates over Comcast’s infrastructure).

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An Information Community Case Study: Washington, D.C. - Introduction

August 5, 2010

As the nation’s capital and as a vibrant local community, Washington, D.C., is diverse in every sense: Its residents are transient and long-established, American government officials and foreign nationals, affluent and impoverished, esteemed business leaders and innovative grassroots activists. Washington thrives on its variety, but also struggles with extreme socioeconomic stratification.

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