Research

Last week’s release of the now infamous Mother Jones video of Romney’s comments  on the “47 percent” of Americans who don’t pay income taxes has everyone talking about the U.S. tax system.  Despite this election cycle’s relative dearth of substantive, detailed policy discourse, the campaigns and the media have indeed provided the public with a […]

I spend a lot of my time working on projects for the Office of Career and Technical Education at the Virginia Department of Education. CTE receives a significant portion of its funding from the federal government, and like all government funds it comes with strings attached. For the last  25 years one of the most […]

In the wake of a very bad month for religious tolerance in the US  — including the shootings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin;  the burning of a Mosque in Joplin, Missouri; and the insinuations about Muslim infiltration of government by a handful of Members of Congress, later denounced by some of their counterparts — […]

The big story right now in the money contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is how the Republican challenger has been out-pacing the President in fundraising in recent months.  In July, Obama and the DNC raised a total of $59 million while Romney and the RNC raised $78 million.  But like all statistics (especially […]

In the U.S., the traditional narrative of how to succeed financially in has been to do the following: Go to college and earn a degree Use that degree to get a good job (with health insurance) that pays enough money to cover your basic needs and allows you to build some savings. With your savings, […]

One thing we heard a lot throughout the Olympics coverage was the medal count. At the end of every day, NBC would flash up its graphic and Bob Costas would tell us that the U.S. or China was in the lead. Every time that happened, my demographer hackles were raised. Turns out, reporting on Olympics […]

Pre-recession, the major narrative was that American households were spending too much and saving too little. Now, we’re saving again, and household debt burdens have declined to their lowest rates in over a decade. Well, pat ourselves on the back; we’re finally getting our fiscal cards in order and setting ourselves on the path to […]

For 2012 election-related commentary, please see these recent posts : Forget Ohio, it’s all about Virginia…and demographics Virginia Votes 2012 Virginia Votes 2012:  Turnout across localities Lower turnout in 2012 makes the case for political realignment in 2008 As an extension of Michele’s recent post on turnout in Virginia, I decided to take a look […]

According to a recent study, the average Canadian household’s net worth (total assets minus total liabilities) is, for the first time in recent history, higher than the average American household’s net worth; more than $40,000 higher, in fact.  Is it Barack Obama’s fault? (or George Bush’s, depending on the internet commenter’s political persuasion)? Does this […]

There has been no dearth of attention among political commentators, strategists, and scholars to the role of education in the upcoming presidential election, particularly regarding Obama’s and Romney’s support among college-educated and non-college-educated whites. As many pollsters have noted, Romney polls very well among non-college educated whites, but college-educated whites are more evenly split between […]