Articles by Mark Reynolds

Income inequality is now at its highest level in the United States since the Great Depression as the income gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen. The top ten wealthiest percent of the nation now earns about half of all wages. According to a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, between 2008-2010 the poorest fifth of households had an average income of $20,510 compared to $164,490 for the top fifth. In the 1990's and mid-2000'...

Credit: kcet.org The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) provided an independent analysis of Proposition 38, a California ballot initiative championed by civil rights attorney Molly Munger, that would raise income taxes to increase state funding for education. Proposition 38 is competing with Governor Jerry Brown's Proposition 30, which would raise income taxes only on Californians making over $250,000 per year while also increasing the state sales tax. The measure would provide the general fun...

Official White House Photo / Pete Souza When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, he pledged to raise the federal minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2011. As he runs for re-election with the federal minimum wage still at $7.25 per hour, the rate in 2009, President Obama has yet to keep his promise. Meanwhile, Republican challenger Mitt Romney initially supported indexing the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) so that it would automatically rise with inflation. After some cons...

California's gasoline prices set a new record on Tuesday at $4.671 per gallon, nearly 49 cents higher than one week ago, and 87 cents above the price at this time last year. California senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer have called for federal investigations to look into why the price of gas has shot up in California. In a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz, Senator Feinstein urged the FTC to "immediately open an investigation into recent spikes" in prices because...

(Photo: Mark Taylor) Romney can close the gap by convincing voters that he has the anecdote to America's weak economy. With the presidential election one month away and the economy remaining weak, Romney has, thus far, failed to make a convincing argument that he would handle the economy better than Obama. Romney's economic plan remains vague, and he has thus drawn some criticism and advice from several conservatives. According to an August Gallup poll, 60 percent of voters disapprove of Presi...

Source: en.wikipedia.org The California Legislature passed SB 1161 in August. If signed into law by Governor Brown, the bill would "prohibit the commission [Public Utilities Commission] from regulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol enabled service (IP enabled service), as defined, except as required or delegated by federal law or expressly provided otherwise in statute." SB 1161 was supported by major technology companies, including Comcast, Microsoft, AT&T, Cisco S...

Credit: Christian Science Monitor Governor Jerry Brown's proposed budget plan read like most budgetary analyses, a mostly dry explanation of projected revenue and expenditures. However, this line stood out: "The increasing concentration of income has made tax revenues dependent to a greater degree on the income and decisions of a relatively small population of taxpayers." California has the ninth largest economy in the world with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of nearly two trillion dollars, ...

Credit: San Diego Reader California's perpetual budget deficit will be a topic for voters to consider again this November. Proposition 30 at the center of Governor Jerry Brown's budget plans. California has the second lowest credit rating in the union due its high rate of debt compared to the Gross Domestic Product. Even though California has endured drastic budget cuts over the past several years, the state currently faces a nearly $16 billion budget gap for the next fiscal year. Much of that...

Credit: oklahomawatch.org Conspicuously absent from our current national dialogue has seemingly been any notable discussion on issues of poverty, mass incarceration and violent crime in America. The cycle of poverty, violence and incarceration was well documented in this harrowing investigative documentary on the city of Baltimore done by Al Jazeera. Statistics show that the issues raised in the short documentary remain significant, if often ignored, problems in the United States. According t...