Lightfoot wants to “unwind” Chicago’s “addiction to fines and fees” so as to not drive people into bankruptcy and out of the economy.

If a segment of the population stops buying things, it could lead to a much larger economic crisis, Duflo warned.

Last year, after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 went into effect, a lot of people saw their tax refunds shrink or disappear.

Unemployment is at historic lows but some workers still face hurdles to work.

The USDA’s report on “Household Food Security in the U.S.” uses a variety of measures to gauge whether households are food insecure, such as whether people have had to skip a meal or reduce the size of a meal for financial reasons.

In 2017, the child poverty rate was 18%. Go back nearly three decades to 1990: also 18%.

How did 30% of income become the accepted benchmark?

After adjusting for inflation, black workers' median weekly earnings have risen at a fraction of the pace of wages for white, Hispanic and Asian workers.

“It is, in a way, a map of poverty in this country,” ProPublica reporter Paul Kiel says.

North Carolina is taking a step toward lowering costs for state workers.