© 2016 by reclaimtheamericandream.org. The article was written by Hedrick Smith, executive editor of reclaimtheamericandream.org.

Olga, WA – If you’re baffled by the latest good news/bad news for the American middle class – word that in 2015 typical family income got its best boost in five decades, but families are still worse off than in 2007, just think about trickle-down economics and how it works.

A bill for a Federal Reserve audit may be moving closer to a vote before Congress adjourns.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Friday that only Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and their respective running mates will be included in the first presidential debates. The announcement comes less than two weeks before the first debate in New York.

In an election year marked by division and conflict, from the presidential to the local level, it’s all the more remarkable that California has one statewide ballot measure that enjoys support from a broad and diverse list of labor, business, and health care groups, as well as political leaders from both major parties.  In fact, the measure has no organized opposition.

Business guru Michael Porter and his colleagues at Harvard Business School released their latest annual report on the state of the U.S. economy's health and its ability to created shared prosperity for all Americans. A critical finding: the failing U.S. political system is the number one constraint on our economy.

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) claims that it uses “nonpartisan criteria” to select participants for the presidential debates. However, publicly available information shows that one of the polls used to determine participants, the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, is run by Democratic and Republican pollsters.

The NBC-Wall Street Journal poll is not actually run by those news organizations. It is run by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies. Both are partisan organizations on opposite ends of the establishment aisle.

On Tuesday, Trump revealed details of his child care and maternity leave plans during a speech in Pennsylvania. Of particular interest is the idea of extending unemployment benefits for maternity leave.

While this might 'sound' like a plausible idea, it's a plan that would complicate an already overburdened state system of unemployment insurance, threatening the foundations of the program itself.

With back to school season in full swing, and an impending presidential election, the nation’s eyes are turning once more toward our young people — specifically, our college students.

It’s no secret that young people and millennials (there’s that uncharitable catch-all again) played a significant role in the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Talking heads, pundits, and formal studies have all referred to the student vote in those elections as “decisive.”

Gallup reported Wednesday that more people distrust mass media "to report the news fully, accurately and fairly" now than at any other time in Gallup polling history. According to the polling agency, only 32 percent of poll respondents said they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media.