STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Sen. Cynthia Creem thinks she has a solution to the long-stalled effort on Beacon Hill to expand the state’s bottle redemption law to include water: just ban water bottles altogether. Frustrated by the reluctance of House and Senate leadership to entertain an expansion to the state’s bottle redemption law, Creem, a Newton […]
Cost of Living and Consumer Affairs
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
House bill eases grocery price tag law
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Grocery stores in Massachusetts would no longer be required to put price tags on each item and could instead deploy price scanners for consumers to use, under long-stalled legislation that quietly cleared the House this month. If the bill becomes law, Massachusetts would become the last state in the nation eliminate […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Cape Wind part of merger deal
NStar and Northeast Utilities have agreed to freeze their rates, rebate $21 million to Massachusetts customers, and buy more than a quarter of Cape Wind’s electricity output to secure the backing of the Patrick administration and Attorney General Martha Coakley for their proposed $17.5 billion merger. The deal, negotiated secretly for more than a year, […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Mass. consumer confidence rebounds from 2011 lows
Consumer confidence in Massachusetts is on the rise, an indication that the state’s residents are starting to feel the benefits of the economic recovery and that incumbent politicians may have a positive story to point to as the 2012 campaign season heats up. Buoyed by a string of positive economic news, the MassINC Polling Group […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. auto insurance rates fall 12.7%
The average auto insurance premium in Massachusetts fell 12.7 percent between 2007 and 2009, far outpacing the national decline of 1.4 pecent, according to a report issued by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Patrick administration officials said the $131 decrease in the Massachusetts average premium (from $1,057 to $923) was the largest in the […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Study takes measure of Boston poverty
A study released last month by The Boston Foundation delivered grim news about the state of racial inequality in the Hub, depicting alarmingly high levels of poverty within black and Latino neighborhoods across the city. The report highlights the ever widening wealth gap between the rich and the poor, which has thousands of black and […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Inequality or failure to rise?
According to a recent WBUR poll done by The MassINC Polling Group, more than half of us doubt that the American Dream of a better life for the next generation will be achieved by our children. Upward mobility seems improbable. Middle class status and income will belong to fewer of us, say poll respondents. Class […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics
A way out of gridlock
with unemployment too high, economic growth too low, and the gap between the rich and poor widening, the American Dream is hurting. Adding to the gloom is the polarization in Washington, where even a simple task like raising the country’s debt ceiling nearly led to economic cataclysm this summer. Yet the dream lives on for […]
Posted inEconomy, Education
Learning curve
FOR MOST OF the 20th century, America truly was the land of opportunity. The nation emerged as the world’s dominant economic superpower, and the prosperity that resulted was widely shared. A growing middle class had every reason to believe in the promise of the American Dream in which each generation is poised to do better […]
Posted inEconomy
American Dream: More than a bumper sticker
In 1996, the first issue of CommonWealth magazine featured a cover story on the changing economics of middle-class life in Massachusetts. The story focused on Heritage Road in Billerica, where the residents were doing reasonably well but having some doubts about the promise of the American Dream. As then-editor Dave Denison reported, the families on […]