I conducted the following interview yesterday, before the convention actually started. Denise Merrill is a Connecticut delegate (although not, as she pointed out to me, a superdelegate) and serves Connecticut as their Secretary of State. A recent achievement was the state becoming the first to pass a campaign finance reform law which created a public financing system for elections -- all the other states with such laws created them through ballot initiatives or referenda.

House Speaker Paul Ryan released a new "anti-poverty" plan last week that would only make it tougher for poor and working families to get by. As expected, the plan cuts from public programs that help low- and moderate-income Americans, while protecting tax cuts for the very wealthy.

The goal for all working families remains a secure, sustainable job and a real improvement in our standard of living. Here's how we get there.

On April 14 and 15 I had the pleasure to co-host, together with the World Bank, the first annual forum on Resource Mobilization for Universal Health Coverage. Even though this sounds like a mouthful I can assure you that the topic is extremely important for all of us working in global health.

A repaired presidential public financing system would dramatically increase the amount of clean resources available to participating candidates and thereby greatly dilute the importance and impact of outside spending groups and their mega-donors.

Talk about 'growth' in Latin America has become less upbeat today than a few years ago. That's no surprise. For over a decade, average growth meant at least double the economic activity that we are seeing today.