economics
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Home Sweet Home: NBC Orders Ava DuVernay's Unscripted Family Social Experiment Series on Race, Religion, Economics and Gender
Ava DuVernay and her arts advocacy collective ARRAY has another project in the works—and this time they’re diving into reality TV. Or since she is a documentarian, perhaps “docu-series” fits better here. NBC has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of an upcoming unscripted family social experience series called Home Sweet Home, which will be produced by…
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No Peace Without Economic Justice
When Andre Perry thinks about American policing and incarceration, he sees an economic issue as much as a human rights one. “There’s no bigger wealth extractor than the criminal justice system,” Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities told The…
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Retail on the Rebound? Trump Touts 17.7 Percent Boost in May Retail Sales—Conveniently Ignoring April's Record Drop
It’s safe to say that the retail landscape as we once knew it will not recover with a COVID-19 vaccine—in fact, much of it was on the decline well before the coronavirus reached our shores, with traditional brick-and-mortar locations proving unable to keep up with the increase in online shopping. And as the pandemic imposed…
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Sen. McConnell Introduces Coronavirus Stimulus Measures
The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t just a threat to our personal health, it has also presented a massive challenge to our economic well being. Many companies have already laid off workers, and those who are still working face shorter hours and possible exposure to the virus. Those who have been given paid leave for the next…
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Trump Plan for Home Loans Stokes Fears of Higher Mortgage Rates for Would-Be Homebuyers
Housing advocates fear a Trump administration plan to return federal mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the private sector will increase the cost of house loans and make it harder for low-income and disadvantaged communities to buy homes. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the government-controlled companies that help provide money for the…
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Republicans Control the Poorest States, Democrats Control States With Highest Earners: Report
As if we didn’t know already, it turns out that Republicans might keep people poor. A new report reveals that almost all of the states where people earn the least are controlled by Republicans, while the states where people make the most money are almost exclusively led by Democratic politicians. USA Today recently ranked the…
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Is Racism the Reason Why HBCUs Have to Pay More for Loans Than Other Schools?
If you want to see how systemic—and endemic—racism in the U.S., follow the money. You’d see the racial wealth gap—a phenomenon that has only gotten worse, even as unemployment rates for black Americans dip. You’ll see predatory loans, which disproportionately affect people of color (and which helped fuel the housing crisis). You’ll also see that…
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No, Personal Responsibility Won’t Solve Inequality: New Study Dispels Common Myths Behind Racial Wealth Gap
Much has been reported about the racial wealth gap—but much is still misunderstood. A new report on the wealth gap focuses on the stubborn, pervasive myths that inform people’s understanding of America’s racial wealth disparity—and points readers in the direction of real solutions. The report, “What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap”…
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Redlining 2.0: How Banks Block Black Homebuyers
In April 2016, Rachelle Faroul, a 33-year-old black woman, applied for a mortgage loan. Even though she had a good credit score, a degree from Northwestern and a job making $60,000 a year teaching computer programming at Rutgers University, her application was denied. I know what you’re thinking, but it was not because she was…
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I Once Taught a College-Level Statistics Class Using Nothing but Drug References; It Was the Most Effective, Questionable Thing I’ve Done (at Least That Day)
I used to work in a summer program at a prominent university in the Washington, D.C.-area intended to get black students into the field of public policy and foreign affairs. For something like seven straight summers, I was either a resident assistant (first two years) or a teacher’s assistant (economics, statistics, policy analysis; all seven…