Category: Money

Racism has cost the US economy $16 trillion in the last 20 years

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  • Centuries of discrimination have created a cavernous wealth gap between Black and white Americans. 
  • Today, Black Americans own an estimated one-tenth the wealth of white Americans — $17,150 for Black families compared to $171,000 for white families.
  • This gap is not only bad for Black people, it’s bad for the US economy, too.
  • Researchers estimate that the racial wealth gap has cost the US economy $16 trillion since 2000. If the gap closed today, the GDP would see a $5 trillion boost in the next five years.
  • Read more stories from Business Insider’s “Inside the racial wealth gap” series »

Since the start of slavery, racism has cost Black Americans an estimated $70 trillion. Today, thanks to centuries of discrimination, the racial wealth gap between Black and white Americans is cavernous.

In 2016, the Brookings Institution estimated that Black Americans own about one-tenth the wealth of white Americans — $17,150

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Millennial Money: Use a crisis to build helpful money habits

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As millennials, we’ve learned about money the hard way. From the Great Recession to stratospheric student loan debt to a pandemic, there’s been no shortage of life giving us lemons.

While the long-term economic effects of the pandemic are yet to be fully realized, you may have noticed one positive trend in the short term: For once, your debt may have dropped.

Credit card balances fell by $76 billion April through June, the steepest decline on record, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Research by NerdWallet backed that up, finding that credit card balances carried from one month to the next dropped 9.15%, or more than $600 per household with this type of debt. Overall household debt shrank by nearly $1,000 among households carrying any type of debt in the same period.

If stimulus checks, paused student loan payments and sticking close to home

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Second Stimulus Check: How much money could you get if a second deal gets done? The latest on economic recovery talks

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Even if the news isn’t always good the fact that there’s news at all when it comes to a second economic stimulus package is positive for people who are in desperate need of cash before year’s end.

That’s because any news at all means that Republicans and Democrats have been talking, and that’s a good thing because there were times — even earlier this week at President Donald Trump’s urging — when it looked as though they might walk away from the table before getting a deal done.

The sides have long been in agreement, however, that Americans need financial help, and Trump changed course during the week and is pushing for a package, too.

The latest Saturday was a $1.8 trillion stimulus package proposed by Republicans, and while a deal on the table is positive, it’s not likely to be the one that eventually gets done — provided

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The U.S. coronavirus bailout spent trillions solving the wrong problem

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The four spending bills that Congress passed earlier this year to address the coronavirus crisis amounted to one of the costliest relief efforts in U.S. history, and the undertaking soon won praise across the political spectrum for its size and speed.

The $4 trillion total of government grants and loans exceeded the cost of 18 years of war in Afghanistan.

“We’re going to win this battle in the very near future,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after the Senate approved the Cares Act, the largest of the four measures.

Six months later, however, the nation’s coronavirus battle is far from won, and if the prodigious relief spending was supposed to target the neediest and move the country beyond the pandemic, much of the money missed the mark.

President Donald Trump hands a pen to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after signing the Cares Act on March 27.
President Donald Trump hands a pen to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after signing the Cares Act on March 27.
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Inside the Beltway: Money talks: Economy remains top voter issue

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Money still talks to voters. A new Gallup analysis released Monday reveals that the economy emerges as the No. 1 issue for voters as Election Day approaches, now just four weeks off.

“As the nation remains in a pandemic-induced recession, U.S. registered voters say the economy is the most important issue of 16 that may potentially affect their choice for president. Nearly nine in 10 registered voters consider the presidential candidates’ positions on the economy ‘extremely’ (44%) or ‘very’ (45%) important to their vote,” writes Gallup analyst Megan Brenan.

Among Republicans, 93% cited economy as their main interest, along with 85% of Democrats.

As it has been in past months, this is helpful factor for President Trump. Multiple pollsters have consistently confirmed over time that voters gave Mr. Trump higher ratings than Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden in economic matters. In some cases, Mr. Trump led his

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Checking the Pulse of the U.S. Economy: Too Much Debt?

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True or false?: The U.S. economy is dangerously over-leveraged, and thus particularly vulnerable to any economic downturn.



text: Checking the Pulse of the U.S. Economy: Too Much Debt?

© TheStreet
Checking the Pulse of the U.S. Economy: Too Much Debt?

Before I try to answer this question, I bet that most of you probably haven’t even thought about it. That’s because it’s human nature, when the stock market is at or near all-time highs, to not focus on what could go wrong.

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Just take 2007. The economy was about to go over a cliff because of an inability to service its debt, and yet few were worried. And I’m not just Monday morning quarterbacking for me to say that now: The U.S.A. Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, a comprehensive and objective measure of perceived economic uncertainty, reached its lowest reading ever in 2007.

Chalk up another win for contrarian analysis.

To be sure, the lack of widespread concern today doesn’t

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Alex Tapscott – This Is Money in 2030

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In the year 2030, if we do this right, money, the foundation of our economy and civilization will be unrecognizable. As a society we have grown so accustomed to the status quo of today’s money – fiat currencies issued and controlled by governments and central banks – that we forget money periodically goes through a great upheaval. We are on the brink of one of these moments. Money, one of humanity’s greatest and most enduring creations, is becoming digital. 

The next decade of innovation will prove decisive as state powers, global corporations and an increasingly assertive digital civil society vie for control over the lifeblood of our economic lives. Each of these new stakeholders has a vastly different set of aims and objectives.

For some, the reinvention of money is a chance to break free from state and corporate control. For others, it’s an opportunity to further entrench the dominant

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On The Money: Economy adds 661K jobs in final report before Election Day | House approves $2.2T COVID-19 relief bill as White House talks stall

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Happy Friday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.



a person standing in front of a blue bench: On The Money: Economy adds 661K jobs in final report before Election Day | House approves $2.2T COVID-19 relief bill as White House talks stall | Stand-alone bill to provide relief for airlines blocked on House floor

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On The Money: Economy adds 661K jobs in final report before Election Day | House approves $2.2T COVID-19 relief bill as White House talks stall | Stand-alone bill to provide relief for airlines blocked on House floor

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Write us with tips, suggestions and news: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @NJagoda and @NivElis.

THE BIG DEAL-Economy adds 661K jobs in final jobs report before Election Day: The U.S. gained 661,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Friday in the final jobs report

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Why Has The Stock Market Soared While The Economy Sputters?

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Just as our news cycle has been dominated by the two warring political parties in this country, churning just under the surface are opposites of a different kind — the two economies in our country. The coronavirus-induced economic downturn has brought the contrast between the haves and have-nots, and the salaried and the hourly, into such stark relief. 

In the late 70s and early 80s, I believed in the merits of trickle-down economics. I was educated as a supply-side economist. But forty years later, I’m growing alarmed that the result of trickle-down economics has reared its ugly head as trickle-up economics instead. The pandemic has not only made this visible, it’s put us on an accelerated course that we may struggle to reverse.

THE CHALLENGES OF OUR CHANGING ECONOMY

It’s no secret that the U.S. economy hasn’t been a manufacturing economy for a long time — we’re now a consumer

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US economy gains 661,000 payrolls, unemployment rate ticks down to 7.9%

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The US economy saw another 661,000 jobs added back in September and a modest improvement in the unemployment rate, as the recovery in the labor market continues at a stagnating rate.

The Labor Department released its September jobs report Friday morning. Here were the main metrics from the release, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

  • Change in non-farm payrolls: +661,000 vs. +859,000 expected and +1.489 million in August

  • Unemployment rate: 7.9% vs. 8.2% expected and 8.4% in August

  • Average hourly earnings, month over month: 0.1% vs. 0.2% expected and 0.3% in August

  • Average hourly earnings, year over year: 4.7% vs. 4.8% expected and 4.6% in August

  • Labor force participation rate: 61.4% vs. 61.9% expected and 61.7% in August

The addition in non-farm payrolls marked the fifth straight month of net job gains. July’s payroll gains were upwardly revised by 27,000 to 1.761 million, and August’s were revised up by

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