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VideoObama Administration Hopes to Privatize Public Housing
by Daisy Hernandez on June 4 2010, 4:10PM
The Obama administration laid out its plan last week for financing public housing by turning to the private sector. If you’re thinking, “Wait, aren’t those the same guys who just wrecked the economy?” well, that was my question too. Speaking…
Topics: Economy
Senate Says Happy Memorial Day by Taking a Vacation without Extending Unemployment Benefits
by Seth Freed Wessler on May 28 2010, 9:30AM
As many as 200,000 people may lose their unemployment insurance benefits in early June, because the Senate has once again failed to extend the program. Senate Democrats announced on Thursday that they were once again unable to pass an extension…
Topics: Economy, Race and Recession
by droptheiword on May 26 2010, 10:39AM
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Topics: Economy
Will Congress Get it Together and Pass an Unemployment Insurance Extension?
by Seth Freed Wessler on May 25 2010, 10:16AM
The House was expected to vote today to extend unemployment benefits until the end of the year. But according the the Ways and Means Committee press office this morning, the spending measure will not make it to the floor until…
Topics: Economy
Child Care Cuts Expose Longstanding Failure in Welfare Reform
by Seth Freed Wessler on May 24 2010, 10:09AM
States across the country are slashing already beleaguered subsidized child care programs and leaving parents without recourse, unable to find a job and too poor to pay for child care without one. The New York Times printed a front page…
Topics: Economy, Race and Recession
Economic Inequality from Cradle to Grave
by Michelle Chen on May 24 2010, 9:27AM
What’s an acceptable level of social inequality? The loaded answer is obviously “none.” But it seems that few people realize what the socioeconomic gaps across racial and gender lines aren’t just about paychecks of different sizes. The damage lasts far…
Topics: Economy, Race and Recession
The Road Forward for Protecting Communities from Shady Lending
by Kai Wright on May 21 2010, 10:57AM
The Senate passed its financial reform bill yesterday with Sen. Chris Dodd’s consumer protection bureau intact. The contours of the debate over policing the products financial players push on communities didn’t change over the course of the drawn out fight….
Topics: Economy
White Wealth and Black Debt Shot Up in ‘Growth’ Years
by Kai Wright on May 17 2010, 3:22PM
The wealth gap between Blacks and Whites has grown by fourfold over the course of Generation X’s lifetime, exploding to $95,000, a study released today found. And the debt burden among African American families has nearly doubled. The study comes…
Topics: Economy
California’s Homeless Farm Workers
by Daisy Hernandez on May 13 2010, 2:44PM
New America Media’s Jacob Simas posted a heartbreaking story and video yesterday about farm workers in Fresno who are creating makeshift homes of tarp and garbage bags in the same fields they once harvested. The fields have been abandoned…
Topics: Economy
Will Banks Be Held Accountable to Communities? [Video]
by Kai Wright on May 3 2010, 10:41AM
Last week, Senate Democrats managed to get their financial reform bill past the Republican blockade. Floor debate on the bill, which would create a consumer protection bureau inside the Federal Reserve, will move forward this week, and the Senate’s…
Topics: Economy
Goldman Sachs Looks Slimy, But It’s Not Alone
by Kai Wright on April 27 2010, 4:00PM
Sen. Carl Levin’s series of hearings on Wall Street’s collapse reached their dramatic climax today, as Goldman Sachs executives sat in for their roles as national punching bags. Everybody from Levin to Sen. John McCain got in on the…
Topics: Economy
What’s at Stake in This Week’s Financial Reform Debate
by Kai Wright on April 26 2010, 9:10AM
The financial reform fight takes center stage on the Senate floor tonight, and likely all week. It is, of course, a dense, complicated and frankly boring bit of public policy. It’s also deeply consequential for communities of color everywhere. We’ll…
Topics: Economy
Regulators Who Ignored Banks’ Predatory Lending
by Kai Wright on April 16 2010, 2:27PM
Sen. Carl Levin spent the morning lashing into former banking regulators who were supposed to have prevented Washington Mutual’s spectacular 2008 failure, which was the largest-ever bank collapse. It’s now clear both the bank and federal regulators knew the subprime…
Topics: Economy
Senate Okays Unemployment Benefit Extension, and Gets Ready to Bungle it All Over Again Next Month
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 13 2010, 9:30AM
After an afternoon of long-winded speeches from both sides of the aisle, the Senate voted to move forward with the extension of unemployment benefits. The vote comes after the Senate failed to pass an extension before going on break more…
Topics: Economy, Race and Recession
Republicans Blame the Unemployed for Unemployment, and Block Needed Benefits
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 12 2010, 1:10PM
It’s been a week since more than 200,000 people were booted off unemployment insurance, because the Senate failed to extend the program before taking a vacation. Senate leadership has promised to take up the issue today but Republicans are showing…
Topics: Economy
Workers Tell Senators What They Think About Its Failure [VIDEO]
by Kai Wright on April 9 2010, 10:36AM
The Senate gets back to work next week after its spring break and the opening fight will almost certainly be over unemployment insurance. Before they adjourned, Senators failed to pass a short-term extension of the program — which the…
Topics: Economy, Race and Recession
White House Urges Senate to Pass $600 million Jobs Bill
by Jamilah King on April 8 2010, 3:33PM
We briefly mentioned this morning that the White House has thrown its support behind a $600 million jobs bill that’s currently stalled in the Senate. Advocates say the bill could create as many as 300,000 jobs for low income…
Topics: Economy, Race and Recession
Pushed Out and Pushing Back in New Orleans
by Tram Nguyen on April 7 2010, 12:00PM
Housing crisis? Corporate giveaways? It’s already happened in the Big Easy. There, out of demolitions and displacement, has come a new demand: housing as human right.
Topics: Economy, Katrina Recovery
New Job Numbers: More of the Same and Then Some
by Seth Freed Wessler on April 5 2010, 11:18AM
New unemployment numbers were released Friday and by some measures, the unemployment crisis appears to be waning. But for Blacks and Latinos, there is no relief at all. The new figures expose that the country’s jobless recovery is fueled by…
Topics: Economy, Race and Recession
Banks Garnish Wages, Folks of Color Hit Hardest
by Jamilah King on April 2 2010, 3:01PM
The New York Times recently reported more shady swindling on the part of banks and creditors: they’re garnishing wages from delinquent borrowers. “One of the worst economic downturns of modern history has produced a big increase in the number…
Topics: Economy
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