On Our Radar

The digital lives of Americans with lower and higher incomes remain markedly different, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Jan. 25-Feb. 8, 2021.

The racial wealth divide between white and Black families in the U.S. is more of a chasm than a gap.

A sweeping new study of racial segregation across the U.S. shows that the Washington region, like much of the country, has become more segregated since 1990.

One evening in December, after a long day working from home, Jennifer Drouin, 30, headed out to buy groceries in central Amsterdam. Once inside, she noticed new price tags. The label by the zucchini said they cost a little more than normal: 6¢ extra per kilo for their carbon footprint, 5¢ for the toll the farming takes on the land, and 4¢ to fairly pay workers. “There are all these extra costs to our daily life that normally no one would pay for, or even be aware of,” she says.

Gentrification has become a functionally useless term.

The risk is cognitive decline, which can rob them of their judgment, often without much warning. One big mistake—or a series of smaller ones—can go unnoticed by loved ones, and potentially ravage a lifetime of hard-earned savings.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) today announced the availability of data on 2020 mortgage lending transactions at 4,475 U.S. financial institutions reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Covered institutions include banks, savings associations, credit unions, and mortgage companies.

The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act on Thursday in a decision that will leave the law intact and save health care coverage for millions of Americans. The justices turned away a challenge from Republican-led states and the former Trump administration, which urged the justices to block the entire law.

It has been a long and frustrating process for venue owners, particularly as similar SBA-run programs like the Restaurant Revitalization Fund have gone off smoothly.

During COVID, more and more people started having trouble making ends meet. And they felt trapped: They could apply for rental assistance from the federal government, but much of that money still hasn’t gone out the door.

Construction of new housing in the past 20 years fell 5.5 million units short of long-term historical levels, according to a new National Association of Realtors report, which is calling for a “once-in-a-generation” policy response.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a wide range of sudden financial challenges, from lost jobs and store closures to price gouging and new expenses. Many people lacked sufficient emergency savings to deal with these kinds of challenges. Some even relied on credit cards for basic expenses—in some cases, even for their rent payments.

The basic American contract is that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to purchase a home and provide a comfortable living for your family. But this contract has long been broken for far too many people.

Worse, a rule issued last December by a national banking regulator, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), protects predatory small business lenders that exploit financial victims with outrageous loans that greatly exceed state interest rate laws like Florida’s. But the U.S. Senate, including Sen. Marco Rubio, two other Republicans and all Senate Democrats, recently voted to overturn the rule. Our congressional delegation should follow the Senate’s lead in order to stop evasions of our laws and protect small businesses.

When Americans started facing the threat of foreclosure at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, Barack Obama campaigned on a promise of a simple, straightforward, and elegant solution: Force big banks to accept some losses and write down the amounts homeowners owed on their mortgages, thereby avoiding mass foreclosures. Soon after winning office, Obama abandoned the pledge, to the delight of his Wall Street donors.