On Our Radar

Bloomberg, January 28, 2022, U.S. Employment Costs Climb by a Solid 1% After Record Third-Quarter Gain U.S. employment costs rose at a robust pace for a second-straight quarter, wrapping up the strongest year of labor inflation in two decades as businesses competed for a limited supply of workers.

Poltico, January 31, 2o22, The surprising split over Biden’s Fed nominees President Joe Biden’s pick to be the Federal Reserve’s top Wall Street cop is dividing Big Banks and Big Oil. Sarah Bloom Raskin, who served as a Fed governor and as deputy Treasury secretary during the Obama administration, is well-known to financial institutions and

The Washington Post, January 30, 2022, Rents are up more than 30 percent in some cities, forcing millions to find another place to live Rental prices across the country have been rising for months, but lately the increases have been sharper and more widespread, forcing millions of Americans to reassess their living situations.

The New York Times, January 29, 2022, Facing a Ban, a School District Fights to Keep ‘Indian’ Nickname In June, after months of contested school board elections and combative monthly meetings, the school board voted to retire the name. But a month later, it voted to reverse the decision. All the efforts could be moot:

The Washington Post, January 21, 2022, After decades, Biden plans to make mobile homes greener, sparking a fierce debate. Spurred by a court order, the Biden administration is proposing long-awaited updates to energy-efficiency standards for manufactured homes that it projects will save mobile-home owners thousands of dollars and prevent millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions from

The New York Times, January 28, 2022, Wonking Out: Are We in Another Housing Bubble? Do you remember the housing bubble? OK, if you’re 35 or younger, probably not — you were a teenager at the most when the bubble burst. But it was a huge deal at the time, and a very strange one.

Gothamist: January 27, 2022, Private Management Of Public Housing Led To Erosion Of Tenants’ Rights, Report Finds Five years after the New York City Housing Authority turned over thousands of public housing apartments to for-profit operators, tenants living in the privately-run developments in Queens and the Bronx were evicted at an average rate that was

Reuters, January 27, 2022, Apple to turn iPhones into payment terminals, rival Square – Bloomberg Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is planning a new service that will allow small businesses to accept payments directly on their iPhones without connecting any extra hardware such as Block Inc’s (SQ.N) Square terminals, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. The new feature turns the iPhone itself

The New York Times, January 27, 2022, How Crypto Became the New Subprime If the stock market isn’t the economy — which it isn’t — then cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin really, really aren’t the economy. Still, crypto has become a pretty big asset class (and yielded huge capital gains to many buyers); by last fall the

NPR, January 14, 2022, DC launches pilot program to give cash to new parents and pregnant people DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Thursday that the city is putting $1.5 million towards a pilot program to provide direct cash payments to 132 low-income new parents and pregnant people in wards 5, 7, and 8, offering each

Fortune, January 27, 2022, 3 keys to a resilient post-pandemic recovery To build a better future, the emphasis must now shift from defensive measures and short-term goals to a sustainable, inclusive growth agenda. Growth is a precursor to economic development. A sustainable inclusive growth agenda will focus on growth that supports the health and repair

USA Today, January 25, 2022, What’s the price of community? Infrastructure law devotes $1 billion to reconnect neighborhoods split by interstates President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $1 billion to reconnect minority neighborhoods…Experts and advocates told USA TODAY more resources are needed despite the historic investment. “When you look at

Texas Tribune, January 21, 2022, Texas eviction filings among the nation’s highest as millions of rent relief dollars go unspent Eviction filings in several Texas cities are among the highest in the nation — even as millions of federal dollars aimed at helping struggling renters have sat unspent so long in some counties that the

Politico, January 19, 2022, (Opinion) Why Are Minority-Owned Banks Disappearing? Washington Holds the Smoking Gun At the moment the Great Recession hit in 2008, America boasted 215 minority-owned banks. Today, only 146 so-called “minority depository institutions” remain. Before we face another recession, Congress and the White House should erect a safety net explicitly designed to

Washington Post, January 20, 2022, Affordable housing markets that are expected to gain the most value in 2022 While most housing markets experienced price appreciation, high demand and limited supply in 2021, researchers at NAR identified 10 housing markets as “hidden gems” that have room to grow in 2022. The top 10 housing markets that