Next City, February 26, 2021, The Pandemic Is Pushing Cities to Rethink How to Drive Capital to Small Business
As of February 2020, counting currency in circulation, deposits in bank and credit union checking accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts, the total money supply in the U.S. was $15 trillion. By February 2021, that number was $19 trillion — mostly a consequence of the Federal Reserve buying up U.S. government debt and mortgage-backed securities, with the goal of stabilizing the financial system at the onset of the pandemic.
State and local governments are using an assortment of tools to push that money in the direction of the people and businesses hit hardest by the pandemic — which happen to be disproportionately Black, Indigenous or other people of color.
Research from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition also shows there remains significant racial biases among small business loan officers at banks who originate small business loans.
