Analysis

Rarely has Washington stumbled on an issue more confounding than President Biden’s low approval ratings.

When inflation finally comes under control, everyone will rightfully celebrate. But even as Washington and Wall Street collectively exhale, policymakers will need to take some time to understand why 2021’s prevailing economic wisdom proved so wrong.

Instead of creating a new bureaucracy every time a new scam shows up, Congress should empower existing financial regulators.

Middle- and low-income Americans are materially worse off over at least the last two decades than government headline statistics would have us believe.

Several key government-reported headline statistics present a distorted view of reality for most Americans, with the impact extending far beyond Wall Street. And it can have dire consequences — particularly when those numbers drive economic policy. Look no further than the Federal Reserve's recent decision to hike interest rates.

Why Washington needs to wake up to the crisis that’s looming in the nonbank financial sector.

Wednesday’s consumer-price index report showed a 9.1% year-over-year jump. Following similar news last month, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates by 0.75 percentage point. This spells double trouble for middle- and low-income Americans: increased expenses for the former and job losses from the latter.

Perhaps “fake” is too strong a term to describe the data-driven consumer price index (CPI), which serves as the U.S. government’s proxy for inflation. But the narrative the CPI has long burnished — namely that, since 2000, ordinary expenses have been fairly manageable amid rising wages — is entirely debunked by new research.

Each time the economy falters, a disproportionate number of Minority Depository Institutions find themselves in trouble through no fault of their own.

There is an enormous (but invisible) supply of labor that companies can hire to keep costs down.

Economic recoveries should be judged not simply by how many jobs come online, but by whether the jobs created pay a reliably middle-class wage.

A new cadre of financial regulators can transform the financial world’s role in the fight against prejudice and inequality.

Policymakers shouldn’t be fooled by a bullish stock market or what appears to be plummeting unemployment rates. Now is not the time to take our foot off the gas.

The country needs this amount of relief — or more.

As the world of finance has changed, the Community Reinvestment Act’s reach has failed to keep pace. Of most concern, large portions of the lending marketplace have been claimed by nonbank lenders that are not subject to the CRA’s regulations. Today, that disparity threatens to undermine the spirit of equality the CRA intended nearly a half-century ago.

These days the headline unemployment rate isn’t just an undercount, it actually paints an alternate reality that masks the degree to which low- and moderate-income people are hurting. As a result, policymakers believe these Americans are better off than they actually are.

Present markets will probably prompt lenders to serve wealthier individuals and bigger companies first, exacerbating inequality. Fortunately, regulators have within their grasp several tools to direct lending to the businesses and low-income families — including many minority communities — where it will do the most good.

Outrage over generous loans to well-heeled businesses is obscuring another troubling problem: The Federal Reserve’s efforts to preserve liquidity in the corporate debt market are, however inadvertently, sending wealth up the income scale, exacerbating inequality.

To read the economic reports coming out of Washington, you might assume that the American economy is firing on all cylinders. But beneath this rosy picture is a much darker reality.

A different picture emerges looking at the homeless people gathered by the Federal Reserve building in DC, or in visiting my hometown, York, Pennsylvania, where wages have stagnated and factories have closed.