Andre Perry, a Brookings Institution fellow, told the Times that some of the surge in Black business registrations could be a signal of personal economic trouble. “This is more about survival than it is about wealth creation. There’s lots of people who have lost their jobs and lost their businesses. People are starting to realize that side hustles are businesses,” Perry said.
After a decade of planning and a head count that took place against the backdrop of an unprecedented pandemic, natural disasters and partisan legal battles, the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing the first numbers from the 2020 census before the end of the month.
“In 2020, more Black Americans will die of COVID-19 than will succumb to diabetes, strokes, accidents, or pneumonia. In fact, COVID-19 is currently the third leading cause of death for African Americans,” concluded Trevon Logan, professor of economics at the Ohio State University and Bradley L. Hardy of the American University in Northwest, Washington D.C. Logan and Hardy are co-authors of a new report from the Brookings Institution, “The Hamilton Project, Racial Economic Inequality Amid the COVID-19 Crisis.”
Besides deep debt incurred to gain a college education, another sphere of concern presents yet another financial hurdle: student loan defaults.