For the second time this year, Congress’ inability to reach consensus on essential fiscal legislation has devolved into largely partisan bickering and literal, last-minute temporary financial band-aids.
Credit reporting, student loan debt and payday loans among chief consumer concerns
As the global pandemic continues to take lives and infect multiple generations, virtually every dimension of life is challenged. And people with the fewest financial resources before COVID-19 are being challenged more than ever before.
It is both a challenge and an opportunity for leadership in the Biden Administration, Congress, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with the private sector address to effect policies and practices that reverse the nation’s still-growing racial wealth gap. Tried and true wealth-building tools like targeted homeownership and expanded small business investments together would bring sustainable and meaningful changes to those who historically have been financially marginalized.
A month later in March, Ms. Chism again lost her job. Her legal aid attorney tried to negotiate repayments with the landlord over several weeks, including an updated proposal with higher numbers when another month’s rent was due.
In recent years, consumer finance protections withered through a series of harsh attacks that either outright rejected or significantly diminished financial guard rails in the marketplace. But a new consumer victory, urged by a groundswell of support from everyday people, academicians, and bicameral legislators signals an important step towards fair financial rules. On June 30, President Joe Biden’s signature ended an ill-advised rule that favored predatory loans instead of America’s consumers. “These are so called “rent-a-bank” schemes”, said President Joe Biden at the June 30 signing ceremony. “And they allow lenders to prey on veterans, seniors, and other unsuspecting borrowers
Although many officials have called for a ‘return to normal’, millions of small businesses and communities need something new instead. In Black America especially, the ‘old normal’ never delivered equitable access to wealth-building opportunities as those that well-served served much of White America. Instead, a lengthy history of public policies designed to create and sustain a burgeoning middle class systemically excluded Blacks and other people of color.
Although the month of April is annually observed as Fair Housing Month, the reality for Black America and other people of color is that housing has not significantly changed since the 1968 federal enactment of the Fair Housing Act.
After more than a year of COVID-19, the nation’s collective ability to cope with dual public health and economic crises has diminished many consumers’ ability to remain financially stable. While this February’s national employment report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a net gain of 379,000 jobs and white unemployment dropped to 5.6%, there was no corresponding improvement for Black and Latino workers. Instead, unemployment was respectively higher at 9.9% and 8.5%.
Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed dual crises. Over 542,000 Americans lives were lost and continue to increase. At the same time, the rippling effects of a massive economic downturn has caused the nation to lose 9.5 million jobs – more losses than even those of the Great Recession, finds the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy.
At the federal level, lawmakers are expected to re-introduce a payday lending bill that would give both consumers and military veterans the same 36% rate protection as the Military Lending Act (MLA). Named the Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act, the measure is hoped to secure the same broad and bipartisan support that MLA received.
Over the past year, COVID-19 and its variants have plagued the globe taking lives and interrupting normal activities in virtually all areas of life. For Black America, already plagued with steep health, income and wealth disparities, coping with the pandemic has been even more painful.
On January 26, President Joe Biden took steps to bring the nation towards the long-promised, but never realized, pledge of racial justice. Four executive orders signed that day make clear that the new Administration will take meaningful and corrective actions.
Although a New Year has begun, many American consumers and small businesses continue to feel a financial hangover from the challenges of 2020. As the global pandemic reveals a still-soaring American infection rate, the nation has also surpassed 350,000 related deaths, added more workers to the ranks of unemployed, and growing debts place millions more in financial crisis.
The selection of California Senator Kamala Harris to join and then win the nation’s Vice-Presidency gave unprecedented hope to Black women across the nation. Not only had a woman broken a glass ceiling in professional development; she was also Black and a graduate of Howard University, one of the nation’s premier Historically Black Institutions.
The tumultuous 2020 presidential election triggered a record number of participating voters. Never before had so many people cast their preferences. And similarly, together substantiated how divided the nation is.