Monday, May 18, 2020

Top Black Business Stories for Week of May 10th to 17th

Top Black Business and Economic Stories for Week of May 10th to 17th



DJIA                                            23,679
Unemployment (U-3,U-6)           14.7, 22.8             
US Covid-19 Growth Rate           ~1.0%

COVID-19







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Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) / Small Business Loan Program

Charlene Crowell from the Center for Responsible Lending writes about minority business being excluded from the Paycheck Protection program.



The SBA released an audit report of the Paycheck Protection Program.

The Paycheck Protection Program does not even mention minority businesses but it does acknowledge it failed to reach them.  In fact even the word "minority" is used only once in the document which quickly switches to the term: "under served." 



P. Diddy helps businesses access the Paycheck Protection Program

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs created a website to help Black business access Paycheck Protection Program. You can view the Our fair share website here.


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Urban Planning 


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Economic News


Highlights: 25% unemployment, no V-shaped recovery, demand will be low as people save and at least 20% GDP shrinkage. Long interview with some details.  The usual fed speak, but it was 60 minutes, so the fed is worried about the average consumer(worker a little less) 

He did mouth the administration Trope about: “Lowest Black unemployment ever,” so he loses points. The rate was low because they ran out of people to hire.  Check the participation rate and EM ratio. Also wage are the lowest they have been for 40 years.  Plus job quality of work life stinks. So, they might be jobs, but they sure aren't good jobs. 

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Academic Journals



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Unemployment

Lots of Unemployment stories, so we will pick three good ones


The BLS released the April Unemployment report on May 8th with depression levels of joblessness.  The narrow national unemployment rate was recorded at 14.7%. The boarder, U-6 (everyone who wants to work plus people who want more hours) stood at 22.8%.  More than twenty million payroll jobs were lost.

The unemployment rate for Black spiked at 16.7%, but the Black/White unemployment rate gap narrowed, meaning more Whites were laid off than Blacks (proportionally).
Leisure and Hospitality lost a staggering 7.6 million jobs of which 5.5 million were restaurants and bars.



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Politics



The plan address proposes to “improve economic mobility, close racial wealth gaps, improve education, and end health disparities by race. There are also some justice related ideas such as promoting a fairer justice system, increasing voter access and addressing environmental justice issues.

Our View:  The mild plan is a welcome change of tone and direction.While the proposals are certainly needed, it’s a rather small and timid grab bag of extensions to existing programs. 

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Interesting People


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Other




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