Why wealth equality remains out of reach for black Americans
Black History Month has become the time to reflect on all the progress black Americans have made, but the sobering reality is that when it comes to wealth – the paramount indicator of economic security – there has been virtually no progress in the last 50 years. Based on data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finance, the typical black family has only 10 cents for every dollar held by the typical white family. While there is no magic bullet for racism, access to wealth, and the security to pass it down from one generation to the next, would go a long way toward changing the economic trajectory for blacks. As researchers who study historical and contemporary racial inequality, we mostly conceive of wealth as a maker of success, but its true value is functional: the independence and economic security that it provides. Out of slavery
Award Winning Animator Just Released His New Short Film 'Happiness' & It's Absolutely Brilliant
Once again, Award Winning Animator Steve Cutts hit the nail on the head about our crazy society, this time with his newly released short film, ‘Happiness’… Below the video clip I did a write up of my personal analysis, for anyone that may be interested. Enjoy… My Analysis
The great acceleration
The fault lines between industries and business models that we understood intellectually before the COVID-19 crisis have now become giant fissures, separating the old reality from the new one. Just as an earthquake produces a sudden release of pent-up force, the economic shock set off by the pandemic has accelerated and intensified trends that were already underway. The result is a dramatic widening of the gap between those at the top and the bottom of the power curve of economic profit —the winners and losers in the global corporate-performance race. Along with the accelerated pace of change, however, comes a unique opportunity to unlock big strategic moves. Our research found that companies that pursued big strategic moves persistently, through every phase of the economic cycle, increased their odds of outperforming their peers. Mind the gap
Invest in the green economy and we'll recover from the Covid-19 crisis
Although it seems like ancient history, it hasn’t been that long since economies around the world began to close down in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Early in the crisis, most people anticipated a quick V-shaped recovery, on the assumption that the economy merely needed a short timeout. After two months of tender loving care and heaps of money, it would pick up where it left off. It was an appealing idea. But now it is July, and a V-shaped recovery is probably a fantasy.
fee.org 15 q economics quiz
By now you have probably heard the exhortation “stay woke.” To be woke means a person is “an informed, questioning, self-educating individual” who “look[s] past the provided narrative.” Yet, most among the self-proclaimed woke are still fast asleep. They may have a facile way of imparting narratives about issues, but those narratives are often based on neither sound facts nor theories. In his book Factfulness, Hans Rosling, the late great professor of international health, offers 13 fact questions to test “our knowledge about the world.”
25 Documentaries Everybody Should Watch
Sans Soleil This is not your average documentary. It is a fleeting memory, a sudden remembrance of times long past, a meditation on time and culture, a touch of an emotional diary.
The Use of Knowledge in Society
If you want to learn as much as possible about economics from just one article, read Friedrich A. Hayek’s “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” published in the September 1945 issue of The American Economic Review. First, no other article explains the economic problem as clearly. Second, none provides a better understanding of the superiority of market economies.
Visa Wants to Buy Plaid, and With It, Transaction Data for Millions of People
Visa, the credit card network, is trying to buy financial technology company Plaid for $5.3 billion. The merger is bad for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it would allow a giant company with a controlling market share and a history of anticompetitive practices to snap up its fast-growing competition in the market for payment apps. But Plaid is more than a potential disruptor, it’s also sitting on a massive amount of financial data acquired through questionable means. By buying Plaid, Visa is buying all of its data.
Something Extraordinary Is Happening in the World, And Most People Haven't Noticed
Most of us haven’t quite realized there is something extraordinary happening. A few months ago, I freed myself from standard-procedure society. I broke the chains of fear that kept me locked up into the system. Since then, I see the world from a different perspective: the one that everything is going through change and that most of us are unaware of that. Why is the world changing?
A Biden Administration Could Do a Lot for Workers
President-elect Joe Biden held a virtual meeting on Monday with union leaders and corporate CEOs. Afterward, Biden declared that he’d told the executives “I’m a union guy” and that in his administration “unions are going to have increased power.” Biden will have many opportunities in 2021 to show his words have meaning — even if one or both Democratic senatorial candidates in Georgia lose the upcoming runoff election, leaving Republicans in control of the Senate. As president, Biden will be able to mandate overtime pay for many more Americans; force businesses to implement protections from Covid-19 for their workers; require government contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage; and much more, no matter what current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does.
To Future-Proof the American Economy, We Need 5 Million Digital Jobs in 5 Years
As we enter Year Two of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are at a critical juncture as a country. Yes, the unemployment rate is falling in 2021—but in part because of people leaving the labor force. Millions more have been displaced, lost work, or are underemployed due to the continuing effects of COVID-19. And while economists predict that 2021 could be bright for the economy as a whole thanks to stimulus spending, technology will continue to displace many millions more workers. The World Economic Forum puts it starkly: 85 million jobs will be displaced by a shift in the division of labor between humans and machines by 2025.
Biden Again Pitches Expanded Federal Research Investments to Keep U.S. Competitive
President Joe Biden repeated prior commitments and expanded on his broad agenda that involves investing heavily in America’s research and technology landscape during his first formal address to Congress on Wednesday night. The administration’s recently proposed American Jobs Plan includes the biggest increase in nondefense research and development on record, he noted. “We will see more technological change in the next 10 years than we saw in the last 50—that’s how rapidly artificial intelligence and so much more is changing.
