This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

After dropping from an increase of 222,0000 in December 2025 to an increase of 119,000 by January, 2026, the number of Black women unemployed resumed its climb in February. In January, 2026, the Department of Labor reported 717,000 Black women unemployed, growing to 804,000 unemployed by February, 2026.  The rise in unemployment among Black women in 2025-2026 is not only due to job loss, however. As the chart below shows, it is largely the result of increased labor force participation combined with job losses in healthcare and government, sectors where Black women are overrepresented.

On February 20th, I attended the Annual Minority Policy Summit hosted by the Financial Services Innovation Coalition (FSIC) at the National Press Club. The conversations around 2026, antitrust, and AI left a strong impression on me. The economic outlook for 2026 presented by William Michael Cunningham of creativeinvest.com was especially compelling since many of the predictions he made at the same event in 2025 have come true, from the labor market forecast to the predicted condition of the housing market and unemployment. His message was clear: we are not in a normal business cycle but the economy is changing, driven by technology, shifting the labor demands, and evolving capital markets. After that, the discussion about antitrust built directly on that theme. Protecting minority businesses and ensuring fair competition will require modernized antitrust policies that address technological dominance, not just traditional monopolies. This also depends on how effectively we regulate co...

The 2026 State of the Union (SOTU) address presented a falsely optimistic narrative of economic recovery, falling inflation , rising employment, and national renewal. This picture is incorrect. When examined through the lens of Black and minority communities, the speech reveals a significant gap between macroeconomic claims and the structural realities facing historically disadvantaged groups. While the address emphasized economic growth , border security, and deregulation, it provided limited concrete evidence that these policies are improving outcomes for minority households or businesses. The speech highlighted strong employment growth, inaccurately claiming that “more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” Data show elevated Black and Hispanic unemployment rates, remaining twice as high as white unemployment. Without targeted workforce policies or investment in disadvantaged communities, minority workers, especially women, remain concentrated ...

The latest Producer Price Index (PPI) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlight renewed inflation pressures at the business level. The PPI measures price changes received by producers for goods and services sold for consumption, investment, government, and export markets—making it one of the clearest indicators of business cost conditions. Recent data show that producer prices rose about 0.5% in the most recent month and roughly 2.9% over the past year , with the largest increases concentrated in services and trade margins.  For Black-owned and minority-owned firms—many of which operate with thinner margins and less access to credit—the implications of rising producer prices are significant. Rising Producer Prices Mean Higher Operating Costs 📈 Producer prices represent the costs businesses face before goods and services reach consumers. When PPI rises: Input costs increase Supplier prices rise Financing needs grow Profit margins shrink Recent increases were driven primar...

The U.S. economy expanded in the fourth quarter of 2025 at a 1.4 % annualized rate , a notable deceleration from the 4.4 % pace in the third quarter . For the full year, real GDP rose 2.2 % in 2025 , down from 2.8 % in 2024 , according to the advance estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). ( Bureau of Economic Analysis ) This slowdown has important implications for Black- and minority-owned firms — not just in the aggregate, but across industries and regions. Below, we unpack what the data suggest for owners, investors, and leaders in underrepresented business communities. 1. Consumer Spending & Services — Staying Power GDP Drivers: Consumer Spending Still Positive Services and consumer spending were key contributors to growth in Q4 2025. Particularly, health care and related services showed strong activity, driven by demand for outpatient and long-term care services. Minority Firm Implication Black and minority entrepreneurs are disproportionately represented i...

The passing of Jesse Jackson invites reflection not only on a singular life of moral courage, but on a set of missed intersections in American economic history—moments when civil-rights leadership, capital markets, and data-driven accountability might have converged to permanently change corporate behavior in the United States. Rev. Jackson understood something many still resist: civil rights do not end at voting booths or courtrooms . They extend into purchasing decisions, supply chains, boardrooms, and balance sheets. Economic justice was never ancillary to his work—it was foundational. Our Pitch to Rev. Jackson — 2006 In 2006, Creative Investment Research actively sought to develop, alongside Rev. Jackson and Operation PUSH, what we believed was a next-generation framework for corporate accountability . This effort is documented in contemporaneous correspondence from that period . At the center of our work was a simple but then-radical proposition: Corporations that benefit from A...