This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

Data: Nearly 80 of Black Entrepreneurs Believe They Run Thriving Businesses, Yet Gaining Access to Capital Still a Hurdle - https://www.blackenterprise.com/data-nearly-80-of-black-entrepreneurs-believe-they-run-thriving-businesses-yet-gaining-access-to-capital-still-a-hurdle/  The article highlights the fact that, despite the resilience of black entrepreneurs in dealing with record inflation, a pandemic and overall economic uncertainty, the issue of access to capital remains a significant hurdle. Almost 50% of black business owners report they have issues accessing finance.  Be that as it may, the provision of information about sources of finance is a step in the right direction. The article notes that Bank of America and Seneca Women compiled a database on sources of capital specifically for black entrepreneurs (Ed note: also see the Minority and Women-owned Company Small Business Financing Guide and Workbook ).  Knowing what lenders are looking for is helpful, regardle...

It is clear that black unemployment is consistently higher than the national average. Wealth inequality is even more pronounced across racial categories: the median white family owns 8x more wealth than the median black family. While different strategies can be used to tackle such issues, I believe it is imperative that these statistics are viewed in a historical and political context before we move to identifying solutions that can address the problem.  Through the webinar we got exposed to different schools of thought. One was the suggestion that the federal government settle the Black/white wealth gap difference through some form of reparations to the descendants of slaves. Logically, this could have the effect of narrowing the gap and can be justified by the fact that upon the abolition of slavery, black people were not compensated for their years of unpaid labor that helped generate wealth for those who owned them. Racial discrimination through Jim Crow and redlining also help...

Recently, the Brookings Institution issued a report titled “ Black-owned businesses in U.S. cities: The challenges, solutions, and opportunities for prosperity. ” While we appreciate the effort, the report is flawed in several significant ways.  It opens with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s statement at a MLK day event in 2017. She indicated:  “From Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to the present day, our economy has never worked fairly for Black Americans —or, really, for any American of color.”  This is, of course, not accurate. As the chart below indicates, the economy has worked well for Asian Americans and is improving the economic standing of Hispanics at a rapid rate. According to the US Census Bureau, “non-Hispanic White householders had a median household wealth of $187,300, compared with $14,100 for Black householders and $31,700 for Hispanic householders. Asian householders had a median household wealth of $206,400, which is not statistically different from the...

In 2023, one hundred and twenty years after Maggie Walker became the first African American woman to charter a bank and serve as a bank president,  sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha,  the country’s oldest social organization dedicated to and operated by Black women, announced the formation of a Federal Credit Union. The new institution aims to build generational wealth for Black women, promote social justice and uplift communities. The number of Black owned and operated financial institutions has fallen dramatically over the past thirty years, declining from 55 banks in 1994 to 18 (out of a total of 4,236) today. There are 33 Black owned and managed credit unions currently out of a total of 4,813.  At 6 tenths of one percent of credit unions and 4 tenths of one percent of all banks, Black banks and credit unions are simply not a factor in the industry, and won’t be until their numbers increase significantly. We have long suggested that a more deliberate effort is required to inc...

Photo by Charlie Gainey If the OCC’s bank merger symposium had to be summed up in three words, it would be this: more regulation needed. That was the takeaway I got from the speakers last week at the event . (OCC Bank Merger Symposium. Washington, D.C. Feb 10, 2023. ) Benjamin McDonough, the OCC’s chief counsel, put it best when he said that regulators need to “build a better mousetrap,” and that if the current regulations aren’t updated then harmful bank mergers will be likely to pass through. He followed up that “this mousetrap needs to be not only theoretically sound and consistent with our values, but also capable of implementation within the statutory criteria for merger review." Even Randal Quarles, the former supervision vice chair of the Federal Reserve, was quoted as saying that many see the current bank merger regulatory system as “a delphic and hermetic process that is very ad hoc… and then other people see a rubber stamp .” Another important note from the symposium co...

  " 실업률은 3.4% 로 50 년 만에 최저치입니다 . 흑인과 히스패닉 근로자들의 거의 기록적인 낮은 실업률입니다 ." 라고 조 바이든 대통령이 말했습니다 . 80 만 개의 새로운 제조업 일자리가 창출되었습니다 . 예를 들어 반도체 과학법으로 알려진 행동을 위한 CHIPs 승인 이후 인텔은 오하이오주에 반도체 공장을 설립해 총 1 만 개의 일자리를 창출했고 , 초당적 인프라법은 지금까지 공항을 포함해 2 만 개의 프로젝트를 지원했습니다 . 바이든이 2 년 임기 동안 이룬 경제적 성과는 1,200 만 개의 새로운 일자리를 창출하고 실업률 3.4% 로 지난 50 년 동안 최저치를 달성한 것이 대단하다고 생각합니다 . 특히 흑인과 히스패닉계 사람들에게는 기록적인 고용률이라는 측면에서 매우 의미가 있다고 생각합니다 . 게다가 , 바이든은 중산층을 위한 경제를 강조했습니다 . 보수가 좋은 제조업 일자리가 너무 많이 해외로 넘어갔지만 반도체법 , 인플레이션방지법 등을 실행하여 미국으로 다시 돌아올 것이라고 전망됩니다 . The unemployment rate is 3.4%, a 50-year low, with near record low unemployment for Black and Hispanic workers.  President Joe Biden said  800,000 new manufacturing jobs were created after the approval of the CHIPS Act, known as the Semiconductor Science Act. Intel alone created 10,000 jobs by establishing a semiconductor plant in Ohio, and the bipartisan infrastructure law has so far supported 20,000 projects, including airports. I think Biden's eco...

The Hill’s EV Summit addressed many of the recent policy changes in the electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous vehicle (AV) markets, and where they might be heading in the future.  Among the guest speakers was Washington state representative Rick Larsen, who also serves as co-chair of the U.S.- China Working Group. Rep. Larsen talked about the exponential growth of EV sales, noting that 30,000 EVs were sold in 2020, 66,000 in 2021, and over 100,000 in 2022.  With this kind of growth, he argued, the U.S. needs to prioritize friendly, safe options for mining the materials needed to produce EVs. Along with that comes a need for clarity on how to fill demand. He also pointed out that in many ways, EVs and AVs are an equity issue: Tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act are helping to make them more affordable, but the market still needs to grow at a rate in which there are options at all income levels. Guest speakers echoed Rep. Larsen’s comments, adding that used EVs need ...