Economy: June 2009 Archives

As the recession rolls on, the federal stimulus package seems more and more like just a drop in the bucket, but even those limited resources are trickling down to an unlevel playing field.

The National Black Chamber of Commerce has called on Washington to pay more attention to racial equity as it issues stimulus funding for transportation, accusing the Department of Transportation of violating various civil rights policies.

On highway projects, wrote Harry C. Alford of the NBCC, federal authorities have ignored Executive Order 11246, which sets affirmative action guidelines for federal contractor employment, and the Civil Rights Act, resulting in declining representation of Black workers among state agencies and businesses engaged in federal highway projects.

Are you better off than you were four years ago? How about thirty? For all the political wrangling around the 21st century economy, the promise of the digital age, a new era of global competitiveness... Americans are basically going nowhere.

Pew's Economic Mobility Project analyzed working-age adults from 1967 to 2004 and found that economic security in America remains no more or less elusive than it was a generation ago:

...the American economy promotes upward mobility over two- and ten-year periods just as well as it has in the past. Americans are no more likely to experience income drops than they have been in the past, and they recover from those drops at similar rates. Nevertheless, for many Americans—today as before—an income drop is a significant and permanent financial setback, and the current recession—like previous ones—will prove to be an unfortunate turning point for millions of families.

Green jobs are seen as a vehicle for the climate justice agenda, bringing together economic and environmental advancement. But will the green industries deliver on the lofty promises activists have envisioned?

According to a study by Pew Charitable Trusts, "The Clean Energy Economy," emerging green job sectors, from solar installation to waste treatment, are leaving old-school industries in the dust. From 1998 to 2007, green jobs grew at more than twice the rate of traditional jobs, reaching about 770,000 jobs nationwide. Still, that's a tiny fraction of the total workforce, and the numbers vary widely by state (California had 125,000 green jobs, others had just a few thousand).

Growth depends heavily on targeted public and private investment. Along with policy instruments, such as renewable portfolio and energy efficiency standards, the report highlights the role of venture capital technology investments and large firms like clean-tech mogul Honeywell, which leverage economies of scale.

Organizations in the vein of Green for All have cultivated grassroots support and helped community-based groups develop training capacity. But small grassroots ventures could easily be eclipsed by corporate behemoths. How will community-based small businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions and government agencies factor into the green wave?

The White House is rolling out a fresh round of New Market Tax Credits as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The program is designed to basically sweeten the pot for investors so they will finance development in low-income areas.

In a recent commentary, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner gave examples of how the tax credits have opened opportunities in communities of color. He highlighted a $65 million credit granted to the Black-owned Carver Federal Savings Bank of Harlem:

“To illustrate the impact of these awards, in 2006 Carver Bank received a similar award for $59 million and, in turn, loaned a portion to a minority non-profit developer. That loan is enabling the developer to remake the Renaissance Ballroom, a long-vacant cultural icon in Harlem. Where a theater once thrived, a new facility is emerging with 113 mixed-income housing units and new space for community programs.”

But the veneer of diversity could be a little too polished. According to the Government Accountability Office, minority-owned Community Development Entities, compared to non-minority counterparts, get a relatively small piece of the pie: