Recent research by Citigroup found that racial inequities between Black and white Americans have cost the nation as much as a staggering $16 trillion in the last two decades. One of the lead researchers Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board and former global economist at Citi, said the findings were based on a number of items that have widened the wealth gap between Blacks and whites over the last 20 years.
Additionally, discrimination from previous generations is still having a financial impact today.
"Bias and discrimination prevented many people from having access to higher education, access to income, access to the jobs that they wanted. Even in the workplace, they may not have been paid equally, and so all of that adds up to losses," Peterson told Cheddar.
Other roadblocks, according to Peterson, that have been attributed to economic disparities between the groups include segregation, education, and access to loans.
"Just as importantly, certainly looking from a financial perspective, there's been limited access to credit for both households and businesses, which means that there have been roughly 770,000 fewer Black homeowners and roughly six million people a year who have not been employed because Black businesses have not been able to gain access to credit," she explained.
Still, a turnaround that could provide a $5 trillion boost to the nation's GDP over the next five years is possible, Peterson noted, but companies and individuals have to be intentional about making changes to level the playing field.
Citi has since launched Action for Racial Equality, a $1 billion initiative aimed at closing the wealth gap through investments in Black businesses, growing Black homeownership, investing in affordable housing, and expanding institutional policies and practices.
"When we look at our younger people, our students, making sure that they are aiming high, aiming for jobs that are in the STEMs and finance and economics [and] health care that tend to pay a little bit more money than most types of 'middle class' jobs," Peterson added to the list of things people can do to close the gap.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
