While there is no such thing as a consensus on whether credit repair firms are definitely worth the money they charge (Experian, one in every of the leading credit monitoring services, says they aren’t), they continue to be one option for people attempting to repair their loan. As reported, The Credit Bros, run by Christopher Watson and Aaron Steede, operates for this purpose is becoming a well-liked and trusted alternative amongst Black people who wish to use skilled help.

Watson and Steele prefer to concentrate on a fact-based discussion, which, based on the Federal Trade Commission, involves contacting each the corporate that reported the knowledge in your credit report and the credit bureau to allow them to know you must dispute the knowledge in your report.

In addition to this approach, the pair strives to teach their clients on personal finance principles, corresponding to budgeting strategies or financial planning.

According to their website they concentrate on helping their clients improve their creditworthiness in order that they will have access to homeownership, a path to wealth constructing that has historically been denied to Black Americans.

They also stand out from the competition by offering a flat $100 monthly fee that also comes with a 90-day warranty.

As a result, if a customer spends $300 and doesn’t get the outcomes they expected, they will get their a refund.

According to CNBC, credit scores, that are mandatory to secure access to a house, aren’t necessarily race-neutral, but could also be influenced by structural racism.

Black individuals are more prone to report low or no creditworthiness in any respect.

A representative survey conducted in 2023 found that fifty% of Black Americans reported having low or no credit rating, in comparison with 37% of white Americans.

According to Frederick Wherry, director of the Dignity and Debt Network, a credit rating is “a passport to everything you need to do as an adult.”

But Aaron Klein, a senior fellow in economics on the Brookings Institute, said they aren’t and not using a tinge of racial bias.

“Credit scores are based on past performance,” Klein told CNBC. “The further back in history we go, the deeper structural racism has become in the United States.”

Sally Taylor, vice chairman and general manager of FICO, acknowledged that while credit scores didn’t cause economic disparities, they did provide a measure of them.

“It is important to note that credit scoring has not caused some of the social and economic disparities. They simply reflect existing socioeconomic disparities. The conversation should focus on eliminating the root cause of these differences.”

Partisan arguments aren’t just annoying – they’re also bad for business.

That’s what my colleagues and I discovered in a recent study on the impact of environmental policy uncertainty on corporate investment.

First we analyzed over 300 million press articlestrying to find keywords related to environmental policy uncertainty. We found that this uncertainty increases during election periods and has almost doubled over the past decade.

Then we took a look business investment rates of interest – a common way of assessing a company’s financial health – in corporations in affected sectors akin to agriculture, mining, energy and automotive. We found that environmental policy uncertainty reduced these corporations’ business investment rates by 0.010%.

This may not seem to be much, but how economists like me You know, small amounts add up over time.

For example, we found that the rise in environmental policy uncertainty within the run-up to the 2008 presidential elections was linked to a one-off 25% decline within the investment rate for corporations covered by environmental policy. This effect was greater than the uncertainty related to defense, health and financial policies.

But my team also found positive sides. We found that political uncertainty had a much smaller impact on business investment when control of Congress was divided and policy changes required bipartisan support.

When the identical political party controlled each houses of Congress, environmental policy uncertainty was related to a 0.013% decline in investment rates. However, when Congress was divided, this decline shrunk to a much smaller 0.002%.

Why it matters

Because political uncertainty typically increases around elections, our results suggest that the present political environment is hampering business investment.

Our research also suggests that policies geared toward boosting business investment could also be less effective than previously thought due to uncertainty they introduce.

Let’s take for instance Inflation Reduction Actpassed in 2021, and the bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2022. Both were designed to encourage investment in clean energy technologies.

However, uncertainty over whether these packages can be adopted in any respect – and if that’s the case, what the policies would come with – could have discouraged investment before they got here into force. Uncertainty over what features of the foundations will apply after the election could also hamper business investment.

There could also be a degree of uncertainty built into the democratic process. After all, the faster and more secretive a government is, the less accountable it’s to the general public. If you concentrate on it this fashion, some uncertainty is an inevitable cost of a sound policymaking process.

Our research puts a price on these costs and reminds policymakers that political conflicts are a drag on the economy. Our results suggest one promising path forward: bipartisanship.

What’s next?

Because there may be such a wide range of environmental policies, our team is currently conducting research to see whether corporations respond otherwise to the uncertainty related to “carrot” policies – akin to subsidies or tax breaks – in comparison with “stick” policies, akin to fines or other penalties.

Answering this query will help decision makers minimize the results of uncertainty.

It’s also an open query whether news articles convey information to business leaders or just reflect information they have already got. In the latter case, media coverage might not be a good measure of the uncertainty corporations face.

To solve this problem, we’re working on developing ways to measure uncertainty based on transcripts of telephone conversations about earnings as an alternative of press articles. They could provide a more direct strategy to measure uncertainty affecting business decisions.

If you have ever checked out a radio station’s call letters, it can have gave the impression of they were just letters to you.

But at WDKX radios in Rochester, New York, the letter “D” stands for Frederick Douglass, “K” stands for Martin Luther King Jr., and “X” stands for

In a media environment where many Black radio stations that air promoting to Black listeners usually are not Black-owned, WDKX exemplifies the legacy and power of independent Black media. This yr the station is celebrating 50 years in business.

According to African American Public Radio Consortiuman estimated 10,000 industrial radio stations broadcast each day within the U.S., but lower than 1% are black-owned. This discrepancy reveals greater than just an ownership gap; highlights a systemic problem that ends in fewer Black leaders being accountable for the voices and messages that claim to talk for Black people.

“Anyone can play black music or turn on black shows, but with black creators there is a different kind of authenticity and connection,” says Andria Langston, current co-owner of WDKX and national sales manager.

Langston is Andre Langston’s daughter and granddaughter Andrew Langstonwho founded WDKX in 1974 in Rochester. While the northern New York city is commonly considered a destination for abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, that does not imply racism wasn’t prevalent in the realm.

(*50*)

“My grandfather was a visionary, and interestingly enough, he moved to Rochester, New York, because he was promised a job at CBS,” Langston tells Grio. “But when he got there and they saw he was black, they didn’t want to show him on TV. Being in Rochester during the Rochester Riots, my grandparents saw there was a need to tell our story.”

Today, WDKX is a model of resilience, being certainly one of the last independently operated Black-owned radio stations within the United States. The station organizes community events and highlights issues related to health, education and politics. Its mission is deeply rooted within the vision of Mr. Langston, who overcame regulatory and racial barriers to create a platform dedicated to authentic Black voices. For Andria, who began learning the station’s operations on the age of 5, that is of great importance.

“I’m a third-generation owner and seeing my grandfather build this station throughout my life and my father continuing it, I think it’s a testament to the American dream; what can be achieved with persistence and community and simply focusing on your goals,” Langston tells theGrio.