Economics

Housing

• Unlike 2008, housing is holding up the economy during this recession. (CNN)
• U.S. new home sales rise to near 14-year high last month (CNBC)
• But the pandemic has driven demand up and supply down in many markets, pushing home prices out of reach of many. (CNBC2) (WSJ-subscription) 

Unemployment/Pandemic

• New unemployment claims last week were 870,000, still at historically high levels as states struggle with backlogs and identifying fraudulent claims. Continuing claims edged down a bit, but are still at 12.6 million. And over 630,080 claims were filed under the PUA. (APNews) (CNN)
• And the new $300 weekly federal benefit is about to end. (CNBC)
• This WSJ article takes an in-depth look at how the pandemic is wreaking havoc on middle class families with lost income and lots of debt.
• Yelp data shows 60% of business closures due to the coronavirus pandemic are now permanent. (CNBC)
• Why are there still shortages of N95 masks? (WAPO)

Investing

• Allan Roth and others offer some advice to keep in mind when dealing with market volatility like we are seeing today. (CNBC)
• Warren Buffet amassed a fortune, but this one fact is often overlooked when it is discussed. Can you guess what that might be before reading the article? (CNBC2)

Paying for College

• Student Loan Hero surveys college students about Income Share Agreements and shares the results, and useful information on where ISAs stand at the moment.

Careers (Pandemic edition)

• Amazon is hiring 100,000 starting at $15/hour. (CNN)
• CNN’s Bianna Golodryga interviews Nicole Mason, President and CEO of the Institute for Women's Policy Research about how the pandemic is hitting women disproportionately more than men.

Retirement

• What is the major reason given for lack of retirement savings? According to a survey by E*Trade, childcare costs. (BusinessWire)

Personal Finance

• Remembering all that RBG did for women's (and men's) financial and job security. (Investment News)

Racism in Finance

• Citigroup has conducted a study to estimate the costs (since 2000) of racial inequities and discrimination in the financial system. NPR summarizes this study, but here are the key findings:

Specifically, the study came up with $16 trillion in lost GDP by noting four key racial gaps between African Americans and whites:

• $13 trillion lost in potential business revenue because of discriminatory lending to African American entrepreneurs, with an estimated 6.1 million jobs not generated as a result
• $2.7 trillion in income lost because of disparities in wages suffered by African Americans
• $218 billion lost over the past two decades because of discrimination in providing housing credit
• And $90 billion to $113 billion in lifetime income lost from discrimination in accessing higher education

For more on this topic, see NPR’s Ailsa Chang’s interview of Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic in July.

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