Fed’s Bostic says minority, lower-income communities still struggling amid pandemic

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President and CEO Raphael Bostic said Sunday that minority and low-income communities are still struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Bostic told CBS’s “Face The Nation” that he’s “concerned” as he sees some areas of the economy “recovering and rebounding in a very robust” while others are not so lucky.

“In other segments, things like hotels and restaurants, small businesses in particularly minority and lower income communities, those places are seeing much more difficult situations,” he said. 

“I see two real stories going on,” @AtlantaFed’s @RaphaelBostic tells @margbrennan of the #COVID19 recession and disjointed recovery.

Some sectors – like the service industry – are struggling to recover. The professional industry – office workers – has rebounded significantly pic.twitter.com/kqgAI5zMol

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 18, 2020

CBS’s Margaret Brennan questioned Bostic on what the U.S. needs to do to combat a “widening inequality” as Black Americans have recovered just more than a third of employment lost during the pandemic. 

Bostic said the Federal Reserve has to “acknowledge that there’s a problem” and “be willing to talk about it.”

{mosads}“My institution has for a long time not been willing to be out in front to talk about the importance of racial inequalities,” he said. “I actually think that that’s been a mistake.”

The Atlanta Fed president named “two dimensions” to fight inequality: efforts “to change the trajectory for the generations to come” through good education and training, and efforts to provide resources and infrastructure to those “who are trying to benefit from this economy and participate in it.”

“We have to change the trajectory for the generations to come,” @AtlantaFed‘s tells @margbrennan about policy to tackle ongoing racial economic disparities. pic.twitter.com/Gf1YvfBqZ9

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 18, 2020

Bostic said the coronavirus pandemic has “put a wedge in our economy,” making situations “even more precarious” for those already struggling.