Blue City State Schadenfreude - Elections have Consequences
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How FDR Promoted Racial Segregation
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a reputation as a friend of black people, yet he signed laws that promoted racial segregation throughout the United States. The laws were supposed to promote “affordable housing.”
Until the 1930s, buying a home required making a down payment equal to a quarter or a third of its value, and a mortgage had to be repaid in about a half-dozen years. Banks were reluctant to accept smaller down payments, because this would have attracted borrowers with less capital, who were more likely to default. Offering mortgage money for a longer period would have further increased the risks of lending since this might have exposed a bank to more economic risks, such as inflation or depression. State and federal laws banned banks from making long-term mortgage loans for more than half the value of a home.
Concerns about risk were borne out during the Great Depression, when people across the United States defaulted on their mortgage loans. FDR stepped in so that more people could afford to buy their homes. On June 13, 1933, he established the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) which replaced his predecessor Herbert Hoover’s Federal Home Loan Bank. HOLC spent some $3 billion refinancing mortgages for people who had trouble making their mortgage payments. In the process, HOLC promoted the long-term, self-amortizing mortgage. As many as 40 percent of HOLC-financed properties ended up in foreclosure.
In an effort to minimize risks, HOLC developed more formal, consistent methods for assessing properties. HOLC rated properties and neighborhoods on a descending scale from most desirable to least desirable, and maps were produced to help speed-up the process of evaluating mortgage applications.
Neighborhoods were marked as A (green), B (blue), C (yellow) or D (red). An “A” neighborhood was suburban with recent construction, low crime, business and professional people — a white neighborhood. A “D” neighborhood was inner city, old buildings often in need of repair, sometimes high crime — a minority neighborhood. HOLC avoided “D” neighborhoods. This was how official redlining began.
Redlining: A Legacy of FDR's New Deal
Critics of Franklin D. Roosevelt have blamed his administration for many sins: a prolonged depression, the creation of a federal welfare state that fostered dependence, establishment of the imperial presidency in foreign policy, Japanese internment, the Brown Scare, retrograde civil rights policies, etc. Only a few have emphasized, however, that Roosevelt was also the father (at least indirectly) of redlining.
Amy E. Hillier has a carefully researched article on the subject in a recent issue of Social Science History. Redlining is a practice of denying credit to certain neighborhoods because of their racial or ethnic composition. The origin of the term can be traced to the color-coded “Residential Security Maps” of major American cities produced by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), a New Deal agency created in 1933. Each map had four different classifications ranging from most to least desirable: green, blue, yellow, and red.
Most desirable were the green areas. They were ethnically “"homogeneous” and worthy of loans in “good times or bad.” The second and third grade areas were blue and yellow. Least desirable were the red areas. According to the maps, they had “detrimental influences in a pronounced degree” and an “undesirable population [disproportionately black] or an infiltration of it.” During the late 1930s, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) used the maps as a basis for its loans. It rarely gave loans to red areas, hence the term redlining. The federal government provided the maps to banks and developers who often used them as a basis for their own loan ratings.
Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America
In the 1930s the federal government created redlining maps for almost every major American city. Mapping Inequality lets you explore these maps and the history of racial and ethnic discrimination in housing policy.
Redlining was the practice of categorically denying access to mortgages not just to individuals but to whole neighborhoods.
Between 1935 and 1940, an agency of the federal government, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, graded the "residential security" of thousands of American neighborhoods. By "security," they meant the relative security or riskiness of those areas for banks, saving and loans, and other lenders who made mortgages.
For each of these cities, they produced maps showing those grades. Neighborhoods they deemed "best" and safe investments were given a grade of A and colored green. Those that were deemed "hazardous" were given a grade of "D" and colored red.
In most cases they also generated an "area description" for each of these neighborhoods providing descriptions of the houses, the sales and rental history, and of the residents.
If those residents were African Americans or, to a lesser extent, immigrants or Jews, HOLC deemed them a threat to the stability of home values and described their presence as an "infiltration."
Redlining was legal and practiced for decades. It dramatically affected the relative wealth—as well as the health—of different racial groups in America. Its impact is still with us today.
Last week, the National Bureau of Economic Research published a vastly important study titled “The Employment Effects Of A Guaranteed Income: Experimental Evidence From Two U.S. States.” It was so important, in fact, that it was immediately classified and secured in Hillary’s server closet. What happened was researchers tracked a 3-year program where poor people were given $1,000 per month and observed how the gifts changed their behavior. I’ll give you one guess how it turned out.
You’d think it would have gotten some press. It was the type of trial they like to call the ‘gold standard,’ a randomly controlled trial (RCT). As a control group, the study randomly assigned 2,000 other participants who only got $50 per month, just enough to purchase one additional child-sized mocha frappuccino at Starbucks.
The results were, shall we say, unencouraging. People who got the free money saw their annual individual income drop by about $1,500 compared to the control group. (Table 3.) But they had more time to write rap music lyrics, and you just can’t calculate the benefit to society accruing from one more song about hitting the hoe’, except they didn’t write any hit new rap songs or any other genre, for that matter.
For every dollar received by giftees, total household income (excluding the gifts) fell by at least 21 cents, and total individual income fell by at least 12 cents. Average annual non-employment (idleness) was higher in the gifted group by +1.1 months compared to the control group. And it was literally killing them. Giftee group members reported increased rates of disabilities, which obviously limited their ability to work, so please don’t ask.
According to a recent (July 31st) LA Times article, there are over a 150 “free money” trials currently ongoing across this great nation. As you might expect, the media has only covered the studies where the researchers’ reports showed some kind of positive benefit, usually fortunate trial participants self-reporting feeling happier. Who wouldn’t be happy?
This NBER trial, arguably the largest and most well-controlled of the studies, was covered by the media in the same way a german shepherd covers a favorite chew toy by burying it in the yard.
Psuedoscientifically named ‘Universal Basic Income’ (UBI is the required 3-letter acronym) might be the most subversive idea they’ve yet come up with, except of course the notion is as old as time itself. Free gifts of money from the government, so-called “guaranteed income,” would be the ultimate political panacea.
The dependents would be sure to only vote for politicians who promise to keep or increase the gifts. Over time, string after string would be tied to the gifts, ensuring recipients behaved in state-approved ways. Uncooperative people —like misinformers— would be formally or even mysteriously ‘disqualified’ from posting memes about vaccine injuries, for instance.
Worse, this has been tried before many, many times, and it has never worked in all of human history. But six thousand years of failure has never discouraged young socialists. Hope springs eternal, out of a hole in the ground near Hoboken, just south of the New Jersey Turnpike. Maybe this time, it will work!
Never give up, hopeful socialists insist. Try, try again! Nevermind Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity (trying, trying again but expecting a different result). Nevermind Benjamin Franklin (“when people find they can vote themselves money it will be the end of the Republic”). And nevermind the foundational wisdom literature underpinning Western Civilization (“The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” 2 Thess. 3:10).
Those quaint, old-fashioned ideas are patriarchical, non-inclusive, and most importantly, inequitable.
Opponents of UBI include pessimistic killjoys like Stanford economist Thomas Sowell, Nobel laureate Robert Lucas, Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, and MIT economist Daron Acemoglu. On the other side of the politically lucrative debate stand visionary lowlights like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, when she’s not bartending or managing her new Congressional stock portfolio.
They act like free money is a novel concept they just came up with in a flash of brilliance while at a conference at the Ritz Carlton, reaching for the loofah with eyes covered in soap suds. Eureka! Let’s just give them cash!
In the first century AD, Roman poet Juvenal coined the term “panem et circense,” which is Latin for “I left my wallet in my other sports coat.” Unfortunately, even though it was in Latin and sounded very intellectual, and it took people a while to catch on, Juvenal used his fancy-sounding excuse a little too often, and eventually the other Romans stopped inviting him out for dinner at the Parthenon.
Juvenal’s flip phrase has also been widely translated by far-right sourpusses as “bread and circuses,” a concept reflecting how Roman emperors declared themselves to be gods, since they could so easily control the people by giving them free stuff the emperors took from citizens and foreigners they didn’t like. But as economist Herbert Stein famously said, free money that can’t continue forever, won’t.
It didn’t work for the Romans. And the Romans never had to pay off a $35 trillion dollar debt. In the U.S. today, there is $2.35 trillion in physical currency (money) in circulation. Every single dollar and coin, if somehow scraped together into a giant pile, wouldn’t make a dent in the debt. Just saying.
☕️ SWITCHEROO ☙ Saturday, August 3, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
A trio of surprisingly un-surprising items: military snatches back 9/11 plea deal (Kamala givers); shocking study shows free money makes people want to work LESS; dems frog-march Plan B online; more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
FBI Arrests D.C. Councilmember Trayon White, Charges Unclear
The council’s chairman and two other sources confirmed the arrest to the Washington Post on Sunday. Per the report:
“I’m anxious to get more details to understand what the situation is,” Mendelson told FOX 5. “You all know as much as I know.”
In March of this year, it was reported that White owed over $80,000 in campaign-related fines.
Seattle, the liberal city, just ‘book-banned’ a cultural exhibit
The two groups are the Washington State Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. At issue was the collapse of a three-part cultural exhibition, in May, after some employees at the Wing Luke Museum protested the Jewish part of it.
The intent was to show how Black, Jewish and Asian American people have faced similar prejudices, both in Seattle’s past and present.
“Our three communities grew up together side by side in Seattle, and especially in the Central District,” one of the organizers explained back before it opened in May.
Each group got three panels to tell its story, mostly about struggles against past discrimination in Seattle, such as redlining. You can review a digital version of the exhibit online (at confrontinghatetogether.my.canva.site). I recommend looking at it for yourself, as everyone brings different perspectives to such exhibits.
Here is mine: It’s astounding that this rather tame historical recap was deemed too controversial or slanted to be displayed. It’s ridiculous that a group succeeded in blocking it and shutting it down. And it’s discouraging that an exercise to call out hate has only led to more of it.
Seattle, we need to talk. The liberal intolerance in this town is becoming intolerable.
The panel at issue in the exhibit is titled, provocatively, “The oldest hatred — its newest form.” It says bluntly: “Today antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism, with Jews everywhere expected to defend the actions of Israel’s right-wing government.”
That caused an uproar. The protesting staffers said it “conflate(s) anti-Zionism as antisemitism” and, in so doing, erases violence against Palestinians. Several dozen walked out and demanded the exhibit be scrubbed and subjected to “community review.” You can read their full list of demands here: www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-wing-luke-museum-staff
The exhibit did get revised, to edit out a disputed sentence objecting to college protesters chanting the phrase “from the river to the sea.” But the entire exhibit got shut down anyway. This past week, the Jewish groups, in limbo with the conflicted museum, gave up and announced that they’re going to try to host it alone, without the other co-sponsors, next month.
The poster panel that supposedly conflates bigotry with criticisms of Israel seems to me to be doing the opposite. It seeks to distinguish the two. It says Jews here in America aren’t responsible for what’s going on in a foreign country, so it’s wrong to hold them to it based solely on their ancestry.
The poster includes some examples. One is from last fall, when a Mercer Island synagogue was defaced with graffiti that read “shame on Israel” and “stop the killing.” The poster explains that this was harmful because it’s “as if the Jews of Mercer Island could control the Israeli government.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis dismisses migrant gang takeover of apartments as ‘imagination’ — despite video, mayor confirming truth
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis dismissed anger over Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua taking over apartment buildings in the Denver suburb of Aurora, calling it “imagination” — despite video footage, police reports and the city’s mayor confirming it’s happening.
Polis’ press office offered the snarky statement Wednesday night in response to Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky — who told The Post the gang’s takeovers are tied to his policies.
“The Governor has already let the Mayor know that the State is ready to support the local police department with assistance from state troopers and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation if needed,” Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for the Dem governor, told The Post.
Yesterday, Fox News ran an astonishing story headlined, “Colorado mayor speaks out after video of armed Venezuelan gang in apartment goes viral: 'Failed policy.’” Aurora, Colorado, Mayor Mike Coffman cautiously blamed the Biden Administration.
CLIP: Aurora, Co. Mayor describes gang superspreader in his city (3:57).
Aurora is Colorado’s third-largest city, with about 400,000 permanent residents. It is a picturesque suburban community favored by young professionals and families looking for more space, situated ten miles east of Denver, at an average elevation of 5,400 feet. Residents enjoy panoramic mountain views, easy access to spectacular Rocky Mountain recreational areas, and now, thrilling nightly gunfights between rival gangs in the Target parking lot:
According to the story, a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Agua has “taken over” two apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, changed the locks, put up ‘signs’ of ownership, and is now collecting residents’ rents as ‘protection money.’
Tren de Agua is a ‘criminal megagang’ based in a prison called Tocorón, which like the Auroroa apartment buildings, the gang has also taken over for use as its international headquarters. Allegedly, the megagang’s president, or jéfe, is the notorious Héctor “Niño” Guerrero, a particularly disagreeable and not-baby-like fellow who hapless Aurorans never had to worry about before 2024.
After diligent study and a municipal committee review, Mayor Coffman has concluded Tren de Agua’s new Aurora base of operations is the result of, wait for it, illegal immigration. He explained, “these massive waves of migrants coming across the border that many of them crossed the border illegally, were arrested, asked for a political asylum, were not adequately vetted, were released into the country, the city of Aurora.”
It’s not easy to locate Mayor Coffman’s political affiliation, but Ballotpedia described him as a “former Republican,” whatever that means. In any case, Coffman is a Mayor dealing with difficult new megagangs he probably never saw coming back when he took office in 2019. Coffman, and who can blame him, seems to be verging into rank conspiracy theory, believing that “somebody” paid the Venezuelan gangs to infest his once-scenic city:
These poor Aurorans need some assistance. Wait! I have an idea. Mayor Coffman should call the Border Czar for help. I mean, that’s her job, right?
I know who Mayor Coffman shouldn’t call:
So!
☕️ KAMALA CHAMELEON ☙ Friday, August 30, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
Dem donors push back on tax plan; first VP interview falls hilariously flat; mile-high Colorado suburb finds new neighbors difficult; Time flip-flop on junk food; 2nd Circuit boosts Sarah Palin; more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
The Colorado governor says nothing to see here.
