July
2019
26
Earth to NYC: “You Need a Public Bank”
Although public banking is an unfamiliar concept to many here in the United States – there’s only one notable example, the Bank of North Dakota – public banks are common throughout the world.
Blog
March
2019
29
How Financial Co-ops Are Helping Puerto Rico Rebuild — and Why It Matters for New York
New Economy Project recently sat down with Pablo DeFilippi and Rene Vargas Martinez from Inclusiv to learn about their work supporting financial cooperatives (or “cooperativas”) in Puerto Rico. While mainstream banks have been widely criticized for abandoning the Island or profiting off disaster, the cooperativas have been central to Puerto Rico’s resilience and recovery. The […]
February
2019
27
Foreclosure Crisis Far from Over for NYC Neighborhoods of Color
More than a decade after the financial meltdown, how secure are New Yorkers from the threat of foreclosure? Our recent issue brief seeks to answer this question, based on our analysis of pre-foreclosure notices that mortgage servicers are required to send homeowners at least 90 days before filing a foreclosure action in New York State courts.
November
2018
19
Penalties on the Dollar
This month, the New York Times reported on the lack of enforcement activity at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department, showing yet another way corporations engaged in various forms of malfeasance get a free pass from the Trump administration.
Same goes for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where enforcement actions have all but screeched to a halt.
September
2018
4
Barcelona’s Commissioner for Cooperative Economics visits New Economy Project
On August 3, 2018, nearly two dozen people from NYC community organizing and cooperative development organizations packed into our conference room for an engaging lunch discussion with Álvaro Porro, Social Economy Commissioner for the City of Barcelona. Barcelona’s story presents a powerful model for New York City, and we were eager for this extended opportunity to hear about his work.
August
2018
7
Who Approved That?
One day, Kenneth Lovell went to a local electronics store to buy a transistor radio. He left the store more than $17,000 in debt, with three bank credit cards issued in his name. How did this happen? Listen to Kenneth and his brother Patrick Lovell tell their story.
August
2018
6
No More, Encore
This spring, New Economy Project attended Encore Capital’s annual shareholder meeting at the Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Three members of our legal team, Eve Weissman, Susan Shin, and Nick Loh, went to the shareholder meeting to call out ways that Encore, among the country’s largest debt buying companies, harms New Yorkers.
August
2018
3
Writing the Next Chapter in NYC’s Cooperative History
New Economy Project was pleased to participate in New Economy Coalition’s CommonBound Conference, held this June in St. Louis, Missouri. CommonBound is a bi-annual gathering that brings together leaders from more than 200 groups across the US and Canada, working to build an economy grounded in shared values of democracy, justice, and ecological sustainability.
May
2018
24
Albany Drops the Ball on Community Development
A lot has been written about the shortcomings of New York’s recently-passed state budget. The upshot: New York’s electeds missed the clear opportunity to take decisive action against Trumpism and to protect communities under attack. A glaring example of this failure of leadership is the decision, yet again, not to fund a widely-supported program that invests in low-income communities and communities of color: the state’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund.
May
2018
23
No, Mr. Dimon, We Are Not Misinformed
Last week, New Economy Project traveled to Texas to attend JPMorgan Chase’s annual shareholder meeting and call the bank out for its shameful track record in New York City. After passing through a series of security checkpoints, we found seats with a clear view of the dais, on which sat Jamie Dimon, the bank’s C.E.O., who lorded over the proceedings.