Economic inequality between black and white Americans persists.
Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden's economic advisor, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley are demanding that the Fed expand its mandate explicitly to target black unemployment.
He promised to make the Fed report on trends in racial economic gaps, and pledged that he and Congress would monitor "What actions the Fed is taking through its monetary and regulatory policies to close these gaps." Similar in spirit to the Central Bank of Lebanon, which requires its central council and governor to represent different ethnic and religious groups, Biden would also require the Fed to revise its hiring practices to "Achieve greater diversity at all levels of the institution," including the highest levels.
The Fed can influence the unemployment rate, and black unemployment is a serious problem.
It has become the norm to expect the Fed to fix the economy even when it does not have the tools to do so; demanding that the Fed address economic racial disparity is another example of that mission creep.
It would be hard, for example, for the Fed to cut interest rates when the economy heats up if black employment is high.
These are all harder than forcing the Fed to target black unemployment, but they will have the advantage of being effective.
https://www.city-journal.org/the-fed-cannot-fix-racial-inequality
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