It's no secret that the recent financial crisis devastated communities across the nation, and that it hit vulnerable communities -- particularly communities of color -- the hardest. Critical steps have begun to mend the damage and create a regulatory system equipped to avert the next crisis by better representing and...

With outgoing FCC Chair Julius Genachowski's next career move already announced, talk in Washington is that President Obama will be nominating his successor sooner rather than later. This is important to the future of all communities in a world increasingly dependent on telecommunications technology.

And getting this appointment...

In recent weeks the press has been filled with cheery reports of a near-miraculous recovery in the housing market. Unfortunately, the situation in the real world isn't quite so simple or so cheerful. Since rumors are circulating once again that Federal Housing Finance Administration Acting Director Ed DeMarco...

America's yawning racial wealth gap gets mentioned only rarely in political and policy discussions -- perhaps the only thing rarer is for a political leader to suggest that this problem can actually be fixed. But a recent study from Brandeis University's Institute on Assets and Social Policy suggests...

Sometimes an idea that seems perfectly fair and reasonable on the surface turns out to be nothing of the kind when you take a closer look.

Case in point: Certain types of workplace wellness programs start off with good intentions, but can have unplanned, highly negative consequences. This issue was...

In my last post, I wrote about how race and ethnicity will figure in President Obama's second term, whether anyone wants it to or not, and promised that this time I would lay out some steps to begin addressing America's growing racial wealth gap. Tempting as it is...

One of the most common questions I get -- frequently turning up in comments here on The Huffington Post -- is, "Why do you keep talking about race?"

Personally, I'd say a better question is, "Why does America try so hard not to talk about race?" As our first and...

I'd dearly love to stop writing about flawed efforts to help victims of wrongful foreclosures, such as the recently announced settlement with a group of major banks, but we're running out of chances to get this right. There are still ways to make something semi-decent out of a bad situation,...

As President Obama was winning reelection, I and colleagues from The Greenlining Institute and community groups representing Obama's winning coalition were on our way to Washington, D.C. for our annual meetings with top financial regulators. We came away with a strong and generally encouraging sense that it's a new day...

Presidential campaigns can make an aware voter want to tear their hair out. So much of what we see and hear -- in this week's debate as well as in TV ads -- seems to be nothing but poll-tested sound bites on a narrow range of issues, while the media...

If you are a homeowner facing foreclosure or who has been foreclosed upon, it may look like nothing has been done to help you. While much, much more needs to be done, the good news is that many steps have been taken to hold banks accountable and bring help to...

For better or worse, California's ballot initiative system sets national trends. From Proposition 13, which cut property taxes and set off a nationwide tax revolt in 1978, to medical marijuana two decades later, my state regularly leads the way.

And California's version of citizen democracy may be about to...

Recently on The Huffington Post, Peter Dreier and Gregory Squires made a provocative argument: "It turns out that the gender and racial make-up of a bank's board of directors has little influence on whether it acts responsibly toward consumers (including women and minorities) and traditionally underserved communities." Their...

In mid-July the recently-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its first-ever fine, hitting Capital One with a $165 million penalty for misleading consumers into buying extra credit card products. While good news in one sense, CFPB's action also illustrates a serious flaw in our financial regulatory system that...

Last week, Urban Strategies Council, a smart and savvy nonprofit in Oakland, Calif., caused a bit of a local stir with a report looking at who's been buying up foreclosed properties in their city -- a town that's been seriously hit by the foreclosure crisis. What they found...

Right this minute, even as you read these words, an agency of the federal government is doing something good -- several things, actually.

We hear so often from the folks on the right that government is the problem and that excessive regulation is the root of all our...

JPMorgan Chase's recent $3 billion trading loss made a splash in the news, though it's begun to fade from the spotlight. But there are parts of this story that haven't gotten nearly enough attention and shouldn't be forgotten.

You've heard wiser folks than me talk about why banks...

If one man can be described as absolutely key to solving the ongoing foreclosure crisis -- and thus not only helping millions of struggling homeowners but also stabilizing the neighborhoods where they live -- it is Edward DeMarco, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The rest of the country...

My job involves spending most of my time trying to figure out how those with the least can begin to build a bit of wealth and start to acquire a small piece of the American dream. That means trying to find ways to level the playing field, so that all...

The phrase "knowledge is power" dates back to at least the seventeenth century, and it's as true today as it was then. But today, technology has become the essential portal to information, and information technology has potential to be a great social and economic equalizer -- but only if we...