Kamala’s “Opportunity Agenda” Will Be Disastrous for African Americans

With Kamala Harris rapidly fading in polls among African-Americans, her campaign just released a desperate “Opportunity Agenda” for black men outlining policies that will have disastrous economic consequences. Ironically, the consequences of “forgivable loans” are likely to be the most damaging to the very same groups that she’s claiming to help.

A “forgivable loan” is another way of saying “free money.” Printing $20,000 and handing it out to black entrepreneurs is only going to push prices up for the things those entrepreneurs need. Meanwhile, banks that get to issue the loans do so with no risk, because it’s all backed by the Full Faith and Credit of you, the American taxpayer. 

The idea is to get “mission-driven lenders” to issue the loans. This slathers a gloppy layer of do-gooderism over the fact that, most likely, these loans will be issued by the usual State-favored megabanks. After all, they all have “Mission Statements,” so who’s to argue whether they’re “Mission-Driven” or not? They’re all part of a criminal banking cartel that enjoys an incredibly privileged position in terms of being inextricable from the US political structure, first in line at the low interest rate and QE money printer. 

Meanwhile, megabanks like Wells Fargo (owned by BlackRock, Fidelity, and Vanguard) have stolen far more houses and cars than any street thief ever could, preyed on Native Americans, opened millions of fraudulent accounts, violated international sanctions, aided money laundering, along with other offenses.

Having some guaranteed loans on the books also incentivizes malinvestment, encouraging banks to dump more money into risky bets in other areas. When you get some free money, you want to play with it. It’s just human nature.

Forgivable loans offered to a specific ethnic group even incentivizes discrimination against them. If loan officers know that African-Americans are getting forgivable loans courtesy of the federal government, they’re more likely to charge higher interest rates even to black entrepreneurs whose loans aren’t guaranteed. Meanwhile, the Fed’s inflationary policies cause the most pain to the lowest earners and the middle class. 

While bursts of “economic stimulus” like those of the 2008 and 2020 crises juiced the economy in the short or medium-term, we’re feeling the effects today in the form of drastically higher prices and a middle class that continues to vanish.

Federal Reserve Total Assets (Less Eliminations from Consolidation)

It all comes down to less competition in the marketplace, which inevitably leads to higher prices. No matter the context, nature or finance, humans respond to incentives, and markets are no different. That’s why no central authority can overcome the natural will of the market, no matter how hard it tries. In the long run, nature always wins.

Of course, the Harris campaign’s “proposal”  is a campaign season prop to buy votes, and wouldn’t be enforceable without an act of Congress. But it’s still a notable sign that the campaign is worried that being a black woman might not be enough for Harris to get back the black vote. While it favored Biden, African-American support faded continuously throughout the course of his administration. For his part, Trump is promising a utopia of his own, and is a fan of the money printer as long as he gets credit, even making a point to ensure his name would appear on the inflationary Covid stimulus checks. As Peter Schiff recently said on Kai Hoffman’s Soar Financially, “Trump is promising immediate results—positive, no pain, just gain.” But inflation is already baked into the cake.

“We have, you know, inflation that masquerades as growth…I think the economy is very weak, that’s why the Fed is cutting rates, and they’re going to cut them even more, and I think they’re going to go back to QE.”

Incumbent administrations love when the Fed juices the economy for them, since they can take the credit. Bit Kamala’s campaign season pandering to “help” African American entrepreneurs is going to create more of the inflation and discrimination that holds back disadvantaged groups in the first place.