The pandemic exposed deep structural inequities in America’s financial system. When COVID-19 hit the U.S., it became clear that millions of Americans and small businesses were disconnected from our banking system. This session will cover the kinds of partnerships and innovative programs that were created to help fill the capital void for the small businesses that are struggling the most. The public and private sectors collaborated in a number of states to set up funds to provide responsible and affordable credit to these small businesses. The California Rebuilding Fund and the Southern Opportunity and Resilience (SOAR) Fund are key examples of these partnerships. Both programs saw community groups, community development financial institutions, and private and philanthropic capital (and in California’s case, the state government) come together to provide low-interest loans to businesses.

A number of new models have arisen that may continue to be used long-term to provide...

The FRED graph above shows total U.S. patents granted originating from China and Germany from 1992 through 2020, indexed to 100 in 1992.

Germany has long been the most innovative European country in terms of U.S. patents granted, and their total has steadily increased, by 152%, from 1992 to 2020. What’s interesting is how quickly China has closed the gap and even surpassed Germany in patents since joining the WTO on December 11, 2001. As part of their entry to the WTO, China agreed to the basic Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provisions protecting intellectual property rights.

In 2001, the U.S. granted 11,894 patents to German inventors, while granting only 266 to Chinese inventors. Over the next 19 years, as of 2020, U.S. patents granted to Germans increased 38% to just over 19,000 and U.S. patents granted to Chinese inventors increased nearly 10,000% to nearly 27,000.

While it’s easier to apply for a patent than to be...

Given ongoing disruptions to child care arrangements, many working parents, especially of very young children, must provide more hands-on care during the workday, rendering them unable to work the same number of hours (if at all) than they otherwise would. This represents an important labor supply bottleneck that is contributing to a shortage of workers that has attracted considerable public attention.

According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, 25% of parents with very young children reported that their children were unable to attend child care arrangements in mid- to late-May* because of the pandemic, versus 16% for those with school-age children. Importantly, these constraints predominantly keep women out of the workforce: Roughly 39% of prime-working-age women with children (versus 12% of men) reported not working because they were caring for children not in school or day care. This lopsided care arrangement has the capacity to depress women’s upward...

Given ongoing disruptions to child care arrangements, many working parents, especially of very young children, must provide more hands-on care during the workday, rendering them unable to work the same number of hours (if at all) than they otherwise would. This represents an important labor supply bottleneck that is contributing to a shortage of workers that has attracted considerable public attention.

According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, 25% of parents with very young children reported that their children were unable to attend child care arrangements in mid- to late-May* because of the pandemic, versus 16% for those with school-age children. Importantly, these constraints predominantly keep women out of the workforce: Roughly 39% of prime-working-age women with children (versus 12% of men) reported not working because they were caring for children not in school or day care. This lopsided care arrangement has the capacity to depress women’s upward...

Seas, Trees, and Economies is a set of lessons for students in middle grades—grades 6-8. These lessons are written to help students understand the relationship between our natural environment and the economy as well as to describe how the environment and the economy jointly provide us with the goods and services that we want. The lessons provide students with the tools they need to recognize the fundamental trade-offs, to explain how and why choices are made, and to explain how people can make better choices regarding the use of natural resources and the disposal of wastes that production and consumption unavoidably create. Most lessons employ simulations and other active-learning strategies to engage students in the learning process and to provide experiences to help them discover why things happen as they do.

Download the complete curriculum unit or individual lessons.

•  Complete Curriculum (pdf)

The pandemic exposed deep structural inequities in America’s financial system. When COVID-19 hit the U.S., it became clear that millions of Americans and small businesses were disconnected from our banking system. This session will cover the kinds of partnerships and innovative programs that were created to help fill the capital void for the small businesses that are struggling the most. The public and private sectors collaborated in a number of states to set up funds to provide responsible and affordable credit to these small businesses. The California Rebuilding Fund and the Southern Opportunity and Resilience (SOAR) Fund are key examples of these partnerships. Both programs saw community groups, community development financial institutions, and private and philanthropic capital (and in California’s case, the state government) come together to provide low-interest loans to businesses.

A number of new models have arisen that may continue to be used long-term to provide...

Given ongoing disruptions to child care arrangements, many working parents, especially of very young children, must provide more hands-on care during the workday, rendering them unable to work the same number of hours (if at all) than they otherwise would. This represents an important labor supply bottleneck that is contributing to a shortage of workers that has attracted considerable public attention.

According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, 25% of parents with very young children reported that their children were unable to attend child care arrangements in mid- to late-May* because of the pandemic, versus 16% for those with school-age children. Importantly, these constraints predominantly keep women out of the workforce: Roughly 39% of prime-working-age women with children (versus 12% of men) reported not working because they were caring for children not in school or day care. This lopsided care arrangement has the capacity to depress women’s upward...

The On the Economy blog will periodically rerun blog posts that were of particular interest. The following post from October looks at the evolving wealth of American retirees.

How has the financial position of U.S. retirees evolved over time?

In a May 2019 analysis, St. Louis Fed Economist and Research Officer YiLi Chien and Research Associate Qiuhan Sun explored that question by comparing the state of current retirees’ household wealth with that of past retirees.

In their Regional Economist article, Better than Ever? The Wealth of Retired Households, the authors examined the balance sheets of households headed by retirees in 2016 with those of households headed by retirees in 2001 and 1989.

They used data available from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF).

To gauge how retired households past and present have fared, Chien and Sun looked at the composition of their assets—both financial (e.g., investments) and...

By Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria, Senior Economist; and Praew Grittayaphong, Research Associate

In 2020, governments around the globe started debt-financed spending to battle COVID-19 and to keep economies afloat. Although fiscal responses to this pandemic varied dramatically among countries, together, they added $24 trillion to global debt according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

Debt issuance helps cover the gap between how much a government wants to spend and the revenue it expects to receive that year. When issuing new debt, the government may decide to issue it in a local currency or a foreign currency. Foreign currency borrowing can help some countries attract diverse funding sources, mitigate investor fears of local currency fluctuations and reduce financial frictions. For those reasons, many emerging market economies issue a portion of their debt in U.S. dollars.

Child poverty is higher in the Eighth Federal Reserve District than in the rest of the country. Recessions, such as the one caused by COVID-19, increase child poverty and income instability. Changes to the federal child tax credit (CTC) may help reduce the share of children living in poverty.

“We really needed to help move the needle on educational materials, and so we’re working to provide educators with up-to-date information and quality teaching resources,” says Jane Ihrig, senior advisor and economist in the Program Direction section of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Ihrig and Scott Wolla, Fed economic education coordinator, talk with media relations coordinator Shera Dalin about updates educators should make in teaching about new Fed monetary policy tools.

The FRED graph above shows total U.S. patents granted originating from China and Germany from 1992 through 2020, indexed to 100 in 1992.

Germany has long been the most innovative European country in terms of U.S. patents granted, and their total has steadily increased, by 152%, from 1992 to 2020. What’s interesting is how quickly China has closed the gap and even surpassed Germany in patents since joining the WTO on December 11, 2001. As part of their entry to the WTO, China agreed to the basic Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provisions protecting intellectual property rights.

In 2001, the U.S. granted 11,894 patents to German inventors, while granting only 266 to Chinese inventors. Over the next 19 years, as of 2020, U.S. patents granted to Germans increased 38% to just over 19,000 and U.S. patents granted to Chinese inventors increased nearly 10,000% to nearly 27,000.

While it’s easier to apply for a patent than to be...

Businesses collect and deposit coins in depository institutions such as commercial banks. The banks send coins they don’t need for their customers through “correspondent” banks or directly to the 28 cash offices of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks. The St. Louis Fed is one of the Reserve banks.

By Doreen Fagan, Manager and Senior Content Editor

Comparing an economy’s actual output with its potential output can provide useful information about the economy’s health.

The difference between actual output and potential output is known as the output gap, as discussed in a recent Page One Economics article by Scott Wolla. This economic measure is expressed as a percentage of potential output, which is estimated using potential gross domestic product (GDP), where:

The views expressed are those of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Federal Reserve System, or the Board of Governors.