MassInc: "nation’s largest increase in income segregation since 2020"

Via MassInc:

"At the neighborhood-level, Massachusetts residents are among the most segregated by income in the United States. More concerning still, Massachusetts has experienced the nation’s largest increase in income segregation since 2020. This divide extends beyond neighborhoods and into our public schools. Only Connecticut and New Jersey have higher levels of income segregation in public education.

This latter finding should set off alarm bells in Massachusetts. After all, this is the state where Horace Mann famously pioneered the common-school movement with an explicit vision of using public education to reduce class divisions, promote social mobility, and build a more cohesive democratic society.

The apparent lack of response to the school segregation complaint filed last June by Brown’s Promise raises serious questions about whether today’s education leaders are working to live up to that vision. For Gateway City leaders, it often feels like they have been left to confront increasing inequality entirely on their own."

Continue reading the report:

https://massinc.org/2026/10/05/reopening-our-gateways-to-the-middle-class/

The Boston Foundation: "The Power of Mass ECHOS: Facing the Numbers So We Can Change Them"

via The Boston Foundation:

"Yesterday (8/12/26), the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston published Family Wealth in Massachusetts, drawn from the 2025 Massachusetts Economic Conditions and Household Opportunity Survey, known as Mass ECHOS. It gives us something unprecedented: an honest, region-specific accounting of where Massachusetts families stand today, and a shared foundation of evidence for building something more equitable tomorrow.

On our blog, TBF President and CEO Lee Pelton looks at some of the key findings from the data – the documentation of extensive disparities in wealth across race, educational attainment, and homeownership status – and why facing these numbers is so important in our work to change them, and change outcomes for the economic well-being of all Massachusetts residents.

These gaps weren’t created by accident, and they won’t be dismantled by accident either. They require the perseverance and collaboration of partners committed to advocating for change and for repair – and making philanthropy an effective vehicle for social change. This reliable, granular data on wealth by race, education, and geography provide us unprecedented insights into wealth gaps in the state to spark these informed conversations and the sustained, cross-sector work that leads to the collaborative solutions we need to shape a more equitable Massachusetts."

Download the full report: https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/one-time-pubs/mass-echos.aspx

Read The Boston Foundation announcement:

https://www.tbf.org/blog/2026/august/the-power-of-mass-echos

Boston Globe article:  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/14/metro/racial-wealth-gap-homeownership/

Inside the trade deficit, what it really means (video)

The first 8 minutes of this is enough to get the gist .... great explanation comparing to credit card transactions

 

Video link -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5ojbEIX8Nw

"Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs tore into Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats, branding them “Mickey Mouse economics” and accusing the former president of unleashing chaos on global markets.

In a scathing take down, Sachs said Trump’s trade logic was so flawed that “he wouldn’t pass a basic econ class,” slamming the former president’s obsession with trade deficits as “childish and dangerous.” Sachs blamed Trump’s economic policies for triggering a $10 trillion loss in global wealth, warning that the U.S. is now flirting with authoritarianism under “one-man rule by emergency decree.”

Dismissing Trump’s talk of foreign nations “cheating” the U.S., Sachs countered: “It’s not a trade issue—it’s a spending problem.” The blistering critique comes amid rising fears that Trump’s return to power could reignite economic instability worldwide."