Archive: Kimberly Blanton

Couple at a car dealership

The recession that economists predicted has never materialized. Unemployment has been under 4 percent for more than two years, a low more characteristic of the go-go 1960s than modern times. But inflation began to ease up last year and remains well below the pandemic’s 9 percent peak, despite March’s unwelcome increase of 3.5 percent annually…

Native American family sitting around a table

During the pandemic, the U.S. Social Security Administration leaned into providing more services and processing applications online. But that has furthered the agency’s disconnect with Native Americans living miles from its field offices in rural areas with poor internet access. That’s one conclusion from a new study of the agency’s effectiveness in reaching Native American…