What do you think?
Rate this book
The Black Boom
Economic inequality continues to be one of the most hotly debated topics in America, but there has been relatively little discussion of the fact that black-white gaps in joblessness, income, poverty, and other measures were shrinking prior to the pandemic.
Why was it happening, and why did this phenomenon go unacknowledged by so much of the media?
In The Black Boom, Jason L. Riley—acclaimed Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute—digs into the data and concludes that the economic lives of black people improved significantly under policies put into place during the Trump administration. To acknowledge as much is not to endorse the 45th president but rather to champion policies that achieve a clear moral objective shared by most Americans.
As Riley argues in The Black Boom: “Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, the economic fortunes of blacks improved under Trump to an extent that was not only unseen under Obama but unseen going back several generations. Black unemployment and poverty reached historic lows, and black wages increased at a faster clip than white wages.”
Less inequality is something that everyone wants, but disapproval of Trump’s personality and methods too often skewed the media’s appraisal of effective policies advocated by his administration. If we want to make real progress in improving the lives of low-income minorities, says Riley, we must look beyond our partisan differences at what works and keep doing it. Unfortunately, many press outlets were unable or unwilling to do that.
As The Black Boom notes: “Political reporters were not unaware of this data. Rather, they chose to ignore or downplay it because it was inconvenient. In their view, Trump, because he was a Republican and because he was Trump, had it in for blacks, and thus his policy preferences would be harmful to minorities.
To highlight the fact that significant racial disparities were narrowing on his watch—that the administration’s tax and regulatory reforms were mainly boosting the working and middle classes rather than ‘the rich’—would have undermined a narrative that the media preferred to advance, regardless of its veracity.”
As with previous books in our New Threats to Freedom series, The Black Boom includes two essays from prominent experts who take issue with the author’s perspective. Juan Williams, a veteran journalist, and Wilfred Reilly, a political scientist, contribute thoughtful responses to Riley and show that it is possible to share a deep concern for disadvantaged groups in our society even while disagreeing on how best to help them.
The Black Boom exemplifies the calm, rational dialogue that Americans want and need at this moment in our history to understand which public policies best promote upward mobility for everyone.
Why was it happening, and why did this phenomenon go unacknowledged by so much of the media?
In The Black Boom, Jason L. Riley—acclaimed Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute—digs into the data and concludes that the economic lives of black people improved significantly under policies put into place during the Trump administration. To acknowledge as much is not to endorse the 45th president but rather to champion policies that achieve a clear moral objective shared by most Americans.
As Riley argues in The Black Boom: “Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, the economic fortunes of blacks improved under Trump to an extent that was not only unseen under Obama but unseen going back several generations. Black unemployment and poverty reached historic lows, and black wages increased at a faster clip than white wages.”
Less inequality is something that everyone wants, but disapproval of Trump’s personality and methods too often skewed the media’s appraisal of effective policies advocated by his administration. If we want to make real progress in improving the lives of low-income minorities, says Riley, we must look beyond our partisan differences at what works and keep doing it. Unfortunately, many press outlets were unable or unwilling to do that.
As The Black Boom notes: “Political reporters were not unaware of this data. Rather, they chose to ignore or downplay it because it was inconvenient. In their view, Trump, because he was a Republican and because he was Trump, had it in for blacks, and thus his policy preferences would be harmful to minorities.
To highlight the fact that significant racial disparities were narrowing on his watch—that the administration’s tax and regulatory reforms were mainly boosting the working and middle classes rather than ‘the rich’—would have undermined a narrative that the media preferred to advance, regardless of its veracity.”
As with previous books in our New Threats to Freedom series, The Black Boom includes two essays from prominent experts who take issue with the author’s perspective. Juan Williams, a veteran journalist, and Wilfred Reilly, a political scientist, contribute thoughtful responses to Riley and show that it is possible to share a deep concern for disadvantaged groups in our society even while disagreeing on how best to help them.
The Black Boom exemplifies the calm, rational dialogue that Americans want and need at this moment in our history to understand which public policies best promote upward mobility for everyone.
119 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 7, 2022
25 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Jason L. Riley
7 books125 followersJason L. Riley (born July 8, 1971) is an American journalist, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. He is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and frequently appears at the Journal Editorial Report, other Fox News programs and occasionally on C-SPAN.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 27, 2022
BLACK AMERICANS DO NOT NEED CRITICAL RACE THEORY BEING SHOVED DOWN KIDS THROATS! We do not need Biden’s promising to pick black women only as VP and Supreme Court Justices. We need the same thing as every American - good economic policies that create jobs and opportunities.
Trump was, if nothing else, a businessman, and his administration focused on lowering taxes and lightening regulatory burdens in order to spur economic growth. In pursuit of this goal, he championed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, which included a restructuring of corporate tax rates designed to boost investment by U.S. businesses on the home front. Trump also targeted “major” regulations, generally defined as bureaucratic mandates or restrictions that impose a cost of $ 100,000,000 or more on business or industry. Amazingly, the Obama administration imposed roughly 600 new regulations at this level inside of eight years—including a set of HVAC efficiency standards that cost manufacturers $ 12.3 billion and reduced employment in that field by almost one third. Per Riley, Trump did away with several regulations of this sort and cut the rate of new rule making by more than 30 percent. While there are arguments against economic policies of this kind, a substantial body of hard data indicates that Trump’s moves did in fact stimulate the U.S. economy, often in ways that primarily benefitted people of color and the poor. Between 2017 and 2019, household income grew by 15.4 percent among blacks versus 11.5 percent among whites. During the first 11 full quarters of the Trump Presidency, wages for the bottom 10 percent of gainfully employed earners rose by 5.9 percent on an annual basis. By another metric, weekly wages for the poor grew by an average of $ 4.24 per quarter under Trump versus 88 cents per quarter under President Obama. Riley points out that, while black unemployment under Barack Obama reached its highest level in 25 years, black (and working-class) economic performance under Trump hit highs “not seen for generations.” Trump’s economic success was not due simply—or primarily—to his inheriting a positively trending economy from Barack Obama. Riley is correct that, in 2016, the consensus view across the Treasury Department and the Fed was that the economy had reached full employment and would not grow faster under then-current policies. Although this has been almost forgotten, former Obama economic official Larry Summers predicted a 60 percent chance of a major recession before 2018. The forty-fourth president certainly did some good things for the economy, but there is no doubt that the actual 2016–2019 trend lines for major economic indicators, such as wages for low-skill workers, were well above anything projected before Donald Trump took office.”
Trump was, if nothing else, a businessman, and his administration focused on lowering taxes and lightening regulatory burdens in order to spur economic growth. In pursuit of this goal, he championed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, which included a restructuring of corporate tax rates designed to boost investment by U.S. businesses on the home front. Trump also targeted “major” regulations, generally defined as bureaucratic mandates or restrictions that impose a cost of $ 100,000,000 or more on business or industry. Amazingly, the Obama administration imposed roughly 600 new regulations at this level inside of eight years—including a set of HVAC efficiency standards that cost manufacturers $ 12.3 billion and reduced employment in that field by almost one third. Per Riley, Trump did away with several regulations of this sort and cut the rate of new rule making by more than 30 percent. While there are arguments against economic policies of this kind, a substantial body of hard data indicates that Trump’s moves did in fact stimulate the U.S. economy, often in ways that primarily benefitted people of color and the poor. Between 2017 and 2019, household income grew by 15.4 percent among blacks versus 11.5 percent among whites. During the first 11 full quarters of the Trump Presidency, wages for the bottom 10 percent of gainfully employed earners rose by 5.9 percent on an annual basis. By another metric, weekly wages for the poor grew by an average of $ 4.24 per quarter under Trump versus 88 cents per quarter under President Obama. Riley points out that, while black unemployment under Barack Obama reached its highest level in 25 years, black (and working-class) economic performance under Trump hit highs “not seen for generations.” Trump’s economic success was not due simply—or primarily—to his inheriting a positively trending economy from Barack Obama. Riley is correct that, in 2016, the consensus view across the Treasury Department and the Fed was that the economy had reached full employment and would not grow faster under then-current policies. Although this has been almost forgotten, former Obama economic official Larry Summers predicted a 60 percent chance of a major recession before 2018. The forty-fourth president certainly did some good things for the economy, but there is no doubt that the actual 2016–2019 trend lines for major economic indicators, such as wages for low-skill workers, were well above anything projected before Donald Trump took office.”
March 15, 2022
I have read several books by Jason Riley, enjoyed them all, including The Black Boom. What I particularly like about Mr. Riley is that he is a serious thinker in the vein of Thomas Sowell. Riley uses facts and hard data to support his positions vs opinions and political propaganda.
I found Mr. Riley's arguments regarding how well Black America did economically under President Trump quite compelling, but not surprising, given that Mr. Trump (for all of his oddness) did bring a serious businessman's experiences to the Presidency - something I personally think have been lacking in our most recent (and current) Presidents.
I also like the idea of having counter-argumentative chapters included, although I find Juan Williams to be too far out in left field for me to take seriously.
All in all - a well written argument. It's a short read and I highly recommend. I hope that the book is widely read, because it contains a message that many should read and debate.
I found Mr. Riley's arguments regarding how well Black America did economically under President Trump quite compelling, but not surprising, given that Mr. Trump (for all of his oddness) did bring a serious businessman's experiences to the Presidency - something I personally think have been lacking in our most recent (and current) Presidents.
I also like the idea of having counter-argumentative chapters included, although I find Juan Williams to be too far out in left field for me to take seriously.
All in all - a well written argument. It's a short read and I highly recommend. I hope that the book is widely read, because it contains a message that many should read and debate.
July 18, 2022
This short book in the informative New Threats to Freedom series “digs into the data and concludes that the economic lives of black people improved significantly under policies put into place during the Trump administration. To acknowledge as much is not to endorse the 45th president but rather to champion policies that achieve a clear moral objective shared by most Americans.” The author, a Wall Street Journal columnist who did NOT vote for Trump in 2016 or in 2020, “exemplifies the calm, rational dialogue that Americans want and need at this moment in our history to understand which public policies best promote upward mobility for everyone.” (from book summary) Very interesting and thought-provoking.
Quotes:
“After the civil rights movement, that long-standing trend toward racial equality slowed, stopped, and even reversed… The huge decline in black poverty between 1940 and 1960 occurred well before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed Jim Crow practices in employment, education and public accommodations. It also was well before the advent of the War on Poverty and various other Great Society programs designed to uplift the poor.” -pp. 6, 85
“If high rates of fatherless families, teen pregnancies, substance abuse, violent crime, and other black social pathologies are a ‘legacy of slavery,’ then why were those rates significantly lower in the first hundred years after slavery than they would become in the post-sixties era, when by any objective measure systemic racism was abating and massive welfare-state interventions have been initiated?” -p. 45
“Obama maintained that his safety net policies were HELPING, but the evidence shows that they were mostly INTERFERING…The working class including traditionally disadvantaged Americans were substantially better off in 2019 than they were during the slow post-recession recovery when the labor market was weaker and transfer programs were more generous.” -p. 49
“The former president’s unconventional behavior didn’t help, of course, but the job of Washington reporters is to offer fair-minded White House coverage of significant developments, even when those developments don’t align with the personal political preferences of the press corps. Trump’s economic accomplishments were substantive, and in some cases historic. Yet too many in the press simply refused to do their job.” -p. 53
(Jason Riley) “is committed to the idea that the best prescription for black economic gain is to focus on improving the economy for everyone instead of getting stuck in fights over racial inequality… Riley is proposing a free market with no affirmative action involved, no use of racial set-asides for government contracts, and no hint of any reparations for past racial bias in these policies.” -pp. 98, 99
“Social and economic inequality has had many causes historically, but in the twenty-first century it is primarily driven by the underdevelopment of human capital within a group. Tempting though it may be to find excuses (racism) or scapegoats (immigrants) to explain why some groups lag and others excel, it’s not at all clear that focusing on such matters, as opposed to prioritizing self-development, is the most effective way of helping people advance.” -p. 118
Quotes:
“After the civil rights movement, that long-standing trend toward racial equality slowed, stopped, and even reversed… The huge decline in black poverty between 1940 and 1960 occurred well before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed Jim Crow practices in employment, education and public accommodations. It also was well before the advent of the War on Poverty and various other Great Society programs designed to uplift the poor.” -pp. 6, 85
“If high rates of fatherless families, teen pregnancies, substance abuse, violent crime, and other black social pathologies are a ‘legacy of slavery,’ then why were those rates significantly lower in the first hundred years after slavery than they would become in the post-sixties era, when by any objective measure systemic racism was abating and massive welfare-state interventions have been initiated?” -p. 45
“Obama maintained that his safety net policies were HELPING, but the evidence shows that they were mostly INTERFERING…The working class including traditionally disadvantaged Americans were substantially better off in 2019 than they were during the slow post-recession recovery when the labor market was weaker and transfer programs were more generous.” -p. 49
“The former president’s unconventional behavior didn’t help, of course, but the job of Washington reporters is to offer fair-minded White House coverage of significant developments, even when those developments don’t align with the personal political preferences of the press corps. Trump’s economic accomplishments were substantive, and in some cases historic. Yet too many in the press simply refused to do their job.” -p. 53
(Jason Riley) “is committed to the idea that the best prescription for black economic gain is to focus on improving the economy for everyone instead of getting stuck in fights over racial inequality… Riley is proposing a free market with no affirmative action involved, no use of racial set-asides for government contracts, and no hint of any reparations for past racial bias in these policies.” -pp. 98, 99
“Social and economic inequality has had many causes historically, but in the twenty-first century it is primarily driven by the underdevelopment of human capital within a group. Tempting though it may be to find excuses (racism) or scapegoats (immigrants) to explain why some groups lag and others excel, it’s not at all clear that focusing on such matters, as opposed to prioritizing self-development, is the most effective way of helping people advance.” -p. 118
June 2, 2023
A well-written, well-reasoned, well-sourced slender tome that you'll want to bring to your next debate about the economic policies of the Obama-Biden White House versus those of Orange Man. Riley's style combines the best aspects of Charles Murray's and Thomas Sowell's writing, raising the hackles, I'm sure, of his detractors especially since he shares an immutable characteristic with Sowell.😁 Although it's a quick read, you'll want to go slowly because there's so much to digest. And there's a bonus: two rebuttals by Juan Williams and Wilfred Reilly.
December 17, 2023
As opposed to typical racist diatribe common in the press, this book points to several ideas that will improve our world: strong marriages, moral & family values, a strong work ethic, and accurate & unbiased news reporting. This book clearly addresses all four topics, with supporting data.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews