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Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use Vol. 12 Issue 26…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…June 28, 2009
Intuit's Vibe Recession! What Recession? By Ivor. E Hogg
Without the wherewithal to buy I go without the food I need whilst richer people overfeed. I'm free to starve in poverty.
I must rely on charity, does nothing for my self esteem. Never in my wildest dream did I realize that I could be.
Without a job without a home By circumstances forced to steal but my hungers all too real. A spell in jail would be welcome.
Not root in dumpsters for my food. I'd rather work as a man should to earn my daily crust of bread.
because their profit margins fell. A matter of economy consigning working men to hell.
who are obsessed with balance sheets. So I may never work again but live and die upon the streets.
Buffett's Prognostication
In an interview with CNBC's anchor Becky Quick on Wednesday, billionaire investor Buffett was downright bearish compared to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and economic talking heads and bullish investors. According to Buffett, "Everything I see about the economy is that we have had no bounce. There were a lot of excesses to be wrung out and that process is still under way, and it looks to me that it will be under way for quite awhile. In the annual report, I said that the economy would be in shambles this year and probably well beyond, and I think that is true."
Buffett's prognostication does not bode well for American workers. He believes unemployment will continue to be a drag on the economy, since income from employment drives consumer demand for everything from automobiles and homes to vacations. Buffett believes the government will need to continue taking steps to reduce unemployment.
While Buffett believes more government intervention will be necessary, he does not see it as painless or without side effects. One adverse side effect is inflation. According to the Oracle, "We have done things that raise the probability of high rates of inflation at some point."
By John Burl Smith
One among the crowded field in the 2008 shout-out for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) pledged to fight for American taxpayers. Sticking to his guns, once the campaign fight was over, unlike other Democrats, who caved in under pressure from the Obama White House, Kucinich pressed the attack. He excoriated the Treasury Department for failing to adequately trace banks' use of taxpayer bailout money they were awarded last year and demanded better oversight by the Obama administration.
Targeting deceptive practices, chairman of the domestic policy subcommittee for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Kucinich opened with this salvo, "When the American people find that their tax dollars, which were supposed to be used to get us out of this financial crisis, instead are being used to ship jobs and investments overseas, there will be outrage." His comments are contained in the subcommittee's report released on March 9, 2009. The subcommittee's report accused banks of spending Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money on "questionable transactions" and criticized the Treasury Department for inadequately supervising them.
Questioning the propriety of Treasury's scheme, the subcommittee zeroed in on an $8 billion Citigroup Inc. loan to Dubai, a $7 billion Bank of America investment in China Construction Bank Corp., and a $1 billion investment in India by J.P. Morgan. The three financial institutions got a total of $120 billion in tax dollars through the bailout program. Although not illegal, Kucinich questioned the wisdom of transactions that direct money to foreign governments rather than the domestic economy.
"How does a multibillion financing deal to Dubai ease the liquidity crisis in the United States of America? The report took shots at other spendthrift gimmickry of banks, "What about other kinds of uses of TARP funds: corporate spending on lavish parties, the continuation of contractual agreements to pay for naming rights on professional sports stadiums, corporate sporting event sponsorships?"
Kucinich bulls-eyed "significant shortcomings in Treasury 's oversight in dispersing money through TARP." The committee report asserted that the department hasn't questioned any TARP recipient about its use of the money. "In spite of broad investigative and audit authority, Treasury has chosen not to request detailed and comprehensive information from TARP recipients about the use of funds. As a result, Treasury has limited ability to detect or prevent waste and abuse."
The report also put Goldman Sachs's $2 billion repurchase of its own stock in December in its cross hairs. The repurchase caused Goldman Sachs share value to increase almost 20%. That was a significant financial benefit for senior executives, who own large amounts of company stock. Congressional investigators are looking at whether this insider deal was an inappropriate way to enrich those top employees despite a public clamor for strict limits on executive compensation. "This is a textbook definition of a taxpayer's nightmare."
Perspectives on Closing Racial Wealth Gap By Nina Jacinto
This morning I sat in on a webinar hosted by The Media Consortium and Insight Center's Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative. The briefing aimed to summarize the ways in which black, Latino and Native American communities have been affected by disproportionate rates of foreclosure and predatory lending. Speakers urged journalists in particular to investigate the racial angle of the economic downturn in order to encourage policy changes and assist in closing the racial wealth gap.
Michael E. Roberts, President of the First Nations Development Institute, spoke about the research done to expose the prevalence of predatory lending among Native American communities. With an increase in predatory lending practices, there has been less income going to impoverished households and less money circulating throughout the first nations. Research refutes the myth that generous wealth opportunities have been created by the Indian gaming industry. Only 225 of the 561 federally recognized tribes have gaming contracts, with only the top 20 operations making up over half of the total portion of Indian gaming revenue.
About Me: Nina Jacinto is a freelance blogger living in the Bay Area. Her writing focuses on issues of race, gender, and media representation. A graduate of Pomona College, she loves South Asian Diaspora narratives, bargain shopping, and the Internet.
Email www.ap.com NC remembering victims of sterilization program...By Gary D. Robertson...North Carolina recalled a regrettable side of its history on Monday by unveiling a roadside marker remembering poor people, mental patients and prisoners who were sterilized against their will by state officials. The cast aluminum sign in downtown Raleigh provides a permanent remembrance of the program intended to keep thousands of people considered mentally disabled or otherwise genetically inferior from having children. More than 7,600 people were sterilized by "choice or coercion" under the state's so-called eugenics program between 1933 and 1973, according to the marker's text. North Carolina was one of more than two dozen states that ran such programs after social reformers began advocating for the approach a century ago.
Email leodoyle@yahoo.com...Segregated high school proms divide Georgia's students...By Leonard Doyle...In early summer when Georgia peaches are at their sweetest and high school seniors can't wait to be loosed on the world, separate proms are part of the bitter aftertaste of segregation that persists in parts of America's Deep South. For nearly 40 years state school pupils have been educated together. They have played sports together and developed close bonds of friendship, before finding themselves face to face with a cruel ghost from America's past. The annual prom held by high schools across America near the end of the academic year is big event, for which students and parents spend months preparing. But in a handful of Southern towns, parents still insist on whites-only proms which blacks are not allowed to attend. The election of Barack Obama did nothing to change attitudes that go back generations in the small rural towns of Montgomery county, Georgia; the surge of pride black people felt in the election of the first black President was met by frosty silence by whites. The county, which is two thirds white, voted overwhelmingly Republican last November and attitudes have hardened as the months have passed. |
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