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The financial community is celebrating the Gramm-Leach Financial Services Modernization Act, which was signed by President Clinton last week. This legislation changes regulatory laws governing banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms. Basically, it allows banks to invest in a variety of financial instruments, such as stocks and bonds, which were disallowed after the Great Depression. Stocks were considered risky investments. Many economists believed such risky investments exacerbated economic conditions after the 1929 market crash, as bank failures deepened and prolonged the Depression.

Armed with Alan Greenspan and the notion we can fine tune the economy to prevent the kinds of disruptions caused by the 1929 crash, Congress has erased the restrictions on financial markets. However, since such markets survive, thrive and die on confidence or a lack thereof, what mechanism prevents the public from changing its mind and forming other opinions? Greenspan is no god! Gramm-Leach throws caution to the wind. Lookout unbridled speculation!

Moreover, this new legislation opens the door for more mergers and acquisitions. Both vertical and horizontal concentrations are possible, a situation sure to result in less competition. Advocates of "big is better" think one big guy handling everything is better - like a Super Wal-Mart, where you can buy clothes, food and auto service. Does one really enjoy lower prices, better service and convenience? Maybe, but monopolies assure unemployment, underemployment and a workforce which earns subsistence wages. More Hood Notes

"Loan sharks chain poor to debts" is a letter that appeared in "Dear Ann Landers" (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10/24/99). "Dear Ann Landers: I am a Catholic priest who has served in Chicago for over 50 years. I am writing to you because I have a story to tell that warrants as much coverage as possible.

Recently, a woman came to see me because she was desperate and needed help. It seems that for the past three years, she had been paying $80 every payday on a $400 loan. On another loan of $200, she had been paying $40 every payday for the past year. This amounted to over 500 percent interest annually. The woman is working two jobs - as an office clerk during the day and at a drugstore in the evening. She has a family to support and was truly desperate.

I was able to scrape together $720 so she could pay off both the loans and the interest. Need I tell you the measure of her gratitude and relief?

Spokespersons for these loan-shark operations will say they are helping the poor get cash when nobody else will loan them money. Well, "helping," indeed! At that outrageous rate of interest, those operators are hardly helping the poor. The reality is, they are chaining them to perpetual poverty. Loan sharks are making so much money, they can (and do) make generous contributions to the legislators, who otherwise might vote to curtail their activities. Decent people should rise up and demand that these enterprises be better regulated or put out of business. Sincerely yours - Monsignor John J. Egan, Chicago." More News You Use

DISHing It Up Hot!

There was a time when usury was illegal and considered a sin. Usury is the charging of excessive interest on money. Clearly, the loan shark in the letter to Ann Lander would be a sinner by earlier moral and ethical standards of economic behavior.

In today's economic environment, which is characterized by relatively low interest on money, a loan shark is anyone charging double-digit rates. Low yields on certificates of deposits and the low rate the Federal Reserve charges banks for short term loans these days mean those charging double-digit rates are making a killing; they are guilty of usury. Banks pay between 5 and 6 percent on certificates of deposits and practically nothing on checking, because money is cheap! Nonetheless, legitimate businesses, such as banks, credit card companies like VISA, Mastercard, Discover, etc., and retail establishments, which offer revolving credit, such as Sears, Dillard's and Macy's, charge double-digit rates, some as high as 20%. A survey of 100 Atlanta area black homeowners in the over $100,000 income range, who received "good to excellent" credit ratings and are credit card users, found that 69% pay double digit rates on their VISA and Mastercard accounts. Economic conditions are supposed to be great, yet this group felt they were working more for more nominal dollars, but had less leisure time to enjoy them and fewer real dollars of disposable income. In the majority of these households (83%), both spouses worked full-time in and/or outside the home.

Obviously, part of their problem is the interest they are paying for credit. While it is not illegal, what those who loan money are charging is sinful. But, their activities go unchecked and unpunished, because they swell the profit margins of Americans biggest companies. Robbing people blind in broad daylight, loan sharking is still a sin and should be outlawed. The DISH is joining Monsignor Egan in calling for 'decent people to rise up and demand that loan sharks be better regulated or put out of business.' Other Hot DISHes

The Confederate flag controversy has roots dating back to the Great Compromise (1787) and the concept of states' rights embodied in the U.S. Constitution. Southerners, opposed to the removal of the flag from public buildings, claim slavery had nothing to do with the South's secession. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even neo-revisionist versions of our history cannot minimize the role slavery played in efforts to preserve the southern way of living. The right the South fought for was the right to own slaves and spread the practice westward to other states.

As evidence the secession was not about slavery, southerners point to slaves who fought and died for the cause and that noble non-slave owner, General Robert E. Lee, who gallantly led the Confederate war effort. Neglected in their analyses are the facts that slaves followed their masters' orders and Lee's parents were slave owners, so the wealth and economic advantage they accumulated via slavery accrued to the General and successive Lee generations.

The Confederate flag symbolizes the South's refusal to relinquish absolute economic power over others based on race and skin color. Southerners believed Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution gave them the right to treat blacks as inferiors, beasts of burden to be bought and sold at market, just like cows, pigs and horses. Some among us today still feel this same way. Objectively review the political message of the Republican majority and dyed in the wool southern Democrats. They espouse local control or states' rights, vouchers, big business subsidies, court the C.C.C., spin-off of the K.K.K., sport NRA memberships and advocate "law and order," which is race-baiting code that means "support for more police to patrol the streets protecting good whites from blacks, the crime element in society."

Diehard Confederate supporters will dismiss the truth and offer a version of history, which claims a moral high ground for the South's war effort, i.e., "they fought for states' rights." Truth is, their "honorable ancestors" lost all hope of achieving any moral status when they embraced owning people; this includes our founding fathers who agreed to the Great Compromise. For these greedy, but "honorable men," the Civil War did not end their desire to practice overt racism and economic slavery; it is a right granted by our glorious Constitution. No logic sways their view of the role blacks play in America's economy. This evil never dies; it reincarnates. (See The DISH vol.1 No 31 and The DISH vol. 2 No 37) Other Bits of Black History

The Atlanta Constitution's November 8,1999 Readers Response joined The DISH's dialogue on the Confederate flag. The DISH solicited opinions and published responses based on the Dialogue on Race; many respondents feel the Confederate flag is synonymous with the swastika. Expressing this view, Emory University student Charles White, III challenged his university to take a stand and openly oppose Epsilon Nu Chapter of Kappa Alpha, which displays the treasonous symbol.

Responding to Mr. White's challenge, flag supporters paint a clear picture of how racism has flourished in America. Its colleges and universities are providing a breeding ground for racism, and one of its chief agents is the Panhellenic social order. Jason Silvey epitomizes the elaborate mental constructs offered to justify honoring the Confederacy. Claiming Robert E. Lee as their patriarch, Silvey disavows Confederate ties to slavery, racism and white supremacy. Rather than traitors, Kappa Alphas embrace Confederates as patriots. The real symbolism lies in socializing young people to believe traitors are American heroes.

Consider the world's reaction to swastikas flying at German universities, over state-owned buildings and incorporated into official flags. An immediate cry of Nazism would resound around the world. Nations understand the importance of symbols in teaching what and who society values. History says the Confederate swastika represents a group of traitors who tried to destroy America simply to maintain slavery. There is no nobility in that! Other Essays by Mr. Smith. Another essay this issue.

Atlanta Vibe

"Gemini Rising," a production of Quest 4Nowledge, Inc., opens at Seven Stages November 19- 28, 1999. Described as the first urban soul hip-hop musical, for ATL Vibers, the venue extends "You're Tripping," a play written and produced by We One. Starring in that production, Yohannes will ignite things with his up-front in-your-face spellbinding performance. Also, Yohannes will host Righteous Vibes at Soul Vegetarian Saturday November 20th. Stay plugged into The DISH for more Atlanta Vibe. More Vibe

by John Burl Smith

Thinking about my grandson Trévius' situation, I am reminded of my early childhood. While still an infant, my family experienced divorce. Left behind with grandparents in Mississippi, I was unaware anything had happened; I joined my family in Memphis three years later. Never having known him, my father was this mysterious figure, who lived only in conversations. I became familiar with the meaning of divorce through the casual comments of elder siblings. Old enough to attend school, my siblings had escaped the slavery of sharecropping with our parents on the midnight express headed north to Memphis and a better life.

Leaving the isolation and desperation of sharecropping, the bright lights and honky-tonk ways of Beale Street placed too much stress on bonds forged in a Mississippi cotton field. Asking mother about my siblings' comments, probed fresh wounds still raw, not yet cauterized by time. With an emotional ping, I can visualize the tightness in an otherwise very soft and warm face; mother's demeanor betrayed her gentle brush aside. Like a child caught without an explanation, sooner or later our eyes would meet. Though no words were spoken, truth was recognized, and knowledge gained. Lost in the looking glass world of others' reflections, one acts defensively against circumstantial and unknown forces.

Rendering opinions when one has knowledge of only one side cause speculation about an outcome that has no factual basis. Relatives on my father's side posed such a dilemma for me. They would ask, "Who do you like best? Your mother or father." Today, I would like to believe, I always said "my mother," because I really did not know the guy they were asking about. For me, he was not real, just a name thrown at me in order to force me to choose sides in battles adults were fighting. A losing proposition for me regardless of my choice, I always felt violated. Such double binds require double think. Consequently, a young boy's desire to please and gain acceptance would have made it easy to say "my father." I was no dummy. Only an idiot would not know what was expected and respond accordingly.

The reality is children are constantly being forced to accept a world created by adults and about which they have no say. Choices and agreements are like quicksand over which children are expected to walk without getting their shoes dirty. Their situation is analogous to spouse abuse, one cannot learn the rules well enough, or be obedient and cooperative enough to avoid any outcome the abuser desires. Children are helpless pawns in the games adults play. Other Essays by Mr. Smith

Disgruntled wants to know: Hypocrisy knows no limits as elected representatives tout free enterprise, while supporting big business subsidies for corporations that fatten their PACs via soft and hard campaign contributions. So, what do voters do about the best do-nothing Congress cash ever bought?

Disgruntled says: It must have been devastating for Marianne to learn her husband, Newt Gingrich, the father of family values and lord of moral authority, had been fornicating 6 years with a choir girl on the government payroll. What a bummer!

Disgruntled feels: holidays are overrated! More Disgruntled Moments

In reference to The DISH Vol 2 No 40, "Back On The Block" written by John Burl Smith stated, "Armed with Plessy v Ferguson's "separate but equal" doctrine, whites erected a segregated socioeconomic and political system, which deprived blacks of the right to live and compete as other citizens." In keeping with the T.H.I.NC philosophy, I ask, are we really citizens? Both the statement and tone of the article suggest the author believe so. A growing minority within our National collective suggests the issue of slave descendant citizenship is still in question. Both the Civil War and Reconstruction must be studied with a closer eye to the details, which hold key information that more clearly defines missing links in discussions of racial segregation, its effects and how best to correct the injustices which manifested as a result.

Personal experience tells me that most attempts to engage someone in this forum of discussion present hard questions, which demand our collective mind state to take a stand. Something many of us, despite our expressions to the contrary, are not truly committed. I welcome additional dialogue born of my inquiry. I continue to support both The DISH and T.H.I.NC for providing our collective, underground (as it were) think tank, a forum to raise the tough questions and discuss them in an intelligent, unemotional manner. Hold your head! Peace and Blessings! Email: Corey Jiggetts NTNabawi@aol.com More Reader Comments

In America, it is kosher for the government to intervene in the economy to assist businesses in turning a profit, even if it means breaking the law. Where is the competition in situations like the one in Georgia where the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) suspends its rules to allow the carpet and regional agri-businesses to use the relatively cheap labor of illegal aliens, to the detriment of local subsistence wage earners? This keeps wages artificially low, because without illegal aliens, these industries would be forced to pay better wages to local workers.

Senator Paul Coverdell (R-GA) and Gov. Roy Barnes deserve hearty blahs for spearheading efforts to pave the way for the INS to look the other way as illegal aliens flood south Georgia. What is wrong with this picture? It certainly does not help poor Georgians. Neither Coverdell nor other politicians elected to represent poor Georgians is fighting in Congress to raise the minimum wage or create conditions, which help poor people. Like President Clinton, Barnes and Coverdell want to give business another tax credit. In this instance, their actions hurt rather than help American workers. Makes one wonder, are these our representatives or pawns of big business? If Coverdell and Barnes' actions are any indication, big business rules the day. Blah on Barnes and Coverdell for rubbing it in our faces! Other Kudos and Blahs

This Thanksgiving, those of us residing in the richest nation in the world this century have much to be thankful for. Let us give thanks for all our luxurious worldly possessions! While giving thanks, let us pray for solutions to our troubles, especially the violence, which has prompted state prosecutors, district attorneys, lawmakers and even school administrators to respond with zero tolerance for the relatively minor offenses committed by some of our children. Ironically, white kids and workers go to school and their places of employment armed with guns and explosive devices intent on creating mayhem and committing murder; yet, the face of crime in America is African American. Race-baiting "law and order" advocates want more police in the streets profiling blacks and seeking zero tolerance. Poetically, their extremism does not protect them from each other. For being such blazing hypocrites, their young are rebelling against society, killing their parents and each other. Chickens always come home to roost. Happy Thanksgiving! More from Phantoms

I.C.I.M Boycotted Things: Death penalty, loan sharks, Bush babies, Barr, Lott & other weapons of mass destruction. Check the list online at ICIM Consumer Alert Page.

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