Is inequality good for us - BBC

And finally, the BBC has a program called in the balance where several people debate a busiiness issue. This program was on inequality

Is inequality good for us - BBC with Joseph Stiglitz, Edward Conard and Frances Caincross

Is inequality good for us ?

Predator Nation by Charles Furguson

Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America- Charles Furguson

Part 1 on interview on Democracy Now.
Part 2 of Interview on Democracy Now.

The author discusses how companies try to extract more money from consumers and steal market share from each other rather than expand the national income through innovation, growth and value added. The problem can be traced to the lower tax rate for investments and role of money in politics.

US Banking Crisis Movies

Ok, here is the movie and radio line up for the banking crisis plus a bonus on inequality.

Why read a book when you can watch the movie. I love these two movies on the banking crisis.
1) Too big to fail - 2011 - tv movie. To big to fail covers how close we were to financial meltdown. It shows how banks used their size to get the TARP bail-out with few conditions. This one is pretty exciting.


2) Inside job - 2010 -- charles furguson. Inside job discusses the cause of the financial crisis.


You should really watch the second movie first, however, Inside Job, is a little long and less exciting then too big to fail.

Senate proposes food stamp cuts

Sadly, one in seven people in the united states are on food stamps. The typical food stamp recipient has a monthly income of just over income over $700 or about $8400 dollars a year. They received $134 dollars in food stamp benefits. This story is courtesy of the Los Angles Times.

Here.

Here are some great details from the Congressional Budget Office. Here.

NYT: NYC Black feel the brunt of unemployment

Another excellent human interest story about black unemployment in NYC. Here. From the New York Time of course.

Alice Walker in Foreign Policy Magazine

Alice Walker served as a Jurist on the Russell Tribunal on Palestine that determined Israel behaves as an apartheid state toward the Palestinian people. Here is an interview with Alice Walker in Foreign Policy Magazine. Here.

Another great piece on the real unemployment situation

The New York Times has another great piece on the real issue of our times: Unemployment. Here is a piece on how unemployment affect wages and lives of those just starting out.

Federal Government will require electronic benefit payment on March 1st, 2013

On March 1st, 2013, the federal government will required the electronic payment of federal benefits. People receiving federal benefits (VA, SSI, etc.) receive either direct deposit or credits on a pre-paid master card called "Direct Express". Here.

The marketing campaign is called "Go Direct". The programs is run by the US treasury.

"The private sector is doing fine." said the president in the WSJ.

Here is the link to the quote and story. Here: from the Wall Street Journal.

The president is right, but he just wasn't supposed to say. The comments revel the depth of the public's economic misunderstanding. So read the comments.

Basically in a 2% growth economy, the business sector of the economy has record profits. And, as the WSJ article noted, they are sitting on $2 Trillion in cash.

D-Mars Marketing and Communications in Houston, TX

Here is a link to the D-Mars marketing and communications agency. Also here. They publish a Black business directory for Houston, TX. They also produce the 50 top Black attorney's dinner awards.

Discrimination by Restaurant Servers. Real Research we like to see

Sarah Rusche has done a nice study of discrimination by wait staff in North Carolina. There are lots of links.

Here is the original PR. Here.

She surveyed 200 servers at 18 chain type restaurants. Eighty six percent were white. Nearly 40% admitted to letting race affect their level of customer service part of the time.

Here is a link to the article. Here.

A nice little piece of good old basic research (footwork). You just gotta call people on their racism.

Black Meetings and Tourism Magazine

I hope this is the real deal. A Black magazine devoted to Black Tourism !!! Yes.
Here.. However, I had a little trouble finding anything useful and specific. Lots of the same tourist brochures.

Affirmative Action for Veterans

The President has proposed a Veterans Job Corp. Here.

Just to be clear, we have no problem with special help being given to anyone to help finding a job especially for Veterans. The decision to join the armed forces is, while patriotic, often motivated by much more basic needs: employment and opportunity. Help with finding a job is a great extra benefit for the armed forces.

Global War on Terror costs $8.1 Billion

Just checking out the foreign appropriations bill in the house. The bill proposes to spend $8.2 Billion on Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) and Global War on Terror(GWOT). However, it is a drop of $3 Billion

Here.

US gives Israel is $3.1 Billion; Threatens Egypt and PA

While the House Republicans are proposing a 5% cut to the foreign aid budget they are leaving the $3.1 Billion in security assistance to Israel untouched.

The appropriations bill also threatens all funds to Egypt, if it breaks the peace treaty with Israel. And it threaten the Palestinian Authority, if it seeks UN agency membership without Israel's agreement.

Here.

Congressional Budget Office Budget Outlook

I really see two big problems around how complicated issues are discussed in the United States: the poor press coverage of complicated issues and it's evil twin, the public's unwillingness to read and understand complex issues.

Case in point is the Congressional Budget Office Budget Outlook which is the best assessment of the countries federal deficit and spending priorities. The projection goes out to 2015. The web page for the document is here.

This is the set of facts the politicians, lobbyist, news people, economists and commentators. The document is very straight forward and readable. The document says what we already know we would have s short term surplus if we let the bush tax cuts expire.

In the medium term domestic and defense spending is dropping slowly and in the long terms health care costs could double.

FDNY Discrimination and Police Actions increase city's legal cost to $815 Million

NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who audits New York City's book, noted: "the budget predicts legal judgments to grow to $815 million in fiscal 2016 from $665 million in 2012, in part because of increased claims from police actions and discrimination suits against the fire department."

So the cost of discrimination will be over $800 million dollars in 2016.

Business week cover's it here.