May 5, 2014

Cold Winter or Stalled Recovery?
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - During 2013, the US economy experienced a reasonable level of growth.  The 3.4 percent growth rate in the second half of 2013 represented a solid growth rate, not enough to trickle down to those who live at the periphery of the economy.  Those with low or stagnant wages might find that their lives have not improved by 3.4 percent.  Indeed, the gains from gross domestic product growth may mostly be captured by the wealthy.

The first quarter of 2014 was an amazing disappointment.  Instead of the modest growth of 3.4 percent from the second half of 2013, the economy grew by just one tenth of one percent. This is the one of the slowest growth rate in the five years of so-called economic recovery.  Based on these data, the economy grew more than 300 times more slowly than it did in the last half of 2013.  Some say we are growing at a snail’s pace, but even the most sluggish snail can do better than this!

Can we blame this stagnant economy on the harsh winter we have experienced?  Between snow, hail, sleet and rain, housing starts have slowed.  People who might hit the malls are staying home.  People aren’t buying cars at expected rates.  Since consumer spending drives about three-quarters of our nation’s economic growth, postponed spending dampens growth.  But consumer spending has not slowed as much as GDP has.  Spending on health care (thanks to Obamacare) and on other services suggests that consumers have had mixed engagement as spenders.

On the other hand, wag, businesses aren’t spending as much as they might, and their holding off on spending both makes it difficult for them to add employees to their payrolls.  It also impacts GDP.  What are these businesses waiting for to persuade them to invest in the economies that went into debt for their survival?  Banks aren’t lending as much as they might, and even consumer credit is tighter than it should be.  Consumers are spending despite, not because of, sluggish economic growth.

Growth might be stronger if the job market were more robust.  I’m writing before first Friday unemployment rates are released, but these rates, on the high side of six percent, are not likely to go below that level.  Wages are stagnant.  Every measure that President Obama has introduced for job creation our Congress has rebuffed unemployment assistance.  While economic growth is, at best, sluggish, there are many who have not experienced any recovery at all.

While macroeconomic indicators deal with overall issues of economic growth, few indicators are disaggregated by race or income status.  The Obama initiatives to raise wages, lower unemployment and create jobs are important because they are modest ways to spread the wealth and to ensure that economic growth is more evenly distributed.  After all, we know that those at the top garnered the most gains from money thrown at them because they were “too big to fail”.  Are those at the periphery just too small to survive?

We can’t have sustained economic growth when those who depend on banks to provide funds for economic expansion are shut down.  We won’t have sustained economic growth if (0fficiallly) one in 15 people, and one in eight African Americans cannot find work.  Economic recovery is meaningless to someone who lost a home during the great recession, and is clawing back to survival.  While those with mortgage challenges were promised relief, few of them are have received it.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist based in Washington, DC. She is also Founder and President of Economic Education a 501 C-3 organization focused on personal finance and economic policy education and their connection.

April 29, 2014

Sterling and Bundy are Embarrassing, But Real Threats are From Supreme Court, Congress
By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) -  “Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on,” goes the refrain of a famous song from the civil rights movement. We marched for freedom — for new laws that would end segregation, guarantee equal rights, enforce voting rights, and provide affirmative actions to help correct decades of being locked out or left out. We couldn’t let lunatic sheriffs or Klan rallies or jail distract us. We had to keep our eyes on the prize and hold on.

That advice applies today where public expression of racial animus can distract from the far more serious legal reverses equal rights has suffered. First we had the rancher and conservative folk hero Cliven Bundy embarrassing himself and his right-wing allies with his foolishness about “the Negro,” suggesting that African-Americans might have been “better off as slaves.” Bundy dismissed Blacks as “on government subsidy.”

This from a man who had fed his cows off federal land without paying grazing fees for decades, a “government subsidy” he has no intention of repaying. Then we had the tape of the loathsome and unprintable rant of L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend, who had posted a photo on Instagram of herself with Magic Johnson, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with Black people,” he said.

When she says she admires Magic, Sterling tells her to admire him privately, “but don’t put him on an Instagram for the world to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.” Sterling, who has a bad reputation for racism, didn’t deny making the statement, only stating that the remarks aren’t “consistent with” his views. The views of these two clowns are generating a flood of press, TV commentary, satire, late night humor and more.

They should be dealt with. Sensibly, leaders of the right — at least in the guise of Fox News and Senator Rand Paul — seem to be abandoning Bundy. Leading NBA figures — LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Chris Paul, Doc Rivers and many more — stepped up to denounce Sterling and urge the NBA to act. It is important that these statements be challenged. But what Sterling or Bundy say or believe doesn’t much matter in the scheme of things.

There will always be people scarred by racist attitudes. We have to keep our eyes on the prize. And that is what is happening to the law. The gang of five conservative justices on the Supreme Court has disemboweled the Voting Rights Act, making prior review more difficult. This comes as right-wing governors and legislators are passing harsh laws designed clearly to make voting harder ­— limiting when the polls are open, demanding official ID, purging voter files, abandoning same day registration, outlawing voting on Sunday, when Black churches could organize parishioners to take their “souls to the polls.” The Supreme Court majority is continuing to roll back affirmative action, most recently endorsing a state ban on affirmative action in Michigan.

The inevitable result is that African-Americans will have less access to higher education, and a harder time getting through previously locked doors. Affirmative action, ironically, was the mildest reform measure. It was proposed instead of reparations and instead of quotas. Where African-Americans had been locked out of colleges, factory floors or executive suites, where the informal networks of association and advantage excluded them, affirmative steps had to be taken with real effect to open doors. In Washington and state legislatures, the assault on the safety net and on opportunity continues. Twenty-four states have refused to expand Medicaid even though the federal government will pay all the costs in the first years.

People of color are disproportionately the victims. Republicans just passed a budget out of the House that targets more than two-thirds of its drastic cuts from programs for poor and low-wage workers. Education and training will take a big hit. Pell grants get cut. And if they have their way, in 10 years, 40 million people would be deprived of health insurance — from repealing Obamacare, privatizing Medicare and gutting Medicaid. Policing the remarks of the likes of Bundy and Sterling is necessary.

We don’t want openly racist views to be acceptable in this society. But we should not focus only on two nutty postmen and lose sight of what’s going on at the post office. Bundy and Sterling embarrass themselves. The Supreme Court and Congress are making changes in the law that will deprive millions of opportunity and equal justice. We should keep our eyes on the prize, and hold on. 

Rev. Jesse Jackson is President/CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

May 5, 2014

Another Tale of Two Cities
By Dr. E. Faye Williams

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – As I sat and emotionally reviewed the issues and events of the week, I was tempted to classify this past week among the most starkly contrasting weeks we've had to experience recently.  In terms of societal revelations, it was, most certainly, an interesting week.

My evaluation of the week was obviously shaped by having to listen to, on both radio and television, the non-stop broadcasting of the audio ranting of an ignorant, elderly racist billionaire.  By a large margin, this was the most publicized story of the week.  Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clipper basketball team, was given the media platform to spew-forth vile, rhetorical vomitus that left no doubt about the low status of black and brown people in his world.

What made his venomous statements hyper-hypocritical was the contrast of his personal involvement with the people he denigrated and the negative personal feelings about them that his words confirmed.  Like the historical slave owner, Sterling's vile pejoratives describing how he feeds, clothes, provides housing and gives money to his players negates the PAID services that his players provide to his team.  Uncomplimentary allegations exist asserting that Sterling would visit his team's locker room and examine/fondle his player's musculature in the fashion of the slave market customer examining the latest victims of kidnapping that would be sold into slavery.

The fact that he would comfortably discuss his feelings with his paramour was also clear evidence of the arrogance of his racism.  After all, his girlfriend is the product of a bi-racial relationship between an African American and Mexican American.  One wonders how he can condemn her for having black and brown acquaintances or forbid her from bringing "them, especially Magic Johnson," to any of his games.  How can he justify admonishing her for posting photos taken with her black and brown friends on Instagram when he "allows" her (my emphasis) to join him on his owners bench?  In this regard, his behavior is no different than the "Massa" who would rationalize his late night conjugal visits to the slave quarters as a part of his "natural privilege."

Naturally, I was more than pleased when Adam Silver, the basketball commissioner, announced the punishment he imposed upon Sterling.  If you had the opportunity to read the press release I issued for the National Congress of Black Women, you will know that I felt his actions to be appropriate and timely.

After full consideration, however, I realized that this debacle of the basketball world was, ultimately, in the province of a few hundred millionaires and billionaires.  Without regard to income, most of us find blatant racism unacceptable, but, when resolved, this problem will be resolved by and for the wealthy.

By contrast, although important to a larger number of Americans, the issue of the minimum wage took a back seat to the NBA.  Again, this week we saw the actions of Republican legislators that have been solely instrumental in denying an increase in pay to countless Americans who are cavalierly called "working poor."

By estimates, 76% of the American public believes that American workers need a pay raise, but a minority cadre in the Senate and a recalcitrant Republican majority and Speaker of the House of Representatives have chosen to forestall any progress in improving the quality of life for millions of Americans.  Additional estimates suggest that a raise in the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would impact over 28 million working Americans (?) and raise 4.5 million Americans out of poverty.  The stimulus effect on the economy is unquestionable.

The contrast between Adam Silver and Congressional Republicans - as in the original Tale of Two Cities, this week has provided a view into the character of individuals that yielded "the best of times and the worst of times."

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, www.nationalcongressbw.org.)