black…MYstory

Just like the polar bear, another species is facing near-extinction…the black stock owner.

After reaching a high of 34% in 2001, stock ownership among black folks dropped to 22% in the years between 2001-2004.  The rate of white ownership remained steady, dropping less than a percentage point from a high of 57.5%.

I can’t lie…seeing the mess on Wall Street play out and knowing the irresponsibility of some who run these companies, I am hesitant to trust them with my hard-earned bucks.  However, I also know that building wealth is important for us, as a people, and we need to be in the game in order to benefit from it.

Hopefully, faith can be restored and we can get back to the wealth-creation in which we, as black people, so desperately need to involve ourselves.

Popularity: 56% [?]

Oh, I guess those on the right have found religion on “fiscal responsibility” and are now taking their anger to the streets.

Yesterday, I watched (and shook my head) as I see swarms of disaffected (mostly conservative) folks fill downtown Cincinnati to protest the stimulus.

Dubbing themselves the “Cincinnati Tea Party”, the “movement” is calling on the U.S. government to stop bailing out banks and corporations.

Question: Where have you been?

When George Bush was in office, spending money like a drunken sailor, where where you?  When he doubled our foreign debt and borrowed to finance unnecessary war (causing us to double our national debt, as well), where was your concern for fiscal responsibility.  You were making noise but, at the time, it was cheerleading because your guy was in charge and you shouted down anyone who questioned the wisdom of borrowing money we didn’t have to fund a war that we didn’t need to fight.

Furthermore, you complained when people talked of regulation, saying that the “free market” should rule the day, not realizing that, when you take out the rules, it stops being a free market and becomes a free-for-all, where anything goes.

So, you fed this beast, helped it grow and now, when it comes back to bite you in the a$$, you want someone else to put it down for you?

There’s a old saying, “pay me now or pay me later”.  Well, it’s now “later” and the price is going to be high as a mutha.

Popularity: 58% [?]

…can’t catch the rhythm of the stroke/
Why should I hold my breath/
Feelin’ that I might choke…/

-Aqua Boogie, Parliament

Are you underwater?  If you’re a homeowner paying a mortgage in America today, there’s a 20% chance that you are.

Yesterday, a report issued by First American CoreLogic is saying that some 20% of those of us still paying mortgages owe more than the home is worth.  Right now, this means that this is affecting some 8.3 million us mortgages. I knew the number was high but, I was unaware that it was this high.

We have not hit the bottom yet.  CoreLogic also reported that another 2.2 million have homes worth only about 5% more that their mortgage value.

I know Ohio, where I live, has challenges but, just look at some of the other places impacted:

Nevada has the highest proportion of mortgage-holding homeowners with negative equity, 55 percent, the report released today states. About 15 percent of District homeowners who owe money on their homes are “underwater,” compared to nearly 20 percent of Virginia homeowners and 13 percent of those in Maryland.

Fortunately (and finally), the Obama administration is moving its focus from just bailing out Wall Street to formulate a plan and target funds towards helping homeowners in trouble.

This move is expected to help some 9 million homeowners.

Nonetheless, I say grab a bucket and start bailing or learn to swim.  A lot more of us are going under.

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The mayor of Lansing, Michigan let a Fox News Host have it with both barrels.  Fox, like much of the corporate media, seems to have a problem with common working people making a decent wage.  For some reason, it seems that they would be okay if they were paid pennies while their bosses made millions.

Well, Mayor Virg Bernero took it right to the Fox host and didn’t back down one bit (see video below).  Just one thing, though.  Next time, mayor, would you debunk this garbage $70/hour myth for UAW employees.  If I go by why the Republican talking heads tell you, the average union auto worker is bringing in nearly $150,000 in wages and benefits.  In reality, this number is derived from a convoluted formula.  It looks at the benefits and pensions made to all active AND retired employees, which, I guess, would be averaged to$42/hour.  They add to this the average wage of an hourly employee, which is $28/hour.  This is how they arrive at a number of $70.  However, active employees are not getting $42/hour in benefits.  In actuality, according to the UAW, it is more like $10/hour for active employees.

Popularity: 22% [?]

You know, it’s bad enough that we are forking over what is could end up as trillions of dollars in bailouts but, now we find out that the many of the very banks and financial institutions that taxpayers have been helping out thumbed their noses up at hiring some of the very people that are getting them out of a jam now — American workers.

Just look at what the Associated Press uncovered:

Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The dozen banks receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

The figures are significant because they show that the bailed-out banks, being kept afloat with U.S. taxpayer money, actively sought to hire foreign workers instead of American workers. As the economic collapse worsened last year — with huge numbers of bank employees laid off — the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP’s analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in fiscal 2007 to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.

Now, think about that.  You see, the excuse that allowed for the explosion of H1-B visas in this country has been that companies can’t find Americans with the needed skills to fill those positions.  However, in our current economic situation, I find it hard to believe that there aren’t enough skilled American workers to do these jobs (actually, this argument didn’t hold water in better economic times, either).  But, the biggest slap in the face is that while these banks don’t have a problem with taking the American worker’s tax money, in the form of a bailout, they appear to have a problem offering jobs to Americans.

Sadly, this is just one more reason why you don’t just shove more money into the hands of people that messed up the money the first time — it’s clear that they don’t exercise the proper judgement needed to make good decisons.

Popularity: 18% [?]

You may have been ripped off and not know it yet.

Today,  Heartland Payment Systems has come out and stated that a breach of their systems occurred last year and it was huge.  In fact, it may be one of the largest breaches ever reported, with tens of millions of credit and debit transactions being comprimised.

Here’s why you might be at risk.  Heartland Payment Systems handles credit and debit card transactions for some 250,000 businesses.  40% of their clients are small to mid-size restaurants but, currently Heartland is declining to mention who some of those clients are.

The president of the company, Robert Baldwin, stated that the Secret Service helped to determine that the breach was from mailicious software on Heartland’s network but, they don’t know how long the software’s been on their systems.  So, with a monthly volume of over 100 million transactions monthly, one could imagine that the impact could be tremendous.

So, check your statements (you may want to go back a few months, too).  With a breach this big, you information may be at risk.

Popularity: 13% [?]

It’s funny how people accept a story without asking critical questions or seeking out answers for themselves.  I remember go back and forth with a few co-workers who believed that the crazy jumps in oil prices were simply based on supply-and-demand.  I found myself asking, at the time, why was demand going down and the prices kept going up.  I shared with them about how speculators had been raiding this market in the same way they had done the housing market and that if any real oversight took place, oil prices would drop almost overnight.  Well, we didn’t get oversight.  Instead, we got the clear indicators of a recession and the prices dropped precipitously.

Last night, I was flipping through and caught part of a story on 60 Minutes that told how speculation in the oil market (even by some financial companies who actually held their own oil supplies) drove up the cost of this commodity. You can check out the videos below:

Popularity: 18% [?]

Okay, I am looking up today and see that Bush is going to ask for Congress to authorize the release of the remaining half of the $700 billion bailout package.  Apparently, this is in response to a request made to him by incoming president Barack Obama, who says he wants to be able to use this money on day one to start addressing the nation’s economic issues.

Okay, call me distrustful and cynical but, do you think that, if given access to the rest of the money, Bush and cronies would just let the Obama team decide on what to do with it?

We already saw the games they played with the first half of it.  We have no real oversight of what’s been disbursed so far.  Also, they Bush Administration quietly slipped in some language at the last minute that lets most of the financial institution off the hook for having to put a limit on executive compensation.

So, knowing this (and many other things about the last 8 years), why would I trust them to do the right thing, now?  Maybe I’m just paranoid but, with it being just a little over a week to go, if I were Obama, I would have held off on this request.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I just read that the proposed $700 billion bailout plan was defeated in the House by a vote of 228-205, with plenty of Democrats and Republicans on both sides voting against it even though leadership on both sides was imploring they support it.

In a related note, markets across the world were hammered upon hearing the news.  At one point, the Dow dropped 705 points after the vote on the bailout failed.

Update: The market closed at 778 points down, becoming the worst fall in history.

Popularity: 18% [?]

During this campaign season, the one thing that has cracked me up was how Barack Obama has been labeled as an “elitist” by, first, Hillary Clinton and now, John McCain.  Hillary Clinton labeling as an elitist was pretty laughable considering that, among other things, she was the former first lady of the United States and, with her husband, was worth more than $100 million. Furthermore, some advisers to her campaign were lobbying for heads of state around the world.  That’s pretty elite company.

If Clinton was bad, McCain is worse.  He grew up a child of privilege whose Admiral father was able to pull strings to get him into the Naval Academy. He left wife number 1 to marry beer heiress and current wife, Cindy.  She, alone, has a net worth of roughly $100 million. However, two fairly recent event showed me how much of an elitist McCain really was.  The first was when it was discovered that John McCain had been using his wife’s private jet for campaigning without reporting that he was doing so.  The second was when it was uncovered that he had an overdue property tax bill.  It wasn’t because they couldn’t afford it but, when one owns 10 homes, it’s hard to keep track of all the bills.

Up until now, no one has hit back against the McCain choir for labeling Obama an elitist when the moniker seems to fit McCain more but, Brave New Films is taking up the challenge.  They have created a new video called McCain’s Mansions.  Check it out below:

Popularity: 14% [?]