tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13638811592299199012024-03-07T21:34:26.335-08:00The Black ECONomistSeeking economic opportunities for the African-American community.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1363881159229919901.post-1190822163288703322012-01-06T07:43:00.000-08:002012-01-06T07:46:21.754-08:00Newt, Food Stamps, and Social Security<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another controversy from the GOP candidates about our
community seems to be on the horizon and this time it has to do with the black
community and food stamps. To be more specific, Newt Gingrich has made an olive
branch request to share with the NAACP to explain his thoughts about “why the
African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with
food stamps”. Tagging along at the end of Newt’s comment was his additional
expressed desire to also share his ideas on how to revise the Social Security
program to help young people, especially African American males who are “getting
the smallest return” for their contribution. Hold on, hold on a minute. Say what?<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While the mainstream media has leaped on Newt Gingrich’s
comments and claimed them as being yet another example of racist GOP comments
directed at our community, it may be important to take a step back and really
dissect what Newt is really saying. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First, Mr. Gingrich is right about the food stamp
situation; we should be demanding jobs right now. In fact, we should be doing
everything in our power to create jobs in our own communities. With the average
black unemployment rate across the nation currently at </span><a href="http://www.thegrio.com/news/black-unemployment-rises-as-national-jobless-rate-falls-to-85-lowest-in-nearly-3-years.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Calibri;">15.8% and rising</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> despite the nation’s overall unemployment decreasing (</span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/business/economy/us-adds-200000-jobs-unemployment-rate-at-8-5.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Calibri;">down to 8.5%</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
as of today), black Americans should be coming together in local places of
worship, barbershops, beauty salons...WHEREVER we can... to develop plans for
attacking this problem plaguing us. We don’t have to wait on sympathetic
government or others. We collectively should be fighting and moving with
extreme urgency to harness all of the financial resources at our disposal to
encourage and support </span><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://tri-statedefenderonline.com/articlelive/articles/7064/1/2012-Year-of-the-Urban-Innovator/Page1.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: orange;">entrepreneurial startups</span></span></a></span>
</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> in the African American community. The time has never been riper
to this with the various </span><a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/print-edition/2012/01/06/obama-extends-small-business-research.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Calibri;">small business programs</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> that have been enacted by President Obama’s
administration and Congress. If others won’t employ us, we should be fighting
to employ ourselves. If people like Gingrich want to help us, we should not
bite back.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Second, Mr. Gingrich is also right about black males’
Social Security contribution situation. With the average African American male dying
by 70.9 years of age, black males are seeing only 5-8 years of Social Security
benefits after contributing through their work for over 30 years! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And recent actions taken by some in Congress
to increase the age required in order to receive those benefits means our men
will see NOTHING for their service. Is this fair? Is this right? Do we agree
with Newt that maybe some changes need to be made?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Remember, sometimes it takes a little reflection to
understand what people outside of our beautiful African American community are
trying to tell us. But once their meaning becomes clear, it is up to us and not
mainstream media to determine how to react to what people like Newt are really
saying.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">We
welcome your thoughts on this issue. Please provide us with your comments.</span></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1363881159229919901.post-990423305722999692012-01-04T08:01:00.000-08:002012-01-04T08:04:15.801-08:00Iowa, Santorum, and Other People’s Money<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Polling is done and the victory speeches are over. The Iowa
caucus, the first of the 2012 primaries, has started the season off with a loud
bang on the Republican side of the US two-party political system. Mitt Romney
and Rick Santorum, both, can claim a major victory going into the next primary
as there were only 14 votes that separated them from taking the GOP brass ring
as the presidential nominee of this year’s fall elections. For some folks,
everything is starting to smell a bit rosier for the future. But for African
Americans paying close attention to the proceedings, there seems to be the hint
of a foul smell in the air that may need eliminating.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rick Santorum, a latest Johnny-come-lately challenger to the
Republican presidential nomination, caused a bit of a stir when he made a
statement during a pre-caucus interview that started the foul smell lingering
so slightly of the primary proceedings. Mr. Santorum stated, in his own words,
that he doesn’t <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">“</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">want to make
black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” He went on
further to say that he wants to “give them (Black people) the opportunity to go
out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.” Ouch!
Did he really mean to say all of that? By all accounts, he did and the GOPers,
who are mostly white, love him for his “honesty”. But for black Americans, his
comments raised negative and racially-related concerns and questions. Our
immediate thought; what is this guy really saying and how is this going to hurt
us?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A possible way to view Mr. Santorum’s comments is through
the lens of a capitalistic society. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
basic capitalistic principle is that there are those who produce and those who
consume what is produced. Those that produce are generating value to the
society in which they are active. Those that consume are not. And right now,
based upon rapidly deteriorating economic data about the US’ black population, the
implications are that there doesn’t seem to be too many places where black
folks are not consumers of the wealth created by the producers of our nation
who incidentally happen to be primarily white. BAM! So we don’t need to go any
further to understand the point Mr. Santorum was making and should be more
concerned that there is more here than a funny racist fragrance in the air.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, black America, are the unspoken implications behind Mr.
Santorum’s comments speaking some truth? Has our larger community just become
consumers and thereby is producing little value to the American economic
engine? Have we unwittingly accepted a economically-dependent role in our
modern-day society that would make our forefathers, who were able to generate
businesses and create wealth under the system of slavery and Jim Crow, fight to
get out of their graves? Have we become takers of other people’s money? Is the
foul scent not from Mr. Santorum, but of our own making?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Sniff, sniff, sniff. Where’s the deodorizer?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1363881159229919901.post-53078935513995712152012-01-02T09:18:00.000-08:002012-01-02T10:44:27.988-08:00The Mayans and Black America’s Future<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Just about everyone knows this. According to common
understanding, the Mayans predicted that the world is going to meet its demise
on </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">December 21<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>st</sup>
of 2012</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On New Year’s Day, numerous
news articles referenced this ancient prediction; in the past, religious cults
have formed in preparation for it. And even Columbia Pictures made a movie a
few years ago, ominously entitled “2012”, that made over $769 million dollars
and is 38<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> in the list of the all-time top grossing films worldwide
giving all of us a frightening look at this forthcoming doomsday scenario. And
with the disarrayed state of Black America at the end of 2011, another year of
challenges with no solutions on the horizon might lead those of us in the
African-American community to believe that the end-of-the-world prediction by
the Mayans is not only a prediction, but an inevitable outcome that is facing
us just right around the corner. However, this popular understanding of the
foretold 2012 event could possibly be incorrect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A closer look at a broad range of research literature written
about the Mayan prediction reveals a little-discussed alternative interpretation
of how things might play out for the world in 2012. According to </span><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spirituality/science-of-spirituality/World-will-not-end-in-2012-says-Mayan-expert/articleshow/11339472.cms"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">experts
who have studied the Mayan people</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> and their culture, the event that they
were anticipating and trying to communicate to future generations was not the
end of the world, but the end of the world as we currently know it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, more modern-day analysis of the 2012
prediction point instead to the introduction of a new age of increased spiritual
and communal awareness that in turn may lead to a period of greater widespread prosperity
on the planet. This is good news for black America because it means that it is
not too late to change our community’s current circumstances. If we start now to
collectively strategize and plan, black Americans can actively participate and
benefit from this next possible “golden age”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over the course of 2012, the Black Economist will be sharing
information with its readers that envisions, encourages, and enables the
African-American community’s transition from a group ravaged by </span><a href="http://www.theroot.com/blogs/national-urban-league/state-black-america-getting-worse"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">deepening
problems</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> from a number of socio-economic challenges to a people group
excelling and succeeding in the new global economy. We will do this by
exploring the economic, technological, political, and cultural implications for
blacks behind many of the today’s headlines. We will also provide our thoughts
on the “hidden” opportunities that exist in today’s events and situations if
things are viewed in a slightly different way. Just as the majority of the
world is unaware of the untold alternative and hopeful Mayan prediction, we seek
to bring you the untold alternative story of a bright future for black America.
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Let
2012 be the start of a truly new tomorrow for all of us.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1363881159229919901.post-7047023519561268652011-12-31T09:15:00.000-08:002011-12-31T09:15:55.572-08:00Happy New Year!Welcome to our blog. We look forward to sharing information with you in 2012 on the future economic opportunities for the African-American community, in the US and around the world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0