Anderson@Large

Personal Democracy Forum 2012

The annual Personal Democracy Forum is “the world’s leading conference exploring and analyzing technology's impact on politics and government.” PDF brings together thought leaders, influencers, technologists, activists, academics and good-government types.

In 2009, I attended PDF as a Google Fellow. Yesterday, I received notice that was awarded a Tumblr Fellowship to attend PDF 2012.

I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it.

State of Black America 2010

At a press conference at the Newseum in Washington, DC, the National Urban League released its annual report, “State of Black America 2010: Responding to the Jobs Crisis,” a fact-based analysis of the problems facing the African American community and innovative solutions to address joblessness and minority business development.

Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said:

What is at stake for black America in 2010? We are at a time of, one, crisis. And we are at a time of crossroads … We are at a time of crisis because we cannot yield a blind eye…to the manner in which this recession has affected our community.

[…]

We’re here today because we want to send the most powerful message, the strongest message possible. That a nation that can invest trillions of dollars bailing out banks on Wall Street can and should pass a jobs bill that helps out-of-work Americans.

Morial called for targeted programs and initiatives to help the chronically unemployed.

A new report from the Joint Economic Committee found that “though African Americans make up 11.5 percent of the labor force, they account for 17.8 percent of the unemployed, 20.3 percent of those unemployed for more than six months, and 22.1 percent of the workers unemployed for a year or more.”

He debunked the notion of a “black jobs bill.” Instead, emphasis should be placed on communities where the unemployment and poverty rates are high:

If the Department of Transportation doesn’t enforce its minority business goals and the Department of Labor doesn’t fund apprenticeship programs so that people in our communities [can get jobs], than these initiatives could bypass our communities. We cannot yield on the principle that targeting is a very important part of policy.

Morial questioned how we can commit $53 billion for a reconstruction plan for Baghdad, but there’s no money to put people to work in Baltimore, Boston and Binghamton:

If you can do it for Baghdad, why not cities right here? If you can do it for the banks, why not do it for the cities … It’s time for Washington and America to focus on jobs, jobs, jobs.

He asked his members to contact their representatives and urge them to co-sponsor the “Local Jobs for America Act” (H.R. 4812), which would create or save one million jobs in the hard-hit communities:

Our voices need to be about a plan. But they also need to be about priorities. America has to be about the priority of putting people back to work.

To help move the black agenda -- jobs, jobs, jobs -- make your voices heard. Contact your representative and senators and make some noise.

Stimulating Equity

It’s time again for states to submit their quarterly Section 1512 reports on how they spent stimulus funds and the number of jobs “saved or created” funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The reports will be posted to Recovery.gov on Jan. 30. But there will not be much to report on the impact of stimulus spending on the African American community. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. observed during the opening sessions of the Wall Street Project Economic Summit:

We need a Stimulus II that’s bottom up.

[...]

The first stimulus prioritized bailing out the banks but did so without linkages or obligations to reinvest ... Harlem and Wall Street are on the same island. Wall Street riding the tide does not lift Harlem or any other part of the country.

Jackson continued:

Small businesses last and big businesses first. Bail out the big banks and small businesses get what’s left. But there’s nothing left.

Jackson said minority entrepreneurs must engage in a sustained struggle. He observed that the business of the Wall Street banksters is not small businesses:

They’re making money off of foreclosures.

He noted that the bailed-out banksters did not have to comply with Title VI:

We want a radical thing -- the law enforced. We want the government to enforce the laws to protect the people.

We want a measure of justice ... When there’s inclusion, there’s growth. When there’s growth, everyone wins.

Jackson plans to buy stock in the leading predatory lenders that got us into this financial mess and go to their shareholders’ meetings, where he will ask them to follow the law.

He also plans to launch a multi-city campaign to push for “reconstruction banks” to provide access to capital for small businesses and homeowners. The reconstruction banks would be modeled after the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the Great Depression.

To stay informed, join the Coalition to Empower Minority Business Enterprises on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Jobs Wanted Right Now

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its monthly report on Friday. The unemployment rate is expected to remain in the double-digits. But as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert observed, the jobs numbers only tell part of the story:

Forget the false hope of modestly improving monthly job numbers. The real story right now is the entrenched suffering (with no end in sight) that has been inflicted on scores of millions of working Americans by the Great Recession and the misguided economic policies that preceded it.

And right now is not the time to drop the ball on job creation. So, the Progressive States Network is circulating petitions to keep the heat on President Barack Obama and members of Congress:

As leaders in state legislatures across the country, we urgently call on President Obama and the Congress to enact a new, broad-based job creation plan, including significant additional fiscal relief to states and local governments to foster economic growth and create and maintain jobs across the nation.

Almost eight million more Americans are unemployed today than at the start of the recession in December 2007. The number of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed has reached over 27 million. State tax revenues dropped nine percent during fiscal year 2009, the largest decline since the years directly following World War II. As states are forced to slash programs and jobs, more and more Americans are relying on public services.

To add your name to the petition, click here.

Coalition to Empower MBEs Launched

For everyone except Wall Street banksters, insurance companies, lobbyists, automakers, and Fannie and Freddie, 2009 was an annus horribilis.

Back in February, President Barack Obama told Black Enterprise he was committed to “making sure goals are set that ensure participation of every type of business imaginable” in his economic recovery plan. But studies show minority business enterprises have been shoved aside from Washington, DC to Seattle, Washington.

MBEs have been shut out of stimulus contracts and loans. Indeed, La Opinión recently editorialized:

Community leaders are demanding an explanation and they are entitled to one. The stimulus package money comes from taxpayers and the banks are not assuming any risk at all with these loans, so the government should ensure that access to the program is equitable. It may have been smarter to have granted the loans directly through the Small Business Administration (SBA) rather than through the banks, which tend not to want to disclose how and why the make their decisions, even when they receive taxpayer assistance.

The program must be reviewed and measures must be implemented to facilitate access for minorities who, in many cases, are the main economic pillars of their communities.

In a New Year’s Day op-ed in the Philadelphia Tribune, my colleague, Della Clark of The Enterprise Center, noted that cash-strapped minority businesses cannot compete against primes who are also trying to keep their businesses afloat.

Della wrote:

In these tough economic times, competition for ARRA-funded contracts is fierce. But disadvantaged businesses cannot compete against prime contractors who are submitting low bids to weather the economic storm.

Sure, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell signed an executive order establishing an “aspirational goal” that at least ten percent of ARRA opportunities should go to disadvantaged businesses. But Della is not sitting around hoping for change. Instead, she is mobilizing minority entrepreneurs in an effort to remove systemic barriers to participation.

For this indefatigable visionary, the bottom line is, well, the bottom line:

In speaking truth to empower, the Coalition to Empower Minority Business Enterprises can change the culture in procurement offices across the commonwealth. In doing so, minority entrepreneurs will be better positioned to grow their business, create sustainable jobs and contribute to the economic recovery of Pennsylvania.

If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, then resolve to do something. To get involved with the MBE Coalition, send an email here.

Fight the Banksters

The national underemployment rate is 17.5 percent. Without the $700 billion bailout, Wall Street banksters would be among the unemployed. Instead, they are making record profits and doling out multimillion dollar bonuses.

Public Citizen and SEIU and organizing a protest in front of Goldman Sachs’ DC office, 101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., today at Noon to protest the obscene bonuses and send a message to Congress, “Enough is enough.”

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In a statement, Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said:

More than a year after the onset of the financial crisis, three things are apparent: Congress has not passed any financial reform legislation (except for credit card rules); the more time passes, the more Wall Street objects to the prospect of any meaningful controls of its operations; and the legislation that has so far progressed in Congress is not commensurate with the scale of the crisis Wall Street caused.

Weissman added:

It’s time to break up the big banks, clamp down on the Wall Street bonus culture - including by imposing a windfall tax on the $140 billion in bonuses and compensation that Wall Street aims to pay in 2009 - and impose a speculation tax on stock and derivative trading. These and like measures are what the public wants - and they are what we need to prevent a recurrence of the financial meltdown.

Can’t be there? Then sign the petition and “fight the powers that be.”

Philly by the Numbers

1: The number of World Series games won by the Phillies.

$157 million: The amount of direct stimulus funds awarded to Philadelphia.

52: The number of jobs saved.

0: The number of jobs created.

The Philadelphia Daily News recently reported:

MORE THAN six months after President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package was passed into law, the city of Philadelphia has spent less than $1 million in recovery money and retained just 52 jobs.

The data was laid out in a memo sent to Mayor Nutter from Budget Director Steve Agostini, and obtained by the Daily News. Agostini, who was recently assigned to oversee the city stimulus program, also reported that the city’s efforts to manage stimulus dollars have been hampered by limited communication between departments.

The news comes as the local unemployment rate continues to climb. The Philadelphia jobless rate hit 10.7 percent in August.

(215) 686-2181: The number to call to ask Mayor Nutter what is he waiting for?