Anderson@Large

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.

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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.

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.

Obama’s Wake-up Call

As a lifelong political activist, I got an early Christmas present. Black folks’ reluctance to criticize President Barack Obama is giving way to reality. And the reality is, power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Let me be clear: I am not interested in second-guessing Obama. Instead, it’s about accountability.

Like you, I watched Obama target the needs of Wall Street banksters, and address the concerns of Blue Dogs and one dirty dog.

Yet in the name of being “president of the entire United States,” Obama refused to respond to the demands of the Congressional Black Caucus and address issues especially important to black folks. Are we not citizens of the United States?

The whispered criticism has apparently been heard. Obama is scheduled to make his first appearance as president on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” this morning.

While Joyner will show Obama some love, Smokey Fontaine of NewsOne.com told TV One’s Roland Martin, “the Obama love fest is over”:

Well, we’ve lost the passion. We’ve lost the emotion, and we should not be above criticizing the President. Just because he’s African-American, that does not mean he’s above our criticism; but what’s true is when he wants to rally us to get behind him – and he needs our support right now – we’re not there, because he hasn’t given us the attention that we deserve.

For Martin and Fontaine, the Gannett interview was the turning point:

MR. MARTIN: And – and I think you’ve got to get those questions in. When – when you give an interview with Gannett News Service, we talked about when he said that was a mistake having a – a direct economic plan for African-Americans. No. You’ve got to speak to us on our issues, on our terms, whether it’s this show, whether it’s Joyner and Harvey, Baisden, Sharpton – all those shows. You[‘ve] got to communicate with us in our way.

MR. FONTAINE: And it’s got to be more than communication, too. We – we know that the brother can make a nice speech. We’ve seen –

MR. MARTIN: Right.

MR. FONTAINE: -- that all over the world.

MR. MARTIN: We need the policy to back it up.

You can listen to a livestream of the Tom Joyner show, here.

A Modest Job Creation Proposal

President Barack Obama will deliver remarks on job creation and economic growth at the Brookings Institution this morning. Obama reportedly will propose redirecting $200 billion from TARP to pay for a jobs package.

To reach those most in need, Obama will have to do more than propose more infrastructure spending. As Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News, observed during a breakout session at last week’s jobs summit, infrastructure spending is fraught with “politics, patronage and private deals”:

You have to take it out of the political system and put it in some kind of professionally-managed decision-making process where decisions are made much more in the national interest and economic values of the country than the system we have now.

Sending more money to the states and hoping for a better ROI than the stimulus package would be insane. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. A jobs package that does not target economically distressed areas would again leave African Americans standing in the unemployment line.

Without targeted spending, states and localities will use federal dollars to plug budget holes and save the jobs of public employees. While there are growing doubts about the number of jobs “created or saved” by stimulus spending, there is no doubt that people of color are disproportionately unemployed.

Any jobs package must include a public-works jobs component with the government as the employer of last resort. Sure, private sector jobs will lead to sustainable economic growth, but it’s any port in a storm. And right now, Americans need a job to weather the economic storm.

The bottom line: Obama must do more than propose more of the same. He must listen to the voices of the Congressional Black Caucus and African American leaders who say that black joblessness is the “civil rights issue of the moment.”

House of Credit Cards

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

With “Black Friday” looming, you might want to check your local listings for Frontline’s investigative report before you reach for your credit card.

You can also watch the full program here.

Tax Cheat Geithner May Get the Ax

Finally, some good news. Progressive Democrats are calling for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to get to stepping.

The Hill reports:

A Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) member said there's “growing consensus” among liberals that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should step down.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said Wednesday that he and other liberal House members are becoming increasingly tired of Obama administration economic policies that they say are too focused on maintaining the stability of Wall Street firms and largely ignore “Main Street.”

DeFazio told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz “we may have to sacrifice just two more jobs [Geithner’s and Larry Summers’] to get millions back for Americans.”

DeFazio’s sentiment was echoed by Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, who during a Joint Economic Committee hearing told Geithner:

Mr. Secretary, the public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job. Conservatives agree, Democrats agree that it really is time for a fresh start, and I would urge you to consider it.

Geithner, get ready. The bus may be coming.

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.”