"To add insult to injury to working America, in came the earnings reports from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. At these mega banks, balance sheets are healthy, profits are up and bonuses for top executives are bigger than ever. JPMorgan Chase just reported $11.7 billion in profits and $26.9 billion in compensation and bonuses. Goldman Sachs made a record-high profit of $13.4 billion in 2009 and is slated to hand out $16.2 billion in compensation and bonuses.

These are some of the same institutions whose predatory and unethically risky actions brought our economy to its knees. But, thanks to billions of dollars in government resuscitation, they seem to be recovering nicely from their near-death experiences.

The "earnings report" for the rest of the U.S., however, includes — drum roll, please — higher unemployment and continued foreclosures, with no relief in sight. It sounds like a raw deal because it is. Big banks and Wall Street financiers ignited the foreclosure crisis, setting our economy ablaze, resulting in the loss of millions of homes and jobs.

While Americans everywhere are suffering, not all are suffering equally. Communities of color are, once again, experiencing the brunt of this recession. [...]"

Read the full op-ed by Prakash Laufer on NewJerseyNewsroom.com.

"'The election of Obama reflected a great deal of change in attitudes, but change hasn’t lasted,' says William P. Jones, an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 'And I don’t think we should expect to see much change, both because of who Obama is as a politician and because of who we are as a nation.'

Race is inextricably tied to economics, because racial inequality in the United States was forged in the economic institution of slavery, says Jones. Obama’s success in winning the election, and in effectively governing, rests on his ability to convince white voters that he puts their interests first and black voters that they will benefit even more than whites from his policies, Jones says. But the economic crisis of Obama’s first year as president has done nothing if not challenge the effectiveness of his programs — especially for blacks.

'For the first time in 30 years, the gap between black and white income is increasing,' says Jones, who was part of a discussion panel called 'Taking Stock of Race and Racism: A Year after Obama’s Inauguration' presented last week by the UW-Madison Center for Humanities.

Jones’ observation is supported by a new report on economic inequality, 'State of the Dream 2010: Drained,' that concludes people of color are suffering more in the economic downturn than whites. In 2009, the unemployment rate for whites rose 2.4 percentage points, compared to 4.3 points for African-Americans and 3.7 for Latinos, according to the report released on Jan. 18 by United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based nonprofit research and advocacy group. The disparity was particularly pronounced in five states, including Wisconsin, where the unemployment rate for blacks was at least three times that of whites.

Read the full article by Pat Schneider in The Cap Times of Madison, WI.

"As of December 2009, the African American unemployment rate went above 16%, the Latino unemployment rate is very close to 13%, and that's compared to 9% for white Americans. [...] [W]hat the African American community is facing is more in the order of a depression than a recession. [...]

[I]n places like Michigan and Ohio...the unemployment rate amongst African Americans is expected to exceed 20% this year. [...]

We need a targeted approach to get us out of this bind that we're in now, and we have recommendations for that."

Click here to listen to the show. Scroll forward halfway for the segment with Ajamu Dillahunt.

Oregon, like so many states in the recession, was facing difficult and painful cuts in order to balance their budget – until the recent, and historic, vote that took place on Tuesday.

Oregonians voted in favor of Measures 66 and 67, which passed at 54% and 53% respectively. These measures call for modest income tax increases on the wealthiest 3% of Oregonians, and establish a $150 minimum tax for most businesses, raise the tax rate on some corporate profits by 1.3 percentage points, and increase certain business filing fees.

According to an article by David Steves, Oregon had not voted to approve general tax increases since 1930. So why are they voting in favor now? Some speculate the change of heart is due to the fact that these tax measures only affect those most able to pay – both at the individual level and in terms of large corporations. Most Oregon residents and businesses will not be affected.

Though anti-tax opponents are still spouting messages of doom for Oregon, the taxes are estimated to bring in over $700 million that will protect vital public services. This revenue saves schools from a 5% across-the-board decrease in state funding, and prevents drastic cuts in state-fiunded medical coverage, public safety and human services.

UFE commends the voters of Oregon, Vote Yes for Oregon, and TFOC members, Tax Fairness Oregon and Our Oregon, for their contributions to this historic victory.

"When Intel first announced plans to move its annual shareholder meeting exclusively online, the company did not anticipate the shareholder backlash. ‘We thought it was going to be completely non-controversial. We just have local retirees come to the physical meeting,’ says Cary Klafter, Intel’s VP of legal and corporate affairs and corporate secretary. [...]

Timothy Smith, senior VP of Walden Asset Management’s environmental, social and governance group, believes virtual meetings create a ‘disembodied experience’ for the shareholder. If you are alone at home or in your office, ‘how do you know for sure if other investors are also concerned about x or y?’ Smith asks. [...]

A shareholder resolution filed with Intel, including signatories from Walden Asset Management and United for a Fair Economy (UFE), states, ‘We believe the tradition of in-person annual meetings plays an important role in holding management accountable to stockholders. In contrast, online-only annual meetings could allow companies to control which questions and concerns are heard and manipulate the exchanges between shareowners and the company. Face-to-face annual meetings allow for an unfiltered dialogue between shareholders and management.’ [...]"

Read the full article by Katie Feuer in Cross Border's IR Magazine.

"Last week, JP Morgan Chase launched the 2010 Wall Street Bonus Sweepstakes. The bank is still losing money on consumer services, but well-heeled investors and financial traders more than made up the difference. The bank announced $11.7 billion in profits and $26.9 billion in compensation, including bonuses that will run in the multimillions for the top executives. Goldman Sachs reported record profits of $13.4 billion, and is set to dole out a staggering $16.2 billion in compensation and bonuses, which could provide an average of nearly $500,000 per employee. And Morgan Stanley, even having sustained a loss in 2009, has set aside $14.4 billion for compensation and bonuses.

Then there's Roberto Velasquez -- the other face of the foreclosure crisis.

Mr. Velasquez, a general contractor, bought a single-family home in Dedham, Massachusetts six years ago. Unfortunately, his mortgage turned out to be a predatory time bomb. After a few affordable years, the interest rate on his adjustable-rate mortgage ballooned and his payments rose to $4,800 a month. He kept up though; until the Wall Street crash knocked the stuffing out of the construction industry. Then he fell three months behind.

Mr. Velasquez found jobs and came up with the three months' payments, but the bank wouldn't work with him. His home was foreclosed on in November. A local bank offered to buy the home and sell it back to Mr. Velasquez for its present market value, which is the most his bank would get for the house if they sold it at auction. Still no deal. 'We did what they asked,' says Mr. Velasquez, 'but they don't want to work with anybody.' [...]"

Read the full op-ed by Mike Prokosch on CommonDreams.org.

"On Jan. 1, the estate tax, an essential part of the U.S. tax system for nearly 100 years, disappeared because Congress failed to act in December.

Congressional leaders now are pledging to act early this year to reinstate the federal estate tax retroactive to Jan. 1. In the meantime, rhetoric over the estate tax is heating up while Congress grapples with what to do now.

This crazy situation is the result of the Bush tax cuts for the super-rich, tax cuts that were supposed to lead to “trickle-down” prosperity for the rest of us.

What we have seen instead is stagnation of wages for most Americans, while those at the very top have become extraordinarily rich. In fact, disparities of wealth and income are now at the highest level since the Gilded Age just before the stock market crash of 1929.

With so much wealth in so few hands, our economy has begun to operate more like a casino, with high-risk speculation fueling boom-and-bust cycles that have wrecked communities across our country.

The gilded yachts of the super-rich have left in their wake capsized rafts of the unemployed and whole communities drowning in foreclosures. That's not what America should be about. [...]"

Read the full op-ed by Brian Miller in the San Antonio Express-News.

"Last year Walden Asset Management filed a resolution at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) seeking a proxy review. While SSgA successfully obtained a “no-action” letter from the SEC, their voting practices were still the subject of a debate at the annual meeting. This year United for a Fair Economy picked up the torch and filed a similar appeal. This time, SSgA responded positively and UFE has withdrawn its resolution. [...]

According to Timothy Smith of Walden Assets, SSgA will now abstain if the resolution’s economic impact case is not clear, but will vote FOR resolutions where a strong case regarding how this affects shareholder value is made. [...]

Our congratulations to Walden’s Timothy Smith and to Mike Lapham of Responsible Wealth. [...]"

Read the full article by James McRitchie on CorpGov.net.

Forward to 24:05 for interview with Brian Miller

Acceptance and State of Dream Surreal News 233

The Surreal News Show Archives

Forward to 41:05 for interview with UFE's Brian Miller

"In some poor neighborhoods, a man or woman with a traditional full-time job is the exception, not the rule. In five Midwestern states — Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Oklahoma — the jobless rate for blacks is at least three times as high as that for whites.

Some decades ago, you would have heard a sustained outcry against such dire conditions among blacks, and there would have been loud demands for policy changes designed to bring more black Americans into the economic mainstream. You don’t hear much of that now. Too many so-called black leaders are much more interested in invitations to the White House and positive profiles in mainstream publications than in raising any kind of ruckus that might benefit people in real trouble.

What the politicians and today’s civil rights types won’t tell you is that we’re looking ahead to many long decades of grief and strife in America’s black communities because of our failure to respond effectively to the horrendous impact of the Great Recession and the policies that led up to it. Black Americans are going backward economically, and right now no one is stepping up to stop the retreat.

United for a Fair Economy, in its latest “State of the Dream” report, which is released annually around the time of Dr. King’s birthday, is urging Congress and the president to identify communities with the highest unemployment rates and develop specific job-creation initiatives for them."

Read the full article by Bob Herbert in The New York Times.

All of us at UFE would like to share our deepest condolences with the people of Haiti. Our thoughts are with them and our hope is that the good of this world will shine through such tragedy. There are many individuals and organizations working to help in the wake of this disaster and Grassroots International, among many others, provides a wealth of information on how to be a part of relief efforts in the area.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also has a Family Links website that can aid in restoring communication between family members and loved ones separated in the aftermath of the earthquake.

It is sobering to see the impact of economic inequality around the globe, as is evident in the devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti. We stand in solidarity with both short-term and long-term relief and rebuilding efforts - may we work together as a global community to ensure that no country is left this vulnerable to natural disaster again.

"Unemployment for African Americans is projected to reach a 25-year high this year, according to a study released Thursday by an economic think tank, with the national rate soaring to 17.2 percent and the rates in five states exceeding 20 percent.

Blacks as well as Latinos were far behind whites in employment levels even when the economy was booming. But throughout the recession, the unemployment rate has grown much faster for African Americans and Latinos than for whites, according to the study by the Economic Policy Institute. [...]

The economic devastation for blacks and Hispanics is underscored in another study issued this week by a Boston-based nonprofit research organization called United for a Fair Economy. "State of the Dream," its annual report issued in connection with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, asserted that blacks and Hispanics are three times as likely to be poor as whites; that blacks earn 62 cents for every dollar whites earn; and that the family median net worth of whites in 2007 was $170,400, compared with $27,800 for blacks and Hispanics.

"We have a long history of discriminatory policies and practices, including outright segregation, redlining, misguided urban renewal plans and predatory lending, that have prevented people of color from building up personal wealth," said Brian Miller, executive director of United for a Fair Economy and co-author of the report. [...]"

Read the full article by Dion Haynes in The Washington Post.

"The income gap between whites and blacks in America has been widening for some time. A few years ago, a Brookings Institution study spelled out the fact that thirty-something blacks in 2007 were worse off than their parents had been at the same age in the mid-1970s. Despite the civil rights wins, the gap between African-Americans and whites had at some point started getting worse, not better.

And with the recession comes even disturbing news. A new study by United for a Fair Economy, aptly titled "State of the Dream 2010: Drained – Jobless and Foreclosed in Communities of Color," paints a dismal portrait of the situation at the end of last year. Its authors broke down the unemployment rate by race and ethnicity and found that the Dec. 2009 rates were higher for African-Americans and Latinos than any annual rate in nearly three decades.

Black unemployment was at 16.2 percent; for Latinos it was at 12.9 percent. Meanwhile, unemployment among whites fell for the second month in a row to 9 percent. And in certain states -- like Michigan and Ohio -- the African-American unemployment rate could hit the 20s this year.

Of course, the terrible strain on the economy has caused job losses all across the spectrum -- no socio-economic demographic has been untouched. Just this morning I was marveling over this sobering animation that geographically maps the rise of unemployment from 2007 through last year.

But even as we've watched our economy flush itself down the proverbial shitter, whites only saw an increase of unemployment of 2.4 percent from Dec. 2008 to Dec. 2009, in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Additionally, the report points out that in 13 states -- mostly in the Midwest, Great Plains, and the South -- unemployment for blacks was at least 2.5 times higher than for whites. In five states, Latinos were twice as likely to be unemployed as whites. [...]"

Read the full article by Daniela Perdomo on AlterNet.org.

"From the stern way that President Obama dismissed the Congressional Black Caucus last month, you'd think the CBC had insisted that every last dollar of job-creation money go to African Americans.

And from the way some conservative pundits responded (columnist Michelle Malkin, for instance, called it a "shake down"), you'd think the CBC had demanded that the Secret Service round up white folks and force them to empty their bank accounts and hand the money over to black folks.

But of course they didn't. The Congressional Black Caucus made the very reasonable suggestion that 10 percent of the stimulus be targeted to the poorest urban areas, where so many African Americans live. Given that African Americans are about 13 percent of the US population, 10 is actually a very modest request. [...]

December's white unemployment rate of 9% is bad, though better than November's; but the Black and Latino rates jumped to the devastating levels of 16.2% and 12.9%, a 27-year high.

Families survive unemployment better or worse depending on how much of a cushion they have. African American and Latino families entered the recession with a dangerously low median net worth, according to a new report by United for a Fair Economy, The State of the Dream 2010. [...]"

Read the full op-ed by Ajamu Dillahunt, UFE Board member, on HuffingtonPost.com.

UFE ACTION ALERT

Dear Friends of UFE in Oregon,

We urge you to vote YES on Measures 66 and 67 during the January 26 special election.

The $733 million raised by these measures will protect the vital public investments that help Oregon prosper and will limit the impact of the state's current economic crisis on those hit the hardest – seniors, children and the unemployed. The measures also serve to make Oregon's upside-down tax system more fair and sustainable.

Click here to see how Oregon's current tax system requires low- and middle-income people to pay more of their income in taxes than high-income people.

What would Measures 66 & 67 do?

• Measures 66 modestly raises taxes on only the wealthiest 3% of Oregonians. Over 97% of Oregonians will not see a tax increase!


• Measure 67 establishes a $150 minimum tax for most businesses, raises the tax rate on some corporate profits by 1.3 percentage points, and increases certain business filing fees.

For more information about these measures, please see Vote Yes For Oregon.

To support organizations working hard to pass these measures, please see UFE's Tax Fairness Organizing Collaborative members, Tax Fairness Oregon and Our Oregon.

For the sake of the schools & universities, the roads, the seniors, the kids, the unemployed, the police & fire fighters and many others, please take the time to VOTE on January 26th...and vote YES on Measures 66 & 67!

Thank you,



Karen Kraut
Coordinator, Tax Fairness Organizing Collaborative
United for a Fair Economy
29 Winter St, Fl 2
Boston, MA 02108
617-423-2148 x122
[email protected]

"Over 40 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, his words still speak to the social conditions that so many Americans face. Our unemployment rate is hovering at 10 percent, and the wealthiest 10 percent of us control over 70 percent of the nation’s wealth. Economic inequality remains a barrier to greater racial equality. The national commemoration of King’s birthday, therefore, is more for reflection than celebration. [...]

King and other civil rights leaders advocated progressive economic reforms with such proposals as the Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged and the Freedom Budget of 1966. A new report from United for a Fair Economy that I co-authored builds on that work by advocating bold and progressive economic reforms to meet today’s challenges. Reforms proposed in this report, titled “State of the Dream 2010: Drained,” include a major jobs creation program, strong investment in job training, an equity assessment of federal spending, and returning the tax system to one where those with the most concentrated wealth provide greater investment in the public good."

Read the full op-ed by Dedrick Muhammad in Huffington Post.

"America's millionaires and billionaires can die now, and not pay later under a quirk in the US estate tax law that Congress failed to act on in 2009.

The inheritance tax, which critics deride as a "death tax," officially expired on December 31 for those who pass away in 2010. But a stiff tax will come back for anyone who survives into 2011.

This bizarre scenario results from a law enacted in 2001 under president George W. Bush, which gradually phased out the estate tax by increasing the exemption to 3.5 million dollars in 2009, and eliminated the tax entirely in 2010.

For budget reasons, the law had a "sunset" provision that meant it would expire and the tax would return in 2011 at the pre-enactment levels of 55 percent of any inheritance amounts above one million dollars. [...]

[T]he Wall Street Journal reported that some wealthy Americans were kept on life support through the end of 2009, while others were considering a trip to the Netherlands in 2010 to take advantage of an assisted suicide law for terminally ill patients, with the tax loophole in mind.

Lee Farris, an estate tax specialist at United for a Fair Economy, which supports reinstatement of the inheritance tax, said the current situation is unfortunate.

'I think people should make life and death plans on what's best for that person and not on tax law,' she said.
'People are very upset that Congress has not taken care of this. They've had eight years of notice.'

Farris said that Congress is likely to enact a law retroactive to January 1, 2010, but that may be tested in the courts."

Read the full article by Rob Lever (Agence France Presse).