The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been floating at or above the 17,000 mark in the past two months–an all time high.
Author Archives: Julianne Malveaux
Posted inCounting the Cost
Back to school, back to basics
Between early August and late September, students are going back to school. Before they go to school, though, they and their parents will hit the malls and stationary stores to prepare for their return. Retailers say that students and their parents will spend $75 billion on back-to-school items, and clothing represents about a third of this spending.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Policing the police
Except for the Good Lord, everybody has someone or something to “check” him or her. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama has an unresponsive Congress to check him, and Supreme Court to do the same. Elected officials are checked by voters (when they vote), and the Securities and Exchange Commission usually checks corporate crooks
Posted inCounting the Cost
Dogs get more respect than Michael Brown
It doesn’t matter if you are a state legislator or an alderman, a journalist or a local leader. If you are in Ferguson, Mo., you won’t get any respect. You can be the uncle of a victim whose body was left to lie on the street for several hours and you will not be allowed to cover your young nephew. Not many would let a dog lay uncovered for several hours. Young Black Michael Brown apparently got less consideration than a dog.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Working at taking a vacation
I don’t do vacations well. I have to be pushed and prodded, just about guilt-tripped, into taking time off. Sure, I’ll take an hour here, an evening there, to read a book or play word games. But it just about takes an act of God to get me to go play.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Economic growth is up; will it trickle down?
Last quarter’s rate of economic growth is good news, especially after the economy stalled, losing momentum in the first quarter of 2014. Many said it was an aberration caused by bad weather, especially since economic growth in the last half of 2013 was more than three percent.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Dogs eat better than 1 million children
The South African charity Feed A Child (http://www.feedachild.co.za/) chose to highlight child poverty in South Africa by portraying a little Black boy being fed like a dog by a seemingly affluent White woman. In the ad, the boy has his head on the woman’s lap, he’s kneeling at her feet, on his knees, and licking off her fingers. The point, they say? According to the ad’s tagline “The average dog eats better than millions of children.”
Posted inCounting the Cost
Independence? Advertising, support, and African American organizations
In the “afterglow” of the Fourth of You Lie, I am flipping through an African American magazine, enjoying the content, but looking for the “bite.” For how can you not bite, when you look at the space in which African American people occupy? Our middle class is growing, but fragile. The level of poverty among African Americans has hardly changed in the past decade. Unemployment rates for African Americans remain high, despite talk of economic “recovery.” But too many of our organizations have little bark, and even less bite.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Ikea does its part to fill the wage gap
President Barack Obama would like the national minimum wage to rise to $10.10 an hour. By executive order, he has already raised the minimum wage for federal contractors. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has threatened to sue President Obama for his use of executive order, which he says circumvents Congressional authority.
Posted inCounting the Cost
The face of economic recovery
At its June 18-19 meeting, the Federal Reserve is hedging its bets. It says the United States economy is on the mend, but more slowly than expected.
