Surprise? Lending is racist
di zeroman (15/10/2007 - 17:41)
When i say that something is racist, i do not mean to imply that the people involved in it are bigots. rather, it means that the net result of that activity (in this case, mortgage lending) produces results that reinforce white supremacy. Now on with it.
From the NY Times
Home buyers in predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City were more likely to get their mortgages last year from a subprime lender than home buyers in white neighborhoods with similar income levels, according to a new analysis of home loan data by researchers at New York University.
The analysis, by N.Y.U.’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, illustrates stark racial differences between the New York City neighborhoods where subprime mortgages — which can come with higher interest rates, fees and penalties — were common and those where they were rare. The 10 neighborhoods with the highest rates of mortgages from subprime lenders had black and Hispanic majorities, and the 10 areas with the lowest rates were mainly non-Hispanic white.
The analysis showed that even when median income levels were comparable, home buyers in minority neighborhoods were more likely to get a loan from a subprime lender.
In Jamaica, Queens, for example, where the majority is black and the median household income was $45,000 in 2005, 46 percent of the mortgages were issued by lenders who specialize in subprime loans, the second highest rate in the city. In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, which had a median income of $50,000 and is mostly white, the rate was among the lowest in the city, with 3.6 percent of home loans coming from subprime lenders.
The analysis provides only a limited picture of subprime borrowing in New York City. The data does not include details on borrowers’ assets, down payments or debt loads, all key factors in mortgage lending. And comparing neighborhoods is inexact; the typical borrower in one may differ from a typical borrower in another.
But the Furman Center study, a summary of which is being released today, still raises questions about the role of race in lending practices. A separate analysis of mortgage data by The New York Times shows that even at higher income levels, black borrowers in New York City were far more likely than white borrowers with similar incomes and mortgage amounts to receive a subprime loan.
“It’s almost as if subprime lenders put a circle around neighborhoods of color and say, ‘This is where were going to do our thing,’” said Robert Stroup, a lawyer and the director of the economic justice program at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc.
The New York State Division of Human Rights is investigating whether subprime lenders have been engaging in discriminatory practices by singling out minority communities.
Ehm... what about the PRIME lenders? shouldn't they be investigated for NOT giving loans to people of color? and will these "investigations" lead to people being able to KEEP THEIR HOUSES?
a way forward from dendustrialization
di zeroman (23/05/2007 - 04:28)
I like this story. A lot. Perhaps not as much as the story told in The Take, but...
An Old Steel Mill Retools to Produce Clean Energy
By DAVID STABA
Published: May 22, 2007
LACKAWANNA, N.Y., May 21 — Empty grain elevators and dormant railroad tracks line the Buffalo River to the east and Lake Erie to the west, interspersed with empty fields overgrown with gnarled shrubbery. Test wells that monitor decades of buried industrial waste dot the landscape. A passenger ship, rust overtaking its aqua paint, sits beside a decaying mill.
The road from Buffalo to this city to the south offers a stark reminder of the region’s faded past as a hub of industry and shipping. [and a reminder of the pernicious effects of capital liberalization, and the unaccountable power of corporations to have an effect on people's lives]
Yet in the past few months, a different sight has emerged on the 2.2-mile shoreline above a labyrinth of pipes, blackened buildings and crumbling coke ovens that was once home to a behemoth Bethlehem Steel plant: eight gleaming white windmills with 153-foot blades slowly turning in the wind off Lake Erie, on a former Superfund site where iron and steel slag and other industrial waste were dumped during 80 years of production.
“It’s changing the image of the city of Lackawanna,” said Norman L. Polanski Jr., the city’s mayor and a former Bethlehem worker who lost his job when the company stopped making steel here in 1983. “We were the old Rust Belt, with all the negatives. Right now, we are progressive and we are leading the way on the waterfront.”
Christine Real de Azua, of the American Wind Energy Association, said Steel Winds, as this wind farm is known, is the largest to rise in a city, and according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, it is the first to rise on land overseen by New York’s brownfields program. (Brownfields are low-level toxic waste sites concentrated mainly around abandoned factories.)
“It’s a way to convert the Rust Belt to the Wind Belt,” Ms. Real de Azua said.
The turbines, owned jointly by BQ Energy of Pawling, N.Y., and UPC Wind of Newton, Mass., are able to produce a total of 20 megawatts of electricity a year, enough to provide power to 7,000 homes, said the project manager, Mark Mitskovski. The companies involved in the project plan to sell the energy to individual customers or utilities.
The company began construction of the wind farm in September 2006, six months after the federal Environmental Protection Agency declared the site clean enough to be removed from the Superfund list, allowing the state Department of Environmental Conservation to oversee its development.
The windmills are a welcome change for an area buffeted by the loss of jobs and environmental problems since Bethlehem’s steep decline began in the mid-1970s as cheaper imported steel, mainly from Japan, began flooding the United States.
At its peak during World War II and through the boom years that followed, Bethlehem employed more than 20,000 people here, most living within walking distance of the plant. But as the jobs vanished, the city’s population fell from a high of 30,000 in the 1960s to about 19,000 today.
Smoke from the blast furnaces and coke ovens coated the mill town with a layer of red ore dust, and artificial clouds glowed several times each day, when rail cars tipped their loads of slag into Lake Erie, creating a lavalike flow visible from miles away.
“As a kid, we’d be at the beach and you’d see the ladle cars going out there 24 hours a day,” said Michael Malyak, of Lackawanna’s Steel Plant Museum, who was a shipping clerk at Bethlehem for eight years before becoming an elementary school teacher. “The sky would light up, and you’d see this red-hot slag rolling down the hillside.”
Mayor Polanski said that as dangerous and unhealthy as it was, “it was a way of life.”
And one that passed through generations. Like many of his classmates, Mr. Polanski, who is 58, followed his father to Bethlehem, getting hired as an apprentice pipe fitter.
“I graduated in June of ’67, and at the end of July, I had a job at the steel plant,” he said. “I never figured I’d lose that job.”
But as the lower-priced imported steel began to dominate the market, Bethlehem started to shrink. About 7,300 workers lost their jobs when the company stopped making steel in Lackawanna, leaving only the coke ovens and several finishing mills in operation.
Bethlehem ended coke production in 2001, the year the company filed for bankruptcy. A much smaller mill that finishes galvanized steel and employs about 250 is now operated by Mittal Steel, which acquired Bethlehem’s assets in 2005 in a merger with International Steel Group.
About $300,000 in state and federal assistance was used to research wind patterns and evaluate the environmental impact, and the windmills each cost $4.5 million to build. Power lines left from the plant carry the electricity from the turbines, while paved roads, rail lines and an industrial port built by Bethlehem were used to bring much of the construction material to the site.
“It’s much easier to do this on farmland somewhere,” Mr. Mitskovski said. “But all the things you would need to build in a green field setting are already here.”
Steel Winds has permits to build two more turbines and plans to put up as many as 27 in all. This month, local officials announced plans to move a rail line and build new roads in an effort to open 400 more acres of brownfields at the former Bethlehem site for redevelopment and to revitalize the Lake Erie port there, which is large enough to handle eight oceangoing ships at a time.
The economic effect of the wind farm on this city will never rival that of the steel giant. Mr. Mitskovski estimated that Steel Winds will ultimately employ a few dozen people, compared with the tens of thousands who punched the clock at Bethlehem. And though there are incentives for clean energy production, taxes generated by the wind farm will never match those paid by the steel mill, which at one time subsidized most of Lackawanna’s government.
The greatest effect of the eight windmills, however, may have more to do with attitude.
“A community that has had difficulty moving forward has accepted a technology that leapfrogs other forms of energy generation,” Mr. Mitskovski said. “Decades of steel-making created this environmental legacy. But that also created the opportunity to take this fallow, contaminated land and reuse it.”
Crisi alla Breda
di zeroman (19/05/2007 - 17:04)
Articolo trovato QUI.
Cento esuberi e possibile ricorso alla Cassa integrazione ordinaria durante il 2007. E’ quanto prevede il piano di riorganizzazione di AnsaldoBreda per lo stabilimento napoletano di via Argine della società controllata da Finmeccanica, nel quale sono occupate oggi circa mille persone. Ieri, a Roma, c’è stato un vertice tra azienda e sindacati; questi ultimi definiscono “interlocutorio” l’incontro, ma precisano: l’azienda dovrà ascoltarci, altrimenti qualsiasi piano non sarebbe accettabile. Incontrando i sindacati, l’azienda ha confermato la necessità di una riorganizzazione che prevede trecento esuberi in tutto il territorio nazionale, di cui circa un terzo a carico dello stabilimento napoletano di via Argine. E’ previsto il ricorso alla mobilità lunga. C’è inoltre il rischio concreto che nel corso dell’anno si possa fare ricorso allo strumento della Cassa integrazione ordinaria, che dovrebbe interessare almeno 280 lavoratori su tutto il territorio nazionale, a fronte delle 495 unità concesse a Finmeccanica, che controlla AnsaldoBreda, da un recente decreto del Governo.
L’azienda
[...] I suoi prodotti sono presenti in quattro continenti e, in Italia, in quattro regioni.
Negli ultimi anni però, non tutto è filato per il verso giusto. A fronte di un buon carico di lavoro, l’azienda è in difficoltà, a quanto pare, anche per alcuni accordi capestro stipulati con committenti, ad esempio norvegesi e danesi, che l'hanno poi costretta a pagare penali anche molto pesanti. E’ necessaria dunque una riorganizzazione per consentire una svolta alla società.
Pareggio
AnsaldoBreda ha così presentato un piano di rientro che dovrebbe consentire di raggiungere, nell’arco di due anni, il break even point, cioè il pareggio tra costi e ricavi. Esuberi e cassa integrazione ordinaria sono tra i pilastri di questa strategia.
Ma i dirigenti dell’azienda hanno posto l’accento anche sulle troppe ore di inattività, circa 230 mila a livello nazionale nel 2006, per le quali è necessario correre ai ripari. Il piano, comunque, fin qui non è stato concordato con i sindacati, il confronto è appena all’inizio e il prossimo 30 maggio è fissato un nuovo incontro tra le parti. Per Pino Russo, della segreteria regionale Uilm, “esistono problemi strutturali, per i quali l’azienda pensa agli esuberi, ma anche questioni congiunturali. Le commesse arrivano, ma probabilmente non al momento giusto per l’azienda”. Per quanto riguarda il possibile ricorso alla Cassa integrazione ordinaria, la Uilm sottolinea innanzitutto che “si tratta di uno strumento che va gestito a livello territoriale”. In ogni caso, Russo mette in guardia da una misura che “potrebbe coinvolgere anche gli operai delle officine, i giovani dello stabilimento di via Argine. Al contrario, sarebbe interesse dell’azienda fidelizzare le nuove leve”. Il sindacalista avanza anche delle proposte alternative rispetto alle soluzioni prospettate dall’azienda: “corsi di formazione, magari finanziati, per aggiornare i lavoratori; rotazione del personale da un reparto all’altro in base alle esigenze; ottimizzazione del calendario ferie”.
Sfida
Per Giovanni Striano, della Fim Cisl, quella che attende AnsaldoBreda è una “sfida enorme”. Il problema, secondo il sindacalista, è soprattutto organizzativo, visto che “all’azienda certo non mancano le commesse. Ma a volte — sottolinea — di troppo lavoro si può morire”.
Delle inefficienze, in ogni caso, esistono. Del resto la stessa azienda le ha segnalate ai sindacati: assenteismo, ferie accumulate, troppe ore di inattività. I sindacati sono disponibili a trattare, ma non intenzionati ad accettare supinamente il piano di riorganizzazione. “L’incontro di ieri — spiega Striano — è stato interlocutorio. Bisogna intervenire, ma su modalità e numeri è chiaro che l’azienda dovrà ascoltarci, altrimenti il piano non sarebbe accettabile”.
Capitalism pulls a fast one - and communities are devastated
di zeroman (28/03/2007 - 16:19)
Behind Foreclosures, Ruined Credit and Hopes
By KAREEM FAHIM and RON NIXON
NEWARK — After Franklin Abazie fell behind on his mortgage last year, he tucked one of his foreclosure notices, still in its ripped envelope, into the visor of his car — a looming reminder of why he had to take a second job.
Rashid and Yvonne Moore, a middle-aged couple whose lenders are threatening foreclosure because they have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, have begun thinking the unthinkable: moving in with his parents.
For Quintin Fields, it may take a miracle to keep his house; he owes nearly as much in late payments as he will earn all year.
“Everything is closing in on me right now,” Mr. Fields said.
Broad swaths of Newark are groaning under the weight of mortgage debt, much of it accumulated in the building boom of recent years that has transformed some parts of the city with gleaming redevelopment.
But in many of these neighborhoods, a heavy mortgage debt has led thousands of residents — many of them first-time homebuyers — close to financial ruin, experts and local officials say. According to recent census figures, more than 40 percent of Newark homeowners spend more than half their income on housing, one of the highest percentages in the New York metropolitan region and among the highest in the country.
In small ways and large, that debt is forcing thousands of people here to change their lives. Many have taken second jobs. Others are selling off prized possessions. Some have had to rent out rooms. And more than a few have surrendered to the inevitability of losing their homes to foreclosure.
Driving the high mortgage debt and the boom in home sales here, and around the country, has been the proliferation of mortgages that have made it possible for people with poor credit, scant savings and modest incomes to buy homes. Among these are subprime loans, which are easier to obtain than prime rate loans but come with an added burden: much higher interest rates. In many cases, financial institutions lent to people without verifying whether their incomes could support the monthly payments. [...]
Malcolm Bush, president of the Woodstock Institute, a national research group that studies mortgage lending in poor neighborhoods, said that widespread foreclosures in an area can depress already low housing prices, making it harder for others in that area to get loans or refinance. And those troubles can afflict an entire community. “This has wider social implications,” Mr. Bush said. “It appears that things are going to get worse.” [...]
At first, [Franklin Abazie] had assumed that he could find a tenant to help offset the cost of the mortgage, but soon discovered his neighborhood had a glut of vacant apartments [...] Last month, they found a tenant, who pays $400 a month, far short of the $1,200 rent they had thought they could charge.
[...] For Michelle Pitt, subprime loans were not the problem. But she, too, has found herself swimming in debt that is jeopardizing her ability to keep her home.
Ms. Pitt, a 39-year-old single mother of four, bought her two-family house from a local nonprofit group, Episcopal Community Development, in 1999. The house sits on a hill in the South Ward and rattles constantly with the sound of Interstate 78, the highway next door. Still, it was a good deal, selling for $105,000 under a subsidized housing program.
Ms. Pitt, a first-time home buyer, got a mortgage with a relatively good interest rate of 7.5 percent. And at the time, she was earning decent salaries from two jobs, as a flight attendant for Spirit Airlines and as a dental assistant in state prisons.
Over the next few years, she was laid off by the prison and stopped working at Spirit when the company moved some of its New York operations to Florida. Since then, she has held temporary jobs, most recently as a part-time orthodontist’s assistant. [...]
-----
The first reflection that hit me with the force of a hammer is that living in Newark for people like TFA-ers is not only a "nice" and "responisible" thing to do, but (done right) it is a very concrete way to help not only the landlords, but also the community surrounding the house against financial ruin.
I have been reading about the effects that the bursting of the "housing bubble" has had on THEM, but this is the first in-depth analysis I have read about the effect on PEOPLE. And it really makes me despise these Wall Street types who - with the goal of making a quick profit - set up conditions that have the only foreseeable consequence of screwing people over. How sick is this system? And is there anything that individual citizens and taxpayers can do to help these poor people out?
Lavoro a Pistoia: buona fortuna
di zeroman (27/03/2007 - 23:03)
Trovato qui:
Diminuisce il lavoro stabile e di qualità a Pistoia, aumenta quello precario. Il risultato è un forte impoverimento sociale. È quanto emerso nella realtà pistoiese da una serie di assemblee svolte dalla Cisl e da uno studio statistico effettuato dalla società di servizi del sindacato. Stando a quanto emerso aumentano i contratti a termine e i co.co.pro sia per i giovani, che per le generazione di mezzo, cioè i soggetti tra 40 e 50 anni, per i quali il ricollocamento lavorativo è più problematico. Il sindacato chiede una politica sociale più mirata, anche a livello locale. Toscana Radio News
Non che sia una sorpresa, date le conversazioni che ho avuto con molti amici a Pistoia.
Mi piacerebbe pero' trovare i dati esatti...
realta' economiche - economic reality
di zeroman (05/03/2007 - 14:59)
In inglese - la traduzione in italiano e' sotto:
DEAN BAKER
Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker said today: "A lower stock market is good for a lot of people. If corn prices fell 30 percent, that would be bad for you if you're a corn farmer, but good for you if you weren't and ate a lot of corn. Stock ownership is highly concentrated; 75 percent of the population holds little or no stock (including retirement accounts), so if stocks go down and you don't own any, you're better off.
"When stocks plunge in value, it's similar to a situation where there are trillions of dollars in counterfeit currency, held by a small group of people, and the police seize and burn it. This is good news for the rest of us because the trillions of dollars of counterfeit money will not be bidding up the prices of things like houses and cars. Any honest economist would have to concede this point -- it's elementary economics, but many economists tend to cheer the stock market, in effect favoring the wealthy at everyone else's expense."
Baker's most recent book is "
Conservative Nanny
State : How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer."
DEAN BAKER
Il co-direttore del centro per la ricerca economica e politica ha detto oggi: un mercato azionario in ribasso e' un bene per molte persone. Se il prezzo del granturco cadesse del 30%, significherebbe una notevole perdita per l’agricoltore, ma un notevole vantaggio per chi non e’ un agricoltore e compra molto grano. Il gruppo di persone che possiede azioni e’ molto ristretto: il 75% della popolazione (degli stati uniti) non possiede nessuna azione, per cui per loro un mercato che cade produce vantaggi economici.
Quando il prezzo delle azioni cade precipitosamente, ci troviamo in una situazione simile a quando vengono trovati miliardi di euro in banconote fasulle, nelle mani di poche persone, e la polizia li distrugge. E' una buona notizia per il resto della popolazione perche’ non ci sono piu' persone che comprano oggetti costosi, facendo salire i prezzi degli oggetti che tutti dobbiamo comprare. Qualsiasi economo onesto deve ammettere che e’ vero – si tratta di economia elementare, ma molti economi fanno il tifo per il mercato azionario, di fatto favorendo i ricchi piu’ di tutti noi.
Pistoia/Firenze e l'acqua pubblica
di zeroman (08/02/2007 - 23:40)
Comitato unitario pistoiese a sostegno della "Legge nazionale per la ripubblicizzazione del servizio idrico":
ACLI, ARCI, ASSOCIAZIONE APRILE PER LA SINISTRA, CASA DELLA SOLIDARIETA'-RETE RADIE' RESCH QUARRATA, COBAS, FORUM PROVINCIALE DEL III SETTORE, FORUM SOCIALE DI SAMBUCA P.SE, FLMU-CUB, F.P.-CGIL, GIOVANI COMUNISTI, GRUPPO DI RIFLESSIONE POLITICA DELLA DIOCESI, ITALIA DEI VALORI, NODO PISTOIESE DELLA RETE LILLIPUT, NODO PISTOIESE DELLA RETE NAZIONALE RIFIUTI ZERO, OPP-OFFICINA POLITICA, PDCI, PRC, VERDI.
Carissimi/e, ci sono alcuni impegni concreti su cui è necessario verificare la disponibilità a partecipare:
1) SABATO 10 FEBBRAIO ore 15, presso il CENTRO SOCIALE delle PIAGGE in via Lombardia 1/p a Firenze, c'è una RIUNIONE REGIONALE dei promotori toscani della proposta di legge nazionale per la ripubblicizzazione del servizio idrico
2) per il primo BANCHETTO promosso dal Comitato unitario pistoiese, SABATO 24 FEBBRAIO - ORE 9 - 12 al MERCATO di PISTOIA (Via Roma), ho portato, al Comando della Polizia Municipale, la comunicazione con richiesta di permesso ed ho avuto la conferma della presenza di un Consigliere Provinciale (Roberto Cappellini): ora si tratta di conoscere le altre disponibilità ad essere presenti (dalle 9 alle 12 - oppure anche ad un'ora e mezzo di queste tre ore), in modo di poter fare turni con la presenza di almeno 5 persone. Chi può, faccia sapere! (telefonando ad uno dei Coordinatori: GIULIANO CIAMPOLINI, DARIO GUASTINI, ALESSIO BARTOLINI).
3) Se non ci sono proposte diverse, per fare la CONFERENZA STAMPA possiamo chiedere la sala al Circolo Garibaldi per giovedì 22 febbraio, dalle ore 11,30 alle 12,30 (anche per questo impegno è importante sapere chi, a nome delle Organizzazioni e Associazioni aderenti, potrà essere presente).
In attesa di risposte, tanti saluti.
Il Coordinamento
Giuliano Ciampolini, (Tel. 0574 710453 - Cell. 334 76 04 779)
Dario Guastini
Alessio Bartolini
"Renewal" in Newark?
di zeroman (06/01/2007 - 19:09)
There is a long article in the Times about Newark's "revival." it strikes me tha throughout it is plagued by a classist bias
Foe example, this statement “This city is coming back,” is preceded by the fact that Throughout Newark, even on the most ragged blocks, new three-family homes are selling for $400,000. The article aslo talks about 1180 Raymond Boulevard: Vacant for 20 years, the building at Raymond Boulevard and Broad Street is being transformed into 317 apartments, and will feature valet parking, a mod bowling alley and a yoga studio. The average rent for a two-bedroom is $2,500; the building is still under renovation, but half the finished apartments have been rented. A year from now, the landlord, Cogswell Realty Group, plans to break ground nearby on a project that would bring 2,900 units to a stretch of Broad Street now dominated by abandoned department stores.
Well, of course: if houses cost $400,000 and a two-bedroom costs $2,500 the city must be coming back, right? But how many current Newark residents can afford to buy those houses? well, this is what the renewal is all about: hundreds of suburbanites and New Yorkers are moving into the city’s first luxury high-rise in a generation [and] As it stands, more than three-quarters of the city’s 150,000 jobs are held by out-of-towners.
And just who is going to live in the Cogswell Realty homes? The company sees its markets as college students who currently commute to Newark, young professionals priced out of Manhattan and empty-nesters seeking an urban experience without depleting their savings.
The articles countinues by saying that Business leaders and politicians alike say such retail — and residential — development depends in part on the 50,000 students and teachers whose lives revolve around Seton Hall Law School, Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Essex County College and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. And there is a massive push to get these people to live in Newark: i got a hold of the Rutgers student paper, and essentially the only two ads in it were for these new residential complexes (one of which advertised the presence of 24-hour security).
The article does not hide the class issues: For Mr. Booker, already tarnished in the eyes of some as an outsider for his suburban upbringing and criticized for hiring too many aides from New York, the true challenge will be to spread change beyond a few shiny spots in the business district downtown into the struggling neighborhoods. But sentences like these are followed by this kind of assessment: “The edge is so thin right now,” said Alfred C. Koeppe, president of the Newark Alliance, a consortium of business leaders working to improve the economy and schools. “All it takes is one kid who recently moved here to get shot on the way to the PATH train and it could be all over.” Never mind the 106 people who were murdered in Newark last year - they're not even part of the equation, except maybe because they create a negative impression in the minds of potential new residents.
The mayor has been saying some of the right things. He says he's going to create building trade apprenticeships for jobless young people and develop a municipal loan pool for minority business owners, [and he is] trying to make the rehabilitation of former offenders [...] a top priority. And there is certainly room to do so: Indeed, down at the waterfront, where the business of unloading and loading cargo has doubled in the past decade, producing about 1,000 new jobs a year, nearly 80 percent of the 28,000 stevedore and truck driving positions are held by people who live outside the city. At Newark Liberty International Airport, the airlines hire hundreds of baggage handlers, flight attendants and reservation agents every month; few are from Newark. (i mentioned the advertisement in this picture in a previous post - this is certainly a good thing).
With 1,500 to 2,000 parolees returning to Newark each year — and 60 percent of them ending up in handcuffs again within three years, according to city officials — the Booker administration plans to unveil a program next month that would provide ex-felons with job training and help them expunge their criminal records.
However, aside from the advertisement above and the proposed redevelopment of Brick Towers (also in a previous post), I have seen many fewer concrete things done for "the mass who burn and toil" than for "the vultures who thirst for blood and oil", and the cynic in me thinks that this is the most telling statement of the whole article:
“All my life, the politicians have been calling this place the Renaissance City,” complained Latonya Edwards, 28, a part-time security guard who is raising three children in a decrepit apartment building on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. “I think the renaissance is for suburban people who go downtown. If they have their way, people like me would just disappear.”
la Breda propone licenziamenti
di zeroman (06/01/2007 - 18:33)
Ho letto oggi sulla Nazione che la Breda sta proponendo dei licenziamenti per risollevarsi dai suoi problem economici.
è solo una proposta, non è chiaro nemmeno a quale stabilimento si riferisca... eppure io ho ritrovato questa cartolina, e mi preparo a fare l'orto!
Più seriamente, mi sembra anche di aver capito dall'articolo che lo stato italiano, quando rinnova il parco treni delle ferrovie, non usa la Breda. Se ho capito bene, ed è vero, mi sembra proprio il massimo del paradosso: sarà mai possibile che aziende straniere possano produrre treni per il sistema ferroviario italiano a un costo minore della Breda?
L'acqua è un diritto, non una merce!
di zeroman (03/01/2007 - 11:47)
to all those who say "you can't change the world"
di zeroman (02/01/2007 - 19:06)
The New York Times had this article:
As a way to cut energy use, it could not be simpler. Unscrew a light bulb that uses a lot of electricity and replace it with one that uses much less.
A compact fluorescent has clear advantages over the widely used incandescent light — it uses 75 percent less electricity, lasts 10 times longer, produces 450 pounds fewer greenhouse gases from power plants and saves consumers $30 over the life of each bulb. But it is eight times as expensive as a traditional bulb, gives off a harsher light and has a peculiar appearance.
Wal-Mart Stores, the giant discount retailer, is determined to push them into at least 100 million homes. And its ambitions extend even further, spurred by a sweeping commitment from its chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., to reduce energy use across the country, a move that could also improve Wal-Mart’s appeal to the more affluent consumers the chain must win over to keep growing in the United States.
For all its power in retailing, though, Wal-Mart is meeting plenty of resistance — from light-bulb makers, competitors and consumers.
[Wal-Mart's decision] would send shockwaves — some intended, others not — across the lighting industry. Because compact fluorescent bulbs last up to eight years, giant manufacturers, like General Electric and Osram Sylvania, would sell far fewer lights. Because the bulbs are made in Asia, some American manufacturing jobs could be lost. And because the bulbs contain mercury, there is a risk of pollution when millions of consumers throw them away.
More than a year ago, Mr. Scott, the company’s chief executive, began reaching out to some of environmental groups, telling them that Wal-Mart, long regarded as an environmental offender, wanted to become a leader on issues like fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions.
Why would Wal-Mart make a decision which may negatively affect its bottom line, in the face of pressure from industry? Could it be that environmental activists have raised consciousness to the point that Wal-Mart thinks that selling the compact fluorescent bulbs is a cost-effective propaganda tool to counter environmentalists?
Therefore, let's applaud environmentalists for having won a battle against industry, and urge them to keep it up - many, many more decisions like this need to be made, and they will only be made if we force them to be made.
Chi decide a Pistoia?
di zeroman (17/12/2006 - 19:16)
Cercando "Pistoia" su news.Google.it ho trovato la seguente notizia:
Comune Pistoia: Fitch assegna rating "AA-" a bond
LONDRA (MF-DJ)--Fitch ha assegnato i rating di lungo termine "AA-", di breve termine "F1" e outlook negativo (???) ai bond emessi dal Comune di Pistoia per un valore di 11 mln di euro, in parte rimborsati e i cui ricavi saranno utilizzati per finanziare gli investimenti previsti.
I rating, si legge in una nota, riflettono la natura non subordinata e non garantita del debito emesso e tengono conto delle buone, sebbene indebolite, performance operative e del forte impegno verso il miglioramento della situazione finanziaria.
Il giudizio, conclude la nota, considera anche il buon profilo socio-economico di Pistoia rispetto agli standard internazionali, il crescente livello di indebitamento e la modesta flessibilita' finanziaria.
In pratica (credo) il comune di pistoia vuole un prestito per 11 milioni di euro, e questa agenzia da un voto alla citta' in base alla probabilita' che la citta' paghi o meno il proprio debito. Poi, banche e investitori privati decidono se dare questo prestito anche in base al 'voto' che Pistoia riceve da questa compagnia.
Il meccanismo e' perverso: Pistoia (se vuole il prestito) deve fare il possibile per avere un bel voto, e in generale ricevere un bel voto significa fare contente le aziende e scontente chi lavora - questo e' il significato del 'forte impegno per il miglioramento della situazione finanziaria'.
Fitch Ratings is a leading global raoting agency committed to providing the world's credit markets with independent, timely and prospective credit opinions.
The use of credit ratings defines their function: "investment grade" ratings (International Long-term, 'AAA' to 'BBB-'; Short-term, 'F1' to 'F3' ) indicate relatively low to moderate credit risk
Support Public Education
di zeroman (03/12/2006 - 07:38)
I read a good op-ed in the Star Ledger about Abbott Funding and tangible success stories (though not from Newark).
It reminded me that i had found the opinions of the New Jersey Businesss and Industry association on what the state legislature is doing about "property tax reform" - which includes the very real possibility of cuts to public schools (particularly those that need it the most). Needless to say, the NJBIA favors almost all of the proposals set forth by the legislature - god forbid that legislators do something against rich people. And as i looked the proposals over, i saw the proposals for public school funding reform, which prompted me to write this letter to the star ledger and to foward it to my state representatives:
Editor,
When I read that one of the recommendations of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform is that "A minimum amount of State aid should be provided to each school district" I recognized as real the fears that the gains made by students in Abbott districts are at risk due to possible (perhaps likely) cuts in funding.
Property tax relief is important. One fair solution that has been suggested in your newspaper, which I would support, is an expanded role for a progressive state income tax - but regardless of what decisions are made, as a community of moral people (some of us so moral as to we cheer the spending of hundreds of billions of tax dollars to 'bring democracy' to other countries) we cannot compromise the promise of Abbott by shortchanging the students who have been consistently failed by our institutions.
Privatizare l'alitalia: non sono d'accordo.
di zeroman (03/12/2006 - 05:44)
Leggo sul manifesto:
Certo, gli stranieri sono quasi sempre più seri degli imprenditori italiani [sara' mai possibile che in tutta italia lo stato non riesca a trovare degli amministratori competenti?], ma poi si porrebbe il problema del rispetto - anzi, della stessa esitenza - di un piano strategico dei trasporti aerei in Italia: se oggi il governo dell'Unione sceglie di tirarsi fuori, chi assicurerà in futuro che una qualche compagnia aerea (italiana o meno non importa) risponda alle esigenze dei cittadini italiani? Il problema è capire se il solo mercato può dare questa risposta, e non pare che paesi come la Germania, la Francia o la Gran Bretagna - dove restano centrali Lufthansa, Air France o British Airways, senza per questo vietare a Ryanair o Easyjet di offrire legittimamente le proprie offerte low cost - pensino che la risposta sia sì.
Sono sempre sconcertato dall'idea che "privatizzare sia l'unica soluzione." Non e' vero nulla! altri paesi mica privatizzano i beni piu' importanti. Semplicemente, li amministrano bene, e creano meccanismi di controllo piu' o meno imparziali che piu' o meno funzionano. Qualcuno mi sa spiegare come mai l'Italia e' (o forse appare) cosi' diversa?
Dovrei anche chiarire che mi oppongo in linea di principio alle privatizzazzioni. L'ente privato ha un solo fine: la massimizzazione del profitto e del controllo sul mercato. Gli enti pubblici POSSONO in teoria essere governati da logiche bern diverse, se il pubblico votante fosse sufficietemente organizzato. E, per chiudere, non mi rimane che chiedermi - per l'ennesima volta - quali siano le qualifiche di "sinistra" di questo governo.
New Jersey: "core" or "periphery"?
di zeroman (30/11/2006 - 01:45)
In an example of how much like the Third World the United States has become, consider the following item from today's Star Ledger.
New Jersey business leaders have turned decidedly pessimistic about the coming year, according to a survey released yesterday by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association. At the heart of the survey, according to Kirschner, is the finding that only 17 percent of respondents rate New Jersey as a good place to expand their business, the lowest approval rating in the past 23 years.
Hughes said the attitude of business is based on what happened from 2002 to 2005, when the administration of former Gov. James McGreevey increased corporate tax collections by about $1 billion a year.
The current pessimism is a reaction to years of public policy from Trenton that predates Corzine, said Melanie Willoughby, chief lobbyist for the NJBIA. "Business has been hit by high taxes, fines and penalties; depending on your industry, there is some level or department that is taking you on in some way, shape or form in New Jersey, and that has created an overall feeling that government is not on their side and trying to help them grow, but sees them as a cash cow."
[The] Corzine administration has made property-tax reduction a top priority, and the governor's first budget repealed two much-despised business taxes. "It was the first state budget in six years with a net reduction in business taxes," he said. "The governor has made it clear time and again that he is very focused on improving the business climate, and we are committed to working with the business community to do that."
"The Corzine administration has been the first to recognize that business needs to be developed and helped because if business grows, you'll have more tax revenue coming in," Willoughby said.
It would be interesting to compare this article with corporate profits over the past 16 years, and with the personal worth of the people who were polled. The implicit threat is Capital Flight - which destroyed Newark in the 50's. Businesses threaten to close their plants and relocate their offices - in another US state, or abroad - making people lose their jobs, taking away what tax revenue they do provide, etc. UNLESS the government reduces taxes. Capital Flight is the implicit threat against ANY tax raise, and it is the reason why if democracy is to be meaningful it MUST be extended to decision-making over the economy.
Which is exactly what is happening in Bolivia. From the BBC:
The Bolivian Senate has approved a controversial reform bill proposed by President Evo Morales to redistribute under-used land to rural communities.
A week-long stand-off ended when three opposition senators broke ranks with their conservative parties to vote in favour of the bill.
Thousands of indigenous protesters had marched on La Paz on Tuesday to put pressure on the senate to pass the law.
It could lead to the redistribution of up to 20m hectares of land to the poor.
Big landowners oppose the move, saying it will destroy Bolivian agriculture, and have threatened to use force to defend their property.
A recent survey by the Catholic Church found that just 50,000 families own almost 90% of Bolivia's productive land.
Land reform is the reason why the US overthrew the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954, leading to several decades of state-sponsored bloodshed that claimed the lives of over 200,000 people. It is a major issue in Venezuela and Brazil. It is safe to say that the greater the strides toward land redistribution in a country, the more democratic the government. By this measure, the Lula administration in Brazil is failing the most in the eyes of Brazil's social movements, such as the MST.
Incidentally, the US itself has been the most successful at blocking any attempt at land reform - which first was seriously considered after the Civil War, when General Sherman promised the free slaves "forty acres and a mule" from the property of their slaveholders. Congress rescinded the provision and blocked any attempt to revive it until this day. What this means for democracy in the US i'll leave up to the reader to decide.
Since the Civil War, capital and technology in the US have advanced to the point where owners can just threaten to move. In much of Latin America, economic power is measured (in large part) by land ownership, and when that is threatened, the owners often resort to violence - which can only be effective if they have state support.
Back to the point I was making in the beginning: when leftist or national governments are elected elsewhere in the world, multinational firms have favorite tactics to preserve their profits: the threat or practice of Capital Flight, or US military or covert intervention. So, for example, Lula doen't get any "funny ideas" about nationalizing industries. In New Jersey and Newark, the proposal has been on the table for a commuter tax: all of the white-collar workers who come to Newark should pay some part of their income to the city. Well, the answer is the same: don't do it or we'll pull out and leave.
Bolivia is making the right choice, with popular muscle to defend it. We should be part of the popular muscle defending similar choices here.
media italiani: partita a tre?
di zeroman (28/11/2006 - 06:20)
C'e' oggi un articolo sulla pagina degli affari del New York Times che discute la "partita a tre" che si sta giocando sulla televisione italiana: RAI (lo stato), Mediaset (Berlusconi) e SKY (Murdoch).
Sembra che la legge proposta da Prodi riguardo al "conflitto di interessi" possa finire semplicemente con l'indebolire Berlusconi (diretto avversario politico dell'attuale governo) solo per favorire Murdoch, ultramiliardario che negli Stati Uniti e' responsabile di una "televisione di notizie 24 ore su 24" a dir poco raccapricciante, che si e' (giustamente, a mio parere) meritata l'immagine satirica qui di fianco.
Sara' mai possibile che un governo (cosi' dicono) di sinistra non sia capace di una svolta che favorisca l'interesse comune piuttosto che un freddo calcolo politico di breve termine?
Com'e' possibile che Prodi e Compagnia bella non si rendano conto della trappola posta da Murdoch? Lui detesta tutto cio' per il quale loro si battono (o perlomeno dicono di battersi, o perlomeno ho l'impressione che almeno dicano di battersi).
Negli Stati Uniti c'e' un movimento per la riforma dei media (di cui e' esponente di spicco il neoeletto senatore Bernie Sanders): in Italia c'e'?
mi trovo nuovamente a pensare che una attivita' utile per la cittadinanza di Pistoia sia la creazione di fonti mediatiche alternative a quelle padronali e statali...
pistoia: fuga dei capitali
di zeroman (26/11/2006 - 19:19)
Giovedi a Pistoia aprira' il centro commerciale.sotto casa mia. Sembra un nuovo chiodo nella bara dei commercianti locali (quali il Selmi, uno degli ultimi rimasti in centro) a favore di un capitale piu' sfuggevole, meno controllabile, meno legato al territorio.
Ci saranno (e ci sono gia' stati) cambiamenti urbanistici. Quali saranno gli effetti sulla vita civica di Pistoia e sulla vita del quartiere Le Fornaci?
Una grande differenza tra il centro di Pistoia e questo centro commerciale e' la differenza tra uno spazio PUBBLICO, dove si puo' parlare di politica e proselitizzare su questioni sociali, e uno spazio PRIVATO, dove si pu' fare solo quello che decide il padrone, e l'unico messaggio che e' legittimo trasmettere e' un messaggio commerciale.
In piu', cosa significa la creazione di questo spazio per i lavoratori di Pistoia? Verranno creati lavori dignitosi o si propaghera' ancora di piu' il precariato?
article about math education in the Times
di zeroman (15/11/2006 - 05:38)
The NY Times had an article about math education today. This was my reply.
Editor,
As someone with a degree in mathematics, i know that averages are deceptive - they ignore what happens at the margins. And as a high school math teacher in Newark, NJ, i work precisely at the end of the spectrum that lowers US average math performance - the end where families can't afford expensive private tutoring services.
One way to raise average scores is to identify the cause of poor performance at the bottom, and alleviate or eliminate those factors.
Simply put, one reason why average US scores are so much lower than those of other industrialised countries is that the US has much more poverty than other industrialised countries.
If the new democratic majority wants to improve our students' average math performance, they can start with bringing jobs back to the inner city.
Matteo Tamburini
le elezioni USA
di zeroman (08/11/2006 - 19:25)
Il partito democratico ha "vinto" le elezioni. nel senso che: adesso hanno il controllo della camera dei deputati e (forse) il senato.
Cosa cambiera'? non e' affatto chiaro. Una misura importannte sarebbe vedere come cambiera' la vita quotidiana delle persone di Newark, e dei miei studenti in particolare. In breve: sospetto che non cambiera' nulla. Tutti i vari personaggi eletti dal New Jersey sono rimasti gli stessi di prima, anche a livello locale.
Un'altra misura sarebbe vedere cosa combiera' di sostanziale in Iraq. e qui devo ricordare che, in primo luogo, i democratici controllavano il senato e comunque hanno votato a favore della guerra. E la maggioranza degli statunitensi favorisce un ritiro rapido di tutte le truppe. Quindi potremmo dire che i democratici faranno un bel lavoro se: si faranno promotori aggressivi del ritiro delle truppe dall'Iraq e una fine alla costruzione delle basi militari permanenti.
Quindi ci possiamo aspettare:: che le politiche economiche saranno ridimensionate riducendo un po' i vantaggi degli ultraricchi e favorendo un po' della classe media.
magari ci saranno piccole differenze a qualche altro livello locale.
Ma per il resto rimango dell'idea che il partito e' ancora pieno di falle. e lo rimarra' fin quando la gente non li costringera' e mettersi decisamente a favore di un sistema sanitario nazionale, a favore di un limite alla concentrazione del potere dei media, e facendo una svolta in senso MORALE in politica estera.
Beni PUBBLICI: non in vendita?
di zeroman (26/10/2006 - 21:55)
Ho letto quanto segue sul manifesto:
Un disegno di legge «collegato alla finanziaria» per dare ai privati trasporto locale, luce e gas gestiti fin qui dagli enti locali. Resta pubblica soltanto l'acqua
Di tante «riforme» che la globalizzazione ci sta imponendo ce n'è una che proprio non è tollerabile per il «popolo di sinistra», le associazioni, i sindacati, i cristiani impegnati nel sociale... (insomma, tutti quelli che hanno votato per il centrosinistra): la privatizzazione dei «beni comuni» e dei servizi sociali.
I ministri Linda Lanzillotta (Dl), Pierluigi Bersani (Ds) e Emma Bonino l'hanno capito talmente bene che hanno presentato un disegno di legge per privatizzare tutto, tranne - bontà loro - i servizi idrici.
Quindi sono andato a controllare il programma dell'Unione, che effettivamente dice:
Per noi liberalizzare [ovvero: vendere al miglior offerente] significa contrastare rendite monopolistiche e corporative, migliorare qualità e prezzo per il consumatore, garantire fondamentali clausole sociali per gli operatori [si e' mai vista una privatizzazione che abbia avuti questi effetti? mi piacerebbe conoscerla...], promuovere investimenti e crescita industriale.
Ciò vale anche per i servizi pubblici locali. In questo caso liberalizzare [ovvero: vendere al miglior offerente] deve significare altresì garantire comunque le caratteristiche universalistiche dei servizi.
Ovvero, fanno quello che hanno promesso. Magari si fosse saputo prima che l'avevano promesso, ma mica l'hanno spiegato! anzi, hanno prodotto un documento colossale (280 pagine) che in italia avranno letto in mille e capito in cinquecento.
Rimango dell'idea che privatizzare e' SBAGLIATO. in teoria, se c'e' un problema con un servizio pubblico, posso lamentarmi con il sindaco, e se il problema e' sufficientemente grosso, posso convincere altri a venire a lamentarsi con me.
Chi si lamentera' presso la Sodexho o la Halliburton? guardate cosa gli tocca fare in Iraq per avere un po' di corrente e d'acqua potabile...
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