BY
Sampson I. Onwuka
Harry L. Hopkins reflecting the politics of Social Welfare
mentioned in his classic book 'Spending to Save;
36, that a certain John P. HOGAN who was a consulting engineer,
that "...in 1933 that a $3, 000, 000, 000
public works program would have employed between 1, 500, 000 to
2, 000, 000 workers a year, that to
support them in idleness was costing $750, 000, 000 a year, and
that interest charges on a $3, 000, 000,
000 program were only $150, 000, 000 a year. The stimulus of
such a program, he felt, would have
proved a good investment"
Considering what now transpires as Black business or economics,
the books of interest such as, the
American Millstone; the examination of a nation’s Permanent
under-class by Ovie Carter (1975), where
he examined the lives of Blacks in Chicago and the hard choice
between Welfare and underprivileged
minimum wage jobs with increasingly diminishing hours, Carter
worked his miracle in translating some
of the hardship experienced by these people in Chicago,
especially the individual families who struggle
through tuition and new training meeting for the City and the
State of Chicago. Such books are to be
written on continues basis since conditions of African Americans
in any part of the world, would serve as
an example for others elsewhere – especially Black economics.
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver (1968)
narrates account of his wishful revolutions in Mississippi and
disgust in the wake of the conflicts in
Mississippi, well noted for mature emotions although injured
from his how town experience and speaks
little of economic transformation, yet the book is an awakening
classic on the problems black faced and
were facing since Martin Luther and the economic way forward.
The book wallows on emotions but gives the impressions of active
business interest in respect
communities was one way out of the situation. African Americans
in Mississippi do not even know they
are taken advantage of and in his words; they needed to be
reminded from time to time. Black
Metropolis by St Clair Drake and Horace Clayton (1945) in a
great account of Urban life and its
considered, Soul of Black Folks by W.E.B Dubois (1903), Robert
J. Yancy’s ‘Federal Government Policies
and Black Enterprises’, Carl R. Osthaus ‘Freedman, Philanthropy
and Fraud’,…and other books reflecting
the rise of the Freedman Bank and it collapse. The Black Wall
Street by Jay Jay Wilson and similar specie
books by Hannibal B Johnson.
Walter B. Weare ‘Black Business in the New South; A social
history of the N.C mutual life insurance life”
(1993) it’s an interesting narrative, comparable with Booker T.
Washington ‘Durham, North Carolina, A
City of Negro Enterprises, W. E. B Dubois “Up building of Black
Durham.” Madame Chavers Wright ‘The
Guarantee’, discusses the trials and triumphs of ‘The Douglass
National Bank’ instituted in 1921,
considering how the Banks managed to survive the Great
Depression, that the Bank and its associates
primarily focused on Black Businesses and ensured returns on
their investment, through structured cloth
industries and factories which made cloths for women. The Bank
got actively involved in small business
administration, and made systematic demands on the working
American Population such as the Black
Chicagoans and the Black Milwaukee. That there was toughness she
mentioned does not fail to
incorporate.
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Ishaq Shafig contributing his article 'Mayor, Black, and Black
Business' in Juliet E.K Walker 'Encyclopedia
of African American Business'; 1999, made a thorough going
argument on the evolution of Black
Business that following the appointment of Black Mayors in such
as Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta and
in Mayor Ernest N. Morial New Orleans which came through the
years of the Civil Right Movements and
the decision of the Federal Government to author Voters Right
for African Americans and for Women.
Small Business Act Section 8 (d) required recipient of Federal
prime contracts exceeding I million to
show the percentage goals for minority. Minority owned firms
received 3.4% of all ‘Federal Procurement
Expeditions’, by the end of the 1994, they have received
somewhere between 8.3 Billion dollars to 14.4
Billion. The problem US is facing with 'rising cost' of Energy
and natural resources such as grains, metals,
lumber and interference from International conflicts and growth
of small sector may see a better day for
the country when Blacks business pick and go half way of its
full expectation.
Juliet E.K Walker History of Black Business (1998) is a
historical accounting of some of the major business
and ventures originating from African Americans from the
beginning to very recent enterprising. Like I
mentioned, the book is good for the information it offers to the
reader especially when there is not
enough information of Black and black business and how they have
performed over the years. It helps to
form an estimate of the struggles facing Blacks in this day and
age, why there are new reasons to
interpret these problems from purely 24 Hr. business world, and
why above all, we can be confident in
separating African America business from other forms of business
and re-opening the gap between
Africa, Caribbean and America. This book highlighted some of the
Black business abroad – which are far
and few between – narrates the earliest deals between Pepsi and
Joe Lewis, explains the root of brand
name and brand names, why some of them disappeared and why
others hung on for some time and
then disappeared.
The Book has no interesting new ideas and offers nothing new, it
separates old from the new in general
chronology format. On importation, she mentioned George Schuyler
that "There must be many things
that the Haitians import which a Negro-owned company could
supply. Soaps, Perfumed, and Cotton
cloths comes immediately to mind. We already have the cosmetic
factories (Walker, Poro, Apex, etc).
She cited that in terms of International Business, that Blacks
have not done very well, that saving for the
occasional names such as James Samuel 'Malta Boon' (James Samuel
Lynch Fykes Jr - Business in Malta,
Island - "Chez Jim" and of some coloration with the
Black of Wall Street and Jones Brothers, the future
frontiers for black businesses is not shockingly absent. The
Cultural Revolution of the Americans Civil
war is one of the best….There was also Jacgmar I and Jacgmar II
of Mexico owned by Jones Brothers
from Chicago and the business was eventually acquired for other
reasons. The other expeditionary
permeation of the two was also Simmons Royalty Company that
charged 2% of mineral resources.
Her book did not include some of the lessons from African
American business pioneers in Liberia. Some
of the conflicts over the new owners of large African front who
initially used each other’s labor and then
came a shortage of workers they now turned to locals. The first
on account of some settlement and
others from elsewhere in America created a sensation about
profit making in these areas, but as more
profit widened over this area, it created the greater need for
more areas of settlement than did others.
If we compare the traction from the later days of American
policy and its foreign policy retention which
were influenced by African American themselves, they seem to be
suggesting that Liberia was a Black
35
Republic in names mainly if not only, that a newer breed of
business men and women with no real
support of the republic saving for philanthropic exercises were
gradually coveting the republic. One
report pointed out that Firestone for instance, contrary to what
was believed elsewhere, was that
considered insensitive to the privileged condition of these Africans
that sort to place every adult black
male in Liberia under the program for rubber foundation. It
would mean that some academic sense that
the one million hectares which it sought from Africa with
useless economic interest covered the rest of
the country without the full knowledge of the native.
They were not along in the process as well, for if we look at
the principal connection between these
businesses and the ones that followed, it seemed clear that
coaxing people through food resources and
promise of foreign business was made most effective through
their fellow African Americans. When
England and France intervened in that Wet African Market, they
were chiefly interested in Natural
resources which the British West Africa of Bank gave stability.
For in West Africa, there are no degrees of
separation between the impact of New Dal which Firestone could
not keep up with and the earlier
advances made into West Africa through a scheme that has as much
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The politics of World War II Economy may no longer apply, but it
is to judged that from the Government
engagement in the public affairs, was met will some degree of
iron will by the Citizens themselves, that
in rear-view of the difficult challenges Detroit faced, there
was always the issue of judicious application
of resources, or at least from the Stables of a Mayor, there was
also the issue of resource allocation to
Whites who perhaps had upper hands in the town and African
Americans who were guiding the City
from 1974. Above, we can make the argument that even that Mayors
including the Black Mayors may
have failed in helping to initiate Banking Institutions and
Insurance, all of which might have the tint of
International Exposure and with their success will also come the
sparing of City's resources.
One appendage from the studied and storied examples of Oil funds
or Oil Pensions, there is a great
relieve that information from both GARCH and HENNESSEY groups,
that lack of financial securities
companies and groups bounded to Blacks are either missing or
simply not there and it terms of IRA
accounts like Baltimore and Cooper Village New York, some fund
to fund and fund of fund managers of
trying black types managed to settle oversea and off-shore
spread sheets (investments), and such
investment portfolios sheltered Baltimore at least from
premature burial under the concrete of private
and public debts. Even if this money earned and paid is limited
to the Black Canopy for a decade, the
formidable task on fostering a future that was essentially
Detroit in meaning would have pushed the
limits of the Business Intelligence of both parties, still
grasping straw from years of boom.
"Although no one could see it at the time, Detroit’s
insolvency was guaranteed"
Edward Helmore of the ‘U, K Guardian’ mentions that in “In 1950,
Detroit was 82% White. The “White
Flight” after the race riots flipped the ration – its 82%
black”. Helmore argument is not that the Black
presence began the descent of the City of Detroit; he was trying
to position himself against the reasons
for the so called White Flights that it was above commensurate
with riots in the fifties. He continued
there were obvious signs of a City coming back alive, and that
currently speaking that they were about
36
500 sites in Brightmoor cleared to make room for additional
investment options, and among the new
mongers in the Detroit market is Dan Gilbert who has over 40
building downtown Detroit.
Derek Thomson and Jordan Weismann in a recent survey of the City
of Detroit mentioned “that cars and
houses accounted for more than 70’s, - in Reagan Recovery if
accounts for a third 15% of the recovery
best.” From other estimates that he used in his article, he presented
the argument that there was at
least something wrong, with the losing streak of a City that
pretty much supported itself and for a long
period of time. That in spite of the fact that several states
and cities in United States that were
confronted with Debt that Detroit case was quite different. That
while other parts of the State of
Michigan was doing and pretty much struggled to move on in the
70’s and 80’s, Detroit plummeted in
value. There was nothing surprising with the outcomes in the
2000s when the City simply unable to
deliver, hence the City of Detroit on July 18, 2013 filed for
Bankruptcy.
The other town or City that were also close to filing Bankruptcy
is Jefferson County, Alabama and
Stockton California. But the Bankruptcy has not gone unchallenged
in Court. But under the
circumstances of the dry funds and illiquidity, the resolution
has to begin with the Creditors, who from a
10% hair cut can pursue short raise of quoted 10% to an
irreversible 15% and perhaps reasonable one
time 20%. There are no ends to speculations regarding the
pension and Retiree funds, but the civil
defends leading from the acceptance of loan by the City of
Detroit would be adjudged inevitable.
The reasons why Detroit has fumbled with such size of Debt may
in reaction to the 80’s and the 90’s be
reverted to the role of Creditors themselves. For sure, the
overall problems of the City were not nearly
related to the issue of corruption. In comparative relationship
to other Cities managed from 70’s
onwards by the material and personal circumstances of the
Detroit, namelessly, race and poverty, we
can guesstimate that not even Baltimore which at its peak had
over a Million resident that were mainly
Whites leading to the outcomes of the Civil Rights of the 60s,
and Atlanta which was home to individuals
assets that rescinded the Civil War, to Prince Georges County
Maryland or Mitchellville Maryland, that
these predominantly Black Counties and Cities with as much
concerns as those of Detroit, did not cave
in.
II
In fact Prince Georges County Maryland with sparingly little
reserves in terms of investment spurred a
lot of interest in manicuring self-supporting neighborhoods
which included the now famous Chevy Chess
and Fort Washington along the littoral of the Pontiac, is a
triple A; AAA; Aaa, rating, it should be not
missed that the said County such as PG – in spite of its
challenges is still strategically managed and
delivered by same races predominant in Detroit today. Even the
City of Washington – the Capital of the
Country and the center of world discourses are managed by mainly
Blacks who constitute somewhere
between 50-60 percent of the inhabitants.
At some point in the history of Washington D.C, there was no
less than 90% Blacks and Black Indians
with a slew of others spattered across the Capital City in the
70’s and the reasons why Washington D.C
was racked with drugs in the late 70’s and 80’s is not without
relevance to the lack of security
37
instrument both human and gadget around these abandoned
neighborhoods outside the inner Capitol
Hill. Not until the current administration of President Barak
Obama and Mitchel was anything done to
broker the problems of Washington D.C beyond the limits of
Capitol Hill or did it attract attention to
wider market. Once more, the reason for the failure of a large
Metropolis as Detroit is not that
constituted by the inability of foresight or systemic or endemic
corruption, it is actually a problem of
commensalism between one major domo and the surrounding others.
In other to better understand the point we are going to make
here, we may compare the problems of
Blacks who live in Wilson, North Carolina. The arrangement of
this town is such that the planters
surrounded the City from early stages and when they moved from
the center, many blacks moved in,
but overtime they were trapped in the middle. The lack of torch
and connection with North Carolina
forced the supply of loans or business to correspond to demands.
Gradually, the small spark of Wilson
died slowly and suddenly. The cause of the problems were not
known and it took a while for studies on
the Urban setting of Wilson to make sense, that even those at
the Middle has given birth to generations
of North Carolinian who accepted the quasi dependency on those
with the closest connection to wilder
North Carolina without themselves trying to pushed the
boundaries of their communities.
When we compare the impact of say a Ford Foundation in Michigan
or the Ford Foundation in faraway
place such as India, we are little to discover that the impact
of positive value system which India under
Nehru pursued will not correlate the amount of efforts put in by
Ford Foundation. This bad example
shows that Hogan mythology or Paschal theory of Self-love begins
and ends with identity. For if we cast
a trial light of how these debts were covered and cornered over
the years, we will find highly unpatriotic
behaviors from perhaps the Creditors. That it seems that the no
direct explicating of how in the 2000s,
that Detroit was brought to beggarly knee by the weight of $16
billion and that the number abominable
applause under the terrible years of Chinese return to World
market. The current and newly celebrated
emphasis on Pension to tax, is only summarily targeted excuse
for the poor use of judgment by both
parties and by prevailing parties. In the end, the lack of
accountability of Detroit finances in the last 20
years, manufactured a storied Debt Collection and the Mezzanine
now descends.
The combine effects of low and under-performing American
Automobile Industries, Music legacies such
as Motown and that the returns of the taxes from the peak in
1950’s with 1.8 million people, may not be
easily grasped with about 700, 000 left may not explain the draw
down in the economy, but the Detroit
question is relevance of a State to its primary financial thrust
for instance its commercial city, and if a
City such as London will survive without England. The
appreciation gap will make additional sense if the
populations are among the poor and less educated.
The newly appointed Mayor Kevin Orr was paid by the State of
Michigan to arrange departure from
these Debts, but it is already too late and as such resolving
the crisis around the auction of materials
from the Detroit Institute of Art such as Van Gogh, Matisse,
etc, was not exactly laughable but it is an
attempt to deputize on behalf of Rick Snyder who is playing the
wearily on the damaged carefully
manufactured Crisis as from his words “….60 years in the
making.” He lectured on the Detroit's
38
Bankruptcy that “While it is imperative that we've being
extremely prudent on costs, it’s also imperative
that this is done right and as quickly and efficiently as
possible.” While people may argue that this is not
a campaign speech, it behooves the most dispassionate observer
that the ambulance arrived just in
time, exactly where the body was presaged to be located, dead as
in Detroit and now the good fellows
of Michigan steps in. The Chinese mentions that a man’s
(woman’s) ability to rule is shown be ready and
willing him or in our time she, is willing to protect the
interest of those in the family………
Section I 'Matters arising'
We shall begin by measuring the faults associated with the
claims about the City, its past and present
and thrown some light glaringly degrees of limits which may
apply in this case with resolve towards an
argument about the best possible Models for a City that is
struggling, that there should be separation
between the restoration and reform from the attempt at
developing a new industry on less developed
area or from raw and virgin territory. We shall also be
concerned with...many of them were entering the
field for the first time was not how to manage a City and were
not sure if they were ready for the
change or if the voting majority was equally ready for Change.
Above all, it is clear that the actions they took was destined
for future consequence and means to argue
that effects were not to be taken seriously from the beginning
and saving for occasional exposures of
the likes of Coleman, these men and the women were not sure if
they will make it or for how long.
(1) The problems that faced the Black Mayors at the beginning of
the 70's and why by the end of Civil
Rights, it was imperative that these people succeeded. The
notional
The Problems of Pension...
(2) The standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, Financial
Accounting Standard Board.
(3) Reduction in force (4) Generally Accepted Accounting
Standards
(5) Cumulative Distributive Function (6) Regression mean;
dispersion and specialization and mimetic
Section II
We shall argue from the established disciplines such as Critical
Path Method of Schedule…scheduled
Disclosure for one Crop economy, including Internal Rate of
Return, that some of the issues involved in
this case which will lead to other factors such as., (1) The
Indian Model (2) Chinese Model (3) SEZ
standard in Philippines and in many parts of Asia where partial
equilibrium was applied. Job loss did not
equal number of new workers plus old displace workers>
Immigrants who spiked the demographic were
not exactly included in the Shortfalls in the Detroit business
from at least the 1974.
Section III (History)
Will focus on the (1) Formative years of the City's Industrial
History and Settlement, (2) Formation Crisis;
Racial and Real Estate, Segregation and the Politics of
Self-Importance, problems of religion and drug (3)
Formation of financial crisis and the resolutions...
39
Section IV (Miscellaneous)
Chamber Brothers and the Young Boys and string of other drop
cartels that made Detroit seem
impossible to handle. The problems of police segregation and
brutality, made it impossible for force to
use in certain conditions and given the conditions of the
divided City in the 70’s and the 80’s, the Crack
episode literally whacked neighborhoods
Pension funds...
Public pension and pension policy in Michigan by L.E Papke as
part of the Michigan Millennium and her
essay highlighted the driving distance associated with Michigan
Pension funds from about 1996.
Michigan provided retirement income for 170, 624 retires and Beneficiaries
and there is a growing 378,
247 workforce that were rehearsed to join the group and this
group would combine from the 83
counties, 1, 242 townships, 273 cities, and 262 villages. That
the first wave of the problems in this case
seems to be related to 1992, when at least the State Charter of
Pension Fund Guaranty Corporation
raised the formal problems associated with the recipient that a
sort of red flag was arising about the
conduct of new accounts many of whom will have the opportunity
of promoting their account in the
open markets. Her essay did not mention Detroit at all, and
since the essay was written in 2001, when
Michigan State Funds and Pension totaled $2.4 Billion payout to
in 2001 alone it is not impossible to
argue that the problems that Detroit for one will likely face
going forward was either not well known or
seem to have been the more …
The separation was done under Public Act 234 of 1992 and public
Act 523 of 1996; it seems that the
failure of anticipating the problems of liquidity which the City
confronts was not well known or foreseen.
In essence, the poverty of Detroit as an article in her paper
suggest that, She stated that in “…1997,
Michigan closed its traditional defined benefit pension plan to
new state employee hires, and the State
new offers individual defined contribution account in its
place.” This altered the nature of pension
benefit plan and began to offer ‘individual defined contribution
account instead’ and from the plans it
was estimated that Michigan’s Municipal Employees’ Retirement
System…’ For instance “….The state
sponsored and administered plans to have reasonable investment
assumption (about 8%) for the longterm
horizon of pension investing.”