What we are reading this week - May 6th, 2017 - A lot !!!

The biggest story this week was Obama's $400,000 sellout to Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald and A&E Networks.

MSNBC has the basic story

So does NY Post which reported he got $400,000 from A&E networks.

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The Atlantic has a story on the decline of Black Businesses. 

But's really a story about market concentration and large company power squeezing out small businesses: Black, White and poor.

We have long supported limits on market power and concentration which would allow room for small businesses to flourish.

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The National Urban League released it's State of Black America Report.

SOBA 2017

The NUL has created an equity index showing how far behind Blacks are as compared to Whites. This year they fully report on the Black/White and Hispanic/White differences.

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Peter Temin from MIT has a new book on inequality and racism. It's called The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy.

He argues we have a dual economy but only the rich and powerful have the ability to make changes.

The introduction is all over the internet. Here.

The Atlantic has a write up.

If you are interested in inequality, check out almost anything by Tony Atkinson.

15 Proposals to reduce inequality

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Crain's New York has a list of minority businesses. It has only 19 names. Jokes on us.

Crain's New York

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Jobs are heading to Mexico again on Bloomberg.com

US companies are resuming their outsourcing and offshoring after a brief pause. Absent a real policy or regulation, labor intensive jobs will continue to move to Mexico, China and other low wage countries.

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American Airlines decided give it's workers a pay raise. Wall Street smacked down the stock. Not much we can do but "whine" about shareholder value.

Here is the story by Matthew Yglesais in Vox 

Here is Joe Nocera on Bloomberg View

The Evil Black Economist Blog believes you can never soften or beat Shareholder Value Principal. Instead we should give stakes in the company to Employees and other interest groups and reserve places on corporate boards for the same stakeholders.

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Apple has $250 Billion in cash. Vox reports. $250 billion in cash is about 1/80th of the 18 Billion dollar US economy.

We also have a long piece on the Evil Black Economist called "Apple is an investment bank that makes iPhones"

Forbes also has a story on Apple and their PR effort around job creation.

Apple may be getting scared.  It released a website announcing how many jobs it creates. Apple Job Creation.

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Here is a key study constantly used in economic discussions.  It is a great reference in an argument or when trying to prove a point.

Pew Reseach -- American Middle Class is losing ground

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Research Papers

Andreas Ferrara believes world war II White causalities led to Black worker skill upgrades and improved income, integration and political participation. I would probably include women in there as well. 

http://conference.iza.org/conference_files/SUM_2017/ferrara_a25005.pdf

But when the troops returned home, Blacks and women were told to go back to the service job or the kitchen.  The US really is a zero-sum game.