Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / July 24, 2008, edition 1 / Page 6
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OPINION ? ^The _ Chronicle ? ? _ _ ___ ? _ ? ? ? ? _ _ ? Ernest H. Pitt Publisher/Co-Founder ELAINE Pitt Business Manager Michael A. Pitt Marketing T. Kevin Walker Managing Editor Nod* Carotin* Press Association The Time to be afraid is NOW Harry Alford Guest ? Columnist Not since the Great * Depression started with the stock market crash of 1929 and followed by an immediate run on the banks has there been such doubt in areas such as "Trust", "Accountability", etc. when it came to where we put our pre cious money. The best long term solid investment for all Americans was home ownership. That too has gone away from oup trusted beliefs. Our investments, assets, cash and everything else of value is now on the line. There is a chance that most of it will evaporate right before our eyes and there is nothing we can do about it. Most of this started with the sub-prime mortgage hustle. It has turned out to be a bigger monster than most of us imagined. One of the biggest examples is IndyMac Bank. This company is a spin off of Countrywide (one of the biggest firms involved in the sub-prime mort ' gage scam). Countrywide took its finest products and birthed the Independent Mortgage ' Acceptance Corporation, hence 1 the name IndyMac. According to Thomson Financial, "Indy was the second-largest mortgage lender in the United States, and the seventh largest savings and loan, with S32 billion in assets and $19 billion in deposits and $1 billion uninsured. It was the biggest bank fail ure in years. Since 2000. accord ing to the FDIC, there have been 32 bank failures in the United States, with IndyMac the fifth one so far in 2008 and bigger than all the other 31 put togeth er." Those depositors with more than $ 100 thousand stand to lose all above the $100 thousand threshold. If you had $800 thou sand in IndyMac you stand to only come out with $100 thou sand. The rest is a big gamble and most likely at least 50 percent will be lost by the depositor. Remember, only $100 thou sand in deposits is insured by the FDIC. There is no bank, investment brokerage anywhere that will guarantee you more than the initial $100 thousand. This is not security! The real scary part is that the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) has another 90 to 150 banks on its list of "trou bled" lenders. Is your bank on that list? You can't tell as the FDIC is keeping it a secret to prevent you from running the bank and causing it to collapse like IndyMac. Yes, the times are indeed changing and you nor I oiow what to do. The govern ment, Congress, Wall St. and >thers are going in circles and ire at a lost on what to do. You ind I are at the bottom of this ind will be the ones most hurt. YOUR MONEY ISN'T SAFE! Don't think you can avoid this by running to a major bank. They have troubles too. Wachovia Securities, formerly AG Edwards and now a division of the 4th largest bank in the nation - Wachovia Corporation, is now having difficulty in its daily business. The Secretary of State of Missouri after receiving hundreds of complaints from customers who were denied access to their cash sprung a raid on this brokerage last week. Her intent was "to make the investors whole". This looks like the next big horror story. The equity in your home, the American Dream, is going up in smoke with the rising tide of foreclosures. Even if you have your home free and clear, you are still at risk. For every fore closure within two miles of your home you will lose approxi mately $7,000 in net equity. It doesn't take long for this to start mounting up and chipping away at your family's future. What is going to happen to our retirement accounts and life insurance policies? These two industries have long been investing in the above areas and they must be taking a beating right now. When the "Baby Boomers" start retiring and cashing in on long-term life insurance policies will they be in for a major shock also? Probably, as the pain is being spread throughout the world. The way the Global Economy is set up now - we are severely vulnerable. Even giants like FannieMae and FreddieMac may have to be rescued by our national treasury. That will be tragic as we can ill afford such major bailouts. All of this and China is one of our major creditors. Our per sonal wealth is going down the tubes; our dollar is shrinking in value weekJy; lost faith in the financial markets and a foreign country who could call in our "note" whenever they feel like it. It took our par ents/grandparents twenty years and a world war to get out of the last Great Depression. How long and at what price will we have to pay for this one? Let us pray. Harry Alford is the co founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, www.nationalhcc .org . RECQRP i j I'M m CANPIDATfc OF RfiAt CHANfife, I'M CHUMP awse! Letter to the Editor Be a Life-Changer To the Editor: o Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Inc. is committed to "helping children reach their potential through professional ly supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors that have a measurable impact on youth." A Big Brother or Big Sister can be very important to the development of a young person that is missing either a mother or a father." I know this firsthand because I have had a Big Brother for three years. He has had a very positive influence on my life and has become a role model and friend that 1 can count on Being a Big Brother or Big Sister is a responsibility as well as a joy. It involves staying active in the life of the young per son with whom you are paired. From making a phone call to spending a Saturday night at a football game, simply the pres ence that you will have in a young person's life is priceless. As a Boy Scout, I have chosen to recruit Big Brothers and Big Sisters for my Eagle Scout Project. I encourage every one in the community to consider being a life-changer for a young person in need. So if you have the time, and if you have the will, give Big Brothers Big Sisters a call at (336) 724-7993. Ask for Mrs. Williams and tell her that Steven Banks sent you. 0 Steven Banks, . Winston-Salem Steven Banks with his big brother. Brad. Cosby needs to walk the walk Peter Bailey Reality Check As a person who shares some (not most, not all) of the opinions Bill Cosby has regu larly expressed during the past two years, I say it is now time for him to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. c Cosby has been especially outspoken on the lack of par enting skills among low income Black folks. I should add here that my major prob lems with Cosby's comments is that he doesn't also target those middle-and upper income Blacks whose apathy and me, myself and L-ism are just as irresponsible and dev astating to our group progress as the shenanigans of low income Blacks. Cosby has both the resources and con nections needed to establish an institution or a series of small institutions where peo ple can go and be taught the kind of critically important parenting skills that he believes are missing. Continually delivering scolding rhetoric is simply not enough these days. Influential people who consider them selves leaders or spokesper sons must now be judged by whether or not they build institutions (not launch organ izations) that employ, edu cate, house or provide health care for Black communities throughout the nation. So called leaders and spokesper sons who limit themselves to repetitious rhetoric instead of building institutions should be disdainfully kicked to the curve. PRNcwsFoto Funnyman Bill Cosby pilches Jello. **************** Somewhat along the same lines, if so-called Black lead ers, from all ideological lean ings, would spend one-thirc^ of the time they spend on pol- v itics advancing the economic literacy of our people, it would be a giant step toward serious individual and group empowerment. It is impossi ble to have political power without economic power - perhaps some degree of polit ical influence but not political power. Why the leaders and spokespersons don't deal with this is best explained by the perceptive Harold Cruse, a most notably author of the must-read books. Crisis of the Negro Intellectual and Plural and Equal. Professor Cruse wrote that "The reason that the debate on black economy has gone on back and forth for years, with no conclusions reached, is because the idea is closely linked with national ism. and the integrationists would rather be tarred and feathered than suspected of the nationalist taint. This was the great weakness of W.E.B. DuBois - the only real flaw in the man's intellectual equip ment. It seems not to have occurred to DuBois that any thorough economic reorgani zation on Negro existence imposed from above will not be supported by the masses unless an appeal is made to their nationalism." To counter our crippling economic litera cy, which has a negative impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. Black sororities, fraternities, churches, civic groups, social clubs, etc should regularly host work shops, symposiums, forums and conferences specifically designed to greatly improve our ecAriomic literacy which is ignorantly reflected by the statement I've heard from many Black folks that "I don't need to know nothing about Wall Street. It has nothing to do with me." Wrong! Wall Street plays a pivotal role in determining how much one pays for a loaf of bread or gallon of gas. One way to begin enhancing one's economic literacy is to read the cogent, informative, edu cational, solutions-oriented columns of Black economist, James Clingman, which are published in numerous Black newspapers.* A group that doesn't have or doesn't effec tively use economic power will be eternally behind no matter who's the occupant of the White House. On the Fourth of July, politicians and pundits love to quote Thomas Jefferson whom we are all supposed to consider the ultimate believer in liberty and freedom. He is quoted as having said that "the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God." This is a stirring statement from a man who enslaved African people throughout his entire life. That statement and others credited to Jefferson, in my opinion, are what makes hitfi the ultimate hypocrite. Unlike some of his fellow slave owners, who had con vinced themselves that enslaving African people was righteous, Jefferson's state ments revealed that he knew it was wrong. But he did it any way for his own personal con venience. Journalist, lecturer and civil rights activist A. Peter Bailey can be reached at apeterh@verizon.net
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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