On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. This week, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL observes the anniversary of King's murder by examining America in light of his dream. What would he think of our country today and where would he focus his fight against inequality and injustice?
Two talented lawyers who've dedicated their careers to fighting inequality, Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson, join Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to examine justice and injustice in America 42 years after.
Alexander believes that King would be deeply troubled by the remaining inequality in America. As she tells Bill Moyers, "I think Martin Luther King would be thrilled by some of the individual progress of African Americans, but stunned, absolutely stunned and saddened, by the state of African Americans as a whole today."
Stevenson adds that to reach King's dream, America must address the causes of poverty, "I think in America, the opposite of poverty is justice. I think there are structures and systems that have created poverty, and have made that poverty so permanent, that until we think in a more just way about how to deal with poverty in this country, we're never gonna make the progress that Dr. King envisioned."
Both believe that America's policies of mass incarceration continue the cycle of poverty. America is the largest jailer on the planet, with 2.3 million people behind bars. But the policy of mass imprisonment, unique among industrialized nations, disproportianatetly affects minorities, especially African American men. One in 100 adults in America is behind bars, but one in nine African American men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars. Much of this arises from the "war on drugs." According to Human Rights Watch, African American adults have been arrested at a rate 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007. Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing.
Stevenson points out that these are not inevitable policies:
We didn't have to incarcerate people for 10, 20, 30, 40 years for simple possession of marijuana, for drug use. We didn't have to do that. We made choices around that. And now the consequences are devastating. I think they're not only devastating from a political perspective, but — I think this is the way I think it relates to Jim Crow, as well — it's also been devastating within communities of color. Right now, for black men in the United States, there's a 32 percent chance you're going to jail or prison. In poor communities and minority communities, urban communities, rural communities, it could be 60 percent or 70 percent. You're born, you're a ten-year-old kid. There's a 70 percent chance that you're going to go to jail and prison. What does that do to you?
And now, back to John, who points out some of the above mentioned "structures,"
Currently…
WellPoint CEO enjoys healthy 51% pay hike; Anthem Blue Cross clients sick over 39% premium increase
April 4, 1:58 AMLA Investing ExaminerMonique Georges
WellPoint CEO Angela Braly received a 51% year-over-year pay increase, per an SEC filing on Friday. Ms. Braly’s overall compensation rose from $8.1 million in 2008 to $13.1 million in 2009.
The Associated Press reports that while her base salary rose less than one percent to just over $1.1 million, the bulk of her earnings derived from a $1.5 million dollar performance bonus and $10.2 million in restricted stock and stock options.
Last year WellPoint (NYSE: WLP) experienced record profits of $4.75 billion. While the company attributes its success to the sale of its NextRx subsidiary, even without the sale, the health insurer would have earned $2.7 billion. Early this year, WellPoint announced that, in order to secure shareholder profitability, it would raise insurance rates by 39% on individual policy holders in California.
Four Fannie Mae execs to get big bonuses
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae planned to pay four top executives retention bonuses ranging from $470,000 to $611,000, according to a February SEC filing.
Executive vice presidents Kenneth Bacon, David Hisey, Michael Williams and Thomas Lund will be receiving bonuses of close to half a million dollars each. Bacon supervises community development for the company, Hisey is its deputy chief financial officer, Williams is its COO and Lund oversees the single-family mortgage business.
By contrast, Fannie Mae CFO David Johnson received no bonus on top of his salary of $625,000, while CEO Herb Allison received no compensation or bonuses in 2008 or 2009.
A spokesman for Fannie Mae deferred comment on the bonuses to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The bonuses were necessary to keep Fannie's most experienced executives working to reverse the effects of the mortgage crisis, FHFA Director James B. Lockhart told CNN.
"As the previous senior management teams left, it would have been catastrophic to lose the next layers down and other highly experienced employees," Lockhart said in a statement.
Wall Street bonuses are outrageous
By Nell Minow, Special to CNN
Nell Minow is editor and chairwoman of The Corporate Library, an independent research company, and was named one of the 20 most influential people in corporate governance by Directorship magazine and "the queen of good corporate governance" by BusinessWeek Online. She has co-written three books.
(CNN) -- If insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result, the post-crisis pay plans in the finance industry qualify for commitment. The Wall Street financial firms claim to have made some changes, but all the ones we have seen so far are cosmetic, required by statute, weakened by loopholes, or circumvented.
Wells Fargo's board approved a 522 percent salary increase for the CEO, from $900,000 to $5,600,000. The increase of $4.7 million was paid in stock, just over 180,000 shares at August's rock-bottom prices. Thanks largely to the government bailout, the stock price rebounded and two months later this grant of stock was worth over $5.7 million.
Enormous grants issued at historic low prices are resulting in enormous payouts based on the infusion from the bailouts and the overall market. It has nothing to do with the performance of the individuals involved.
There is simply no excuse for handing out stock or options without a discount to offset the subsidies from the bailout and an indexed formula so they pay out only when the company outperforms its peer group. Executives should be paid for their performance, not the market's performance.
OK – that’s enough ranting for now…
I mean damn ! How much money does an exec need to live and be happy?!?
John Robert "John" Intrigued
- 14 years, 1 month, 16 days ago
