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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ramsey Su who wrote (46272)	11/30/2005 9:47:22 AM
From: redfrecknj	Respond to of 110194

"However, credit card debt has a much greater impact on the overall net worth of households of color because, on average, African-American and Latino Low- and middleincome households have on average $8,650 in credit card debt." That's where I stopped reading. Perhaps I will see you at the Demos seminar in December: Birgitte Rasine, founder of LUCITÀ, a socially responsible media and communications company working with non and for profit organizations in multiple media platforms, will be announcing the results of The Colors of Perception, the first national survey on social responsibility in media and communications in the US. Joining Birgitte will be Lisa Rudman, the executive director of the National Radio Project, a production, distribution, training and community collaboration group. The National Radio Project heightens public consciousness, broadens the debate on critical social issues, and encourages civic participation by giving voice to diverse perspectives and opinions underrepresented in the mass media. The discussion will be moderated by Simran Sethi, host of Ethical Markets, the first news program reporting on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, currently airing on PBS and Lime Or maybe this other Demos seminar: Can you make radical change for social justice and work a 9 to 5? Join Demos and The Building Movement Project for an important panel discussion with NYC-based young activists on the meaning of leadership, activism and the role of nonprofits in current and future social change movements. This panel will also be highlighting the release of Letters from Young Activists, a timely and critical collection of young authors that force us to dig deep and evaluate the future of social justice movement work through the visions of young people today. In letters addressed to parents, past generations, youth of tomorrow and to their future selves, each author articulates his or her vision for the world as they work towards racial, economic, gender, environmental and global justice. Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple, writes, "Whether North American or Other you will not regret the hours spent with this inspiring, compassionate and soulful book." Co-sponsored by Building Movement, this event will also highlight Up Next: Generation Change and the Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations, their most recent report detailing generational shifts in non-profits and includes the responses of younger leaders around the country, along with suggested methods for successful, productive changes in leadership. Joining us will be authors Kenyon Farrow of New York State Black Gay Network, Gabriel Sayegh of Drug Policy Alliance, Nilda Laguer of Urban Mana, and Mervyn Marcano of Right to Vote. This event will be moderated by Monifa Bandele, Field Coordinator at Right to Vote Campaign and participant in Building Movement's Generational Leadership Listening

To: Ramsey Su who wrote (46272)	11/30/2005 9:53:53 AM
From: Wyätt Gwyön	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

a couple points in that piece that i think are a bit misleading: * all of the breakdowns in the piecharts make it seem like they're talking about all low- and middle-income households, but that's not the case. in fact, they are only talking about the 29% that qualified for their survey by being in bad debt in the first place. so, for example, when they say 29% of low/mid-income households have more than 10K of CC debt, what they really mean is 29% of 29% (of all low/mid-income households) = 8.4% have more than 10K debt. but they don't say this truth and leave the misleading 29%. * they write, Quite simply, what distinguishes low- and middle-income households with relatively high levels of credit card debt from those with lower levels of debt is chance and misfortune. this is inconsistent with the strong income-bracket correlation of debt. HH's with 50K+ income had much higher mean and median debt levels than lower households had. since there is no reason to believe 50K+ earners were more unlucky than the poorer subjects, this suggests that debt is more strongly related to income (and by extension, spending habits, since higher earners spend more) than to misfortune. although it is easy to find plenty of unfortunate anecdotes, they have not proven their statistical significance as the primary cause of debt. which is kind of important since their whole theme is the "plastic safety net". Our fi ndings illustrate that most debt-stressed low- and middle-income consumers are trying to cover unavoidable expenses, not discretionary purchases. of course, once families get deep into debt, they will stop using credit for everything except "survival". but that doesn't mean the majority of the debt for the majority of the subjects came from necessities. also, the very nature of "necessity" is subjective. is a microwave oven a necessity? it is according to them, since a microwave is an appliance and purchasing an appliance on CC is "survival mode". * interestingly, only 16% of the subjects, i.e. less than 5% of the ENTIRE group of low/mid-income HH's, reported feeling "greatly burdened" by their debt. if only 4.6% of the low/mid-income group is "greatly burdened" by their debt, that is pretty good news.