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Thursday, December 23
Socially Responsible Investing
by
Linda Thieman
on Thu 23 Dec 2004 12:32 PM CST
 Socially Responsible Investing
Union of Concerned Scientists
Many
people do their part for the environment by driving a fuel-efficient
car, buying organic foods, or using energy-efficient appliances. You
can also promote environmental values through socially responsible
investing (SRI), also known as “green” investing. SRI gives
corporations an incentive to improve their environmental stewardship
and can also provide investors with a more secure financial future — a
“double bottom line.”
Though
socially responsible stocks have a reputation for poor performance,
recent data from Lipper, a fund tracking and research firm, show that
returns from SRI funds are now competitive with — and, in some cases,
have even outperformed — the overall stock market.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re preparing to become a socially responsible investor:
Mutual Funds
Mutual
funds pool the money of multiple shareholders and invest it in the
stocks of corporations that meet certain criteria; investors then share
the fund’s gains and losses. In the case of green investing, the
companies chosen to make up the fund have been screened according to
environmental, social, and/or political criteria.
The
success of mutual funds is measured against an index — a collection of
stocks meant to represent the overall stock market or a specific
segment of the market (SRI in this case). Mutual funds known as index
funds simply attempt to duplicate the performance of a particular
index; the Calvert Social Index, for example, is a socially responsible
index fund.
Screening Criteria
When
selecting a socially responsible mutual fund, it is important to know
the business sectors in which the fund invests and the method it uses
to screen corporations. Negative screens, for example, exclude
companies that behave in an unacceptable manner or develop products
that investors do not wish to support, such as tobacco, casinos,
alcohol, weapons, or nuclear energy. Positive screens give recognition
to companies that engage in issues such as conservation, civil rights,
labor relations, or animal rights.
One fund
might choose to invest in renewable energy corporations exclusively,
while another might invest in any company except those that produce
weapons. The Pax World Balanced Fund uses both positive and negative
screens to invest in businesses that provide life-supporting goods and
services such as health care, pollution control, and education.
Comparing Funds
Several
websites can help you compare mutual funds and choose which ones are
right for you. Calvert’s “Know What You Own” service lets you run the
holdings of various funds through the screens used by its Calvert
Social Index. The nonprofit Social Investment Forum lets you compare
the screens used by different funds and presents the distinctions in an
easy-to-follow chart.
Please note: The
fund names and services mentioned in this article are used for
identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement. UCS is not
responsible for any investments made as a result of the information
provided in this article.
(For further information on socially-responsible investing, click here.)
Friday, December 17
Iowa Jobs Fall in November
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 17 Dec 2004 05:55 PM CST
 Iowa Jobs Fall in November
Iowa Policy Project
Recovery Pace Lags Three Years After Recession
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (Dec.
16, 2004) -- Iowa's nonfarm jobs dropped by 1,500 in November after a
slow four-month climb, while the state's unemployment rate fell
slightly to 4.7 percent as 4,000 people left the state's labor market.
The
November numbers showed 1,455,100 nonfarm jobs, down from the 12-month
high of 1,456,600 posted the month before, but up 10,100 from a year
earlier. The number is up 2,900 from November 2001, at the end of the
last recession, and down 19,100 from the March 2001 start of that
recession.
Despite
that context, Iowa Workforce Development Director Richard Running
claimed in the agency's monthly report that Iowa "remains in a recovery
mode" three years after the 2001 recession.
"That's
overstating things a bit," said Peter Fisher, research director at the
nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project. "Iowa has spent a lot of these three
years lagging well behind any meaningful recovery pace from the
recession.
"Even
now, we are still over 19,000 jobs behind the more pertinent measure -
where Iowa stood at the start of the recession. That number shows what
kind of ground we need to make up."
Fisher
noted Iowa would have to gain nearly 1,600 nonfarm jobs per month
over a year just to get back to where the state stood at the start of
the 2001 recession. That compares with an average nonfarm job growth of
842 per month over the past 12 months.
"Over
the next 12 months, we need to do almost twice as well as we did during
the past 12 months," Fisher said. "We need a much stronger recovery
than we've seen if the economy is going to offer sufficient job
opportunities for Iowans still out of work or just entering the
workforce.”
The
2,900-job growth since the 2001 recession also lags far behind the pace
of the recovery from the 1990s recession. At the comparable 36-month
mark following the March 1991 end of that recession, Iowa had gained
70,200 jobs.
Iowa's nonfarm job numbers hovered between 1,444,200 (June) and 1,456,600 (October) through the year.
The
12-month increase in jobs includes a 1,100 net increase in
manufacturing, following a downturn in that sector in 2003. Financial
activities with a 4,600 increase, education and health services at
4,200 and construction at 1,800 had the largest gains.
The only major declines cited by IWD came in government, 2,300, and information, 800.
Key numbers from Thursday's release:
--
Iowa's unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent, down slightly from 4.8
percent in October but up slightly from 4.6 percent in November 2003.
--
Iowa's nonfarm jobs stood at 1,455,100 in November, down from 1,456,600
in October and up 10,100 jobs, from 1,445,000, in November 2003.
--
Iowa's labor force stood at 1,631,600 in November, with 4,000 fewer
people working or looking for work than in October. The number is up
significantly, however, from the 1,603,000 labor force figure in
November 2003.
--
The nonfarm job total is 27,200 short of the 47,000 promised to be
created from June 2003 to November 2004 under the federal "Jobs and
Growth" tax cut.
Three years after the end of the 2001 recession:
-- Iowa has 2,900 more jobs.
-- Iowa's unemployment rate is up a full percentage point, to 4.7 percent from 3.7 percent.
Buying Into Failure: The Abolition of Social Security
by
Chad Thompson
on Fri 17 Dec 2004 11:30 AM CST
 Buying Into Failure: The Abolition of Social Security
As we
hear more and more pundits and politicians on television tell us the
enormous wealth that we will accumulate by eliminating Social Security,
there is a large piece of information missing: government-sponsored private investments simply don't work.
Paul Krugman notes the failure of such proposals today.
Yet,
aside from giving the Cato Institute and other organizations promoting
Social Security privatization the space to present upbeat tales from
Chile, the U.S. news media have provided their readers and viewers with
little information about international experience. In particular, the
public hasn't been let in on two open secrets:
Privatization dissipates a large fraction of workers' contributions on fees to investment companies.
It leaves many retirees in poverty.
Decades
of conservative marketing have convinced Americans that government
programs always create bloated bureaucracies, while the private sector
is always lean and efficient. But when it comes to retirement security,
the opposite is true. More than 99 percent of Social Security's
revenues go toward benefits, and less than 1 percent for overhead. In
Chile's system, management fees are around 20 times as high. And that's
a typical number for privatized systems.
...
Privatizers
who laud the Chilean system never mention that it has yet to deliver on
its promise to reduce government spending. More than 20 years after the
system was created, the government is still pouring in money. Why?
Because, as a Federal Reserve study puts it, the Chilean government
must "provide subsidies for workers failing to accumulate enough
capital to provide a minimum pension." In other words, privatization
would have condemned many retirees to dire poverty, and the government
stepped back in to save them.
The
same thing is happening in Britain. Its Pensions Commission warns that
those who think Mrs. Thatcher's privatization solved the pension
problem are living in a "fool's paradise." A lot of additional
government spending will be required to avoid the return of widespread
poverty among the elderly - a problem that Britain, like the U.S.,
thought it had solved.
Britain's
experience is directly relevant to the Bush administration's plans. If
current hints are an indication, the final plan will probably claim to
save money in the future by reducing guaranteed Social Security
benefits. These savings will be an illusion: 20 years from now, an
American version of Britain's commission will warn that big additional
government spending is needed to avert a looming surge in poverty among
retirees.
So
the Bush administration wants to scrap a retirement system that works,
and can be made financially sound for generations to come with modest
reforms. Instead, it wants to buy into failure, emulating systems that,
when tried elsewhere, have neither saved money nor protected the
elderly from poverty.
The problem of elderly poverty in the United States - for the most part - has been solved in 2004 America.
Something
else of note: despite the supposed windfall that will be produced from
the pockets of Wall Street financiers - the phrase "benefit reduction"
is still in play.
Krugman was nice about it - the comission the current administration set up to study the so-called crisis in 2001 plainly called it a "cut":
Although
Bush's Social Security commission gave him three main recommendations
in 2001 on how to fix the system, Bush has not said which alternative,
if any, he would support. The main plan put forward by that commission
would cut future promised benefits for younger workers in exchange for
allowing private investment accounts.
McClellan
suggested Bush would follow the commission's direction without
explicitly endorsing one of its proposals. "That bipartisan commission
put forward some innovative ideas to solve this problem," McClellan
said. "The president said that should be a guide for us moving forward."
Folks -
it doesn't get any clearer than this. This is a false crisis,
generated by those that want to pick the pockets of the American public
for personal profit.
Josh Marshall is putting together a list of
where congressional delegations stand on this issue. For the
Rapid Response folks: we need to contact the Iowa delegation and
find out where they stand on this.
If
anyone finds out, we'll post it here - and send any interesting
comments to whomever wants to print them - and keep them around for
2006.
One last item on this today: the Social Security Abolition
movement is being promoted by bringing "regular Iowans" to Washington -
so they can lie to the American people.
Wednesday, December 15
Iowa Budget Crisis: Cuts, Costs Hitting Cities, Counties
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 15 Dec 2004 04:34 PM CST
 Iowa Budget Crisis: Cuts, Costs Hitting Cities, Counties
Iowa Fiscal Partnership
Report Shows State Policy Squeezing Local Government Services
DES MOINES, Iowa
(Dec. 15, 2004) -- State budget shortfalls and higher costs that hit
Iowa cities and counties over the last four years have compromised
basic services while driving local taxes up and fund balances down, a
new study reports.
The
report, the fourth in a series from the Iowa Fiscal Partnership about
the impact of Iowa's budget crisis, illustrates a dilemma increasingly
faced by local government officials: how to meet residents' demand for
services with fewer or restricted means to pay for it.
"Short-sighted
state policy is putting local policy-makers in an impossible
situation," said Peter Fisher, research director of the Iowa Policy
Project and co-author of the report for the Iowa Fiscal Partnership.
"As our report illustrates, when the economy contracts, people demand
more services – at the same time that the state is cutting back,
property values are stagnant and costs are rising. In this climate,
local officials are asked to do more with less.
"Like
the state, local officials are turning to one-time sources of money for
ongoing services, and they can't do that year after year."
The report noted:
-- State support for local governments has fallen by 42 percent, $119 million, since FY2001.
--
All but two of Iowa’s 99 counties have reached or exceeded their
general fund property tax levy limit, with 17 using their authority to
go higher due to unusual circumstances. Only one county did that in
FY2001.
-- The percentage of cities at their general fund levy limit has gone from 71 percent in FY2001 to 78 percent in FY2005.
--
Health insurance costs have increased for local governments just as
they have for private employers. From FY2001 to FY04, the cost for
county health premiums rose by 78.4 percent. Local governments have
increasingly used special levies to finance the added costs. On
average, about three-fourths of the increase in overall city property
tax rates is due to employee benefit levies.
-- Despite an increasing use of local-option sales taxes, this has not solved local governments' financial problems.
--
The property tax base has not grown to keep pace with either higher
costs or cuts in state support. This primarily is due to the state's
system of rollbacks, which has effectively reduced residential
valuation to less than half of its market value, and to the system of
valuing agricultural property based on productivity rather than market
value.
"Our
findings have critical implications for the coming debate on property
tax reform in the Legislature," said Victor Elias, senior associate at
the Child & Family Policy Center and a co-author of the report. "We
have a combination of limits on tax rates and slow growth in valuation.
This has clearly constrained the ability of cities and counties to
finance services."
The
Iowa Fiscal Partnership (IFP) is a joint initiative of two nonprofit
policy research organizations, the Iowa Policy Project in Mount Vernon
and the Child & Family Policy Center in Des Moines. Reports from
the IFP are available on the web at www.iowafiscal.org.
The
first three reports in the current IFP series on the state budget
crisis are available at that site. They include an overview comparing
Iowa's handling of its fiscal challenges to efforts of other states; an
analysis of the impact of the budget crisis on education; and an
analysis of the impact on human services.
Follow-Up: California Grocery Strikes
by
Chad Thompson
on Wed 15 Dec 2004 01:32 PM CST
 Follow-Up: California Grocery Strikes
Ten
months after the UFCW settled the strike by agreeing to a 'two-tier'
contract, it seems that the split between younger workers and older
workers has doomed the unionization of California grocery stores.
Nearly
10 months after the end of the bitter Southern California grocery
strike and lockout, the three companies and the union that waged the
longest labor standoff in U.S. supermarket history are still in
turmoil.
Profits
at Albertsons Inc., Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Pavilions stores and Kroger
Co.'s Ralphs are being pinched by the price cuts they've made to woo
shoppers alienated by the 4 1/2 -month dispute.
The stocks of all three companies have fallen since a new contract was signed in February.
The
chains maintain that they'll rebound, largely because the two-tier
contract allows them to give new hires significantly lower wages and
benefits than veteran workers.
Safeway,
for one, doesn't want to wait for attrition to realize the payoff. The
Pleasanton, Calif.-based company plans to offer buyouts to roughly
one-third of the 22,000 people who work at its 293 Vons and Pavilions
stores in Southern and Central California to hasten their replacement
with new hires.
People
familiar with the buyout program said Safeway was prepared to spend up
to $50 million on it. So if 1,000 workers accepted, they would receive
$50,000 each.
"They
want to get rid of the old-timers and bring in a new class of
citizens," said Rick Icaza, president of United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 770, which represents 4,266 Vons and Pavilions employees
in the Los Angeles area.
As
it is, the two-tier system is breeding discord between experienced
workers and new hires who aren't happy about being paid less to perform
the same tasks. Turnover among new hires is unusually high, union
officials said, and some new employees are chafing at paying union dues
that average nearly $50 a month.
(Click Here To Read The Rest of the Article)
It seems
obvious that to keep the union movement going, younger employees are
going to have to get on board and join the labor unions.
When those union leaders sell them out... well, there is a reason that new employees chafe at paying union dues.
I really don't know the solution here (living on strike pay alone won't
go very far), but labor leaders are going to have to figure out how to
address these problems - and figure out how to do so fairly loudly.
Monday, December 13
Applicants Wanted for Paid Community Organizing Training
by
Trish Nelson
on Mon 13 Dec 2004 11:26 AM CST
Applicants Wanted for Paid Community Organizing Training
The Direct Action & Research
Training (DART) Network
The Direct Action & Research
Training (DART) Network is a national network of grassroots,
metropolitan, congregation-based, community organizations spread
throughout the United States.
Application Deadline is January 1, 2005.
DART is now accepting applications for the 2005 DART Organizers
Institute, the paid, four-month field school for people interested in
launching a career in community organizing. Participants will
undergo a combined classroom and field training covering such topics as:
• Entering a community
• Identifying and training local leaders
• Strategic planning and issue cutting
• Relationship and community building
• Direct Action on community issues
• Fundraising
The DART Center, has built coalitions throughout the country that have
won important victories on a broad set of justice issues including:
• Education reform in low-performing public schools
• Job Training
• Drugs and Violence
• Affordable Housing
• Criminal Recidivism
• Living Wage
• Neighborhood Revitalization, etc.
The DART Organizers Institute combines a 7-day classroom orientation
with 15 weeks of infield training at a DART host organization. This is
a paid training program that includes: a $6,500 living stipend, all
transportation costs to the classroom orientation and host city, and
mileage reimbursement during the infield training. Room, board, and
tuition will also be paid by DART during the 7-day classroom training.
After successful completion of the program, DART will work to place
graduates into fulltime salaried positions.
Graduates from the four month DART Organizers Institute have gone onto
accept Executive Director and Associate Community Organizing positions
throughout the country. We continue to train the best of those working
to build the power of low-moderate income communities to win victories
on important issues in their community.
The program starts June 20, 2005 and runs through October 7, 2005. Host
organizations are located in several cities throughout Florida, Ohio,
Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana. Applications are being
accepted now.
Although it may be helpful, no direct experience is necessary.
Organizer Trainees (OTs) hired to participate in the DART Organizers
Institute must demonstrate a desire to pursue community organizing as a
long-term professional career. A master's degree or similar life
experience is preferred though unnecessary. Candidates must have
a college degree or be graduating prior to June 20, 2005.
Also, candidates must display a workmanlike diligence, be driven to
produce sustained results, have proven capacity to build relationships
of trust, create and execute a plan, act professionally, feel
comfortable working with congregations, be accountable and willing to
hold others accountable, demonstrate disciplined thought and action,
and work in a team setting. OTs must also have access to a car during
their training and be flexible regarding relocation. Fluency in
Spanish/English is plus and people of color are encouraged to apply.
To find out more about DART or to apply, we encourage you to send your
resume to: Ben MacConnell, DART Network, 820 New York Street, Lawrence,
KS 66044 or by email: institute@thedartcenter.org. If you have any
questions, please call (785) 841-2680. Also, you can download
applications or view profilesfrom previous OTs at the DART website:
www.thedartcenter.org.
The 2005 DART Organizers Institute
Application Deadline is January 1, 2005.
Saturday, December 11
New Holes in Iowa Safety Net
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 11 Dec 2004 05:03 PM CST
New Holes in Iowa Safety Net
Iowa Fiscal Partnership
Iowa Human Services Budget Crunch - Report Shows Cuts to Human Services in Time of Need, Tough Choices Ahead
DES MOINES, Iowa - Lack of funding for human services over the last three years has created new holes in Iowa's safety net, according to a detailed study released by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership (IFP).
"Without strong corrective action, these holes will get bigger, rather than smaller, in the next fiscal year," said Charles Bruner, executive director of the Child & Family Policy Center (CFPC) and co-author of the report for the IFP. "This lack of funding occurred despite the recession producing greater demand and need for human services."
The IFP analysis focused upon changes in state appropriations and federal expenditures between fiscal year 2001 and fiscal year 2004, the period when the recession hit and states experienced fiscal crises in balancing their budgets. The report analyzes changes in economic assistance and child care funding, medical services funding, child and family services (primarily child welfare) funding, mental health and disabilities funding, and funding for managing and delivering services.
During the three-year period, state general fund appropriations for the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) declined by 9.7 percent, while over the same general period child poverty increased by 23 percent. Non-general fund expenditures, primarily federal funds through Medicaid and other federal grants, increased during the period, enabling the state to continue current eligibility levels for most programs, including the Medicaid and HAWK-I, Iowa's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
The non-general fund expenditures included significant one-time revenue sources and an enhanced federal reimbursement rate under Medicaid that has since expired, however. This will mean Iowa must find other revenue sources to maintain current levels of commitment under its human service programs in future years.
Even with these additional federal funds, Iowa had to create holes in the safety net in order to balance the Iowa DHS budget between fiscal year 2001 and 2004, according to the report. Specific impacts included:
- Elimination or dramatic reduction in a number of discretionary programs, particularly those that were more preventive in focus, such as family support subsidies, emergency assistance, individual development accounts, and Family Development and Self Sufficiency (FaDSS) funding.
- A reduction in overall service system support for child welfare services, despite a 14.8 percent increase in the number of confirmed cases of child abuse and a variety of reports calling for increased investment to address system deficiencies.
- A reduction of 38.3 percent in bed capacity at the four state mental health institutes, at the same time that a number of hospitals were closing or downsizing their psychiatric beds.
The state Medicaid and HAWK-I programs constituted the largest share of the Department of Human Services budget and grew substantially during the period, in part due to the increased cost of health care and in part due to an increase in the number of people, particularly children, who were served. Currently, a Medical Assistance Crisis Intervention Team is conducting meetings around the state on how to address budget shortfalls in Medicaid.
From 2001 to 2004, Iowa managed the growth in Medicaid costs and expenditures through drawing from some reserve funds that cannot be ongoing sources of support and benefited from an increased federal matching rate that has now expired.
While not raising the eligibility standard, the number of children served under Medicaid or HAWK-I programs increased by 31 percent, from 168,261 to 220,487. The IFP report attributes this increase to two factors: (1) an increase in the number of children who qualify due to the impacts of recession, and (2) an increase in the number of children who qualify because the private sector's health coverage for employees no longer offers affordable family coverage.
"While people talk about the Medicaid crisis," Bruner said, "we would have a much bigger crisis if there were no Medicaid program. Medicaid or HAWK-I now covers nearly one-third of all Iowa children - and most of the increase in coverage is for children in working families. While children are not a high-cost group from a medical coverage perspective, children need primary and preventive health services.
"Because of rising health care costs, businesses are less likely to be able to offer family coverage at affordable rates for children. It only has been the presence of Iowa's Medicaid and HAWK-I programs that has kept the uninsurance rates for children from rising in this state. Until we address health care in a more comprehensive manner, Iowans should view Medicaid and HAWK-I as the best available solution to health care coverage for children, and not as a problem."
Overall, the study found that Iowa's Medicaid program has contained health care costs for specific service areas at least as successfully as the private sector, to the point that some services, such as dental care, while technically available under Medicaid, are hard to obtain, as providers are unwilling to accept Medicaid as a payment source.
"The Iowa Department of Human Service's budget is complex, but we could not find significant areas where funding has not been severely constrained during this period, at some human cost," report co-author Victor Elias noted. "Clearly, cuts created additional holes in Iowa's safety net. There were also temporary patches to shore up the safety net. We need more permanent funding to maintain, let alone repair the safety net's patches during the next legislative session."
The IFP is a joint tax and budget analysis effort of the CFPC in Des Moines and the Iowa Policy Project in Mount Vernon.
Friday, December 10
Fact Checking Social Security Abolition
by
Chad Thompson
on Fri 10 Dec 2004 02:39 PM CST
Fact Checking Social Security Abolition
Following up from eariler this week, Kevin Drum fact checks privatization abolition schemes other countries have tried with Social Security-like programs.
The results.... not so good.
[Update: Josh Marshall is right.
We're not discussing "privatizing" anything, we're disussing scrapping
Social Security and replacing it with a system of loosely-regulated
401(K) plans. We should be careful to frame the debate in those
terms.]
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