Introduction: The Board’s OMWI Office Started after a Loss at the D.C. Circuit in 2011
Whenever I read the Report to the Congress on the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI), I am reminded of the Artis v. Greenspan case. (I urge prospective and current employees to read the D.C. Circuit case and to search Artis v. Greenspan on the Internet and on this blog.)
On January 11, 2011, the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion that was against the Federal Reserve (Fed or Board) stating that the plaintiffs had presented sufficient information for the Fed’s EEO Office to start an investigation (nearly 2 decades before).
Also on January 11, 2011, the Fed announced that it was creating an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. The EEO Director, Sheila Clark, who was named in the Artis opinion, was named to lead the OMWI office.
Sheila Clark’s letter to the EEOC (printed in the Auerbach book, page 123).
I become irritated reading these OMWI reports because the Board never acknowledges its Jim Crow reality: the agency hates to have black people as employees. It shows in the low performance management program, or PMP, ratings for black employees. The Artis case took 18 years to resolve, largely because of Fed intransigence. In addition, Professor Robert Auerbach wrote a book about the Fed, “Deception and Abuse at the Fed,” in which chapter 8 detailed the Fed’s anti-black stances.
In 2021, the report detailed Chairman Jerome Powell’s reaction to the police-officer killing of Mr. George Floyd. Notably, the Board’s terrible history of racial and sex discrimination was not discussed.
Artis v. Greenspan/Bernanke/Yellen. An apology and corrective action are due to the former plaintiffs and all former and current black Board employees.
Diversity Report and the institutional bias to issue lower ratings to black employees.
Dr. Claudia Sahm’s detailed report of her mistreatment as a Ph.D. economist.
Sheila Clark was involved in the abuses and the Board is still silent on the systemic discrimination issues at the Board. This alone speaks volumes as to the intent of the Board.
Sheila Clark provided testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, which was not mentioned in the report. (I wrote a critical post about it.)
The Board must address the injustice of following “colorblindness” in macroeconomics. The United States is not “colorblind“. The U.S. system favors the white majority population.
While Chairman Powell did more substantive work in the diversity and inclusion area, ultimately it was for issues external to the Board. The Board continues to ignore its own serious problems. For Sheila Clark and ultimately the Board Chairman to submit these reports without a full accounting of Fed’s discriminatory past and present is beyond disgrace.
Unlike in 2020, an analyst can locate the link for the OMWI materials. Notification that the report was issued is missing. I know about it because I have been looking for it. So the Board is still not doing its best to ensure that this report is known like the Board does for its economics-related materials.
Regardless of whoever is the director of OMWI, the one person that is accountable for the diversity and inclusion policies of the Fed is the Board Chairman, who is, at the time of this post, Jerome Powell. Jerome Powell appears to be extremely lax in this area. He has a Presidential commission; Sheila Clark does not.
As a result, Chairman Powell must take the lead and provide directives to make the Fed improve. If a multimillionaire like Chairman Powell cannot get the job done, the situation is hopeless.
Sidebar: Claims that “America Is Not a Racist Country” Are Wicked–Denial of Systematic Discrimination and the Effects on Non-White People
Tim Scott, a Senator from South Carolina had the nerve to proclaim that “America is not a racist country.” Vice President Kamala Harris affirmed Scott’s statement while offering an empty semantic clarification that deflects to individuals that express racial animus (which gives succor to wicked “colorblindness” and systematic discrimination policy).
Both statements are wicked in that the effect of policy to treat Black people as second-class citizens is assigned to people who proclaim white supremacy (the ku klux klan and so on). The corrosive effect of systematic discriminatory policies–such as redlining, highway construction, property deeds, Joe Biden’s 1994 crime bill, and more–are ignored.
Uncle Tim Scott has perfected the art of sycophantic bootlicking. He’s a master step n fetch it artist and cunning white supremacy apologist, who demonstrated his buck dancing skills in front of the entire world.
“Hear me clearly, America is not a racist country”
At the Federal Reserve, Black people have suffered systematic injustice, as shown in Dr. Robert Auerbach’s book “Deception and Abuse at the Fed,” chapter 8, as well as in the Artis case. Even in recent years, the Fed (and other federal financial agencies) assigns lower performance ratings to Black employees, starting the process of removing these employees from employment. Vice President Harris’s statement does nothing for those who suffer from this cavalier and tolerated discrimination.
As you can see with my blog post, the Fed is exceptionally stubborn in correcting its own anti-Black policies.
(I ignore the word “racist” as it is a nebulous term that people with power can define however they want. Such is the power of white hegemony. The better term is racial abuse, receiving discriminatory treatment based on the color of one’s skin or membership in a minority group in the society.)
The Diversity and Inclusion Activities of the Fed: More Substantive Yet Willfully Ignores Systemic Discrimination within the Board
Chairman Powell commendably did much more tangible and substantive diversity and inclusion work (see page 14 of the report). However, that work was entirely focused on matters external to the Board or on forming committees. Chairman Powell did not mention any work on addressing the Board’s systematic discriminatory policies and practices. This particular time seems to be most relevant for such a discussion.
The Board decided to re-institute a diversity and inclusion strategic plan.
The ODI program director (Sheila Clark) provides the Fed Chairman and the governors with regular briefing sessions (page 4 of the report).
The report states that ODI works with Employee Relations (page 4 of the report). An interested reader must review the fact situation in the Artis case. This particular collaboration is not necessarily for the employee’s benefit.
Moreover, Dorey stated that “her managers discussed her leave requests with human resources and shared personal information with other employees, including Rena Carlton, an employee relations specialist. Dorey also claimed that the Board’s EEO Director, Sheila Clark, and EEO Counselor, Millie Wiggins, discouraged her from filing a previous EEO complaint alleging discrimination in her performance rating.
Percentage of new non-intern hires over total number of employees
10.5%
14.0%
13.3%
17.5%
The Chairman did more work in diversity and inclusion in 2020. However, more work is expected on addressing failures specific to the Board, namely the issues uncovered in the Artis case and in the Inspector General’s report from 2015. Until these items are complete, these reports will continue to be below expectations.
Federal Reserve Board, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, Reports to Congress
(Preface language for the report submitted in 2015.) “Pursuant to section 342(e) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System must submit an annual report to the Congress outlining the activities, successes, and challenges of the office. This is the office’s report for calendar year 2014. Sheila Clark serves as the director of ODI.”
With this report, serious concern remains that the Board is not committed to addressing the failures of its past and present. I commend Chairman Powell for a good start; the best outcome is to address, point out, and correct the Board’s systematic discriminatory practices and policies. The experience of the long-running Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen case casts a profound shadow over the Board for diversity and inclusion issues. It is up to the Board to redeem itself; regrettably, it is still failing.
Whenever I read the Report to the Congress on the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI), I remember the Artis v. Greenspan case. On January 11, 2011, the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion that was against the Federal Reserve stating that the plaintiffs had presented sufficient information for the Fed’s EEO Office to start an investigation (after nearly 20 years).
Also on January 11, 2011, the Fed announced that it was creating an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. The EEO Director, Sheila Clark, who was named in the Artis opinion, was named to lead the OMWI office.
Clark Testified before House Financial Services Subcommittee; My Extreme Disappointment
Author’s Note(Nov. 1, 2020): I discovered that Sheila Clark testified at a House Financial Services diversity and inclusion subcommittee hearing titled “Holding Financial Regulators Accountable for Diversity and Inclusion: Perspectives from the Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion.”
Among other statements, Clark mentioned that she sits in performance evaluation meetings to ensure fairness and equity.
I laughed out loud with this statement (and with this hearing). I take it she means that she is literally in the room with her mouth shut while the careers of targeted employees are destroyed.
This hearing was truly disappointing. Given the suffering at the Fed with the Artis case, it is an insult that it was not even mentioned.
Clark does nothing to contradict management. (See Clark’s letter in Dr. Auerbach’s book later in this article.) What about Dr. Sahm’s blog? Shamefully, it was not addressed!
Given that issues in this article as well as Artis were not discussed, the House subcommittee hearing was, sadly, useless.
I become irritated reading these OMWI reports because the Board never acknowledges its Jim Crow reality: the agency hates to have black people as employees (see Artis). It shows in the low performance management program, or PMP, ratings for black employees. The Artis case took 18 years to resolve, largely because of Fed intransigence. In addition, Professor Robert Auerbach wrote a book about the Fed, “Deception and Abuse at the Fed,” in which chapter 8 detailed the Fed’s anti-black stances.
For Sheila Clark and, ultimately, the Board Chairman to submit these reports without a full accounting of Fed’s discriminatory past and present is beyond disgrace.
Board Hiring and Promotions, 2016-2019
2016
2017
2018
2019
Positions filled
576
399
505
499
Interns
127
111
116
128
Positions filled w/o counting interns
449
288
389
371
Total number of Board employees
2766
2745
2773
2786
Percentage of new non-intern hires over total number of employees
16.2%
10.5%
14.0%
13.3%
Nevertheless, I read every OMWI report because I want the Fed to know that these reports, this year submitted in stealth as the country deals with the COVID-19 crisis, will not pass by me without comment. I will scour the Fed’s website to find each report. I will dissect the report to see the changes made each year.
A recent blog post by Dr. Claudia Sahm on the absence of black economists at the Federal Reserve and within the Economics profession shows that the Fed’s OMWI department is not doing enough to improve the situation.
On Dr. Claudia Sahm’s Critique of Her Experience at the Federal Reserve Board
I recently became aware of another blog post of Dr. Claudia Sahm, a former economist at the Federal Reserve Board. I read her story with horror and recognition. I believe Dr. Sahm; I just did not realize how roughly female Ph.D. economists (and some the research assistants) were treated. (Other non-Ph.D. staff also do not have a proper workplace.)
Board Offices for Employee Relations and EEO Are Hot Messes; Dr. Sahm Is Blessed for Not Having to Deal with Them
The only thing that I could advise Dr. Sahm is that she should be glad she did not get involved with Employee Relations (ER) (according to the Artis case, ER specialists report complaints to the problematic people and indeed turn to blame the victim like what Dr. Sahm mentioned in her blog post.
People should keep in mind that ER is part of the Management Division. As such, ER cares nothing about employees; complaints are viewed as threats to management! ER and Sheila Clark would never challenge management, especially “officers”. The 18-year plus Artis case also showed that the Board’s EEO office is useless. Sheila Clark is the long-time leader of the Board’s EEO office and (as noted above) named in the Artis case.
Sheila Clark being in charge of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion and the EEO Office is a sign that the Board is not serious. Ms. Clark’s claim of effectiveness—that she has the ear of the Chair of the Board—is destroyed by the blog post of Dr. Sahm.
Incredibly, Dr. Sahm also had the ear of former Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Chair Janet Yellen. While they provided a conscientious ear, both Benanke and Yellen (while nice people) ultimately were shamefully powerless millionaires and were satisfied to do nothing.
Chairman Jerome Powell’s Statement about Dr. Sahm’s Blog Post is Weak Tea
Similar to Bernanke and Yellen, multimillionaire Board Chairman Jerome Powell shows that he too is “powerless”–a wealthy lawyer unwilling to implement corrective action! His statement at a Fed press conference is exceptionally weak tea. In the OMWI report, it is said that he and Sheila Clark meet regularly. Clearly, the meetings are not effective!
Moreover, for the Board to be proclaiming platitudes of a fair and welcoming workplace is offensive, given that Chairman Powell did practically nothing in 2020 in terms of diversity and inclusion. (See the rest of the blog post for more on this.) With the Artis case and Dr. Sahm’s experience, the Board’s response is not worthy of respect.
There’s been a lot of pain and injustice and unfair treatment that women have experienced in the workplace – not just among economists, but among economists and at the Fed – that’s been going on for far too long,” Powell said. “Like every other organization the Fed could have done more and should have done more.
The Inspector General is no better; the office is a toothless tiger.
The Board Chairman sets the budget for the Inspector General’s office.
The Board Chairman also selects the Inspector General.
Let this sink in: Aggrieved people have no refuge at the Federal Reserve Board.
Conclusion
The Board uses a ruthless “rank and yank” policy, called the Performance Management Program, or PMP. As Dr. Sahm noted in her essay, her so-called ally signed a bad evaluation, which is the start of the slippery slope of termination.
The Board is a whited sepulcher (Matthew 23:27). I am grateful for Dr. Sahm’s blog post; it is long past time for a complete reckoning of discrimination and other inexcusable management misbehavior.
Regardless of whoever is the director of OMWI, the one person that is accountable for the diversity and inclusion policies of the Fed is the Board Chairman, who is, at the time of this post, Jerome Powell. Chairman Powell appears to be extremely lax in this area. He has a Presidential commission; Sheila Clark does not. As a result, Chairman Powell must take the lead and provide directives to make the Fed improve. If a multimillionaire like Chairman Powell cannot get the job done, the situation is hopeless.
After the Killing of George Floyd: The Federal Reserve Still Refuses to Reckon with Its Racist Past and Present
After the writing of this post, the world witnessed the cruel killing of George Floyd, while handcuffed, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Floyd died under the knee of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and with the indifference of three other former police officers: Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao. The United States collapsed as all its brutal inhumanity to nonwhite people came to the light.
Of course, these inhumane behaviors and policies existed, visible to the people subject to the cruel policies daily.
For the Federal Reserve, I have written in this very post and in several previous posts about the unjust policies of the Federal Reserve toward black employees. While the Artis v. Greenspan case is over, the Federal Reserve still has not reckoned with any of its own racist practices and policies.
Yet, after the events following the death of George Floyd, Chairman Powell had the gall to recognize the reckoning for racial injustice in the United States. The Chairman did not have the courage to include the Federal Reserve in his remarks. Not a word about the Artis case. This is not surprising but still extremely disappointing.
It is not lost on me that we are meeting on Juneteenth amid a renewed reckoning of racial injustice. The pandemic has again exposed a range of troubling inequalities, most of them of long standing. As the national discussion continues, it is critical to remember that equity includes access to education, work, and economic opportunity. I am reminded that Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, just a few short blocks from the Federal Reserve, at a rally whose full title was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Chairman Jerome Powell, “Building a Resilient Workforce,” at a video conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Youngstown, Ohio (via webcast)
The Diversity and Inclusion Activities of the Fed: Shamefully Little
The 2020 OMWI report had some changes from the 2019 OMWI report. There was a strong statement that implied that the Board has taken decisive action in diversity and inclusion (page 4 of the report). However, in reading the description of what was done, I was not impressed.
The ODI program director (Sheila Clark) provides the Fed Chairman and the governors with quarterly updates.
Clark noted that she has direct access to the Chairman Powell in case she has any issue to raise. (When this statement is compared with the issues raised in the introduction of this blog post, it shows that the Board is simply not serious about diversity and inclusion—a real travesty.) Sheila Clark has been involved in the abuses; the reader cannot believe that she cares now about diversity and inclusion issues with her past.
Sheila Clark’s letter to the EEOC (printed in the Auerbach book, page 123).
These paltry activities are simply insufficient and unacceptable. The Board Chairman has effectively done nothing. If the Chairman can deal with a dispute over a dog park in Chevy Chase, Maryland, he has the ability to handle many issues at once. I cannot accept any excuse that claims he is too busy.
Federal Reserve Board, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, Reports to Congress
(Preface language for report submitted in 2015.) “Pursuant to section 342(e) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System must submit an annual report to the Congress outlining the activities, successes, and challenges of the office. This is the office’s report for calendar year 2014. Sheila Clark serves as the director of ODI.”
With this report, serious concern remains that the Board is not committed to addressing the failures of its past and present. The activities for diversity and inclusion detailed in the report are weak without strong leadership at the top. The experience of the long-running Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen case casts a profound shadow over the Board for diversity and inclusion issues. It is up to the Board to redeem itself; however, it is failing.
[Ultimately, the bill was passed and signed into law, but what about those issues that lack powerful champions like Jon Stewart?]
The failure that frustrated Jon Stewart represents a small part of my exasperation with the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) and all its chairmen. The United States government has decided to starve 90 percent of the population while supporting the top 10 percent.
In addition, the system props up the gambling casino known as Wall Street despite the fact that 10 percent of the richest U.S. families own 84 percent of all U.S. stocks.[1] Your Tealbookfocuses nearly all of the text on Wall Street; the wreckage of the Fed is made manifest.
A Note on the COVID-19 Coronavirus Crisis and Epic Congressional Leadership Failure
After this post was initially published, the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic occurred. The pandemic is so far causing dreadful illness and death for some; others have mild or no illness.
To prevent what is termed “community spread“, state and local governments have been enforcing quarantines or social distancing to try to reduce the numbers of people who fall seriously ill.
Office workers have been sent home to telework; other businesses where people gather (restaurants, bars, gyms, and so on) have been closed. Some have been required to stay home most of the time, except for essential activity–work at a job where physical presence is needed, medical appointment, and so on) The people who work at the closed businesses are immediately out of work with bills pending to be paid and sometimes with families to feed and to care for.
What is needed now is radical government support for people who are scared of becoming ill and now are extremely concerned about how they will pay their bills.
Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont), a presidential primary candidate, has up to this time in 2020, has not been achieving enough delegates to win the Democratic Party nomination. The Coronavirus crisis burst forth in the midst of primary season.
Senator Sanders presented a comprehensive proposal to help the country and its people move through the public-health and financial catastrophe. (Very sadly, Senator Sanders did not present these proposals on the Senate floor and voted with Congessional leadership on a package that has proven to be a failure for the 90 percent.)
The Trump Administration, had a proposal to give out a $2,000 check to people in the United States. (Senator Sanders proposed sending $2,000 per month until the crisis is over.) Democratic Congressional leadership opposed universal cash payments for various reasons.
Indeed, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supported a tax credit plan along the lines presented in the Senate Republican’s initial bill. (Pelosi did not want a universal distribution of checks (that is, according to Jeff Spross in The Week she did not want to be seen handing out checks to millionaires.)
In technical economic jargon, Pelosi wants to “means test” cash aid in response to coronavirus: Don’t give the checks to everyone, but target them to the poorest people, by at least scaling up the checks for people further down the income ladder, or most likely phasing them out completely for Americans above a certain income threshold. Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, fleshed this point out further in a tweet: “The Speaker believes we should look at refundable tax credits, expanded [unemployment insurance] and direct payments — but MUST be targeted.”
Speaker Pelosi and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), issued a statement:
Democrats support a plan that puts ‘Workers First’. That means taking bold action to help workers and small businesses first by greatly increasing unemployment insurance and Medicaid, making massive investments to help small businesses survive, expanding paid sick and family leave and putting money directly into the hands of those who need it most.
Joseph Biden, Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, proposes a plan that esssentially expands or adjusts existing programs to deal with the crisis, along the lines presented by Pelosi and Schumer.
When you have a widespread public health crisis, requiring businesses to close and people to stay at home, a mere proposal to expand (skimpy in the best of times–not now) unemployment insurance and only place cash in the hands of the destitute is at best myopic.
Senate Republicans, announced a proposal that does not help struggling people (who I spoke about in this post–see subsection titled “The Lived Reality of the 90 Percent: Relative Deprivation & Impoverishment”) get through this crisis.
The Influence of Wealth on Congressional Policy at a Crisis Moment: Net Worth of Congressional Leadership–Nancy Pelosi (Multimillionaire), Mitch McConnell (Multimillionaire), Charles (Chuck) Schumer (almost a millionaire), and Kevin McCarthy ($148,002 (2016))
Can the extreme financial security of Congressional leaders explain these minuscule, underwhelming proposals? Senator Sanders’ plan should be the starting point.
In order to deal with the crisis the government must step up to assuage the fears of the population and support them as we all comply with necessary public-health-related directives. Will the stubbornness of the “status quo” cause the government not to rise to the level of a crisis?
On the Federal Reserve’s “Political Independence”
In an Inspector General’s Congressionally mandated report on diversity and inclusion, the Federal Reserve maintained the position that the U.S. Government could not compel the Fed to follow civil rights statutes, citing 12 U.S.C section 244. I found this astounding. So-called political independence is a gift; the recipient must act in an exemplary way with such a privilege. The Federal Reserve falls well short of deserving such a broad exception.
In a previous blog post, the following was written, which still applies at the present moment.
But it is unreasonable to expect the people of the United States of America to accept an “independence” stance that requires the Board, a federal agency, to be free from federal employment statutes that were adopted into law long after 1913, including civil rights laws and Title 5 of the U.S. Code. Asking any citizen in the present day to respect employment law from 1913 or to allow the Board to choose which statutes it will follow (or comply with) is totally unacceptable.
The money that the Board, on which it conducts monetary policy, comes from the people of the United States of America, which has a government that possesses authority to govern through the consent of its people. Once the government loses that consent, authority is lost. The Board, in its quest to protect a nebulous independence for non-monetary-policy administrative activities, forgets this bedrock principle and risks institutional failure.
The Federal Reserve and an Employment Discrimination Case: Artis v. Greenspan (v. Bernanke and v. Yellen)
In non-monetary policy terms, the wayward, Jim Crow Fed was exposed in the Artis v Greenspan[2] case, a case where the plaintiffs had to sue just to access the Fed’s corrupt and useless EEO process. The plaintiffs suffered for eighteen long years and went through three chairs: Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and Janet Yellen. I have no respect for any of them.
Multi-millionaire Jerome Powell: $1,000,000 per Year without Work; Median Annual Salary in the United States: $47,060
So focused on the rich that the nonrich are trod upon. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, B.A., J.D., is a multimillionaire. He could decide to stay at home and still have a cool million dollars, or $19,230.76 per week coming in every year.
The median salary in the United States is $47,060, or $905 per week (before taxes).[3] The Fed Chairman, makes the median U.S. worker’s salary in a mere 2.4 weeks! This result only exemplifies the terrible problem.
The Lived Reality of the 90 Percent: Relative Deprivation & Impoverishment
While the Fed Chairman and his ilk live in luxury, privilege, and financial security, most of the people of the United States live in high-class ruin.
In addition, tales of “hard work” are used to immiserate the poor and suffering; rich people who do not do any work are accepted without judgment. According to an article in the Guardian, “The bad behavior of the richest: what I learned from money managers,” by Brooke Harrington:
When the wealthy are revealed to be drug addicts, philanderers, or work-shy, the response is – at most – a frisson of tabloid-level curiosity, followed by a collective shrug.
Behaviors indulged in the rich are not just condemned in the poor, but used as a justification to punish them, denying them access to resources that keep them alive, such as healthcare and food assistance. Discussion of poverty has become almost impossible without moral outrage directed at lazy “welfare queens”, “crackheads” and other drug addicts, and the “promiscuous poor” (a phrase that has cropped up again and again in discussions of public benefits over more than a century).
Politicians (of both parties) cut back vital services on stereotypes because they seek a way to do unacceptable cutbacks through victim-blaming. It is horrendous to treat human beings this way.
In this life, no one knows what the next day will bring. People must read the biblical parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31).
While there are tent cities in cities that have become too expensive for most to afford, what is not seen is the great anxiety of those who seem to have food, clothing, and shelter. These are people, who if they miss one paycheck, will end up in a tent city[4] or living in their car. Worse, a person could have a full-time job yet still must live in the homeless shelter.
Note: In 2021, the Fed Chairman noted the presence of a tent city (21st and E Streets, NW) near the Federal Reserve’s office buildings on 20th and C Streets, NW. The Fed cannot help these suffering people as Fed policy consistently benefits the richest.
Others are functionally homeless, living with relatives or friends, while not being able to live independently. The “American Dream” of upward mobility and financial stability is long dead, except for the 9.9 percent[5].
The thing is if you are poor without dependents, the United States cares not one thimble about you. Indeed, policy is to blame those people for their impoverishment. At the same time, the people witness the rise of millionaires and billionaires, of which the Fed Chairman is a part, who simply do not have to work.
These abusers of society then have the gall to lecture the government for austerity policy to further impoverish the poor and seek government guarantees for the maintenance of rich peoples’ wealth.
Jason Furman, Harvard Ph.D, and a Multimillionaire
People were lauding Jason Furman, Harvard Ph.D., for being a neoliberal so-called policy wonk and economist technician, who counseled that the United States was going into fiscal danger with the debt to GDP ratio approaching 105 percent.[6]
Unmentioned was that the austerity paper on which the debt-to-GDP ratio was based was found to have significant error by a then-Ph.D student, Thomas Herndon, Ph.D.[7]
Also unmentioned in the article was that Furman himself and his siblings are millionaires due to their late father’s business.[8] Imagine proposing ways for the mass of the people of the United States to suffer while profiting from the suffering. This is disgusting.
Vice documentary on the tenth anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis
I had the (mis)fortune of watching a Vice documentary on the tenth anniversary of the global financial crisis.[9] I was sickened. Wall Street firms had perpetuated fraud in mortgage securities to produce fees. When the “plan” blew apart, the goal was to reimburse those firms and to blame the people harmed.
The Failure of the Bailout: Focusing on the “System” and the Wealthy Rather than on the People of the United States of America
Timothy Geithner, Benjamin Bernanke, and Henry Paulsen have convinced themselves that they did not rescue and bailout Wall Street, they gave money to Wall Street banks to ensure that people could go to the ATM and get cash.[10]
Well, how honorable! (/sarcasm)
The Federal Reserve and the U.S Treasury place money in the banks with no direction or supervision that that money got to the people. The government should have had a direct hand in correcting the crisis and punishing all responsible. The focus should not have been to prop up the very system that failed.[11]
Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream by Aaron Glantz
I have discovered that during the Obama Administration and continuing in the Trump Administration that a set of financial vultures were enriched by lax government policy. The government had a set of homes affected by the mortgage crisis. The government officials under Obama stated that the government could not deal with the homes and had to have “private sector” assistance.
Discover more of Aaron Glantz’s book, “Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream,” at Reveal News.
Who was this so-called private sector, which the government guaranteed them against loss (and received no part of the gain nor did the ill-affected people receive any relief)?
According to Mr. Glantz, this privileged class, coddled by both Democrat and Republican administrations, are Steven Mnuchin (former Treasury Secretary), Steve Schwarzman, the founder of Blackstone, the giant private equity firm, Tom Barrack, one of Donald Trump’s closest friends.
Considering this post, I was not surprised still I am deeply disgusted by the financial savagery permitted by capitalism which is aided by cavalier government officials.
The United States Abandoned Citizens Who Followed the Rules of the Pre-Internet Era
I, for one, ruthlessly lost my job at 42 (after a rank-and-yank campaign to malign me and my work), and all my savings. I searched for work for 63 months, with no assistance from “social safety net” programs and ran out of cash. (The feeling of being cashless in this society embittered me; I lost trust in the system, never to be regained.)
Numerous applications, a handful of interviews, with rampant age discrimination. All throughout, no support from the government of the United States. I did all that was expected from society. I studied and earned degrees. I applied for jobs and did what the managers asked and more. But I came from the paper-based system before the Internet age. And, with my industry, publishing, I adapted to it. But what I could not do alone is adapt my legacy job to the new careers in the Internet age.
Frustratingly, policymakers jumped to the Internet age jobs and abandoned all those people who grew up in the legacy era. I am willing to learn about the Internet era, but I must be given room and support to make the transition and to be protected against age discrimination. It is not my fault that I followed the rules of a previous era that has passed. And, policymakers were foolish to abandon a great swath of the population to focus on the new shiny bauble. We see the ill effects of that decision clearly in the United States and the world.
My Experience after the Financial Crisis and Abandonment: Financial Ruin
As a single person without dependents, I did not qualify for any assistance except for 52 weeks of unemployment insurance. (I was out of the labor force involuntarily for 252 weeks.[12] I was a member of the long-term unemployed (though I will never forget the experience of having to fend for myself for 200 weeks when I was in dire need). The jobs that I built my career on were sent out to other countries. The jobs that remain are for young people willing to work in precarious employment conditions or require exceptional expertise-a Ph.D. in some narrow field in mathematics or computer science, machine learning jobs, for example.
The Hellscape of Seeking Social Assistance (when You Are Poor and Vulnerable)
So, for 200 weeks, there was no assistance except from my now-exhausted retirement savings. Well into long-term unemployment, I heard of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)[13] at the unemployment office. I went there excited about the opportunity for a fresh start. What I found in my jurisdiction was a program geared for those who never had a job and one person burdened with implementing the program in the jurisdiction I live in.
So many hoops to go through for, ultimately, a short 26-week course for a minimum wage job. The WIOA representative was shocked I was there since I possessed two degrees—the goal of the people in the unemployment office. None of the WIOA courses would help me make the transition to Internet-era work.
My initial hopes were dashed; I gave up. I could be depressed and anxiety-ridden on my own. As for the other social assistance programs, the ” available ” assistance is invasive of one’s privacy, degrading, and paltry.[14]
This was not the case for Wall Street.
The Annoying, Foolish, and Irresponsible Rick Santelli
After Wall Street was completely bailed out, the foolish, irresponsible, and self-centered Rick Santelli[15] of CNBC on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange had the absolute gall to say that people did not want to bail out people who should not have had mortgages—right after bailing out all Wall Street firms who provided those loans and promoted in particular subprime loans.[16]
Former president Obama, surrounded by Wall Streeters, listened to that rant, and did nothing (not even used the bully pulpit!) to aid the people. The devastation to the mass of the people broke the trust in the government, and we see the result today.
The Indifferent Federal Reserve and Its Chairman
And, the Federal Reserve, and Chairman Powell, a multimillionaire, blame the lower labor force participation rate on people that want to stay on disability (hard to get) or SNAP[17] or to play video games[18] is completely irresponsible and ignorant. The Fed Chairman and the Federal Reserve System should be ashamed![19] Yes, I am speaking bluntly; this is not a time for diplomatic language. In addition, watch “The Big Short” and “Inside Job”. [20]
Update: Multimillionare Fed Chairman Jerome Powell revised his remarks in February 2020.
At the February 2020 Monetary Policy Report hearings, Chairman Powell, a multimillionaire, explained that the lower labor force participation rate is not based on the (paltry, extremely limited) social benefit programs but on education (which plunges many people into debt) and the opioid crisis.
Perhaps firing people with specific jobs that were sent to other countries and replacing them with highly specific jobs that the unemployed could not qualify for is also part of the problem.
Well, I am deeply disappointed in the entire Federal Reserve System. The Fed is captured by the rich and powerful. Given the Fed Chairman’s wealth, I have diminishing faith that the Fed will do anything, as the rich and powerful benefit from the broken system. The Fed Listens farce will lead to no effective change. The system is stacked with millionaires and the powerful.
It is a contributor to the political turmoil and lack of trust in U.S. political and capitalistic institutions. Unfortunately, the “American Way” is to wait for collapse and then rush to fix it. The destruction is too extensive for such a cavalier and lax approach.
[1] Household Wealth Trends in the United States, 1962 to 2016: Has Middle Class Wealth Recovered? Edward N. Wolff, NBER Working Paper No. 24085, November 2017.
[12] I had a few precarious jobs. I consider it a part of unemployment because the sword of Damocles was over me in each of those precarious positions. One of them earned me 26 weeks more of unemployment insurance. Each of those weeks I was filled with anxiety.
[20] There will never again be a bailout for Wall Street, other than the government taking over Wall Street functions while allowing the guilty parties to go to zero.
(1) The Futility of “Colorblindness”: Is pseudoscience making a reappearance?
The New York Times had an article on a proposal to discuss race in biology. The one thing that the article skirted around is dealing with the fatal infection of pseudoscience and scientific racism.
Based on what I read in the article, the proposal is not well thought out and cowardly–failing to deal with pseudoscience–James Watson, Charles Murray, and the entire filth of white-superiority-based “science” (scientific racism). As a result, the proposal affirms, yet again, white superiority.
For background information on “colorblindness” in the United States (and why this proposal will not withstand the withering scrutiny), see the previous posts. See also Rev. Thomas Merton, Seeds of Destruction,” pages 19-20.
The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending November 30, 2019, is below.
H.2 Release–Action of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received
Category
Action Taken
Bank Holding Companies
BB&T Corporation, Winston-Salem, North Carolina — commenter’s request for reconsideration of the Board’s approval of the application by BB&T Corporation to merge with SunTrust Banks, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia.
-Denied, November 26, 2019
Reserve Bank Services
Federal Reserve Priced Services — 2020 private sector adjustment factor and fee schedules for priced services and electronic access.
-Approved, November 25, 2019
Supervision and Regulation
Supervision and Regulation — semiannual report.
-Published, November 26, 2019
Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)
The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for November 29, 2019, is below.
[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]
H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances
Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of November 27, 2019): $4,100,461 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).
(1) The Federal Reserve Board removed the Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen case from its list of legal developments. The Artis case has ended; the lessons from it are everlasting.
Comment: The Board should not expect in the Internet age that it will have the last word. The Board thinks that it can delete information from its convoluted webpage and the “people” will just forget. This is nonsensical.
The last word belongs, always, to Walter Charlton, Artis counsel, and the Artis plaintiffs. To that end, I have a section on the blog for the Artis case.
The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending May 11, 2019, is below.
H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received
Forms — initial Board review to extend without revision the Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Disclosure Requirements Associated with Regulation NN (FR NN).
-Proposed, May 7, 2019
Forms — final Board review to extend without revision the Recordkeeping Requirements of Regulation H and Regulation K Associated with the Procedures for Monitoring Bank Secrecy Act Compliance (FR K).
-Approved, May 7, 2019
Forms — final Board review to extend with revision the Application to Become a Savings and Loan Holding Company or to Acquire a Savings Association or Savings and Loan Holding Company (FR LL 10(e)).
-Approved, May 7, 2019
Forms — final Board review to extend with revision the Suspicious Activity Report (FR 2230).
-Approved, May 7, 2019
Forms — initial Board review to extend without revision the Recordkeeping Provisions Associated with the Interagency Statement on Complex Structured Finance Activities (FR 4022).
-Proposed, May 7, 2019
Monetary and Financial Policy
Financial Stability Report — publication of the semiannual report presenting the Board’s assessment of financial stability conditions.
-Published, May 6, 2019
Personnel
Division of International Finance — appointment of Joseph W. Gruber as deputy director and Matteo Iacoviello and Andrea Raffo as deputy associate directors.
-Announced, May 9, 2019
Regulations and Policies
Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (S.A.F.E. Act) — final rule to repeal the regulations incorporating the S.A.F.E. Act, which have been superseded by a final rule issued by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
-Approved, May 7, 2019
Reserve Bank Services
Enhanced Same-Day Automated Clearing House (ACH) Service — publication for comment of (1) potential modifications to the operating hours of the Federal Reserve Banks’ National Settlement Service and Fedwire Funds Service to support enhancements to the same-day ACH service; and (2) corresponding changes to the Federal Reserve Policy on Payment System Risk.
-Approved, May 7, 2019
Supervision and Regulation
Supervision and Regulation Report — publication of the semiannual report summarizing banking conditions and the Board’s current and ongoing supervisory and regulatory activities.
First American Bancorp, Greenwood Village, Colorado — written agreement dated August 20, 2010, terminated May 3, 2019.
-Announced, May 7, 2019
Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)
The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for May 16, 2019, is below.
[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]
H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances
Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of May 15, 2019): $3,912,691 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).
In March 2018, the Federal Reserve Board (Board) posted the 2018 version of its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI).
As discussed previously in this blog, there had been some attention in inclusion issues by the Congress and the Board’s Office of Inspector General (IG). The blog had covered these developments, and also a former long-running case, Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen.
Federal Reserve Board, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, Reports to Congress
(Preface language for the report submitted in 2015.) “Pursuant to section 342(e) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System must submit an annual report to the Congress outlining the activities, successes, and challenges of the office. This is the office’s report for calendar year 2014. Sheila Clark serves as the director of ODI.”
In reading the 2018 OMWI report, the report has essentially the same content and structure as in 2017; however, there were some additions. While the additions were explained better in the 2018 report, observers must remain cautious, given the Board’s difficulties with diversity and inclusion issues. Some topics that I noticed in the 2018 report:
An updated section on equal employment contained more discussion. (But given the Board’s history on this subject, still more is needed.)
The workforce profile is more or less similar to the previous year. (Table 2, page 4)
The Board’s OMWI stated that it monitors if there is a problem with retention of women and minorities. (I do not trust the OMWI’s mere words, again given that the director was involved in the problems. Significant action is needed to defeat this skepticism.)
There was a significant drop off in hiring overall. (Table 3, page 5)
Board Hiring and Promotions, 2015-2017
2015
2016
2017
Positions filled
576
576
399
Interns
118
127
111
Positions filled w/ counting interns
458
449
288
Total number of Board employees
2673
2766
2745
Percentage of new non-intern hires over total number of employees
17.1%
16.2%
10.5%
Given the issues presented by the IG previously and with the long running time of the now-ended Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen case, the Board’s activities with regard to diversity and inclusion remain an issue of moderate to grave concern until demonstrable, sustained and consistent improvement is shown. Meetings, scorecards, and reports are a start, but insufficient compared to firm and visible results.
In all the tables in the “Equal Employment of Minorities and Women and Diversity and Inclusion at the Board” section, the delineation of non-minority and minority is obscure, specifically the minority category. Such obscurity can hide issues with specific subgroups under the umbrella of minority.
Sheila Clark’s letter to the EEOC (printed in the Auerbach book, page 123).
While the report provided an improved explanation of activities, concern remains that the activities produce demonstrable, consistent results–hiring and retention–of formerly excluded groups. The experience of the long-running Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen case casts a profound shadow over the Board for diversity and inclusion issues. It is up to the Board to redeem itself.
The Monetary Policy Report (MPR) hearings will be held on February 28, 2018, and March 1, 2018. It will be the first for the new Chairman of the Board, Jerome Powell.
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Senate
February 27 28, 2018, 10:00 a.m., House Financial Services Committee
March 1, 2018, 10:00 a.m., Senate Banking Committee
The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending February 24, 2018, is below.
H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received
Category
Action Taken
Bank Holding Companies
First Financial Bancorp, Cincinnati, Ohio — (1) for First Financial Bancorp to merge with MainSource Financial Group, Inc., Greensburg, Indiana, and thereby acquire MainSource Bank; (2) for First Financial Bank, Cincinnati, to merge with MainSource Bank and thereby establish branches; and (3) election by First Financial Bancorp to become a financial holding company.
-Approved, February 20, 2018
Bank Mergers
IBERIABANK, Lafayette, Louisiana — to merge with Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust Company, Coral Gables, Florida, and thereby establish branches.
-Approved, February 20, 2018
Personnel
Office of Board Members — appointment of Antulio Bomfim as special adviser to the Chairman.
-Announced, February 21, 2018
Supervision and Regulation, Board Operations
Supervisory Appeals and Ombudsman Policy — publication for comment of (1) proposed amendments to the Board’s guidelines governing appeals of material supervisory determinations and (2) a revised policy statement governing the role of the Board’s Ombudsman.
-Approved, February 9, 2018
(A/C)
Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)
The Board publishes data on factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for March 1, 2018, is below.
[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]
H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances
Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of February 28, 2018): $4,440,074 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).
Comment: This is an inhuman, immoral result of health-care policy. The only cure to ensure that this abhorrent behavior never happens is single-payer health care so that people can concentrate on their health rather than the current system’s focus on “health insurance” company bloat and outlandish executive compensation packages as well as Big Pharma’s shameless profit extraction from people who are ill.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has published a report on this topic, “Patient Dumping.”
(2) The disgusting fig leaf of bias, “colorblindness,” has been removed by the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.
[Author’s note: This blog does not use vulgar language in its content, but as the President of the United States of America has used vulgar language in the exercise of his duties, the blog relates the word the President stated.]
U.S. President Donald J. Trump made disparaging remarks, referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and countries in the African continent as “shithole” countries, during a White House meeting on immigration legislation.
[Trump stated in a later tweet that “The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used.” It is unclear what this statement means; however, it is not a condemnation of the reporting as incorrect—which confirms that the reporting is correct. Considering also Trump’s long history of biased comments, the reported comments also fit with his past behavior.]
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Comment: In the United States, racial bias is couched in an underhanded way–hiding the biased intent (and representing that intent as “colorblind” that results in discrimination anyway. Trump’s comments just erase the disgusting, yet accepted, fig leaf. The removal of the fig leaf bothers people who barely concealed their bias with claims of “colorblindness.”
Now, as a result, his Administration’s policies (and any law he signs) should be reviewed to ensure that they are all fair and equitable.
Separately, as mentioned in a previous post, the culture of the United States includes the bias that Trump expressed. Rev. Thomas Merton wrote about it in his book “Seeds of Destruction” in 1964.
(For more information on other books on bias in the United States of America, see the recommended reading list on the blog’s sidebar.)
The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending January 6, 2018, is below.
H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received
Category
Action Taken
Board Operations
Office of Inspector General — 2018 operating and capital budgets.
-Approved, December 15, 2017
(A/C)
[Note: This is the reason why the Board’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is not independent. The Board appoints the IG, and the Board approves, as noted, the OIG’s independently prepared budget.
Rules of Practice for Hearings — final rule to adjust the Board’s maximum civil money penalties for 2018 to account for inflation.
-Approved, December 26, 2017
(A/C)
Supervisory Guidance for Large Financial Institutions — publication for comment of proposed guidance describing core principles of effective senior management, the management of business lines, and independent risk management and controls for large financial institutions.
-Approved, January 1, 2018
AmBank Holdings, Inc., Davenport, Iowa — written agreement dated February 2, 2012, terminated December 27, 2017.
-Announced, January 4, 2018
J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited, Hong Kong, China — determination denying the request by Timothy Fletcher, a former institution-affiliated party, for immediate review of two interlocutory orders issued by the administrative law judge in connection with an enforcement matter.
-Approved, December 26, 2017
(A/C)
Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)
The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for January 11, 2018, is below.
[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]
H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances
Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of January 10, 2018): $4,493,186 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).
(1) The confirmation hearing for the Fed Chairman nominee, Jerome Powell was held on November 28, 2017. The balance sheet is planned to be reduced, not to its pre-crisis level of less than $1 trillion but rather to $2.5 to $3 trillion (from the current level (as of the date of this post) of approximately $4.5 trillion. The Board will continue to seek to reduce employment to 3 percent, as many people still are left out of the workforce.
Powell, noted, in responding to a Senator’s question for a need of diversity at the Fed, stated that a long-term process for inclusion (which he advocated) would take a “long time.” The Fed already had 104 years, inclusive of the nearly 20-year employment discrimination of Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen. How much longer must the people of the United States wait?
Sheila Clark’s letter to the EEOC (printed in the Auerbach book, page 123).
Governor Powell’s statement to the Banking Committee.
The webcast of Governor Powell’s nomination hearing.
(2) The departure of “full employment.” The grave consequences of outsourcing, the egregious insult of low wages and low supply of jobs. The blog has heard a story of the gall of an employer wanting people with law degrees to write summaries of U.S. court opinions for $3.00 each, regardless of the time needed to produce such a summary. (The bulk of the employer’s production work is done in India.)
This week, the blog has become aware of a job-applicant glut in the lawyer field. In a recent announcement for trademark examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, there were 500 applications for 50 positions.
“Free-market” result
Neoliberal economic policy in action
So-called full employment will never arrive because of a glut of people holding degrees (not only law), surpassing the number of jobs available, compounded by the relentless outsourcing of jobs from the United States.
The Federal Reserve Board (Board) publishes a weekly digest of its activities on its website. The digest is called the H.2 Release and is published every Thursday. The release for the week ending November 18, 2017, is below.
H.2 Release–Actions of the Board, Its Staff, and the Federal Reserve Banks; Applications and Reports Received
Category
Action Taken
Bank Branches
Frost Bank, San Antonio, Texas — to establish a branch at 640 Taylor Street, Fort Worth.
-Approved, November 20, 2017
Bank Holding Companies
Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc., Olney, Maryland — (1) to merge with WashingtonFirst Bankshares, Inc., Reston, Virginia, and thereby indirectly acquire WashingtonFirst Bank; (2) to acquire 1st Portfolio, Inc., Fairfax, a nonbank subsidiary of WashingtonFirst Bankshares; and (3) for Sandy Spring Bank, Olney, Maryland, to merge with WashingtonFirst Bank, Reston, and thereby establish branches.
Forms — initial Board review to extend without revision the Recordkeeping and Disclosure Requirements Associated with Securities Transactions Pursuant to Regulation H (Reg H-3).
-Proposed, November 20, 2017
Forms — final Board review to extend without revision the Application for Exemption from Prohibited Service at Savings and Loan Holding Companies (FR LL-12).
-Approved, November 20, 2017
Personnel
Division of Monetary Affairs — appointment of Trevor A. Reeve as deputy director and Mary T. Hoffman as associate director.
Regulation BB (Community Reinvestment) — final interagency amendments to Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations to update the existing definitions of “home mortgage loan” and “consumer loan” and the public-file content requirements to conform the CRA regulations to recent changes to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act regulations.
-Approved, November 8, 2017
(A/C)
Federal Reserve Board: Balance Sheet (H.4.1 Release)
The Board publishes data of factors affecting reserve balances. The digest is called the H.4.1 Release, and they are published every Thursday (or the next business day if the publication date falls on a federal holiday). The release for November 30, 2017, is below.
[Note: The blog will cover the line titled “Total Factors Supplying Reserve Funds.”]
H.4.1 Release–Factors Affecting Reserve Balances
Total factors supplying reserve funds (as of November 29, 2017): $4,484,546 (in millions of dollars). (On September 26, 2007, this amount was $900,473 (in millions of dollars)).
It is insufficient for corporate CEOs to denounce the words of President Donald Trump, while doing absolutely nothing to eradicate the stain of “colorblind” discrimination.
With the actions in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, the nation recoiled at the open display of racial hatred. However, the events in Charlottesville served as the culmination of the grinding microaggressions–covert, exclusionary, discriminatory-and “colorblind” systemic discrimination–that occur daily.
Into this systemically discriminatory reality (for some members of the U.S. society) enter corporate chief executive officers (CEO), many of whom, perhaps, are active or passive participants in the systemic discrimination. It is not enough to proclaim the words of the civil rights laws and then pursue reckless programs that permit the exclusionary practices, which the neo-nazis, kkk-ers, and other white hegemons stated openly in Charlottesville as well as uttered in other places in the United States.
Dick Grote, Harvard Business School, Corporate America, & “Rank and Yank”. Systemic discrimination is involved in the practice of forced-distribution “performance management”. This blog has covered Dick Grote’s “rank and yank” (aka forced distribution) program, which many corporations follow in order to dump employees should the financial numbers be insufficient to satisfy Wall Street. Other organizations have followed suit, some covered in this blog. Indeed, Harvard Business School, from which many corporate-executive MBAs come, publishes Grote’s materials.
Bucket (rank)
Percentage [“vitality curve”] (amounts can be adjusted)
Effect
A
20
Lavish rewards, encouragement
B
70
Little to paltry increase
C
10
Pressure to quit, firing
Artist: Michael Sloan
A quote from Grote (discussed previously at this blog):
But what if a company’s forced ranking procedure, honestly and objectively done, reveals that the blacks or women or disabled employees just aren’t as talented as the white ones? Should they do what some Harvard professors are said to do and award A’s to all the blacks, just to keep them from squawking?” (Grote, page 4 (a quote from a previous post)).
(Note: Consider this statement from Grote with the ever-present and persistent legacy of slavery and Jim Crow subjugation in the United States of America.)
White hegemony in the government. This questionable fidelity to white hegemony extends to the government. The Federal Reserve (its former Artis v. Greenspan Bernanke Yellen was covered in this blog), the Secret Service, and the U.S. Capitol Police Department have had or have long-term employment discrimination cases. The Federal Reserve acts grudgingly and haughtily towards any action that would threaten the mostly white workforce it has created. (Note: After 104 years of Federal Reserve inaction, Dr. Raphael Bostic became President of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank.)
Black/African American Permanent Board Employees, Table C-2, in whole numbers (in numerical order of significance), 2011–2013
2011
2012
2013
Total Black/African American employees
567
573
573
All other pay grade, FR-16 to FR-25
434
418
400
Mid-level professional pay grades, FR-26 to FR-28
106
125
136
Senior managers and officers pay grade, FR-29 to FR-00
The same is true for the U.S. Supreme Court, which lectures for a “colorblindness” (see John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson) that practically means that most nonwhites are not welcome (for example, Antonin Scalia). The proof of this is the composition of a homogeneous law clerk workforce, who in turn apply their elite, majority life experiences into law. (For example, Graham v. Connor, Tennessee v. Garner, and all affirmative action cases.)
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Confirmation bias in the workplace and management. Discrimination extends into supervision, with writing being judged by high standards, exclusively (Reeves, Dr. Arin N. (2014, April). “Written in Black and White: Exploring Confirmation Bias in Racialized Perceptions of Writing Skills.” Nextions Yellow Paper Series, 2014-0404.) for the nonwhite subordinate. Such middling or low evaluations seriously hobble or end careers.
Conclusion. So, in closing, while the words of Trump were hard to hear, they are the result of covertly practiced and rampant systemic discrimination.
It is far past time for the United States to eradicate all discrimination from the society. Mere words from wealthy CEOs, who have lives of exclusion, are not enough. Only positive and definitive institutional action will satisfy the people of the United States.
A DC Observer 