Thanks to the great folks at AREA Chicago we are distributing 5,000 copies of the TIF Illumination Project’s graphic poster showing the results of our investigation of the 12 TIFs inside the 27th Ward. Awesome! The poster was written by Tom Tresser based on data research lead by Cory Mollet and designed by Carlyn So. The Spring 2013 issue focuses on housing.
TIF Illuminators Tom Tresser and Bea Jasper (organizer of the Englewood TIF Town Meeting) will be on “The GreenPreneur Show” on WVON on Saturday night, March 23, from 5-6pm. Listen live here. The call in number is 773-591-1690. Let’s talk TIFs on the South Side. Our next TIF Town Meeting is in South Shore on March 30. Connect with the TIF Illumination Project.
I presented on the six TIFs in the 20th Ward at the Washington Park TIF Town Meeting. Wow. It was packed. Cliff Kelley was the emcee and the attendees had LOTS of questions. We are on to something with the TIF Illumination Project! Below are the presentations plus audio (56 minutes).
Thanks to the great folks at CAN-TV you can watch the February 12 TIF Town Meeting produced by The Tax Integrity and Fairness Alliance at the Chopin Theater (1 hour, 22 minutes). View the media coverage and my presentation materials on the impacts of the 12 TIFs inside the 27th Ward here.
I’m doing a webinar on December 13 for the Northeast chapters of the National Network of Statewide Afterschool Networks on power and social change. “Are nonprofit leaders, workers and constituents doing enough to advance the causes of social change, social justice and compassion in America? How is the nonprofit sector doing, as a whole? Are we strong, healthy, powerful, fighting and winning for the kids we care so much about? Who is winning politically and policy-wise in America and what can we learn from them? Is there some uncharted territory that may hold NEW solutions to old problems in this arena?’
From the front page of today’s New York Times:
“State and federal authorities decided against indicting HSBC in a money-laundering case over concerns that criminal charges could jeopardize one of the world’s largest banks and ultimately destabilize the global financial system.
Instead, HSBC announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to a record $1.92 billion settlement with authorities. The bank, which is based in Britain, faces accusations that it transferred billions of dollars for nations like Iran and enabled Mexican drug cartels to move money illegally through its American subsidiaries.
While the settlement with HSBC is a major victory for the government, the case raises questions about whether certain financial institutions, having grown so large and interconnected, are too big to indict. Four years after the failure of Lehman Brothers nearly toppled the financial system, regulators are still wary that a single institution could undermine the recovery of the industry and the economy.
But the threat of criminal prosecution acts as a powerful deterrent. If authorities signal such actions are remote for big banks, the threat could lose its sting.”
You think? First these criminal institutions were too big to fail. Now they’re too big to indict. Sounds like the government is granting effective immunity to banks and corporations to break the law with little effective punishment. If it’s just a fine – well, that’s now the price of doing business. A price that’s passed on to the consumer, which would be us.
Folks, these banks are accused and are guilty of money laundering to terrorist outfits, rogue states and the drug cartels. Aren’t we “at war” with those players? Not to mention tax evasion, criminal fraud, collusion, cover-ups and a pervasive culture of greed and venality. Apparently ANYTHING is OK when there is profit to be made.
Where is the outrage from America’s universities, law schools and business schools? Where is the revulsion and alarm from the columnists, pundits and politicians who have defended the market so unhesitantly?
I was at the Bioneers Chicago on Saturday, November 3 doing a workshop on “Welcome to the Gift Economy” – it was a critique of our current financial system and the institutions that teach it and about giftedness and P2P reciprocity. We CREATED our very own Gift Economy on the spot! Here is the deck:
Tom presented on “Crowdsourcing Social Change” at TEDxDePaul on October 13. You can watch the presentation deck and listen to the audio here (18 minutes). We did some crowdsourcing on the spot – asking attendees to reveal how much student debt they will have upon graduation and to share ideas for dealing with mounting and unmanageable student debt. Thanks to the folks at GoSoapBox for the use of their platform for this demonstration! Participate here.
According to a new report from CIRCLE, “That’s NOT Democracy – How Out-of-School Youth Engage in Civic Life and What Stands in Their Way,” 62% of young people with college experience voted in the 2008 Presidential election versus only 36% of young people with no college experience.
From the Center for American Progress comes a new study, “The Competition That Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce.” Download summary (12 pages) = The Competition That_Really_Matters-summary.
“To position the United States for the future, substantial investments are needed in research, infrastructure, and education. The most important of these areas to address is education. Why? Because as this report shows, the overwhelming economic evidence points to education—and human capital investments, generally—as the key drivers of economic competitiveness in the long term.”
Are you hearing anything like this in the current flurry of ads around the Presidential race?