Consumer Message to Honda and Hyundai :
Latinos Stand By Your Cars and Now They Must Stand By Latinos
 
Rallies to be held at Dealerships in Key American Cities
 
Foreign auto makers know a good customer when they see one. In 2010, seven out of 10 new vehicles bought by Latinos were Asian brands. As the Latino share of the population goes up each year, so does the communities share of the auto-buying market.
 
Honda, Hyundai and foreign auto makers want Latino customers but they are turning a blind eye to injustices against Latinos and immigrants in Alabama, the state where some of their vehicles are made. Alabama’s HB 56 is a racist law that legitimizes racial profiling, harms workers and the economy, and terrorizes communities of color, citizens and non-citizens alike.
 
Two foreign auto executives were charged for not carrying the required “papers” under HB 56.
 
Enough! Community members today are telling dealership managers that ALABAMA CARMAKERS MUST BREAK THEIR SILENCE AND PUSH FOR REPEAL OF HB 56.
 
 
The Worse the Economy Gets, the Longer People Live: Peter Orszag
From Peter Orszag at Bloomberg
A weak labor market, like the one we’ve experienced since the financial crisis in 2008, imposes enormous stress on people. Given the added anxiety created by a weak economy, you might think life expectancy would decline. Oddly, though, during recessions, exactly the opposite tends to happen: Life expectancy rises. It’s happening again now. The age-adjusted death rate in the U.S. declined by 2 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, projected life expectancy at birth rose to 78.7 years in 2010 from 77.9 years in 2007, an increase of 0.8 year. In contrast, from 2004 to 2007, when the economy was much stronger, life expectancy rose by only 0.4 year. Life expectancy appears to have risen more in the states with relatively large increases in unemployment. In Michigan and Illinois, for example, where joblessness rose much more than in North Dakota or Iowa, age-adjusted death rates have had a steeper decline since 2007. (In the states with the smallest increase in unemployment, the death rates have perversely risen.)
These cross-state data are consistent with historical patterns that economists Douglas Miller, Marianne Page, Ann Stevens and Mateusz Filipski have found. Their research shows that a one-percentage-point increase in a state’s unemployment rate is associated with a 0.5 percent reduction in the state’s mortality rate.


Is Conservative Philanthropy Ignoring the Poor?
From William Schambra at Philanthropy.com
Mitt Romney announces that he is “not concerned about the very poor.” Newt Gingrich calls for drafting low-income students to work as janitors. Meanwhile, the other candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have little at all to say about the poor, beyond demands to cut federal programs that focus on their needs. All this confirms one of the oldest stereotypes in American politics: that conservatives are uncaring, hardhearted skinflints, unworthy to govern a people known for charity and compassion. Conservative philanthropy once helped dispel that stereotype by developing thoughtful private approaches to poverty. Unhappily, it now simply reinforces unfavorable impressions by focusing on short-term political advocacy rather than long-term civic problem solving.

 
Europe’s shortsighted response to a worsening fiscal reality
From Gordon Brown at the Washington Post
Gordon Brown was prime minister of Great Britain from 2007 to 2010, following 10 years as chancellor of the exchequer. Talleyrand said of the Bourbon dynasty that ruled France both before and after that country’s revolution: “They have learned nothing and have forgotten nothing.” Today, with the same shortsightedness, Europe’s leaders stick unblinkingly to policies that the whole world can see have already failed. Having learned nothing and forgotten nothing, they have just announced yet another version of a seemingly never-ending succession of Greek rescue plans that they must surely know will not work.