Monthly Archives: October 2013

HBCU Money™ Business Book Feature – Masters of International Relations

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It’s probably fair to say that most practitioners and general readers find little of interest or value in most contemporary academic work in the social sciences, and that most social scientists are either unconcerned by such attitudes or attribute them to the failings of the consumers, not the producers. However, we here at Foreign Affairs—responsible for running a forum for policymakers, scholars, and general readers alike—believe strongly that intellectual rigor, practical relevance, and accessible presentation are not mutually exclusive. We believe, in fact, that when done right, they are actually mutually reinforcing.

In Masters of IR, we’ve decided to gather together a few of our most recent articles from some of the leading lights in international relations, showing just how the gap between scholars and policymakers can and should be bridged.

The collection features Francis Fukuyama, John Ikenberry, Joseph Nye, Robert Keohane, and Fareed Zakaria on the future of history, liberalism, and America. Stephen Brooks, John Ikenberry, and William Wohlforth debate Barry Posen on
U.S. grand strategy. Kenneth Waltz, Robert Jervis, and Richard Betts all chime in on Iran. Graham Allison discusses nuclear weapons, and Michael Walzer, David Campbell, and Robert Putnam talk humanitarianism and religion. Masters of IR also offers an introductory chapter by Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose.

HBCU Money™ Dozen Links 10/21 – 10/25

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Did you miss HBCU Money™ Dozen via Twitter? No worry. We are now putting them on the site for you to visit at your leisure. We have made some changes here at HBCU Money™ Dozen. We are now solely focused on research and central bank articles from the previous week.

Research

Social engineering: How oversharing information can lead to disaster online l CSOonline

The Radical Right Wing Is Becoming An Unlikely Advocate For Solar Power l Clean Technica

Pairs of entangled photons that act as clocks demonstrate how time might be an illusion l New Scientist

A spate of extreme weather may be due to changing jet streams, but controversy’s in the air l New Scientist

Our scientists help cities save money using green infrastructure l EPA Research

Why does GPS drain your battery? A Google engineer explains l Network World

Federal Reserve, Central Banks, & Financial Departments

Financial Education is All the Rage, but Does it Really Work? l Council For Econ Ed

Find out why more people aren’t making the investment in a college degree l St. Louis Fed

House to vote on disapproval of debt ceiling suspension l Floor Action

Mortgage fraud rises alongside the housing market l Housing Wire

GOP assured government workers won’t ‘double dip’ on unemployment l Floor Action

Microsavings opens door for individuals to invest in themselves l St. Louis Fed

Thank you as always for joining us on Saturday for HBCU Money™ Dozen. The 12 most important research and finance articles of the week.

The HBCU Money™ Weekly Market Watch

Our Money Matters /\ October 25, 2013

A weekly snapshot of African American owned public companies and HBCU Money™ tracked African stock exchanges.

NAME TICKER PRICE (GAIN/LOSS %)

African American Publicly Traded Companies

Citizens Bancshares Georgia (CZBS) $5.51 (0.00% UNCH)

M&F Bancorp (MFBP) $3.25 (0.00% UNCH)

Radio One (ROIA) $3.25 (10.54% UP)

African Stock Exchanges

Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres (BRVM)  207.30 (0.58% DN)

Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE)  8 711.53 (0.13% UP)

Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE)  2 094.70 (74.60% UP)*

Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE)  131.06 (N/A)

Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) 45 124.04 (0.13% UP)

International Stock Exchanges

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) 10 052.37 (0.23% UP)

London Stock Exchange (LSE)  3 581.33 (0.08% UP)

Tokyo Stock Exchange (TOPIX)  1 178.28 (2.08% DN)

Commodities

Gold 1 351.80 (0.12% UP)

Oil 98.00 (0.92% UP)

*Ghana Stock Exchange shows current year to date movement. All others daily.

All quotes reported as of 4:00 PM Eastern Time Zone

African America’s September Unemployment Report – 12.9%

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Overall Unemployment: 7.2% (7.3%)

African America Unemployment: 12.9% (13.0%)

Latino America Unemployment: 9.0% (9.3%)

European America Unemployment: 6.3% (6.4%)

Asian America Unemployment: 5.3% (5.1%)

Analysis: Overall unemployment dropped 10 basis points. African, European, and Latino Americans saw decreases in their unemployment rates with Latinos seeing the most notable decrease. Asian America saw an uptick but still maintains the lowest unemployment rate of all groups. African America continues to be the only group in double digits.

African American Male Unemployment: 14.0% (13.5%)

African American Female Unemployment: 10.0% (10.6%)

African American Teenage Unemployment: 35.1% (38.2%)

African American Male Participation: 67.9% (66.6%)

African American Female Participation: 61.2% (61.5%)

African American Teenage Participation: 29.4% (28.9%)

*Previous month in parentheses.

Analysis: The unemployment rate for African American men sees a healthy rise of 50 basis points, but participation rate sees its highest number in the past 5 months. African American women see their unemployment rate drop. It worryingly is dropping on the back of the fifth straight month of participation decline for African American women. The teenage group is the only one of the three who sees a drop in unemployment rate and rise in participation. A rare double win for any of the three groups.

Conclusion: The economy added 148 000 jobs as a whole. African American saw a net plus of 151 000 new jobs. The good news is that government hiring picked up, which favors African American employment rising. The bad news is that African America is still too dependent on government employment, something that will continue to be in the crosshairs as governments deal with pension liabilities and other debt. In September, the number of employed African Americans falls dead in the middle with no real trend upwards or downwards over the past five months. The participation rate is at its second lowest over the past five months, but sees its first uptick after four months of straight declines. At this point, the data is hard to get a trending pattern of African American unemployment either way. It could be that for now – no news is good news (or bad news).

Currencies Of The African Diaspora – Angola

Angola’s high growth rate in recent years was driven by high international prices for its oil. Angola became a member of OPEC in late 2006 and its current assigned a production quota of 1.65 million barrels a day (bbl/day). Oil production and its supporting activities contribute about 85% of GDP. Diamond exports contribute an additional 5%. Subsistence agriculture provides the main livelihood for most of the people, but half of the country’s food is still imported. Increased oil production supported growth averaging more than 17% per year from 2004 to 2008. A postwar reconstruction boom and resettlement of displaced persons has led to high rates of growth in construction and agriculture as well. Much of the country’s infrastructure is still damaged or undeveloped from the 27-year-long civil war. Land mines left from the war still mar the countryside, even though peace was established after the death of rebel leader Jonas SAVIMBI in February 2002. Since 2005, the government has used billions of dollars in credit lines from China, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Spain, and the EU to rebuild Angola’s public infrastructure. The global recession that started in 2008 temporarily stalled economic growth. Lower prices for oil and diamonds during the global recession slowed GDP growth to 2.4% in 2009, and many construction projects stopped because Luanda accrued $9 billion in arrears to foreign construction companies when government revenue fell in 2008 and 2009. Angola abandoned its currency peg in 2009, and in November 2009 signed onto an IMF Stand-By Arrangement loan of $1.4 billion to rebuild international reserves. Consumer inflation declined from 325% in 2000 to about 10% in 2012. Higher oil prices have helped Angola turn a budget deficit of 8.6% of GDP in 2009 into an surplus of 12% of GDP in 2012. Corruption, especially in the extractive sectors, also is a major challenge.

Angola tourism destinations

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Source: Economy overview provided by CIA Factbook