Top News
Some 4.2 million mortgage borrowers are either seriously delinquent or have had their cases referred to lawyers to pursue foreclosure auctions, according to LPS Applied Analytics. Of those, two-thirds have made no payments at all for at least a year, and nearly one-third have gone more than two years. (CNNMoney)
Visit http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/09/real_estate/foreclosure_squatter/index.htm to view the full article online. Cultivating an interest in business and business careers among historically underrepresented minorities – African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans – has been a formidable challenge for the business community. While data from the National Center for Education suggests that the number of underrepresented minorities pursuing business careers is growing, business people have yet to identify that infallible formula that will establish business as a viable career option for qualified diverse candidate. (Diverse)
Visit http://diverseeducation.com/article/15813/ to view the full article online. Since the beginning of 2008, some 375,000 government jobs have been eliminated, according to the Labor Department. The cuts fall with marked impact on African Americans. Nearly 21 percent of the nation’s working black adults hold government jobs, as compared to some 17 percent of white workers and 15 percent of Latinos. (HuffingtonPost)
Visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/black-unemployment-government-jobs_n_872168.html to view the full article online. Career
Mid-career derailment can happen any time, but in today's economy there is no room for complacency. With job opportunities harder than ever to find, it's a particularly rough time to be fired or demoted or to hit a career plateau. You can reduce your risk for derailment by paying attention to your value and effectiveness and by focusing on interpersonal skills, adaptability, team leadership and bottom-line results. (Wall Street Journal)
Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304392704576373981968815122.html to view the full article online. Not only is loving your work not frivolous, it actually pays huge dividends in your life. And many of them aren’t even work-related. (U.S. News and World Report)
Visit http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/06/09/why-loving-your-work-matters to view the full article online. Diversity in the Workplace
The survey findings point to continued inequalities between diverse and non-diverse segments in pay, career advancement and feelings of discrimination. Women and Hispanic workers were twice as likely to hold an administrative or clerical entry-level job as non-diverse workers. African American workers were nearly twice as likely. (CareerBuilder)
Visit http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/careerbuilder-study-points-to-improvements-in-workplace-equality-but-disparity-in-pay-and-career-advancement-still-exists-for-diverse-segments-123534204.html to view the full article online. International
It seems like a long shot. U.S. banks hold just $7.3 billion in loans to Greece and numbers disclosed by Bank of America (BAC), for instance, show a Greek government default would barely dent quarterly profits, such as they are. Yet no one can safely predict that a Greek default would be contained. (Fortune)
Visit http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/09/sizing-up-the-greek-risk-to-u-s-banks/?iid=Lead to view the full article online. Going abroad this summer? Prepare yourself, and plan on packing more than your cargo shorts and money belt. Civil uprisings, earthquakes, ash clouds, terrorism warnings and violence have all disrupted travel in the past year. (Wall Street Journal)
Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304778304576373472364977458.html to view the full article online. Education
According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans (57%) say the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend. An even larger majority (75%) says college is too expensive for most Americans to afford. (Pew Research Center)
Visit http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1993/survey-is-college-degree-worth-cost-debt-college-presidents-higher-education-system to view the full article online. NBMBAA
Power-Up Your Profit-Ability at the National Black MBA Association's 33rd Annual Conference & Exposition, October 4-8 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA. Early bird registration savings are available through August 1, so don't delay!
Visit http://www.nbmbaaconference2011.org/ to view the full article online. Technology
Facebook may be further pushing users' sense of privacy limits with its latest privacy setting change: it has quietly rolled out a facial-recognition tool that will automate photo tagging and suggest friends to tag in your photos based on what they look like. (Cnet)
Visit http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20069853-93/facebook-quietly-rolls-out-facial-recognition-tool/?tag=TOCmoreStories.0 to view the full article online. Google’s entire strategy and approach to the cloud is based on the future, and not the Internet as it is today. Google is betting that the world will have low-cost, ubiquitous Internet access in the not-too-distant future, including fiber connections in offices and homes and super-fast mobile broadband in virtually every nook and cranny of the planet. (ZDNet)
Visit http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/philosophical-differences-the-google-cloud-vs-the-apple-cloud/50245 to view the full article online. Entrepreneurship
Only those with money, special skills and a lot of luck can start a successful business, right? The fact is there are myriad enterprises waiting to be hatched that don’t require gobs of capital and fancy degrees. (Forbes)
Visit http://blogs.forbes.com/seanstonefield/2011/06/09/twenty-businesses-you-can-start-tomorrow/ to view the full article online. Uncertain economic times and a tight credit environment call for creative, nontraditional financial solutions for minority entrepreneurs. (Inc.)
Visit http://www.inc.com/guides/201105/6-capital-funding-sources-for-minority-businesses.html to view the full article online. The Economy
A health check of America’s housing market is bound to be sobering. The 2011 edition of the "State of the Nation’s Housing", an annual report from Harvard University’s Joint Centre for Housing Studies (JCHS), serves up some suitably chilling statistics. (The Economist)
Visit http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/06/harvard-universitys-annual-housing-report to view the full article online. If you thought the recovery was on track – the economy growing again, unemployment slowly receding, housing prices stabilizing, the stock market rising – you thought wrong. In recent weeks, virtually every indicator has headed south. The only consolation, if you can call it that, is that such setbacks are hardly unexpected. (Slate)
Visit http://www.slate.com/id/2296042/ to view the full article online. Corporate America
Red Lobster is trying to create the ambiance of a small, seaside town in Maine as it rolls out a three-year remodeling plan for its 700 U.S. and Canadian restaurants. The seafood chain is the latest eatery to spruce up its menu, décor and architecture to lure consumers who can afford to eat out more frequently. (BloombergBusinessweek)
Visit http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-06-09/unemployment-makes-ihop-to-red-lobster-target-higher-incomes.html to view the full article online. Thirty percent of employers say they may stop offering health care plans after 2014, when key provisions of the health care reform law go into effect, according to a survey released June 7. (Workforce Management)
Visit http://www.workforce.com/section/news/article/survey-says-30-percent-employers-may-drop-health-care.php to view the full article online. Government
The Obama administration on Thursday halted payments to three of the largest U.S. banks until they make "substantial" improvements to their performance in a mortgage assistance program. (MarketWatch)
Visit http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-fees-to-three-big-banks-are-stopped-2011-06-09 to view the full article online. procurement, requiring that the head of each agency ensure that 95 % of new contract actions are for products and services that are energy efficient, water efficient, bio-based, environmentally preferable or non-ozone depleting, adhering to criteria set out by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department. (Fast Company)
Visit http://www.fastcompany.com/1758411/government-agencies-required-to-go-95-green-on-all-purchases to view the full article online. Leadership
If you're reacting, someone else defines what you're going to do, rather than defining what people need to do. Your businesses faces great change. This statement is true about customers, competitors, and everyone else affecting market behavior. The question is, what are you going to do about it? (Fast Company)
Visit http://www.fastcompany.com/1758298/this-is-a-time-for-leaders-to-lead-not-react to view the full article online. Information markets, wikis and other applications that tap into the collective intelligence of groups have recently generated tremendous interest. But what"s the reality behind the hype? (MIT/Sloan Management Review)
Visit http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2009-winter/50211/decisions-20-the-power-of-collective-intelligence/ to view the full article online. In recent months, several high-level talented leaders, who were highly successful in their respective fields and at the peak of their careers, have mysteriously lost their way. This makes their behavior especially perplexing, raising questions about what caused them to do so: Why do leaders known for integrity and leadership engage in unethical activities? (Harvard Business Review)
Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/06/why-leaders-lose-their-way.html to view the full article online. Lifestyle
The neighborhood you live in can have a huge effect on your ability to spend or save, do the kind of things you really want to, and navigate the ongoing economic crisis. A chart, from a new report by The House Democratic Livable Communities Task Force (via Grist) shows the real financial consequences for American families that stem from living in three different kinds of neighborhoods. (The Atlantic)
Visit http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/the-financial-benefits-of-living-in-transit-friendly-walkable-areas/240075/ to view the full article online. "You're moving? I'll cut $20,000 off your sale price." Those casual over-the-fence conversations about your flooded basement or the incipient kudzu problem could end up costing you when it's time to sell. Realtors often advise home buyers to find out what the neighbors think about a property. (SmartMoney)
Visit http://www.smartmoney.com/spend/real-estate/10-things-your-neighbors-wont-tell-you-1307481521780/?link=SM_hp_middle_optStory#tabs to view the full article online. |