Thursday, November 16, 2006
Dinkins delivers Block lecture…Elections
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
David Norman Dinkins came to speak at the 4th Annual Rabbi Irving J. Block Memorial Lecture at the Brotherhood Synagogue on Wednesday, November 8, 2006. What brings a former Mayor to this event? It is brotherhood, the thing that unifies people throughout the world and gives a glimmer of hope to humanity, deeply entrenched in national antagonisms, religious warfare and contests for resources.
What gave rise to this particular togetherness? It may have been the Rabbi’s son, 12 year old Herbert Block, brought to a Dinkins for Borough President rally in 1977. Fascinated, he started hanging around the office of the then City Clerk (1975-85), eventually participating in the last two of the former Marine’s (correction, not former: once a Marine, always a Marine), Assemblyman’s (1966-72) and Board of Elections Chairman’s (1972-73) campaigns for BP (also ran in 1981, winning in 1985), at the last campaign sitting next to David Patterson, now to be Deputy Governor. Dinkins made BP in 1985, defeating Jerald Nadler, after losing twice to Andy Stein, and was chosen to be the Mayor in Nov. 1989, defeating Rudy Giuliani in the general election, after winning the primary against the three-term Mayor Edward I. Koch. Young Herbert Block was at Dinkins’s side, as the Jewish coordinator.
The Dinkins term was marred by the Crown Heights Riot, and his easy-going policy of racial healing by glorifying “the Gorgeous Mosaic” of New York’s racial and cultural diversity did not work. The crack epidemic, the drug wars and the 41.8B deficit hurt his gentlemanly Mayoralty, and Giuliani took over in 1993.
All of this has not dimmed Dinkins’s positive outlook He is active in Mayor Bloomberg’s Commission to Reduce Poverty (2006, with Richard D. Parsons and Geoffrey Canada) and supports it key objectives, to upgrade household incomes, reduce teen pregnancy and move forward education, Reducing poverty and improving education were the messages of his lecture.
The latter is most key, aiming to enable New Yorkers to fill the well paying jobs that the city ‘s industries offer. Expansion of alternate schools and rehabilitation of housing stock will step it up. Dinkins is very supportive of the schools being administered as a department, without the intervening boards, and points to the accomplishments, although uniform curriculum is not effective. Further, the needs of youngsters in foster care aging out, and former convicts (25% of young Blacks are in jail, a larger percentage than those in college) must be provided for educationally and job wise, lest they become a burden on society. Further, creating pre-school educational opportunities for 3-4 year olds leads to better school attendance and attitude. In urban poverty, Mayor Dinkins introduced the idea of privately-sourced conditional cash transfers, as used in some South American cities, providing supplements to working heads of families in low-compensation jobs, as a way to get the kids going. An upgrade of the minimum wage, by the new Congress, will help.
The 106th Mayor was introduced by Rabbi Daniel Alder and Executive Director Phil Rothman, with an affectionate family history by Herbert Block (the two families celebrated many events together). The good aura of Rabbi Irving J. Block sent us home, once more, with lifted spirits.
***********************************************************************Speaking of the new Democratic Congress and of upgrading the minimum wage, last week Reuters reported important statements by Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China. He was interviewed at a central bankers conference in Frankfurt. Apparently, Zhou said, "All central banks are trying to diversify. …We have had a very clear diversification plan for several years." This may be an expression of concern that the Democrats will introduce spending policies that will weaken the dollar, and a veiled threat – forgetting that it was President Clinton who balanced the budget, and President Busch who drove it to an immense deficit.
It is estimated that China now has over $1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, some $700 billion of these held in U.S. dollars or dollar-denominated securities. The U.S. dollar came under immediate selling pressure. It would really cause an immense loss to China’s reserves if the dollar were to take a substantial dive, possibly snowballing into the threatened stagflation. Secretary of Treasury Richard Paulsen has a major task of pacifying the G8 powers, and the US sponsors of heightened tariffs may be well advised to reconsider. There is a need to stem inflation just when a recession looms. The scary stagflation we have been warned about on many occasions may be nearer at hand than we had thought.
Meanwhile the merchants of greed are betting billions that the dollar will crash – Warren Buffett reputedly has $16.5B on the line, and George Soros and Bill Gates are engagee. Best wishes, US Congress, should not get carried away with its new-found strength.
David Norman Dinkins came to speak at the 4th Annual Rabbi Irving J. Block Memorial Lecture at the Brotherhood Synagogue on Wednesday, November 8, 2006. What brings a former Mayor to this event? It is brotherhood, the thing that unifies people throughout the world and gives a glimmer of hope to humanity, deeply entrenched in national antagonisms, religious warfare and contests for resources.
What gave rise to this particular togetherness? It may have been the Rabbi’s son, 12 year old Herbert Block, brought to a Dinkins for Borough President rally in 1977. Fascinated, he started hanging around the office of the then City Clerk (1975-85), eventually participating in the last two of the former Marine’s (correction, not former: once a Marine, always a Marine), Assemblyman’s (1966-72) and Board of Elections Chairman’s (1972-73) campaigns for BP (also ran in 1981, winning in 1985), at the last campaign sitting next to David Patterson, now to be Deputy Governor. Dinkins made BP in 1985, defeating Jerald Nadler, after losing twice to Andy Stein, and was chosen to be the Mayor in Nov. 1989, defeating Rudy Giuliani in the general election, after winning the primary against the three-term Mayor Edward I. Koch. Young Herbert Block was at Dinkins’s side, as the Jewish coordinator.
The Dinkins term was marred by the Crown Heights Riot, and his easy-going policy of racial healing by glorifying “the Gorgeous Mosaic” of New York’s racial and cultural diversity did not work. The crack epidemic, the drug wars and the 41.8B deficit hurt his gentlemanly Mayoralty, and Giuliani took over in 1993.
All of this has not dimmed Dinkins’s positive outlook He is active in Mayor Bloomberg’s Commission to Reduce Poverty (2006, with Richard D. Parsons and Geoffrey Canada) and supports it key objectives, to upgrade household incomes, reduce teen pregnancy and move forward education, Reducing poverty and improving education were the messages of his lecture.
The latter is most key, aiming to enable New Yorkers to fill the well paying jobs that the city ‘s industries offer. Expansion of alternate schools and rehabilitation of housing stock will step it up. Dinkins is very supportive of the schools being administered as a department, without the intervening boards, and points to the accomplishments, although uniform curriculum is not effective. Further, the needs of youngsters in foster care aging out, and former convicts (25% of young Blacks are in jail, a larger percentage than those in college) must be provided for educationally and job wise, lest they become a burden on society. Further, creating pre-school educational opportunities for 3-4 year olds leads to better school attendance and attitude. In urban poverty, Mayor Dinkins introduced the idea of privately-sourced conditional cash transfers, as used in some South American cities, providing supplements to working heads of families in low-compensation jobs, as a way to get the kids going. An upgrade of the minimum wage, by the new Congress, will help.
The 106th Mayor was introduced by Rabbi Daniel Alder and Executive Director Phil Rothman, with an affectionate family history by Herbert Block (the two families celebrated many events together). The good aura of Rabbi Irving J. Block sent us home, once more, with lifted spirits.
***********************************************************************Speaking of the new Democratic Congress and of upgrading the minimum wage, last week Reuters reported important statements by Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China. He was interviewed at a central bankers conference in Frankfurt. Apparently, Zhou said, "All central banks are trying to diversify. …We have had a very clear diversification plan for several years." This may be an expression of concern that the Democrats will introduce spending policies that will weaken the dollar, and a veiled threat – forgetting that it was President Clinton who balanced the budget, and President Busch who drove it to an immense deficit.
It is estimated that China now has over $1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, some $700 billion of these held in U.S. dollars or dollar-denominated securities. The U.S. dollar came under immediate selling pressure. It would really cause an immense loss to China’s reserves if the dollar were to take a substantial dive, possibly snowballing into the threatened stagflation. Secretary of Treasury Richard Paulsen has a major task of pacifying the G8 powers, and the US sponsors of heightened tariffs may be well advised to reconsider. There is a need to stem inflation just when a recession looms. The scary stagflation we have been warned about on many occasions may be nearer at hand than we had thought.
Meanwhile the merchants of greed are betting billions that the dollar will crash – Warren Buffett reputedly has $16.5B on the line, and George Soros and Bill Gates are engagee. Best wishes, US Congress, should not get carried away with its new-found strength.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 6:58 AM 
