Last week was just another week that wasn't in terms of a kinder and gentler America. On Tuesday, September 17, Starbucks chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz appealed to patrons not to carry firearms into his coffee houses. On Thursday, September 19, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would reduce funding for food stamps over the next decade. On Friday, September 20, the House passed a bill that would keep the government running and avoid a shut down but only if … [Read more...]
Articles
Frank blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and writes occasional columns and articles for publications such as the International Business Times and The Economic Times of India.
Frank writes on a wide variety of topics that are critical to shaping the future of America and the American dream and to making the United States and the world a better place. These include: Business; education; poverty and inequality; politics and public policy; immigration; manufacturing; innovation; leadership; citizenship; and social commentary.
Frank’s most recent blogs are highlighted on this page. To read other blogs or articles by Frank, click on the categories or publications links on the left.
Time to Make Job Creation a Team Sport
The American jobs machine is broken. To fix this, we need to bring more cooperation to capitalism and make it a team sport. In our previous two blogs we looked at the condition of labor and workers in the United States and recommended worker cooperatives as a means to address that condition. In our final blog in this series, we explore why this is an essential action at this point in time and what cooperatives of all types can bring to the table. America has always prided itself on rugged … [Read more...]
A Formula for Reawakening Labor: Capitalism, Communities and Cooperatives
Based upon the rhetoric at the quadrennial labor convention held in Los Angeles this week, it appears that the labor movement will be trying new things and working diligently to break out of the daze we described in our most recent blog. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, in his keynote address at the convention declared, "We must begin, here and now, today, the great work of reawakening a movement of working people -- all working people, not just the people in this hall, not just the … [Read more...]
PM’s greatest legacy: Initiative on education launched with Barack Obama
PM Manmohan Singh, who, later this month, is scheduled to make what may be his final official visit to Washington, is one of the architects of the much-trumpeted India-US civil nuclear deal, signed in October 2008. But Singh's greatest contribution to the India-US relationship might not be the nuclear deal that his government painstakingly negotiated with the administration of President George W Bush. In fact, his greatest legacy in bilateral relations may be the education initiative he … [Read more...]
Labor Daze: A Murky Future for the ‘Average’
This past Labor Day was a national holiday. There wasn't much to celebrate, however, for labor unions and the American worker. In the week before Labor Day there were marches, protests and polemics. The most well choreographed was the 50th anniversary march commemorating the "Jobs and Freedom" mass march on Washington that was made famous by Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. On the day after the anniversary march, in much lower-key events, fast food workers in more than 50 cities … [Read more...]
India Initiative: Frank Islam Donates $15,000 to Montgomery College
WASHINGTON, DC: The Montgomery College in Maryland is receiving is $15,000 grant from the Frank Islam and Debbie Dreisman Foundation. The grant will go towards their 2013-2014 Athenaeum Symposia, which is an annually held series of lectures that are given at the Germantown campus of Montgomery College. Frank Islam, president of the foundation, called community colleges “pivotal” to America’s future and said that the Symposia puts Montgomery College in a “leadership role” in relation to other … [Read more...]
Going Postal: The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos and Model Building
Last week when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for a "mere" $250 million, he gave new meaning to the phrase "going postal." Newspaper acquisitions have become increasingly popular as of late. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet has purchased newspapers in smaller locales with distinct market niches over the past few years. Billionaire John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, bought theBoston Globe for $70 million in early July. Billionaire real estate investor and hotelier Doug … [Read more...]
Students Alone: Under Utilized, Underpaid, Under Water
Before Congress broke for its August recess, the Senate passed and the House approved a bill that rationalized the student loan process. The bill gave students certainty on the rates that they will pay on the educational loans that they receive. In spite of this, students remain alone on a number of issues that affect them and their future. These include: the increased cost of a college education; decreased financial assistance; reduced employment opportunities and/or underemployment upon … [Read more...]
Indian IT companies dodge a bullet, for now
WASHINGTON DC: Representatives of Indian information technology companies must have heaved a huge collective sigh of relief and uncorked a bottle of champagne, when US Congress left for an extended recess. With no legislative activities for 37 days, now there is no chance of the Senate version of the immigration bill becoming law for, at least, the next three months. Other than the staunch anti-immigration wing of the conservative movement, few have opposed the Senate bill, which was passed … [Read more...]
Snap, Cackle and Slop!
On June 20, when the House unexpectedly failed to pass a farm bill for the first time in "at least" 40 years, many observers felt that things couldn't get much worse. Then, on July 11, the House passed a farm bill by a narrow margin and they did. That's because the House bill: (1) Did not include any provision for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP -- more commonly thought of as food stamps). (2) Passed along the vast majority of its rewards not to the average family farmer … [Read more...]