TV One has posted a video from their recent Democratic Party debate where Presidential Candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders proposes that all public college tuition to be free of charge.

Sen. Sanders says that today, having a college degree is the equivalent of what having a high school diploma was 50 years ago.  He says that the jobs in the future will demand that their workers be more educated than the past.  

I agree with Sen. Sanders assertion that future jobs will demand a higher educated worker.  His proposal that all publicly funded college tuition be free is not a new idea around the world.  Yet, it is indeed new to the United States.  

​Do you agree with Sanders?  Watch the video from TV One and let us know your opinion.

Click Here to watch the video on Vimeo.

Mutima Jackson-Anderson is making bold moves in the State of Georgia.  Mutima founded the Ruby A. Neeson Diabetes Awareness Foundation, Inc. in 2012 as a support group for individuals and families affected by diabetes.  We're proud to say that her organization is beginning to be highly recognized for making a positive difference.

As stated on her organization's website, within a year of establishing the foundation, Ruby A. Neeson Diabetes Awareness Foundation, Inc. has advanced from being a small support group to a year-round, full-service community outreach-advocacy organization committed to creating opportunities and improving access to healthcare for people affected by diabetes, and encouraging strategies for obesity prevention in all age groups.

The center of Ruby A. Neeson Diabetes Awareness Foundation, Inc. activity is recommending and promoting diabetes management and outreach services for groups who are disproportionately affected by diabetes; African-Americans and Hispanic/Latino Americans. 

We would like to encourage BlackBusinessList.Com members as well as the general business community to consider learning more about her organization and seeing if you may be able to assist them in their fundraising efforts.

Learn more about Mutima and her organization here: http://www.fightdiabetesnow.org

Credit Suisse, in collaboration with Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP), today published “Wealth patterns among the top 5% of African-Americans,” a study on wealth creation and wealth management among the nation’s wealthiest African-Americans as measured by net worth.

​The study shows that the top 5% of African-Americans invest a greater proportion of their wealth in lower-volatility assets relative to a white comparison group, including insurance, savings bonds and CDs. It also shows proportionally higher investments in real estate, and proportionally lower investments in business assets. 

The research was sponsored by Credit Suisse’s New Markets business, which seeks to advance financial opportunity among women, African-Americans and the LGBT community. 

“This study identifies distinctive investing behaviors within the African-American community and a number of potential drivers of these behaviors,” said Pamela Thomas-Graham, Credit Suisse’s Chief Marketing and Talent Officer and Head of New Markets. “The findings may also reflect what we know from adjacent data, which is that African-Americans are generally under-served by banking institutions. The Commerce Department, for example, has published data showing that minority business owners receive loans less frequently, at significantly smaller sizes, and at worse rates than non-minority business owners.” 

Highlights of the report include: 

1. The top 5% of African-Americans take a relatively conservative approach to decision-making on matters of wealth creation and wealth management. For example: 
   
   The investment portfolios of the top 5% of African-Americans are three times more heavily weighted towards CDs, savings bonds and insurance than the investment portfolios of the study’s white comparison group, and are nearly one-half less weighted towards stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
   
   The top 5% of African-Americans invest 9% of their non-financial assets in business assets , defined as the total value of business(es) in which a household has either an active or non-active interest. The study’s white comparison group invests 37% of their non-financial assets in business assets. 
   
   The top 5% of African-Americans invest 41% of non-financial assets in real estate outside their primary home , relative to 22% for the study’s white comparison group. 
   
   
2. “Wealth mobility” – the degree to which a population maintains wealth over time or moves into wealth over time – is relatively low among African-Americans and may be a driver of more conservative financial decision-making. IASP’s research shows that around 57% of high-income African-American families in 1984 were still in the top segment of income in 2009, but 8% had fallen into the low-income segment. For high-income white American families, 73% remained in the high income segment and only 1% fell into the low income segment. This analysis is a new analysis of the 1984-2009 data. 
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3. Education is a key driver of wealth among the top 5% of African-Americans.Almost 69% of African-Americans at the 95th percentile of net worth have a college degree, compared with 64% for the study’s white comparison group.  

“The numbers in our report provide rich and detailed insights,” said Stefano Natella, Global Head of Equity Research and one of the study’s authors. “Wealth at the top of the African-American community, what drives it and how it compares to specific control groups has not been studied with this comprehensiveness in some time.”