Robert S. Browne

The Origin, Birth, and Adolescence of the Review of Black Political Economy and the Black Economic Research Center:

The Review of Black Political Economy (RBPE) and the Black Economic Research Center (BERC) arose from the atmosphere of the late sixties, when black nationalism was at its apex and vigorous efforts were under way to give meaning to the concepts of “black economic development” and “black capitalism.” They were created as vehicles to assist black economists and economic activists to analyze and disseminate relevant data on black economic affairs and to explore and facilitate new approaches to black economic problems.RBPE offered black economists a place where they could publish their work and share it with their colleagues. The flavor ofRBPE has changed somewhat over its twenty-three year life, becoming less polemical and more scholarly.

Cash flows in a ghetto community

A viable strategy for Black economic development must direct itself to the problem of raising the income levels of the big city ghetto dwellers that now comprise the majority of the Black population. Government can do much in helping attain this objective through welfare reform, job training programs, loans for small business and strict enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. However, the basic responsibility for bringing about economic development of the Black areas necessarily rests largely on the ghetto dwellers themselves. This paper presents a modified economic base model that clarifies the actions a ghetto community must take in order to maximize its aggregate income. 1 The traditional economic base model does not give a good description of ghetto economic activity for two reasons:

Barriers to black participation in the American economy

A t t e m p t i n g to chart a rational but effective economic development p~th for black people in America is a peculiarly difficult task because of the double inequalitarianisms of American society. On the one hand, income and wealth (and inevitably, of course, power) are so inequitably distributed in America, irrespective of race, that a powerful case can be made, indeed, must be made, for a total restructuring of the economy as a necessary precondition for genuine black economic development. On the other hand, the society is so ridden with racial inequality and racial prejudice that astute black people are rightly skeptical about blindly supporting any of the numerous movements for revolutionary economic change in America. Such-movements are inevitably led and financed by whites, so even should they prove successful in bringing about revolutionary economic change, they offer no guarantee that white socialism would be any more free of racism than is white capitalism.

Third world manufactures and their access to U.S. markets

ConclusionThe question of LDC-manufactured goods cannot be treated independently of the overall development of the LDCs. The United States and other DCs have a powerful obligation as well as considerable self-interest in listening carefully to what the LDCs are saying about the NIEO, and in being responsive to the issues raised.

Robert S. Browne. Development from an African Perspective: Early Success and Challenges at the Africa Development Bank

Part A is basically a retrospective on the early years at the Africa Development Bank (ADB); in Part B, I offer a few personal views on the perplexing topic of why Africa’s development performance has been so modest.

Impact of the 1975 tax cut on income and employment in the black community

SummaryThe Tax Reform Act of 1975 should more properly be called the Tax Reduction Act of 1975 because it provides little in the way of reform beyond the fact that a disproportionately large share of the reduction (43.5 percent) goes to persons with incomes below

Wealth distribution and its impact on minorities

10,000. The main purpose of the act is to stimulate consumer spending, in the expectation that this rise in spending will impart some buoyancy to the sagging economy.