Category Archives: News

Leading Minority-Owned Finance Firm Changes Name

News, , , , ,
2009-12-21 publicity photo of Henry Cisneros. Own work of CityView for free license.
2009-12-21 publicity photo of Henry Cisneros. Own work of CityView for free license.

Reflecting the fact that Napoleon Brandford III retired last year, the country’s leading minority-owned municipal finance and underwriting firm, Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC changed its name to Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. LLC.

Henry Cisneros’ name was added to the company’s moniker in recognition of the fact that he has become and equity owner of the company. Cisneros is a former secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was also the mayor of San Antonio, Texas.

The company’s shares its headquarters between Oakland, California, and New York City. There additional offices in 17 cities throughout the country. The chairwoman of the company, Suzanne Shank, nevertheless is based out of Detroit, Michigan.

One year ago Shank was ranked as the eighth-most connected person in southeast Michigan. This past June she was recognized by Crain’s as one of the most influential women in Michigan.

The company was founded in 1996 by the late Muriel Siebert, who was also the first woman to have a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, Shank and Brandford III.

Clinton a Better Choice for Business Say Economists

News, , , , ,

A survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics showed that Hillary Clinton is the preferred candidate for president of the US by 55 percent to an embarrassing 14 percent for Donald Trump. As a matter of fact, Trump was not the second choice. Third party Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson had more support than Trump, with 15 percent saying they would prefer to see him as president. An additional 15 percent said they did not know or had no opinion.

The survey was conducted from July 20 to August 2 and included the views of 414 members of NABE.

Some of Trump’s policies seem to be contributing to his lack of support. Whereas Trump says he would like to nullify or severely restrict the North American Free Trade Agreement, 65 percent of business economists say US trade policy should be even more open and free versus only 9 percent who agree with Trump that trade should be more protectionist.

Trump has expressed a desire to deport illegal immigrants, but the NABE survey showed that only 8 percent agreed with that sentiment, while 64 percent said they would like to see a program to legalize undocumented immigrants who already live in the US.

Business Insider Lists Mo Abudu Top 100 Bus Visionaries

News, , , ,

The only African appearing on the Business Insider prestigious list of 100 of the world’s most influential business leaders, Mo Abudu, CEO and Chairwoman of EbonyLife TV, was ebullient at receiving the recognition.

“This is a big moment for the entire EbonyLife TV team. Our goal remains to tell African stories and we do that by annually producing over 1000 hours of premium, original and home grown entertainment programming content. From Talk, Entertainment, Reality, Comedy, Drama, Lifestyle and Factual the channel boasts exclusive ownership of 90% of the content…”

Abudu shared the glory with other corporate starts as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of IKEA, Apple, Amazon, Google, Starbucks and Alibaba, who were at the head of the list.

Placing even 56th on the list is no mean feat, as it means coming in ahead of the heads of such popular companies as Spotify, Snapchat, Zara, LinkedIn, and Uber.

A group of analysts compiled the list, assessing companies from all over the globe, in the private and public sectors, in a large variety of industries.

EbonyLife TV recently began its third year and the most popular channel in the entertainment category. It has recently moved into more cities in Nigeria, and distributes programs to49 African countries, including South Africa and other countries of Southern Africa.

Because of Abudu’s list of successes in the TV entertainment sector, especially her popular talk show “Moments with Mo,” she has earned the nickname, “Africa’s Oprah Winfrey.”

Other women appearing on the list include: Kim Jordan, founder and executive chairwoman of the New Belgium Brewing Company; Rose Marcario, CEO of Patagonia; and Ellen DeGeneres of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and Ellen Digital Network.

As US Violence Escalates Countries Warn Citizens to Take Care

News, , , ,

In what is either a sign of the dangerous level of violence now plaguing the US or an overseas overreaction to that violence, three countries have issued travel advisories to their citizens planning on traveling to the United States.

The embassy of the tiny Middle Eastern island nation of Bahrain in the US issued a warning to its citizens visiting the US to “be cautious of protests or crowded areas occurring around the US.”

The Caribbean nation of Bahamas, where the majority of citizens identify as having a black African heritage, advised its people to be cautious when visit US cities which have had “shootings of young black males by police officers.”

“In particular young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational and cooperate,” Bahamas foreign ministry said in a travel advisory.

Students and other citizens of the United Arab Emirates visiting the US have also been warned to practice caution during their travels. The warnings are evocative of the comparable warnings issued by the US State Department to citizens traveling to countries where extremists have perpetrated violent acts against their own citizens as well as visitors.

“Please be aware of immediate surroundings and avoid crowded places when possible,” the UAE embassy said, urging people to stay away from any U.S. demonstrations. “Exercise particular caution during large festivals or events, be alert and stay safe.”

Zika Virus Taking Bite Out of Puerto Rican Tourism

News, , , ,

In the USA Zika has hit Puerto Rico harder than anywhere else. Over 1,170 confirmed cases have been reported with one death. The first case of Microcephaly in the US happened on this island off of the southeastern coast of the USA.

Puerto Rico has been suffering from a catastrophic economic crisis in recent years, and tourism is an important source of revenue for the small country and US protectorate. It is impossible to know the exact impact of the virus on tourism, but some observers have surmised that Zika is responsible for the cancellation of at least 42,000 hotel room reservations up until 2018. That is the equivalent of about $28 million in lost revenue for the hotels, restaurants and touring industries, said the executive director of Puerto Rico’s Tourism Company Ingrid Rivera.

People in the industry have seen the problem growing for months, and now it seems to be getting even worse.

“Cancellations left and right and up and down,” said Luis Alvarez Perez, owner of a luxury travel planning and relocation company in San Juan. “People just stopped coming.”

Tourism accounts for about 7 percent of the Puerto Rican economy, but this sector has been growing steadily over the years. A few officials have criticized the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for being overly alarming in their recommendations about Puerto Rico. The CDC is predicting that about 20 percent of the 3.5 million population could become infected with Zika, reaching a peak this coming summer.

“They’ve exaggerated the numbers,” Puerto Rico’s Health Secretary Ana Rius told The Associated Press. “We’re never going to reach those numbers.”