Great Depression

Merchants & Marine Bancorp, Inc. Announces 2023 Financial Results

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Merchants & Marine Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: MNMB), the parent company of Merchants & Marine Bank, reported net income during 2023 of $6.29 million, or $4.73 per share, compared with earnings of $3.14 million, or $2.36 per share, in the prior year.

Key Points: 
  • Merchants & Marine Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: MNMB), the parent company of Merchants & Marine Bank, reported net income during 2023 of $6.29 million, or $4.73 per share, compared with earnings of $3.14 million, or $2.36 per share, in the prior year.
  • Loans continued to grow in 2023, although at a slower pace than in recent years, with annual loan growth of 4.81%.
  • Total interest income for 2023 increased to $31.09 million from $23.78 million in 2022, a lift of 30.73%.
  • “We are very pleased with our team’s superior performance in 2023, and the strong financial results they produced,” remarked Clayton Legear, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer.

#unifyUSA and Landslide PAC Call for Biden to Bow Out of Race and an Open Democratic Convention to Replace Him

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 28, 2024

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In eight months, voters will select the next president. Recent polls indicate a greatly diminished Joe Biden candidacy and a high likelihood of a Trump victory. Many experts see a high risk of an authoritarian takeover by the Trump-led MAGA Movement. To respond to this crisis, #unifyUSA and Landslide PAC are catalyzing a new movement to call for an Open Democratic Convention that can choose a stronger candidate than Biden. The organizers are calling on President Biden to step down from the 2024 Democratic nomination process urgently and gracefully and support an Open Convention—one that includes all would-be Democratic front-runners and other strong candidates who are currently running 3rd party campaigns.

Key Points: 
  • To respond to this crisis, #unifyUSA and Landslide PAC are catalyzing a new movement to call for an Open Democratic Convention that can choose a stronger candidate than Biden.
  • Although Joe Biden has achieved victories, other policies have also alienated critical constituencies, and he is a very weak candidate.
  • In 1932, during the Great Depression, an Open Convention nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt, who went on to win a landslide victory.
  • #unifyUSA and Landslide PAC invite participation in the Call for an Open Convention.

Hydrite Celebrates 95 Years

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 27, 2024

When the Great Depression hit, the previous owners of Hydrite were looking to sell the company.

Key Points: 
  • When the Great Depression hit, the previous owners of Hydrite were looking to sell the company.
  • Seeing an opportunity, Wayne Thompson and Richard Honkamp left their jobs in 1935 and purchased a majority share in Hydrite.
  • Hydrite is the company that it is today thanks to the risk Wayne and Richard took many years ago.
  • As a chemical producer, Hydrite continues to expand its business now covering most regions of the United States.

GDS Wealth Management, CEO Glen Smith Shares Insightful 2024 Market Outlook on Bloomberg News

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

DALLAS, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 31, 2024, the CEO and CIO of GDS Wealth Management, Glen Smith, appeared on Bloomberg Intelligence for an interview.

Key Points: 
  • DALLAS, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 31, 2024, the CEO and CIO of GDS Wealth Management, Glen Smith, appeared on Bloomberg Intelligence for an interview.
  • GDS Wealth Management is an investment firm based in Flower Mound, Texas, just north of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
  • Smith, who co-founded the company and has served as CEO and CIO since its inception, joined Alix Steel and Paul Sweeny to discuss the 2024 market outlook and investment opportunities.
  • In his interview, Smith speculated on the prospective rate cuts the Federal Reserve (Fed) will make in 2024.

Why is free time still so elusive?

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

So why are people still working so hard for so long?

Key Points: 
  • So why are people still working so hard for so long?
  • Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the U.S.
  • But shouldn’t more productive work be rewarded with more time free from work?

Keynes misses the mark

  • However, in the past, many economists assumed that people’s need for more stuff would eventually be met.
  • In fact, one of the most famous economists of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, confidently predicted in 1930 that within a century, the normal workweek would decrease to 15 hours.
  • Yet Americans in their prime working age are still on the job 41.7 hours per week.
  • Why was Keynes wrong?
  • Obviously, people’s needs or wants were not fully met.
  • In a consumption-saturated society, time spent neither producing nor consuming goods increasingly appeared as wasted time.

Forced labor

  • Some jobs are more precarious than others, and many workers even forego earned vacation time for fear of losing promotions.
  • Rather, it’s the result of a hard-fought political battle that culminated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established the standard 40-hour workweek, along with a minimum wage.
  • Pressed by a labor movement that was far more powerful than today’s, the government implemented a range of progressive economic policies during the 1930s to help the nation emerge from the Great Depression.
  • Labor leaders had initially proposed a 30-hour week, which government officials resoundingly rejected.
  • They might be working long hours, but they could afford television sets, cars and homes in the suburbs.
  • Many families could live on the wages of the full-time work of the father, making the 40-hour week seem reasonable, since the mother had time to care for the family and home.
  • It’s almost as if the 40-hour week has been replaced by an 80-hour week – at least in terms of hours worked per household.

Separating economic growth from well-being

  • Most Americans will not abandon their work ethic and their insistence that most people work.
  • It doesn’t help that elected leaders continue to insist that well-being be measured mostly by economic growth, and when the U.S. media breathlessly reports quarterly economic growth data, with increases deemed “good” and decreases deemed “bad.” Why shouldn’t free time and its benefits be included in the equation?
  • Why aren’t figures on the social costs of unlimited growth publicized?
  • Does it even matter that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has doubled in less than a decade when economic security is so fragile and so many people are overstressed?


Gary Cross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The private sector housing experiment has failed: Ottawa must now step up on social housing

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 12, 2024

But few are saying much about social housing — the kind that’s needed for low-income households in greatest need of affordable rental housing.

Key Points: 
  • But few are saying much about social housing — the kind that’s needed for low-income households in greatest need of affordable rental housing.
  • Social housing is non-market housing, either publicly owned or non-profit, and substantially subsidized to ensure low-income renter households pay no more than 30 per cent of their gross income on rent.

Failed private sector experiment

  • We have synthesized research that tells the story of a 30-plus year experiment, aligned with the rise of neoliberalism, to rely on the private sector to respond to all housing needs.
  • Read more:
    What exactly is neoliberalism?


Create a minimum of 50,000 new rent-geared-to-income social housing units each year for 10 years, starting now. These units should be targeted for the lowest income renter households and those experiencing homelessness, and should have rents permanently set at no more than 30 per cent of household income.
Invest now in the acquisition, construction, operation and maintenance of new and existing public, non-profit and co-operative-owned housing that meets the unique and varied requirements of low-income renters and people experiencing homelessness.

Read more:
Housing co-ops could solve Canada's housing affordability crisis

Just scratching the surface

  • We estimate that because 33.5 per cent of households are renters, 194,300 of this supply should be rental.
  • This amount is relatively consistent with calls to double the number of social housing units to more closely align with the OECD average.
  • New and existing social housing supply also requires investments in ongoing subsidies to support the costs of operating the housing while charging rent-geared-to-income rents.

Calls for change ignored

  • Private-sector solutions were the focus of cost-shared federal/provincial/territorial initiatives beginning in 2001 through the Affordable Housing Framework Agreement.
  • The shortage of truly affordable rental housing across Canada has only worsened because governments have not been willing to invest in social housing.
  • But as demonstrated by Finland, a country that has remained committed to social housing investment, it pays off in the long term.

Lessons from Finland

  • There are many strategies needed simultaneously to address housing affordability.
  • But calls are all too often ignored by governments turning to the private sector for low-cost quick fixes that continue to fail those in greatest need.


Shauna MacKinnon receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Merchants & Marine Bancorp, Inc. Named to 2024 OTCQX Best 50

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Merchants & Marine Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: MNMB), the parent company of Merchants & Marine Bank is pleased to announce it has been named to the 2024 OTCQX® Best 50, a ranking of top performing companies traded on the OTCQX Best Market last year.

Key Points: 
  • Merchants & Marine Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: MNMB), the parent company of Merchants & Marine Bank is pleased to announce it has been named to the 2024 OTCQX® Best 50, a ranking of top performing companies traded on the OTCQX Best Market last year.
  • View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240131752462/en/
    The OTCQX Best 50 is an annual ranking of the top 50 U.S. and international companies traded on the OTCQX market.
  • Companies in the 2024 OTCQX Best 50 were ranked based on their performance in 2023.
  • Merchants & Marine Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: MNMB) is the parent company of Merchants & Marine Bank, a Mississippi chartered community bank serving the Gulf South region.

Just Published: From Ozark Trails to Global Tales, A Veteran Military And Business Man Chronicles His Life of Adventure & Faith

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Charleston, SC, Jan. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fans of memoirs won’t want to miss this new release from Palmetto Publishing and author Fred Self.

Key Points: 
  • Charleston, SC, Jan. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fans of memoirs won’t want to miss this new release from Palmetto Publishing and author Fred Self.
  • For Generation X and older, Fred Self’s memoir Hidden Miracles: From the Cotton Fields to the Board Room will read as so much more than a well-written story.
  • It’s a passport to an era erased by the last 20 years of technology, social media, and loud political discourse.
  • Meant for both young and older readers, Hidden Miracles is a can’t-miss retrospective on a life well lived.

Maryland Organizations Inspire Inclusivity and Economic Development Through Awards, Programming, and More

Retrieved on: 
Friday, January 19, 2024

BALTIMORE, Jan. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Maryland Marketing Partnership, which helps drive Maryland's branding and marketing efforts to attract businesses, create jobs, and grow the state's economy, today shared a summary of the latest news from companies and organizations that are part of the partnership.

Key Points: 
  • "We celebrate the continued achievements of our Maryland businesses, helping us to drive economic development, grow jobs, attract and retain talented workers, and contribute to an outstanding climate for business in our state."
  • His commitment to maintaining an inclusive workplace where associates are supported and inspired continues to grow a thriving workplace environment.
  • Read more: https://shorturl.at/mortL
    TEDCO , Maryland's economic engine for technology companies, continues to invest in Maryland technology startups including PediaMetrix, Rendr, VirgilHR, and more.
  • As a proactive driver of economic development in the Baltimore region, Tradepoint Atlantic is dedicated to making successful strides toward a more inclusive and thriving business community.

Baptist Memorial and Anderson Regional finalize merger

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 9, 2024

"I am excited to welcome Anderson Regional to the Baptist family," said Jason Little, president and CEO of Baptist Memorial Health Care.

Key Points: 
  • "I am excited to welcome Anderson Regional to the Baptist family," said Jason Little, president and CEO of Baptist Memorial Health Care.
  • "Our staff at Anderson Regional is excited to officially join Baptist Memorial Health Care," said John G. Anderson, president and CEO of Anderson Regional Health System and grandson of Anderson Regional's founder.
  • Baptist Memorial leaders officially welcomed Anderson Regional on Jan. 1 and held a staff celebration on Jan. 9.
  • The merger will include a renaming of Anderson Regional hospitals to Baptist Anderson Regional Medical Center and Baptist Anderson Regional Medical Center-South.