Thursday, November 15, 1984/The Battalion/Page 13
Slouch
By Jim Earle
Bishops receive economy letter
United Press International
WASHINGTON — U.S. Catholic
bishops Wednesday warmly received
a proposed pastoral letter calling for
a new American experiment in eco
nomic democracy to redistribute in
come and involve workers and the
poor more fully in economic life.
Thirteen bishops discussed the
first draft of the pastoral letter dur
ing the third day of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops
four-day annual meeting.
Archbishop Rembert Weakland
of Milwaukee, Wis., chairman of the
five-member committee drafting the
statement, said he welcomed the
White House response to the docu
ment, calling it “guarded but not
negative.”
The draft letter refers to Ameri
can failures, “some of them massive
and ugly” in ending such persistent
problems as hunger, homelessness
and discrimination.
The letter proposes far-reaching
solutions that include an effort to re
duce unemployment to 3 percent or
4 percent and the overhaul of a
“woefully inadequate” welfare sys
tem.
Weakland told the bishops the
document shows that “justice de
mands that all persons have a partic
ipation in the economic life of the
community and that marginalization
of individuals, groups or nations is a
grave economic injustice.”
Tribes may shift control of money
United Press International
WASHINGTON — America’s In
dian tribes soon may have a profita
ble say in how their $700 million in
trust income works for them by let
ting private investors — rather than
the government — handle their
money.
By law, the Bureau of Indian Af
fairs has trust responsibility for the
nation’s Indian tribes and its Albu
querque, N.M., trust department in
vests 260 tribes’ income from any oil,
gas, timber and other leases on their
52 million acres of trust land.
But concerns have been expressed
by tribes who want more say and a
daily, rather than monthly, account
ing of themselves and other federal
agencies because nearly all the finan
cial institutions that failed recently
had BIA money in them.
Representatives of the American
Indian National Bank, New York-
based Lehman Management Co. and
BIA this week began visiting tribes
to gauge the interest in forming a
separately chartered investment
company to handle trust income.
American Indian National Bank
President Alan Parker said, “Our
proposal is basically that the private
sector can do a better job in manage
ment of these funds while maintain
ing complete security of the princi
pal and income from them, and
providing a degree of service to tri
bal investors which is far superior
than the BIA because of the inher
ent factor of it being a government
agency.
They plan to visit various reserva
tions, starting with the Yakima in
Washington state, to promote the
idea. Visits also are planned to tribes
in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma
and Wyoming.
The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. and the Federal Savings and
Loan Insurance Corp. complain the
BIA often puts Indian money in
high-risk institutions. But since the
BIA is seeking the best deal, the
high-risk banks bid the highest to get
funds they need. The Indians don’t
lose anything when a bank goes un
der because the funds are insured —
but federal insurers do, and they re
portedly are considering instituting
an insurance system to reflect each
financial institution’s risks.
Daniels said the BIA has been in
vesting in Certificates of Deposits,
buying them for $100,000 and un
der and that the BIA funds have
turned up in 90 percent of the banks
that have failed.
If enough tribes express interest
and are willing to invest at least $30
million immediately and another
$20 million soon, a new company
will be established and registered
with the SEC.
“We all accept the fact that the
government is not all-knowing and it
does the best that can be done,” said
BIA spokesman Carl Shaw. “This is
merely something we’re looking at.
There may be better ways. ”
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MUSIC THEATRE GROUP IN ASSOCIATION WITH
MUSIC THEATRE ASSOCIATES PRESENTS (
THE MUSICAL ROMANCE
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Nov. 27 8:00 p.m. Rudder Theater
MSC Great Issues Committee
"America Revisited-The Year 2004"
Nov. 28 4:00 p.m. 601 Rudder
"Media Influence on Election Process"
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Thurs.,
Nov. 15 §
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If you would like to apply for
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Charnella Swanson at 260-0686.
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