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How soon Washington forgets. Less than a decade ago, the taxpayers were called on to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the “free enterprise” savings and loan industry and to set aside another $30 billion as a contingency fund to prop up deposit insurance for the commercial banks. Now the banking industry…
Dear Mr. Gates: An astonishing calculation comes from Professor Edward Wolff of New York University and presents an important opportunity for you. Professor Wolff, a wealth economics specialist, estimated that your net wealth is greater than the combined net worth of the poorest 40% of Americans (106 million people). That includes their home equity, pensions,…
How can the Republicans, who back home and here incessantly talk up the need to transfer power from Washington to the states, be leading the drive to enact five major federal preemptions of traditional state authority in this Congressional session? Taken together, the following five federal preemptions constitute the largest jurisdictional transfer to Washington in…
Our civil justice system is one of the great pillars of our democracy. The poorest and most vulnerable can challenge in court the largest corporation and hold it responsible for causing them harm. Moreover, because of the impact of lawsuits brought by injured consumers, millions of Americans are less likely to be injured. Untold numbers…
Cal Ripken, the all-time iron man of baseball for the Baltimore Orioles, said, when he learned of the passing of a Washington Post sportswriter, that he could never imagine someone being at the same job for 75 years. Much has been written of 92 year old Shirley Povich by his legion of colleagues, fans and…
Across the country consumers are displeased with the high cost and poor service provided by the cable industry. Oklahomans now have a new reason to be dissatisfied. The Oklahoma Legislature recently passed, and Gov. Frank Keating signed, S.B. 1091, which contains an amendment allowing a state-wide cable late charge of $6.00 or 5%, whichever is…
The Congress and most of Washington’s corps of lobbyists have been occupied in recent months with legislation that would fashion a new system to serve affluent customers interested in playing in the stock market and dabbling in esoteric financial products. In this rarified air of high finance, little thought or time is being devoted to…
Carol Hawes of Tacoma, Washington started collecting the letters she received from credit card companies and banks. She read them and then sent them to us with the following comments: “I think it is about time the consumer got some protection from some of the things these companies are doing. A few years ago, it…
HR 10–the so-called financial modernization legislation which passed the House of Representatives by a single vote on May 13–won’t win any legislative beauty contests, but it may set new records for industry arrogance and Congressional cowardice. No where is this more true than in the kid-glove treatment of big insurance companies. Whatever the insurance companies…
To see arrogance in a New York Times reporter is to see the state of the art of that trait. Fortunately such swell-heads are a minority of the many good, curious and open-minded reporters who call everyday from the nation’s most influential newspaper. Nonetheless, the arrogant ones do enough damage to warrant some observations from…