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Congress and the national media are feigning great shock and dismay over the revelations of accounting shenanigans in the collapse of Enron, the giant Texas-based energy corporation.But, the truth is that the Congress and the financial media have long been aware of the accounting profession’s shortcomings and its predilection to paint a rosy picture of…
Premiums for health care in the United States are expected to increase by 15% this year – a staggering sum, adding tens of billions more dollars to the trillion dollar plus of year 2001. The industry is rife with waste, duplication, mistakes, billing fraud, and malpractice. Countless studies have documented these patterns from the General…
Last fall, the lobbyists for the insurance industry were swarming across Capitol Hill warning of dire consequences if Congress failed to enact federal assistance and guarantees to protect insurance companies from future losses from terrorist attacks. In a transparent effort to stampede the legislators, the companies’ warned that credit for new construction would dry up…
The Federal Reserve wields enormous power over the national economy. Its decisions have a major impact on every citizen. Jobs, shelter and the quality of life are greatly affected by what the Federal Reserve decides on monetary policy. Yet, the Federal Reserve is allowed to make its decisions in secret. The transcripts and minutes of…
It is a long distance from college and university campus stores in the U.S. and the wretched overseas factories indenturing sweatshop labor who produce products that find their way to student consumers. But the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) has built a network of students across our country to bridge that distance with organized consumer…
Gene Kimmelman of Consumers Union has been following the telephone industry for many years before and after the notorious de-regulatory Telecommunications Act of 1996. This Act was supposed to increase quality competition, benefitting consumers, between local, long distance and cable operators. Here is Kimmelman’s short-hand evaluation of the result of the Act on your pocketbook…
Dear Senator: Even as veteran observers of the Congressional appropriations process, we are shocked, and outraged, by the provision in the Defense Appropriations bill that would have the Air Force lease Boeing 767s at a price dramatically higher than the cost of direct purchase. We are writing to urge you to take to the floor…
Dear Senator: Even as veteran observers of the Congressional appropriations process, we are shocked, and outraged, by the provision in the Defense Appropriations bill that would have the Air Force lease Boeing 767s at a price dramatically higher than the cost of direct purchase. We are writing to urge you to take to the floor…
Payday loans, refinancing schemes and other forms of predatory lending have left many low and moderate income neighborhoods as financial wastelands. Sleazy lenders and the fast-buck merchants seem able to carry out their rip-offs with little or no effective opposition from authorities. It may be infrequent, but every now and then there are thin slivers…
Good law enforcement officials know that their success depends heavily on retaining the confidence of their communities. Blunderbuss police methods which ignore citizen rights and single out racial, ethnic and religious minorities for unfair and discriminatory treatment risk losing the public support so critical to law enforcement and public safety in a democratic system. They…