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Taxpayer Appreciation Day

February 18, 1999
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I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that April 15th of each year be designated Taxpayer Appreciation Day, a day when corporations receiving taxpayer subsidies, bailouts, and other forms of corporate welfare can express their thanks to the citizens who provide them.Though it may not be evident, quite a few industries…

Why is Congress Trying to Expand the Fed?

February 16, 1999
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The Federal Reserve — already one of the most powerful and least accountable entities in the federal government — is about to become even more powerful. It’s all part of a scheme to rewrite the nation’s financial laws and allow banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and, in some cases, industrial firms to merge under common…

Testimony of Ralph Nader on Hr 10, Before the Committee on Banking And Financial Services, U. S. House of Representatives

February 11, 1999
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Mr. Chairman, members of the House Banking Committee, thank you for the invitation to comment on HR 10. These hearings mark the third consecutive Congress in which financial deregulation has dominated the agenda of this Committee. Thousands of hours of the time of Members of Congress and their staffs have been expended in a futile…

Why is Congress Trying to Expand the Fed?

February 10, 1999
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The Federal Reserve — already one of the most powerful and least accountable entities in the federal government — is about to become even more powerful. It’s all part of a scheme to rewrite the nation’s financial laws and allow banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and, in some cases, industrial firms to merge under common…

Watchful Legislation Bypasses Privacy

February 9, 1999
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Privacy is high on the list of rights Americans cherish. Now, the right to our privacy — like many of those rights we take for granted — is at risk. Federal agencies, led by the Federal Reserve Board, have proposed a “Know Your Customer” regulation that would require banks to monitor their customers’ accounts, presumably…

Squeezing Coach Class

February 8, 1999
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 Alert for the millions of airline passenger knees — American Airlines will give them three to five extra inches of space in about a year. Hooray for small favors. One would think that buying an airline ticket for a seat on the plane would include knees along with toes and torsos. But since airline deregulation…

HR 10 Takes Away Privacy

February 3, 1999
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Privacy is high on the list of rights Americans cherish. Now, the right to our privacy — like many of those rights we take for granted — is at risk. Federal agencies, led by the Federal Reserve Board, have proposed a “Know Your Customer” regulation that would require banks to monitor their customers’ accounts, presumably…

Privitizing Social Security a Mistake

February 2, 1999
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Social Security places government in one of its noblest roles: as an institution that offers a bedrock financial guarantee to all members of society that they need not fear the financial consequences of growing old or disabled. That’s quite the opposite of the U.S. government’s all too familiar role as a provider of corporate welfare,…

Privatizing Social Security a Mistake

January 27, 1999
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Social Security places government in one of its noblest roles: as an institution that offers a bedrock financial guarantee to all members of society that they need not fear the financial consequences of growing old or disabled. That’s quite the opposite of the U.S. government’s all too familiar role as a provider of corporate welfare,…

Time for Detroit to Plow Through Sweet Deals for Corporations

January 26, 1999
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Detroit, Mich., fell on hard times recently when the snow started falling on Jan. 2, 1999. Twenty-one inches of snow accumulated over the next two weeks, and city officials still did not plow residential streets. That streets were left unplowed was not an oversight. It was the result of a policy of many years standing…