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Suppose, for a moment, you are a small business. You employ six workers. You write a letter to your state’s economic development agency. You insist that that state refrain from taxing you andoffer you job training credits and an assortment of other bonuses. In return, you offer to hire two more people in addition to…

The insurance industry continues to live a charmed existence in state and federal legislative halls. Even banks — no slouches at using corporate money and muscle to gain legislative favor — appear incompetent when compared with large insurance companies that regularly escape regulations designed to protect the public. Adequate credit on reasonable terms is often…

 What do monopolistic practices and antitrust laws have to do with traffic congestion and commuter woes? More than you might imagine. In the late ’30s and ’40s, General Motors, with the help of a few oil and tire companies, purchased electrified mass transit systems in 28 cities. It soon disabled these systems and began to…

Arcata, California — a small town not far from the redwoods and wild rivers of northern California — made news in 1996 when an elected majority of its City Council were members of the Green Party. Three years later, the town is about to find itself in the news again. Arcata is pioneering Measure F (“the…

The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio lost his struggle with cancer on March 8, 1999. The next day newspapers were full of memories by his friends and teammates. As a boyhood fan of DiMaggio back in the forties, I always looked forward to meeting him. That occurred in the Spring of 1990 and I promptly wrote…

Bob Woodward (of Watergate reportorial fame) once called Richard Cohen the Washington Post‘s best regular columnist. But on Jan. 31, Cohen wrote a regular column in the (Sunday) Post Magazine that is noteworthy for other reasons. Cohen fired himself from his Sunday column. Cohen’s explanation for abandoning his Sunday column (he still writes a column…

On February 10, 1999, a little 26 month old boy, Nels Stumo, returned home from the hospital with his parents. “Out,” Nels urged his mother to take him for a walk outside. Returning inside five minutes later, he said “Sit,” and his mother laid him down on the living room couch. “Water,” he asked his…

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…

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…

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…