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My column last week emphasized the limited options that a conventional new government in Washington possesses to improve the economy. The conventional tools of monetary policy (interest rates) and fiscal policy (spending) are themselves about spent. Interest rates won’t go much lower (without a small savers’ revolt) nor do the huge Reagan-Bush deficits provide much…

There is a general flush of optimism immediately after a Presidential election by the winners and their backers that is often shared by millions of voters. A new occupant in the White House intensifies these higher expectations. This invites new myths. Myth number one is that the new President can do much about the economy.…

Northfield, MN — It was a conference with the title of many similar conferences — “The Ethical Corporation: Capitalism and Conscience.” I was not expecting too many specifics from the speakers. But I was pleasantly surprised by William W. George, president and chief executive officer of Minnesota-based, Medtronic, Inc. — a medical device manufacturer with…

After watching the Presidential debates, do you get the feeling that the candidates keep repeating themselves with prefatory phrases such as “My plan would do this and that. . . .” Why, of course, they are all going to keep spending down and hold the line on taxes and do something about the deficit and…

Cleveland, Ohio — How far will some corporate lobbies go to deny innocent people the right to an environment without the silent, cumulative violence that is too charitably called pollution? Well, here in Ohio, the struggle over Issue 5 – the right to know, chemical labelling referendum, shows how far. Issue 5 qualified for the…

Once upon a time, taxpayers would send money to Washington and the government would hold the patent on any taxpayer-financed research that led to inventions. Licenses to companies interested in marketing such inventions would be non-exclusive, open to any firms. The taxation system has become more insidious now. These days your tax dollars go to…

Let’s start with this headscratcher. Two 64 year old women in good health and with no history of persistent claims are “individual plan” customers of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. One lives in downtown Boston and the other resides in a small town in Connecticut. Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BC/BS) in Connecticut charges one woman $1,062.60 per quarter…

There are times in the history of the insurance industry when one company boldly steps out of the marching lane and travels in a better direction. Allstate made such a move in the early seventies when it strongly and repeatedly came out for air bags. Next week, the bold foray will belong to the Progressive…

Labor Day, once conceived as a celebration of American workers has become a Day for Sales. This should not obscure the Day’s opportunity to reflect on the state of American labor. A report titled “The State of Working America, 1992-93, by the Economic Policy Institute adds to the previous data showing that, adjusted for inflation,…

One of those age-old battles between grasping tobacco, drug, auto, chemical, oil and insurance companies, on one side, and the health, consumer, elderly, worker and environmental groups on the other, temporarily concluded the Senate last week. The winners: present and future Americans, wrongfully injured by product defects, who wish to have their full day in…