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DOT’s Proposal to Reduce Fuel Economy Standards

September 3, 1988
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Prominent scientists are warning that increasing combustion of oil, gas and coal is feeding the dreaded Greenhouse Effect — the warming of the planet with awesome consequences for climate and sea levels. Government economists are pointing to the inexorable climb of oil imports — nearing the 50% of domestic consumption level — to the United…

It’s Time for Greed Anonymous

August 26, 1988
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Everyone has heard of Alcoholics Anonymous. Maybe it is time for Greed Anonymous to shake the addiction out of the Truly Greedy Wealthies in this country. Such a voluntary society may attract self-doubting zillionnaires into a higher quality of life for themselves and many others. This musing came while perusing the latest issue of the…

Safe Food Week

August 14, 1988
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If there is anything more revealing about a government’s abuse of authority than being able to ignore accurate media exposure, it is being able to shrug off public condemnation from within government itself. The Reagan government has taken this imperviousness to new depths. Government reports continue to pour out documenting reckless, wasteful and callous behavior…

Reagan’s Economic Legacy

August 5, 1988
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On the same day, Monday, August 1, 1988, two different views appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times about the state of the American economy. First, here is political commentator, Mark Helprin, writing in the Journal: “after the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history, record employment and a two-point drop…

Medical Malpractice

July 30, 1988
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A curious paradox is playing in the area of medical incompetence. More reports are documenting the growing scope of medical malpractice and its patient casualties, while more medical associations are lobbying state legislatures to make it more difficult for patients to take doctors who harmed them to court and win an adequate award. Hovering like…

TV Networks Coverage of Conventions

July 25, 1988
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Appearing on ABC’s NIGHTLINE PROGRAM during the last day of the Democratic National Convention, Roone Arledge, president of ABC News appeared uncomfortable with his power and disingenuous in his explanations. He had been quoted the previous day as saying the Democratic convention was so boring that he was thinking about cutting back his network’s future…

Ailing Savings and Loan Industry

July 17, 1988
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Get ready for the bankers and politicians to push for the biggest taxpayer bailout in American history next year. Reagan’s nominal bank regulators are telling Congress that there are 515 insolvent savings and loans associations and another 300 to 500 nearly insolvent thrift institutions in these United States. Their doors are still open for business…

Insurance Companies Shirk Public Duty

July 11, 1988
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“What is the duty of an insurer to the public when it has knowledge of serious product defects which are likely to cause injury’?” This was the question that Aetna claims attorney, William D. McGehee, asked in a letter to an associate sent in December 1981. Mr. McGehee was not speculating. The context for his…

AAA: Friend of Big Business

July 1, 1988
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Imagine an organization, at the state and national levels, composed of 29 million car owners who contribute over $1 billion a year in dues to “champion the rights of car owners.” Then imagine the directors and bureaucrats who autocratically run this organization siding with the auto manufacturers and the auto insurance industry on many issues…

Time for a Progressive Business Organization

June 27, 1988
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Our public expectations of the big business community in this country are much too low. Given their power over markets, jobs, government, media and other institutions, together with the potent technologies at their command, they should be held to higher standards of behavior, foresight and delivery. The news of the past fortnight reinforced this observation…