Blog

“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…

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…

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…

Pundits, commentators and investment analysts are pondering the effects of last week’s federal jury verdict of $400,000 against Liggett & Meyers in the cigarette-cancer case. By concentrating solely on whether the victory will lead to many more successful cases against tobacco companies, they are missing an important consequence of that historic day in Newark, New…

My big red elementary schoolhouse is scheduled to be demolished after 88 years of faithful service to thousands of children. Big Red is structurally solid and architecturally of classic, many-window design. It needs renovation which is what many communities do so well these days. And as the Connecticut Department of Education architect put it: “Generally,…

On June first while reading the New York Times, I came across a full page advertisement by a group called “Alliance for New York City Business.” The large headline trumpeted: “one of the World’s Top Economic Powers Isn’t a Country.” I read on to learn that “It’s New York City.” The evidence for this eye-catching…

The other day the Wall Street Journal had an article with the headline: “Advertisers Put Consumers on the Couch.” It seems that Madison Avenue’s motivational researchers, says the Journal, “increasingly feel they must put consumers on the couch and play shrink.” Penelope Queen, director of research at the giant Saatchi ad agency, was more specific:…

The news from the Third World is so often dominated by reports of wars, revolts and famines that Americans can easily come to the conclusion that little else of note goes on there. But in the midst of the poverty and anguish of millions of human beings, there are strivings within a sprouting consumer movement.…

Washington, DC — I had occasion recently to cast an absentee-ballot. The town, where my vote had to he sent, left very little time for obtaining the application, returning the form, receiving the ballot and sending it back by the late Saturday election day deadline. Express mail service was in order. Which one to choose?…

On Capitol Hill when one thinks of the word “indefatigable” one thinks of Rep. Claude Pepper who, at 87 years of age, presents a mixture of strategic energy and perpetual motion on behalf of elderly Americans. As chairman of the House Select Committee on Aging, he holds shocking hearings and releases hardhitting reports on the…