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There is an outfit in England that sets odds and takes bets on the outcome of the Presidential race in the United States. If this firm wants to expand its business, it could propose ten-to-one odds that the following predictions will materialize President Reagan gains a second term: President Reagan, despite his pre-election promises, will…

The question for millions of college students is whether they plan to spend several special hours, as they would do for an average mid-term exam, studying the records of the Presidential candidates before election on November 6. They need to do this if they want to cast their ballot on facts and judgments rather than…

In the sixties, a book with the title “The Poor Pay More” was published documenting the not surprising point that consumer fraud and injustice bear down disproportionately on low income Americans. Now comes a new report describing how the poor suffer more -from environmental pollution where they work, where they live and where their children…

I wonder what children are thinking about the Presidential race between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. Not much, you may say. But the ten and eleven year olds who interviewed politicians at the Democratic and Republican Conventions this summer for their newspaper, “Children’s Express,” told me that maybe grown-ups should start asking. It would be…

Maybe someone can explain the luck of the insurance industry. It receives 12% of the consumer’s disposable income, making that bill the fourth leading expenditure for Americans after food, housing and personal income taxes. Since 1944, it has been exempted from the federal antitrust laws and state regulation continues to he weak and indentured. Numerous,…

Suppose a poll asked Americans the following question: Would you support a President for re-election if he did the opposite of what he promised to do on important subjects? Most people would probably say no, provided the issues were important to them. Let’s examine the record of Ronald Reagan in this regard. He would balance…

San Francisco — Behind those daffy, twisting television ads for Levis, the jeans of San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co., there are some smart, public spirited people. I had a conversation recently with one of them — the company’s general counsel, Peter T. Jones — and came away even more persuaded that there are not…

Joseph Blumenthal, a semi-retired Miami insurance agent, wrote us in June 1975 with an idea. Why not, he asked, challenge as unconstitutional the anti-rebate laws which prevent insurance agents from giving part of their commission to their customers in order to get their business? Good question. So Public Citizen’s lawyers set out to answer it…

Dallas — Cruel politicians having a good time, behind the gloss of Ronald Reagan, was what this Republican National Convention was all about. Moderate Republicans who wanted some sensitivity shown to Americans who earn under $75,000 a year were shoved aside. Long time Republican women delegates were appalled, some vociferously, at the GOP Platform which…

The wild swings in the national Presidential preference polls suggest more than a sizable number of very undecided voters. These polls demonstrate what Ronald Reagan’s image handlers have known all along — that many people make up their minds based on the most general mental images of the two candidates. Mr. Reagan’s image makers have…