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John Z. DeLorean grew up poor in Detroit and became an automotive engineer. He rose quickly through General Motors’ executive ranks and produced what he calls “probably the best track record of any manager in the last 30 or 40 years at GM.” Rut in April 1973, this 48 year-old GM vice president, with a…
It was one of those comments that will go down in history as one of the most memorable expressions of business insensitivity. Robert K. Phillips, executive secretary of the National Peach Council, put it this way in a formal letter on September 12, 1977, to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): “While involuntary sterility…
A few weeks ago a good idea started weaving its way through the White House. What about enlisting, the internal proposal suggested, the energies of America’s youth as volunteers in the cause of energy conservation? President Carter, in the words of one memo, would “call on youth, their representative organizations, and other interested individuals to…
It used to be that Congress was divided into three camps: Democrats, Southern Democrats and Republicans. Depending on the issues, the outcome often, could be predicted with reasonable assurance. In the past three Congressional elections, the number of “progressive” Representatives was thought to signal a new era of constructive and’ imaginative legislation that would give…
In all the years of official Soviet-American exchange programs, consumer groups have been conspicuously absent. Musicians, legislators, corporation executives, farmers, jurists, scientists, physicians, athletes, mayors, writers, governors, industrial specialists, religious and ethnic leaders and even labor union chiefs (most have declined) have been invited to visit the Soviet Union. But not representatives of consumer action…
AMHERST — Some call it the return of tested wisdom. All who are part of it agree that the common factors are greater community self-reliance and control over the production and distribution of the necessities of life. “It” is an emerging culture form that is more than a series of slogans and euphoric thoughts. “It”…
It was a pretty picture of a river winding its way through northwest Connecticut’s hill country that appeared on the front page of The Lakeville Journal a few days ago. But under the picture, the Journal told a tragic tale that will be repeated about more rivers and lakes around this country! “Fishermen used to…
Every day, you, the consumer, are paying a hidden tax to corporations that regulate the marketplace by illegally fixing the prices of their goods and services. Price-fixing has been a federal crime for the past 87 years and most state laws also ban the practice. Yet price-fixing at national, regional and local levels remains rampant.…
When Ray Bonner, a young lawyer just out of the Marine Corps, came to work with us in 1972, he took up running so relentlessly that he once completed the Boston Marathon event. Bonner is still running as a San Francisco assistant district attorney in charge of consumer fraud and white collar crime. He even…
Can you name the chairman or president of the following corporations? General Motors, Exxon, IBM, Proctor & Gamble, Sears, U.S. Steel, General Electric, Citibank, Metropolitan Life, and General Mills. If you can’t, join the vast majority who can’t, either. These men of vast economic and political power have a passion for anonymity. Unlike their company…