In the Public Interest

There are times when comparisons matter a lot. Just compare Congress and its self-voted forthcoming salary increase from $150,000 to $155,000 a year with the federal minimum of $5.15 per hour that Congress has frozen for years. Since 1989, members of Congress have granted themselves a total of $60,500 in raises. This is much more…

When the current Congress convened last year there were lots of promises to curb predatory lenders that peddle credit on outrageous terms to poor, elderly and unsophisticated borrowers. Not only is Congress reneging on its promises, but it is rushing to reward the lenders whose scams have devastated low, moderate and middle income families and…

Once again the Congressional toadies for the auto industry have beaten back efforts by legislators such as Democrat, Senator John Kerry and Republican John McCain to gradually increase fuel efficiency standards from the abysmally wasteful levels now inflicted on your pocketbook. Instead of choosing the path of reduced pollution, consumer savings, efficiency of engines and…

The Enron scandal-followed by revelations about World Com and other corporate shenanigans-has produced a lot of instant experts who for the first time are actually finding fault with the ethics of the nation’s biggest enterprises. For Tony Mazzocchi this must seem a strange turn of events. For decades, Mazzocchi has sounded the alarms about corporate…

Last week Citigroup, the nation’s largest financial services holding company, trotted out one of its top executives, Robert Rubin, to spread some soothing words about how to clean up the corporate scandals and repair the sagging stock market. Rubin’s (and Citigroup’s) message appeared as a lengthy op-ed in the Washington Post under the headline “To…

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, one of the great blows to American democracy. The Act, which was drafted by employers, fundamentally infringed on workers’ human rights. Legally, it impeded employees’ right to join together in labor unions, it undermined the power of unions to represent workers’ interests…

All the headlines about corporate disclosures and the need for transparency are sending shivers through the banking industry and its regulators who have always lived in a protected and largely secret world. Hundreds of millions of dollars are expended on examinations of depository institutions, but most of the key findings are treated as inside information…

For decades, the American Automobile Association-better known as Triple A- has grown up with the American automobile. Millions of travelers have joined to ensure themselves of roadside service in emergencies and to gain access to triptickets (maps), travelers checks, insurance and other travel offerings. Beneath its benign image as a “travel club” AAA has become…

Bollier’s new book “Silent Theft-The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth” (Routledge, New York and London) is a loud wake-up call for citizens interested in halting the steady exploitation and erosion of the nation’s resources and values for short-term gains by the few. And the book does, indeed, provide the reader a wide, vivid and…

Philip J. Purcell, chairman of Morgan Stanley, a Wall Street firm under investigation by New York Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, for deceiving investors, visited Congress recently to peddle an amendment that Spitzer called “incredible”. It would stop all state attorneys generals and state securities regulators from enforcing their securities laws against any company subject to…