In the Public Interest

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…

What Business Week magazine calls “the corporate crime wave” shows every sign of worsening, as more major corporations scramble to admit massive deception of investors, looting of pension funds, self-enrichment of top executives, restatement of earnings and giant farewell compensations packages to departing bosses who wrecked their companies to further their own megagreed. So much…

Dr. Roberto J. Gonzalez, an anthropologist who teaches at San Jose State University, recently completed a study entitled “Latino Overweight and Obesity: Marketing Disease to Minorities.” Among his findings are that “Immigrants once came to the U.S. and watched their children grow taller and stronger. Today many come and watch their children grow fatter and…

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which dominate the nation’s housing finance market get most of the attention when the subject of Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) comes up in Washington. But, Fannie and Freddie are not alone in this growing world of government sponsored enterprises which operate in a twilight zone somewhere between government and free…

New York Attorney General, Eliot L. Spitzer, called his settlement with Merrill Lynch for defrauding and misleading investors, “a triumph for the investing public.” Pulitzer prizewinning business reporter for the New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson, called the agreement “clearly” “a fine deal” for Merrill Lynch. Who is right? Gretchen Morgenson. First, give Spitzer his due.…

Margaret Dickens in University City, Missouri was having a tough time with mounting bills. She was a perfect target for a finance company which offered to refinance her 7.5 percent home mortgage with a $65,000 loan at 12.5 percent interest plus up front fees of $11,600 including points and a single-premium credit life insurance policy.…

Getting your telephone call returned by a seller these days is like the weather — everyone complains about it, but nobody seems able to do anything about it. The domination of business callees is increasing rapidly over frustrated consumer callers. One would think that with the telecommunications revolution, getting through to a live human being…

On the evening of October 3, 2000, the mis-named Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) ignored my ticket-in-hand to go to an adjoining auditorium on the campus of the University of Massachusetts and watch the Gore-Bush debate on closed-circuit television. With a state trooper by his side, the “security consultant” for the CPD made it very…