In the Public Interest

Never doubt the importance of language in politics. In labeling as “death taxes” what should properly be understood as an Equality and Fairness Fee or an Anti-Dynasty Tax, corporate-funded think tanks and their Congressional allies have launched a retrograde initiative to repeal the federal inheritance tax. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives succumbed to…

Imagine a well-written book, on an important topic, that you can read online for free. Making A Killing: HMOs and the Threat to Your Health, by Jamie Court and Francis Smith (Common Courage Press, Monroe, ME) www.makingakilling.org/— paints a troubling tale of what has become of our health care system. Jamie Court and Francis Smith…

“No sensible democracy would opt for an economic system in which the financial wealth of the top 1 percent of households exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 95 percent.” That is the commonsense observation with which Jeff Gates begins his provocative new book, Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street. (Perseus Publishing,…

It is time for the Clinton Administration and Congress to end one of the most unnecessary corporate giveaways in recent times. The name is soothing — The Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) — but the program is aggravating. PNGV is a collaboration between the Clinton-Gore administration and the Big Three automakers —…

Thorstein Veblen — the turn of the (nineteenth) century social scientist who coined the term “conspicuous consumption” — would blush if he were to witness today’s consumption patterns. Luxury and excess have been taken to new flights of fancy, and have become the object of desire for an ever greater portion of the population. In…

On May 19, 2000 the House passed a bill providing fiscal year 2001 funding of $55 billion for the transportation department. The vote wasn’t even close — 395 votes for and 13 against. Attached to this bill was a “rider” that prevents the Department of Transportation (DOT) from raising fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles…

The China Lobby is on the march — and posing serious problems to citizens in the United States and China alike. Big Business is pulling out all the stops to encourage Congress to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR, formerly known as permanent most favored nation) status. The many corporations that have endorsed PNTR are…

On May 7, 2000 the Federal Bureau of Investigation, released data on serious crime in the United States. The FBI notes that both murder and robbery registered 8-percent drops since 1988. Missing from the FBI news release were any data on crime in the suites. That information vacuum is notable because corporate crime and violence…

As the titanic antitrust case against Microsoft moves into its end-game, the question of the hour is what remedies will be effective in taming this wealthy and ruthless monopoly. The goal of any set of remedies should be to ensure that there will, in fact, be innovation, competition and reasonable prices in some of the…

In a recent annual report, Coca-Cola assured its shareholders that it had plenty of room for growth. The company only sold one billion of the world’s 48 billion beverage servings, the annual report noted. “A billion a day is just the beginning,” the company proclaimed, “because people still say, ‘for all the tea in China.’”…