In the Public Interest

Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve — an agency that serves purposes which officials in other western countries would call “central banking functions” — must keep saying to himself these days that “It doesn’t get any better than this.” Here he is, head of the most powerful federal regulatory agency in the government and…

When it comes to the tens of billions of dollars of annual health care fraud that all of you eventually pay for, the sophistication of the private criminal enterprisers is ahead of the government’s law enforcers. The usual figure for the amount of billing fraud and abuse that the government estimates is 10 percent of…

The financial services industry spent millions on public relations, opinion polls and advertising to promote legislation in the current Congress which would allow the merger of banks, securities firms and insurance companies under common ownership in financial conglomerates. All this in addition to the more than $30 million in campaign contributions that can be traced…

SOLAR ENERGY advocate Dan Berman has sent me news of a development for electricity consumers in Davis that millions of households may find of interest during these times of energy deregulation. A group of citizens are moving toward a referendum in Davis to establish the town’s own municipal utility district. If the voters pass this…

The drumbeat to corporatize (a.k.a.: privatize) essential facilities continues to beat from the business-funded think tanks in Washington, D.C. Recently, the government’s uranium enrichment installations — which deal with national security matters — were corporatized, and are now run by a company listed on the stock exchange. Corporatization is supposed to be more efficient, more…

Remember when the “energy crisis” was the big political issue? Remember the long gas lines and the sudden surge in gasoline prices — once in the mid-’70s and once in the late ’70s? Remember the politicians demanding that our country strive for energy independence, so that we would no longer need to be reliant on…

“America’s big oil companies have been ripping off federal and state governments for decades by underpaying royalties for oil drilled on public lands. The Interior Department tried to stop the practice with new rules, but Congress has succeeded in blocking their implementation….” So wrote the Los Angeles Times in an editorial this summer. Indeed, this…

In 1980, the U.S. Congress passed a law to protect adults who prey on children. You read that correctly. Public Law 96-252 prohibits the Federal Trade Commission from enacting rules that would protect the nation’s children from commercial advertising that exploits their vulnerable and trusting natures. This law is corporate power incarnate. It should be…

The gigantic computer files on the personal lives of Americans — as buyers, patients, children, students, workers, citizens, and taxpayers — continue to grow. The right of privacy, which is constitutionally protected, receives much lip service but little organized defense. Yet survey after survey shows people are worried and upset over repeated disclosures of violations…

The brazen, bullying Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is at it again. Only this time he is trying to intimidate a group of big business executives who are urging Congress to enact one important campaign finance reform — banning the unlimited “soft money” contributions to political parties. In an ocean of election money corruption and deepening…