In the Public Interest

The Federal Reserve — already one of the most powerful and least accountable entities in the federal government — is about to become even more powerful. It’s all part of a scheme to rewrite the nation’s financial laws and allow banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and, in some cases, industrial firms to merge under common…

The Federal Reserve — already one of the most powerful and least accountable entities in the federal government — is about to become even more powerful. It’s all part of a scheme to rewrite the nation’s financial laws and allow banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and, in some cases, industrial firms to merge under common…

Privacy is high on the list of rights Americans cherish. Now, the right to our privacy — like many of those rights we take for granted — is at risk. Federal agencies, led by the Federal Reserve Board, have proposed a “Know Your Customer” regulation that would require banks to monitor their customers’ accounts, presumably…

 Alert for the millions of airline passenger knees — American Airlines will give them three to five extra inches of space in about a year. Hooray for small favors. One would think that buying an airline ticket for a seat on the plane would include knees along with toes and torsos. But since airline deregulation…

Social Security places government in one of its noblest roles: as an institution that offers a bedrock financial guarantee to all members of society that they need not fear the financial consequences of growing old or disabled. That’s quite the opposite of the U.S. government’s all too familiar role as a provider of corporate welfare,…

Detroit, Mich., fell on hard times recently when the snow started falling on Jan. 2, 1999. Twenty-one inches of snow accumulated over the next two weeks, and city officials still did not plow residential streets. That streets were left unplowed was not an oversight. It was the result of a policy of many years standing…

The collapse of community surfaced with a vengeance in Detroit, Michigan recently when the snow started falling on January 2, 1999. Twenty one inches of snow fell over the next two weeks and city officials still had not plowed the residential streets. That is not an oversight. It is a policy of many years standing.…

Few politicians have shrunken as fast, while rising in power, as Vice-President, Al Gore. In terms of standing up for what he believes, Gore is a shadow of his former self as Representative and Senator from Tennessee, though he never came close to the political courage of his father, also a Senator. Gore, senior, for…

“Nickel and diming” the consumer is now a big, booming business in the financial arenas of corporate greed and fraud. Bank charges, currently numbering over two hundred varieties, bring in nearly $20 billion a year to the banks. First Union even charges its customers 50 cents for a deposit slip and $2 for each call…

Last month on the Jay Leno Show, Hulk Hogan thought he would make some news, but he did not. Too bad the media missed his presentation because he seemed very serious about what he was saying. Hogan “announced” his official retirement from professional wrestling, adding that his children were well taken care of by the…