In the Public Interest

In coming months, the nation will hear a lot about various plans being hatched by the Clinton Administration and Congress to “modernize” the financial community. Underneath the benign sounding phrases about “modernization” are some dangerous schemes that would radically alter the nation’s economic system by allowing banking corporations and commercial firms to operate under common…

The selling of White House coffee hours and overnights in Lincoln’s bedroom to political contributors, looking for special favors and policies from the Clinton Administration, is headline news these days. Clinton repeatedly says that no changes in government policy have resulted from these soirees. Gee, what a waste of money but not one of the…

The so-called welfare reform for poor Americans and legal immigrants that Congress and Clinton enacted last year is starting to go into cruel effect. The first cutoffs started on February 22nd for Food stamps. Here is the Washington Post’s description: “Tens of thousands of unemployed adults will begin losing food stamps today, the result of…

The corporate lobbying assault on the right of Americans to have their full day in court against wrongdoers who harm or defraud them is underway again on Capitol Hill. The glasses of champagne are clicking and the whiskey drinks are flowing at campaign fundraising parties around Congress to grease the way. The objective is legislation…

Almost 40 years ago, Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith published a best-selling book, the Affluent Society, that compared the private affluence with public squalor in our country. While the curve of private consumption of automobiles, television sets and other products was going upwards, expenditures for public transit, clinics, schools and other public services were being…

Sellers like loyal customers. But some corporations are not returning the compliment by telling their customers regularly how they can get a better deal. Take these examples as illustrations: Airlines don’t search their computer to get you the cheapest fare after you tell them where you want to go and how long you are staying.…

A combination of Bill Clinton’s fictions and dissembling about his past extramarital affairs and the ferocious competition between the commercial press to be first with any snippet has produced not a media frenzy but a full-scale media riot. Article and column after article and column in the reputable press kept referring to “allegations” about the…

Technology has revolutionized the banking business. Today, transactions that only a few years ago took days and even weeks are completed instantly around the world via high-speed computer networks. But, when it comes to the little guy who just wants to deposit a pay check and pay a few bills, the world of banking suddenly…

Its the Green Bay Packers vs. the New England Patriots in the Superbowl down in New Orleans on January 26, 1997. To most fans, mention Green Bay and some think of coach Vince Lombardi’s champions of the late sixties. Others think of the frigid weather swirling around Lambeau Field where the packers have won 27…

Ronald Reagan’s proposal to give big raises to top government officials, including a $12,100 increase to members of Congress, is now in the hands of an uncomfortable Congress. If these lawmakers refuse to vote for thirty calendar days, their raises become law by February 4, under a little amendment sneaked through without any hearings in…