In the Public Interest

In Papua, New Guinea, the giant Australian multinational, BHP, has been operating a large copper mine for over a decade. Instead of building a tailings dam, as do most other similar mines in other countries, BHP has been dumping about 100,000 tons of mining waste every day into the OK-TEDI and FLY rivers. Aerial color…

The corporate shakedown of state and local governments had another perpetrator last week in Virginia — the giant IBM corporation, which brought the Toshiba company along for the deal. “Virginia promised IBM Millions to Get Chip Plant” was the headline in the Washington Post. To attract a new computer plant to Manassas, Virginia, both the…

Get ready for Mickey Mouse nation — a creation of two moguls, Disney’s Michael Eisner and Capital Cities — ABC’s Thomas Murphy in their recently announced $19 billion merger. The usual boilerplate rationale was given: companies have to be big to compete in the global marketplace. Other media moguls weighed in: “It’s an utterly great…

Haven’t you heard or seen the prideful announcements of Big Business: “Welcome to the information superhighway,” “the telecommunications Revolution is here and everyone wins.” One evening last week I called US Air to find out the arrival time for a plane from Washington, D.C. to Bradley Field in Connecticut. A new 1-800 number (part of…

The drive by Senator Bob Dole’s Republicans to take the federal cop off the business beat is encountering heavy weather. It seems the cruel ideologies of S. 343–designed to tie the hands of health and safety enforcement officials—are being taken apart by many citizen groups around the country. The issue is corporate law and order;…

He has been called the “Stealth Strategist” and the “Invisible Adviser” by the press. But his impact as a top outside political consultant, to President Clinton since January has been anything but invisible. Dick Morris is his name and he is a switch-hitter, a mind for hire who has served extremist Republicans like Senators Jesse…

Big Banks in this country have given new meaning to “special privileges” in the past two decades. Citicorp, Bank of America, Nations Bank, Morgan Guaranty and other top dozen megabanks are on an informal government list described as “too big to fail.” That is, if they are mismanaged or speculating themselves toward bankruptcy, you, via…

I went to see Batman Forever last week and felt sorry for Batman. What the Time-Warner company has done to the Batman comic book character of my childhood is make him resemble Robocop in a high tech special effects frenzy of mindless zip-zap. One reviewer called the film “visual delirium in both form and content.”…

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has been busy lately throwing his weight around the Senate, the White House and over at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in order to pass what many consumer and investor groups call the “Crooks and Swindlers Protection Act of 1995.” Dodd, whose definition of liberalism is being for child care…

The worlds of Roni Rudolph and Gingrich-Dole are far apart indeed. Those twin destroyers of corporate law and order -­Senator Robert Dole and Rep. Newt Gingrich who lead the Republicans — operate in a world of business dinners, corporate lobbyists and industrial campaign finance slush funds. While Roni Rudolph is tirelessly pressing for better meat…