In the Public Interest

On Sunday evening, April 4, 1993, Cong. Tony Hall (D-OH) sat down with his family for dinner. That was to be his last meal for “the indefinite future.” Starting the next day, Mr. Hall fasted, taking only water. He was shocked when the House of Representatives let the House Select Committee on Hunger go out…

The American Medical Association (AMA) came to Washington, D.C. the other day with 1000 physicians to lobby the Clintons and the Congress on health care policy. They gathered in the Mayflower Hotel on Connecticut Avenue and then fanned out to Capitol Hill to see what response they would receive from all those politicians greased by…

Watch out folks, the strategy of the Clinton task force on health care reform is becoming all too clear. Racing to meet a self-imposed May 1, 1993 deadline for the White House’s proposal to Congress, dozens of White House staff, directed by Hillary Clinton, and hundreds of consultants are weaving a restructuring of one-seventh of…

New York Times columnist, Abe Rosenthal, who ruled the Times with an iron, and some say a willful hand, as top editor for about 15 years ending in the late Eighties, released another of his volcanic eruptions of temper. This time, he has fulminated against my comments that under his tenure, the New York Times…

Like a relentless Moloch, commercialism is no longer just creeping; it is charging into arenas hitherto off limits. Remember when Olympic competitions were amateur sports; now the paid stars sport corporate logos that get louder and larger the better to be seen on television. Remember when the public schools provided students with the sanctuary of…

The newspapers and the airwaves are filled these days with reports and discussions about President Clinton’s deficit reduction and tax proposals. Words like “investments,” “savings,” “incentives,” “job training,” “government-industry partnerships,” “industrial policy,” and “technology transfer,” are repeated again and again. Two weeks ago in Los Angeles, California Speaker of the House, Willie Brown, convened an…

A month ago the invisible hand of the marketplace became very visible to over 400 customers of Jack in the Box hamburgers in the Seattle area. Two children have died and about 50 are in agonizing condition. The invisible hand dealt these people E. Coli — a bacteria that can become deadly when suppliers of…

In Michigan last week, Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Donald Shelton issued a ruling that could well spark a long-delayed national debate about what local communities receive in return for providing taxpayer subsidies to demanding companies operating plants there. Judge Shelton’s 28 page opinion ruled that General Motors could not transfer production of its Chevrolet…

Do women pay more for certain products and services than men? Are women exposed to more marketplace hazards than men because they are women? The answers to both questions are yes. Many a woman has a story about how an auto repair or home repair firm took advantage of feminine stereotypes and tried to gouge…

Four years ago, when the voters of California enacted Proposition 103, the insurance reform initiative, the property/casualty companies roared defiance and some forecast their withdrawal from the state. Using every obstructive tactic they knew, the large auto insurance companies spent tens of millions of dollars fighting Prop 103 in the courts. Last week the National…