In the Public Interest

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The business lobbies can scarcely conceal their gloating, while consumer groups are not bothering to hide their gloom in this city of political ebb and flow. Indeed, both have good reasons for their respective attitudes. The coming Reagan administration very probably will be soft on business crime and fraud. There is no prospect that…

I’ve come across an increasing number of news reports lately which show how deep the gap is between what consumers and citizens are expected to believe and what actually occurs. The theory is that when sellers have more products to sell than consumers are buying, prices should be reduced. The practice is more and more…

Like an 800-pound gorilla who can sleep anywhere he wants, General Motors, led by mean Thomas A. Murphy, believes it can get anything it wants. A few weeks ago, Murphy reneged on GM’s promise to the Department of Transportation that it would install air bags in many of its large 1982-model year cars. This meant…

It is probably the most remarkable annual report ever issued by a utility. The fact that the utility is the Tennessee Valley Authority–a government cor­poration–makes it no less remarkable given the behavior that the TVA until recently has exhibited which is similar to profit-making private utilities. The TVA report for 1979 reflects the belief of…

If you knew your neighbors were operating or using a defective consumer product, wouldn’t you alert them? Of course you would. But most corpora­tions hush themselves; the simple Golden Rule is not for them. This attitude was illustrated once again a few weeks ago when confidential internal memoranda dated September 1978 by General Motors and…

Their names have become part of a macabre map of poisoned areas throughout America: Love Canal, N.Y., Woburn, Mass., Valley of the Drums in Kentucky, Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Colo., and Lathrop, California. With few exceptions, these areas of “lethal litter,” in the words of the New York Times, are the legacy of the chemical industry.…

Once again General Motors has broken’ its public commitments and decided not to assume the leadership to save a million lives and tens of millions of injuries on the highways worldwide in the next 30 years. Last week, GM presi­dent Pete Estes telephoned the Department of Transportation to say that GM would not install air…

Campaign advisers to Ronald Reagan reportedly are working to blur his extremist right-wing image. The pres­idential candidate is not helping that much, judging by his recent widely publicized comments urging the revoca­tion of life-saving auto-safety stand­ards. Soon, they may be grappling with the image of Reagan’s brutishness. A few days before the Michigan primary, which…

“We’re sailing into somewhat uncharted waters for this summer by letting (airline) carriers decide how to price their product upward. But given the nation’s economic problems and already-high air fares, I don’t feel the carriers will abuse consumers.” With those words, Marvin S. Cohen, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), announced with his fellow…

One of the most interesting consequences of the recent Big Business Day was the reaction to it by corporation and trade association officials. First, these groups refused all invitations to discuss the role of Big Business in this country. Along with civil rights leader James Farmer and William Hutton of the National Council of Senior…