In the Public Interest

THE ACCIDENT at the nuclear plant on Three Mile Island suddenly has aroused the attention of millions to the possibility of an atomic power holocaust. Gone are the days when mass media such as Time and Fortune can glibly promote the atomic industry’s deceptions and ignore its dangers and enormous costs. I spent nearly an…

PHILADELPHIA–Philadelphians have a new epithet when encountering fraudulent or defective merchandise: “Throw it in Denenberg’s Dump,” they exclaim. It is astonishing but true! A major television station, WCAU-TV, is letting Herb Denenberg, Pennsylvania’s former insurance commissioner and consumer advocate extraordinaire, tell it like it is, complete with brand name denunciations. Dressed in the white coveralls…

TOKYO— He has the bounce and humor of a 25-year-old. At 72, Soichiro Honda, the retired founder of the Honda motorcycle and automobile company, remains pulsating with ideas and activities. Founders of substantial businesses that grow by selling to consumers in­stead of buying other companies are rare in these times of sprawling conglomerates. So it…

With its economic and technical base crumbling, the atomic power industry hardly needs another challenge in the burgeoning public controversy over the electric atom. This time the furrow on the brow of industry executives comes from a movie–“The China Syndrome,” produced by Columbia Pictures. People viewing a preview of the story about a nuclear reactor…

In a recent column, Sylvia Porter observed that “the consumer movement has strayed from the issues of greatest concern to you (the consumer).” She wrote that an independent consumer agency and other access-to-government measures do not directly affect consumers. “There is no obvious, immediately demonstrable and vivid way in which an independent consumer agency could…

The overwhelming (2-to-1) vote by Cleveland voters on Feb. 27 against the sale of their municipally owned light company was more than a rebuff to the arrogant ultimatums of the interlocked Cleveland Electric Co. and Cleveland Trust Co. It was a stunning declaration through direct urban democracy that elected governments, not the hidden unelected corporate…

What can one say about a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge who opens his opinion in an important auto safety case by likening the two plaintiffs on opposing sides of the issue to Scylla and Charybdis? Especially since one of the plaintiffs was this writer. Well, one can extend the Homeric metaphor to its…

If there is anything more erosive of organized society’s expectation of justice than a pattern of crime by its more powerful elements, it is a weakening of support for the standards by which such conduct is condemned. A recent issue of The Washington Monthly raises such an alarm. On the cover is a teaser: “The…

A new organization of businesspeople needs to be formed in this country. The bellows and whines of the Business Roundtable’s giant corporate moguls do not reflect the views of many entrepreneurs, middle-size companies and small businesses. For on issue after issue, big business is moving to shape an economy that socializes its costs through government…

At a recent gathering, I asked the chairman of the Federal Reserve System, G. William Miller, which practices and policies outside government he believes have contributed or could contribute to this inflation. An inadequate level of investment was the only factor he cited. Sitting next to me were the Carter administration’s chief antitrust and consumer…