In the Public Interest

WASHINGTON–The call came from President Carter at Camp David last month for Margaret Mead, then a seriously ill patient in New York Hospital. The famous anthropologist, in great agony from cancer, was under sedation and could not take the phone. The following Monday she sent a message to the White House saying that she considered…

The Journal of Commerce is a daily (Monday-Friday) commercial newspaper with substantial national circulation and advertising. Its editorial columns frequently rail against inflation which it blames on the government. About three years ago, the Journal sold for 25 cents a copy at the newsstand. Two months ago it was still selling for 50 cents a…

Joe Egle is a classic car collector in Kansas City, and he is very upset with General Motors’ Cadillac Division. His 1976 Cadillac Seville started rusting about a year after purchase. A $15,000 automobile, advertised as “one of the finest production cars built anywhere in the world” and possessed of “zincrometal to help fight rust…

SAN FRANCISCO–A few days ago at a news conference in Los Angeles, economist John Kenneth Galbraith and his conservative counterpart, Alan Greenspan, replied similarly to a question put by a reporter. They both said that there was little an individual could do about this inflation. Apparently, some people in California disagree. Two former housewives here…

For years there have been reports on the widespread prevalence of auto repair fraud, waste, and incompetence. One recent study by the Department of Transportation put the figure at over $15 billion annually taken out of consumers’ pocketbooks. Besides stricter law enforcement and media coverage such as CBS’s “60 Minutes” expose last August, what can…

WASHINGTON–The White House inflation policy invites superficial caricature and general condemnation. After pushing Congress hard for higher energy prices, including a massively inflationary natural gas bill, the Carter administration is about to go after its own health and safety regulators in a major way. Leading the charge is Charles Schultz, a born-again anti-regulatory economist, and…

The American economy is in the throes of another giant corporate merger wave. Bigger corporations are gobbling up big corporations. But some companies are fighting back with information about their potential gobblers. One of these companies is the Mead Corporation–a profitable Dayton, Ohio-based, diversified firm with projected 1978 sales of $2 billion. Two months ago,…

It was the evening of a long day for a high executive of a company that manufactures nuclear reactors. “How can you remain with a firm that is selling these reactors?” I asked him. “When is your company going to get out of the atomic power industry?” “The sooner the better,” he replied with firm…

In the past few weeks, the Winsted (Conn.) Evening Citizen has run three full page notices inviting the people of this small town (pop. 10,000) to come forward “with some ideas that will help Winsted.” The Citizen’s publisher, Joe Bradley, wants “to get the people of this area thinking positively again.” He was referring to…

These are the days of maximum hypocrisy in the Congress as the session nears its closing time. These are the times when politicians bifurcate their tongues and throw themselves into the laps of the business lobbyists eager to trade campaign contributions for corporate subsidy legislation. So get ready, airline passengers; that same combination is about…