In the Public Interest

Here they go again! Financial capitalism is crashing. So the lights are on late in Washington’s Federal Reserve, SEC and Treasury Department trying to figure out how socialism (your tax dollars and credits) can once again bail out these big time gamblers with our money. Every cycle of casino capitalism that heads for, or goes…

One day when I was about eight years old, my mother tossed one of her frequent “out of the blue” questions at me: “Ralph, do you love your country?” “Yes, mother,” I said, wondering where she was going with this. “Well, I hope when you grow up, you’ll work hard to make it more lovable.”…

The worst top management of giant corporations in American history is also by far the most hugely paid. That contradiction applies as well to the Boards of Directors of these global companies. Consider these illustrations: The bosses of General Motors (GM) have presided over the worst decline of GM shares in the last fifty years,…

With the rapid expansion of federal spending responding to the perceived national security requirements after 9/11, passenger railroad supporters looked forward to a tripleheader. First passenger railroad service would have to be upgraded and expanded to facilitate mass population evacuations from cities during attack emergencies. Second, by embarking on a “national defense” passenger rail program,…

Here is a counter-intuitive story for you. Why don’t organized corporate interests challenge damage or risks to their clear economic interests? Think about oil prices for big consumers, not just your pocketbook. Airlines are groaning, limiting flights, and laying off employees because of the skyrocketing price for aviation fuel. Executives in that industry say that…

Move over Las Vegas. The big time gamblers are on Wall Street and they are gambling with your money, your pensions, and your livelihoods. Unlike Las Vegas casinos, these big investment banks, commercial banks and stock brokerage houses are supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with your money. They are supposed to be trustees for…

You are sixteen. You can legally work, drive a motor vehicle and with parental consent get married in most states. Why can’t you legally vote? Good question, and one that supporters for dropping the voting age from eighteen to sixteen will be asking politicians more and more. Much has been made of the youth vote…

What factors are causing the zooming price of crude oil, gasoline and heating products? What is going to be done about it? Don’t rely on the White House—with Bush and Cheney marinated in oil—or the Congress—which has hearings that grill oil executives who know that nothing is going to happen on Capitol Hill either. Last…

Mountain View, California — An invitation to visit Google’s headquarters and meet some of the people who made this ten year old giant that is giving Microsoft the nervies has to start with wonder. The “campus” keeps spreading with the growth of Google into more and more fields, even though advertising revenue still comprises over…

Dear President Bush, You and your White House have been sitting on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) since your arrival in January 2001, thus assuring the giant auto companies that NHTSA-toothless under President Bill Clinton and previous administrations– continues morphing even further away from the technology-forcing, life- saving regulatory agency it is supposed…