Dollars & Sense articles from January 2000

Dollars & Sense archives from January 2000

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2000... PENSION STORY HIT HOME Friends! Just received the September/October Labor issue in the mail. It's a good one! I am a Fed Ex courier in Kansas City and a member of the Teamster Organizing Committee. The James Ridgeway "Hijacking the...

Mad at the Mouse.(Mickey Mouse; Disney Corporation social policy)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... According to a 1997 study by the U.S. General Accounting Office, public schools in wealthy districts get on average 24% more funding than schools in poor districts, while in some states the gap was as big as 70%. So you'd think if you lived in...

Perks for Picky Proletarians.(low unemployment and wage rates)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... From the New York Times comes the latest hand-wringing over the new economic crisis of the '90s -- excess jobs. In his Nov. 6 article, "Help Wanted, Meaning Help Can Be Fussy," Peter T. Kilborn barely hides his sympathy for companies who,...

Plastic Fries With That?(McDonald's Corp. toys)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... For millions of U.S. teenagers, the rite of passage into the workforce goes through the golden arches of McDonald's. Resplendent in polyester, the new employee's first day of work begins with training at the various work stations -- fries,...

Virtual Roadkill.
January 1, 2000... In the old days, when a pet died we'd bury it in the back yard, with maybe a cross made of popsicle sticks. But that was before we got this here new, high-tech online economy. In a November press release from the internet company LavaMind,...

Wild Wild East.
January 1, 2000... With guns a-blazin', reports the Oct. 15 Boston Globe, Russian riot police on a predawn raid stormed a paper mill defended by its workers. The factory now belongs to a British company, and the police were enforcing a court order to transfer...

IMF Can Learn!
January 1, 2000... Thanks to the teachings of the International Monetary Fund, we all know governments shouldn't restrict the movement of capital. So it was no surprise when, in 1998, with the Malaysian economy in a tailspin, and the government putting controls...

The Goring of Labor.
January 1, 2000... In his zeal to gain labor's endorsement, Al Gore has been accused of swerving left and leaving the centrist platform open for George W. Bush. Why? Because Gore has told labor leaders that if elected, he will need authority to make fast-track...

Killing the Messenger.
January 1, 2000... We know the financial connections of big press moguls affect news coverage in their publications. What about smaller media outlets? Ask Terry Allen, an experienced journalist who worked as a wire editor and layout person for a small Vermont...

ACTIVE CULTURE.
January 1, 2000... On Halloween night, over one hundred activists rested in the courtyard of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, preparing for their protest the next day. They came from Ecuador, Guatemala, Oakland, Northern Illinois University, Earlham...

MILITARY SPENDING vs EVERYTHING ELSE.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Most progressive activists would probably agree that the United States spends too much on its war machine. So why isn't more organizing done around this issue? The nation's catalogue of social, environmental, and infrastructure needs is...

JAPANESE BANK MERGERS -- BIGGER, NOT BETTER.
January 1, 2000... Japan will boast the largest bank in the world once the merger of three of its already very large -- but weak -- financial institutions is completed. Bank regulators will have one of the world's biggest headaches as they oversee the three-way...

GIVING THE NOD TO CONGLOMERATES.
January 1, 2000... Europeans use the term "universal banks" to describe their all-purpose financial institutions. Germans, for example, have long been able to buy stocks and insurance policies at the same offices where they have their checking and savings...

HOW RICH IS BILL?
January 1, 2000... Even with Microsoft's legal worries, Bill Gates is sitting pretty on $72 billion worth of Microsoft stock. While it might be hard to imagine how much that really is, a bunch of committed souls have tried and posted their efforts on various web...

TAKING CONTROL.
January 1, 2000... DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS LEARN TO MANAGE THEIR MONEY -- AND THEIR DREAMS A young woman dressed all in white pushes a stroller up the hill toward Casa Nueva Vida (House of New Life), a shelter for homeless Latino families in a...

PREDATORY LENDING.
January 1, 2000... BANKS TRICK POOR INTO EXPENSIVE LOANS Laid off after 29 years of working for a local telephone company in North Carolina, "Roberta Green" was struggling. Although she had a part-time job driving a school bus, she was not earning enough to...

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER SEATTLE?
January 1, 2000... The announcement by the World Trade Organization that it would hold its latest "ministerial" meeting in Seattle, Washington, affected many labor, human rights and environmental activists the way a red cape works on a bull. As expected, the...

EXPORTED TO DEATH.
January 1, 2000... THE FAILURE OF AGRICULTURAL DEREGULATION The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) collects $1 per head of cattle from ranchers, large and small, corporate and family run, and funnels the fees to a private trade group called the National...

MEXICAN OIL MESS.
January 1, 2000... POLLUTING PUBLIC OIL COMPANY TARGETED FOR PRIVATIZATION They stood for hours in and around the bare, cement-block community center in the small town of Boca del Monte, Oaxaca, holding the documents proving they held title to their farmland....

MILLENNIAL TECHNOLOGY.
January 1, 2000... MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS "Standing on the threshold of the Twentieth Century, and looking back a hundred years," scientist and engineer Edward Byrn wrote in 1900, "the Nineteenth Century... has been a gigantic tidal wave of...

SAVINGS SCAM.
January 1, 2000... COOKING THE SAVINGS RATE PROMOTES TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY As with other products, economic statistics should be recalled when they no longer function safely. One prime candidate for such a recall is the series of figures that supposedly...

ASK DR. DOLLAR.
January 1, 2000... Dear Dr. Dollar, In view of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and GATT [the precursor to the World Trade Organization], with good paying jobs leaving the country, it would appear that in 20 years or so, most jobs remaining in...

Fighting Back.
January 1, 2000... THE LIVING WAGE: BUILDING A FAIR ECONOMY by Robert Pollin and Stephanie Luce The New Press, 1998. The Living Wage reflects a broad movement in favor of a reform that would directly affect the living standards of many working...

THE REAL Y2K CRISIS GLOBAL ECONOMIC INEQUALITY.
January 1, 2000... As the calendar turns to the year 2000, the best guide to the real Y2K crisis is not yet another glossy article on computer glitches, but the tenth annual edition of the United Nations Human Development Report. The 1999 Report is both an...