Dollars & Sense articles from January 2003

Dollars & Sense archives from January 2003

From the editors.(Editorial)
January 1, 2003... With war on the horizon, repression at home, and conservatives in control of Congress and the presidency, the new year holds a sense of urgency for those committed to economic justice. In this issue of D&S, we continue to focus on the...

Non-profit profiteers. .(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The slumping U.S. economy has meant layoffs for workers at both for-profit companies and non-profit organizations. But the top executives at some of the biggest non-profits have not shared in the belt-tightening. According to the Chronicle of...

Millionaires in robes. .(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... In the recently published fourth edition of Who Rules America?, G. William Domhoff recalls that in November 2000, "a highly conservative court that preached against judicial activism and emphasized state rights nonetheless overrode the Florida...

Already evading campaign finance reform. (Money and Politics).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law of 2002 banned U.S. corporations from donating "soft money" to national party campaign committees, effective November 6, 2002. However, since McCain-Feingold doesn't prohibit soft money donations...

Skipping town. (Law II).(Silvio Berlusconi)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... On trial in Milan on charges of bribing judges, Italy's right-wing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may have boosted his chances of beating the rap. Berlusconi got parliament to pass a bill which allows a defendant (like himself) to request a...

Let the carve-up begin. (Oil).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... In a September 2002 paper, "The Future of a Post-Saddam Iraq: A Blueprint for American Involvement," analyst Ariel Cohen of the right-wing Heritage Foundation proposed that "Iraq's oil industry [be] split up into three large companies, along...

U.S. steal industry. (Labor I).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Despite gaining tariff protection from the federal government in March 2002, U.S. steel corporations keep going belly-up, and leaving former steelworkers holding the bag. According to the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), recent...

Digging for the truth. (Labor II).(mine accident)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently issued a preliminary report on the cause of the July 2002 accident trapping nine miners in the Quecreek mine, which was operated by the non-union Black Wolf Coal Company. The...

Now that's security. (Corporations).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... In June 2002, George W. Bush appointed Sidney Taurel, Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company, a major drug corporation, to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. In what is undoubtedly a complete coincidence, Bush's...

Dispatch from the Free Trade Area of the Americas ministerial: indigenous activists enter the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas meeting in Quito, Ecuador, then describe the effort in a letter to their allies worldwide. (Active Culture).
January 1, 2003... It has become an annual ritual. Every year since 1994, trade ministers from 34 governments of the Americas have met behind closed doors to work on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). As the trade ministers hunkered down at...

The Free Trade Area of the Americas: beyond the silence, beyond the shouting. (Letter from a Campesino).(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... by Anonymous, courtesy of the Ecuadorian Federation for Campesino Social Security From the rural men and women of Ecuador, to our friends throughout the world: On October 31, 2002, after traveling 900 kilometers, over mountains,...

The Thirteenth Amendment and the right to strike. (Comment).
January 1, 2003... Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States," according to the Thirteenth Amendment. Last fall, however, striking West Coast dock workers marched with homemade signs reading "Taft law: plain ole slavery."...

"Savage Inequalities" revisited: richer, whiter school districts are still getting more public funds, while the federal government looks the other way. (Making Sense).
January 1, 2003... In the late 1980s, I taught health and social studies in a New York City public school. My students came largely from African-American and Caribbean families, and the school was located in a high-poverty district. Because funding was so tight,...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... To the Editor: On "traditional" versus "nontraditional" union organizing. Tami J. Friedman writes in the September/October 2002 issue, "Most union leaders haven't been committed to organizing the people--often women and people of...

Immigrant workers in the crosshairs: immigrants and workers across the country have been caught up in a wave of anti-immigrant legislation and repression since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
January 1, 2003... Erlinda Valencia came from the Philippines almost two decades ago. Like many Filipina immigrants living in the San Francisco Bay area, she found a job at the airport, screening passengers' baggage. For 14 years she worked for Argenbright...

"Death tax" deception: who's behind the movement to repeal the nation's only tax on inherited wealth?
January 1, 2003... The federal estate tax, or "death tax," isn't dead yet, but a powerful clique of wealthy families and interest groups will stop at nothing to kill it. Their move ment makes small business owners and family farmers its poster boys. But those who...

Class conflict: tuition hikes leave college students in debt and torn between paid work and coursework. (Special Section on Education).
January 1, 2003... Brigit M. just graduated from a public college in southern New Jersey with a 4.0 GPA. Putting herself through college with a full course load, she worked 25 to 30 hours a week off campus as a waitress, plus 8 to 12 hours a week on campus as a...

Move over HMOs, the EMOs are coming. (Special Section on Education).(education management organizations)
January 1, 2003... Education Management Organizations are now in the business of running public schools. Can they really make a profit at it--and what will happen to public education in the attempt? Do you love your HMO? A new crop of entrepreneurs...

The World Bank's one-way dialogue: one of the World Bank's biggest civil-society "engagements" produced its final report earlier this year. Why did the Bank respond with an eerie silence?
January 1, 2003... "I invite the critics to come in," World Bank President James Wolfensohn said as anti-Bank protests raged in Washington, D.C., in April 2000, "but I do not think it helps to close down the meetings." He added: "Fortunately there are many...

Ask Dr. Dollar.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... Dear Dr. Dollar: Free-traders claim that free trade will increase U.S. exports, providing more jobs for Americans. So I would expect that NAFTA increased U.S. exports and reduced our trade deficit. I would also expect to see employment...

Ruling the Empire: U.S. elites mean to prevent anyone, anywhere, from ever challenging the preeminence of American imperial power. Just ask them. (Economy in Numbers).
January 1, 2003... Every few years, the President issues a document called the "National Security Strategy of the United States." Always eagerly awaited, the document is often described as the administration's "blueprint" for U.S. foreign policy. But it's really...

The end of a long run.(Margaret Faulk)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... George Bush was president, the stock market had crashed, and corporate corruption (in the form of the S&L scandals) was making headlines. The year was 1989, and Margaret Faulk's cartoons appeared in Dollars & Sense for the first time. The times...

A new arrival.
January 1, 2003... Congratulations to Dollars & Sense co-editor Amy Gluckman and partner Susan Cayouette on the birth of their second child, a girl, on November 22. While the family decides on a name, her big sister calls her Baby X; otherwise she goes by...