Dollars & Sense articles from January 2005

Dollars & Sense archives from January 2005

From the editors.(Indian Ocean tsunami)(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... As we go to press, the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami continues to dominate the news. Like countless people around the world, we mourn the incredible loss of life the tsunami caused and express our solidarity with the millions of...

The oil barrel is half full.(the short run)(global warming; petroleum industry)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Sure, global warming has its downsides: drought and famine, deadly heat waves, species pushed to extinction, the sinking of islands. If you're in the oil business, though, this cloud has a silver lining. According to the Arctic Climate Impact...

Clerics of Connecticut, unite!(the short run)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... New Haven attorney Hugh Keefe, who's represented many Catholic priests accused of impropriety, is urging men of the cloth to unionize so as to better protect their rights when they face accusations of sexual misconduct, according to the New...

ExxonMobil in Aceh.(the short run)(Aech, Indonesia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... ExxonMobil is trumpeting its $5 million donation to the tsunami relief efforts. It does, after all, have oil and gas production and petrochemical refining businesses in Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Malaysia. In one of the areas hardest hit...

I'll see your 401(k) and raise you.(the short run; Mark Cuban hedge fund)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Billionaire Mark Cuban, the spirited owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, has come up with a novel strategy to handle investors' money. He is going to gamble with it, literally. In late November, Cuban announced plans to start a hedge fund that...

Commerce Secretary Evans joins ranks of unemployed.(the short run)(Don Evans)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... This past November, Secretary of Commerce Don Evans tendered his resignation the same day as Attorney General John Ashcroft. Understandably, Ashcroft's departure overshadowed Evans' in the news, but the Secretary too deserves his due. Here's a...

A taste of their own medicine.(the short run)(Generic versus brand name drugs)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Novartis, the world's fifth largest manufacturer of brand-name drugs, sent a memo to employees in September urging them to choose generic and over-the-counter drugs through the company health plan. According to the New Jersey Star Ledger,...

Fluffy X fluffy = fluffy.(the short run)(cloning of pets; Genetics Savings and Clone)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Remember when your dog died and your family would go to the pound to get a new one? According to the Christian Science Monitor, those days might soon be over. A Texas biotech firm has come up with a novel way for sorrowful pet owners to...

None of the news that's fit to print.(the short run)(Italian general strike 2004)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Unlike the Scott Peterson trial or Martha Stewart's prison days, the Italian general strike in November probably escaped the notice of even the the U.S. news media's most faithful consumers. This despite the fact that on November 30, the...

Teamster killed in El Salvador.(the short run)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Gilberto Soto, an International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) organizer, was killed under suspicious circumstances in Usulutan, El Salvador, on November 5. Born in Usulutan in 1954, Soto came to the United States in 1975 and lived in Cliffside...

Privatization proponents bemoan lack of response.(the short run)(Indian Ocean tsunami government response)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... While the event itself may have been hard to predict, the media's response to December's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami was not. CNN immediately sounded the opening strains of its ever-popular fugue for heartstrings in 24/7 time. Fox's...

Wal-Mart welfare: how taxpayers subsidize the world's largest retailer.(making sense)
January 1, 2005... Wal-Mart has released its expansion plans for 2005, and Americans can expect up to 230 new supercenters to open in their communities. The company plans to open 50 million square feet of retail space this year. President and CEO Lee Scott is...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... To the Editor: The last group I would ever ask for a vision of the future would be left academics, even though I was one myself. Nothwithstanding whatever activist history they may have had in the past, they are often isolated and...

A house of cards: current levels of household debt are unsustainable.(comment)
January 1, 2005... As the Federal Reserve continues its "measured" interest rate increase, borrowers nationwide are bracing for the impact. Families are more burdened by debt than ever before, owing nearly $9 trillion in mortgages, car loans, credit card...

ABCs of AIDS prevention: Uganda has been widely recognized for its successes in stemming the AIDS crisis, but its policies fail to address the inequalities that make women vulnerable to the disease.(Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Condoms)
January 1, 2005... Uganda is one of a handful of countries to have dramatically reduced its overall HIV infection rate in the past 10 years. It's widely viewed as a global leader in AIDS policy and is seen as a model for other countries in Africa and the global...

Marriage promotion, reproductive injustice, and the war against poor women of color.(Healthy Marriage Initiative)
January 1, 2005... On December 22, at the stroke of midnight, Renita Pitts became a single woman. Renita is 44 years old, a mother of five with 14 grandchildren. She has been on and off of welfare for most of her life. After she had her fifth child, her husband...

Dollar anxiety: real reasons to worry; The advantages of imperial finance have propped up the U.S. economy--but they may not last.
January 1, 2005... The value of the dollar is falling. Does that mean that our economic sky is falling as well? Not to sound like Chicken Little, but the answer may well be yes. If an economic collapse is not in our future, then at least economic storm clouds are...

Bubble trouble: talk about irrational exuberance. Housing is the new bull market.(economy in numbers)
January 1, 2005... As lukewarm as the economic recovery has been, it would have been far chillier if not for the housing market. Throughout the recession and recovery, overheated housing prices have kept the economy simmering. Since late 1995, housing prices...