Dollars & Sense articles from July 2001

Dollars & Sense archives from July 2001

Letters.
July 1, 2001... CUBA'S HEALTH ACHIEVEMENTS How could you devote a whole issue to the economics of health (D&S May/June 2001) without an article about Cuba? Cuba has attained life expectancy, infant mortality rates, and other health indices which are...

D&S HONORED.(Dollars and Sense, award from Sonoma State University)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Once again, Dollars & Sense has been honored by Sonoma State University's Project Censored, which recognizes journalists who cover stories that the mainstream media ignores. Danielle Knight garnered 11th place for "United McNations: The UN's...

CORRECTION.(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2001... Photo credits for the cover of our May/June 2001 issue should have gone to Marty Heitner, Jeff Perkell, Jim Tynan, and Loren Santow, in addition to Impact Visuals.

Monster in a Box.(interactive TV)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... In an attempt to jump ahead of Microsoft in the interactive media business, the Wall Street Journal reported in May, Sony and America Online (AOL) plan to connect Sony's popular PlayStation 2 game console to AOL's e-mail, instant messaging, and...

Nowhere to Run To, Baby.(World Bank conference)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Last May, the World Bank announced that it was canceling its annual development economics conference, which had been slated for Barcelona in June. The conference, which the Bank was promoting as a forum for discussion on poverty-reduction...

Brave New World.(students and biotechnology)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... When Jenna Lee, a biotechnology teacher at California's Miramonte High School, decided to show her students the business side of the field, she invited classroom volunteer Lynn Barr, a medical technologies developer, to talk to the class. Barr,...

God is Dead.(Alan Greenspan )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... After 14 years of being treated as the nation's economic oracle, Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan now faces some unaccustomed second-guessing. By spoiling investors with 40% returns, the "maestro (as he was dubbed in a recent biography)...

Paralyzing Choices.(product choices)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... They say variety is the spice of life, but standing in front of 19 varieties of Pert shampoo at the supermarket, it seems more like the bane of our existence. According to the April 20 New York Times, manufacturers are releasing many new...

Welcome to the Digital Millennium.(electronic copyright)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Last September, the recording-industry organization Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) announced that it would be offering a $10,000 prize to anyone who could successfully remove its "watermark." (A watermark is a device used to lace...

Corporations R Us.(tax policy)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... In a recent interview, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill told London's Financial Times that he was looking to eliminate all taxes on corporations and business, including income and capital gains taxes. His logic? "Businesses and corporations...

A Pat on the back for Cuba.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... For years, the World Bank has insisted that free-market policies and rapid economic growth are the best ways to improve the lives of the poor. Now the Bank seems to be admitting it's been proved wrong - by Cuba! Even though Cuba's economic...

Big Debt on Campus.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... The perpetual dilemma of the college student: do laundry or sign up for another credit card? With marketing reps setting up booths mid-campus and promising free T-shirts if you'll just take five minutes to sign up for that new charge card, it...

ACTIVE CULTURE.(Quebec free trade protest)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... If you followed the U.S. media's coverage of last spring's protests against the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, you saw an endless film loop of masked demonstrators and riot police framed by a fog of tear gas. But this narrow view missed...

REAGANOMICS REDUX: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A BUSH PRESIDENCY.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Back in 1980, Ronald Reagan campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination with promises to slash corporate and personal income taxes for the rich, overturn environmental and other regulations, and spend tens of billions on new weapons...

EARTHQUAKE IN EL SALVADOR FAILS TO MUZZLE ANTI-DOLLARIZATION DISCONTENT.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... SAN JOSE, Costa Rica--Last January, the Salvadoran government's plan to adopt the U.S. dollar as the official currency sparked widespread national protests. The two major earthquakes that hit the country on January 13 and February 13...

WHEN IS THE ECONOMY IN A RECESSION?(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... YOU'LL KNOW BEFORE THE ECONOMISTS DO Radical economists, according to an old joke, have successfully predicted ten of the last two recessions to hit the U.S. economy. But we're not the only ones predicting that the current economic...

A CONTINENT IN CRISIS.(Africa)
July 1, 2001... AFRICA AND GLOBALIZATION From the oil fields of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, to the diamond and copper fields of Sierra Leone, Angola, and Liberia, to the rich mineral deposits of the Great Lakes region, to the mountain ranges, plains and...

THE BUSINESS OF WAR IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: WHO BENEFITS?(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... This is all money," says a Western mining executive, his hand sweeping over a geological map toward the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is explaining why, in 1997, he and planeloads of other businessmen were flocking to the...

NIGERIA: A SHELL OF A STATE.
July 1, 2001... In February 2000, Nigerian federal troops stormed Odi, a sleepy village right in the heart of the troubled Niger Delta, a spatial cash cowwith 20 billion barrels of oil reserves and 120 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. Os-tensibly, the...

FOOL'S GOLD.(gold mining corruption)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... BY PROJECT UNDERGROUND TEN PROBLEMS WITH GOLD MINING Over 85% of gold mined today will end up as jewelry tomorrow. Gold mining is not an essential industry like the harvesting of food or even paper production. It is certainly not...

DETROIT AT 300.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... NEW SEEDS OF HOPE FOR A TROUBLED CITY? On July 24, 2001, Detroit will commemorate its 300th anniversary. The celebration is an opportune time to reflect critically on the city's past, sorting out the choices that brought prosperity;...

KOREA'S NEOLIBERAL RESTRUCTURING.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... MIRACLE OR DISASTER? Over the last two years, South Korea's economy has recovered from the 1997 East Asian economic crisis faster than anyone expected. Indeed, Korea has become the new poster child for the "free-market" or "neoliberal"...

Women's Education in the Global Economy: A Workbook.(Review)
July 1, 2001... Miriam Ching Louie with Linda Burnham (Berkeley, CA: Women of Color Resource Center, 2000) With all of the talk about globalization lately, are you wondering how to broach the subject with colleagues, co-workers, family, or friends? A new...

ASK DR. DOLLAR.(Column)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Dear Dr. Dollar: On p.23 of their book Global Village or Global Pillage Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello write: "Despite the near doubling of productivity since 1973, the time necessary for an American worker paid the average hourly wage to...

SELF-SUFFICIENCY: AN ELUSIVE GOAL.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... "I wouldn't say I'm economically self-sufficient yet," says one participant in a welfare-to-work job training program sponsored by the Women's Center for Education and Career Advancement (WCECA) in New York City. That's the point, she says,...