Dollars & Sense articles from March 1997

Dollars & Sense archives from March 1997

Let them eat pentium chips. (Senate Finance Committee estimates on the cost of living)(Making Sense)
March 1, 1997... By now you have heard that a panel of five distinguished (albeit hand-picked and largely conservative) economists says that prices are not rising as much as we all thought. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which the federal Bureau of Labor...

How not to fix Social Security. (Social Security Advisory Council's proposal of adding three more years in the calculation of retirement benefits)
March 1, 1997... Social Security has been in the front pages lately, with the release of the Social Security Advisory Council's report on January 6. Most coverage focused on the failure of the Council to reach a consensus, and particularly on the sharp...

Nobel foes of the balanced-budget amendment.
March 1, 1997... Congressional Republicans recently renewed their campaign for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As of this writing, it is not clear whether they will garner the two-thirds majorities needed for passage in the Home and Senate;...

Privatization: downsizing government for principle and profit.(Economy in Review)
March 1, 1997... The U.S. government is encouraging private HMOs to service much of the Medicare system, and the debate rages over whether Social Security should be shifted to private management. Privatization of such public functions is one of the mantras of the...

Tax attack: the right targets the IRS. (Internal Revenue Service)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... You can't get Irwin to stop talking. Believe me. And try to ask him a question! You have to interrupt him, and then he cries, "Let me finish the point!" Irwin Schiff is a crusader. Irwin Schiff is the Western tax resisters' guru. Irwin Schiff has...

Tax freedom day: many unhappy returns. (Tax Foundation's tax freedom day calculation)
March 1, 1997... "Tax freedom day." That's the tax-revolt wingding cooked up by The Tax Foundation, a Washington-based research group, to celebrate the last day that the average taxpayer must work to pay taxes. In 1996, the tax freedom day party fell on May 7,...

Return from the dead: the banking industry flies high.
March 1, 1997... Fifty billion dollars. Who would have thought that bank profits would reach this record height in 1996? Just six years earlier, experts were dismissing banks as financial dinosaurs unable to compete with the mutual funds, investment firms, and...

Big money on campus. (research grants)
March 1, 1997... Newt Gingrich thought he had a good deal going. Two Georgia colleges gave the Speaker of the House of Representatives an easy way to process political contributions. He would teach a course, "Renewing American Civilization" at Reinhardt and...

A living wage? campaigns attach strings to public contracts.
March 1, 1997... Proposals to create "living wage" jobs in St. Paul, Minnesota lacked "a basic business perspective" and would "convert St. Paul to a desert island by requiring more of a return on investment from companies than neighboring states and...

Beyond the classroom: teaching economics at the grassroots.
March 1, 1997... One hundred people and 100 chairs are lined up in a public park in-Boston. While ten people lounge lazily over 70 chairs, 90 hastily scramble to cram into the remaining 30. This bit of street theater, "One Hundred Musical Chairs," is actually an...

Report From the Front Lines: The Impact of Violence on Poor Women.
March 1, 1997... While lawmakers prattle about letting welfare "wither on the vine," with few exceptions policy analysts have joined a fool's chorus. Their performances uniformly boast of "welfare to work" programs and progress. Surely, reams have been written...

Ask Dr. Dollar. (socially screened funds)
March 1, 1997... "I put some money in a socially screened, ethically conscious fund, then I discovered that it invests in firms in Indonesia that exploit their workers, etc. Is there any point to these lesser-evil investments, or am I just a sucker?" - Nora...

Organizing education. (university grants)(Economy in Numbers)
March 1, 1997... Yale University made headlines in 1996 when the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made a precedent-setting decision to prosecute graduate students' complaints of unfair labor practices by the university. If the NLRB...