Dollars & Sense articles from May 2000

Dollars & Sense archives from May 2000

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2000... DEBATE ON TRADE DEFICIT? In your March/April issue, Dean Baker's article on "The New Economy" said the new economy is based on two unsustainable trends. One of these trends, he said, is an exploding trade deficit which will help eventually...

Toxic Tubbies.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... If you thought the most threatening thing about TV's Teletubbies was Tinky Winky's purse, think again. Environmental groups have charged toy manufacturing giant Hasbro, which produces the Teletubby dolls, with endangering children's health by...

A Shelfload of Free-Market Thinking.(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
May 1, 2000... In case anyone still doubts that free-market apologetics have become synonymous with "economics" in the mainstream media, we recommend a year 2000 desk calendar from Workman Publishing. The "Book Lover's Calendar" provides a short list of...

Earth (and Bucks) in the Balance.(Al Gore's investments in Occidental Petroleum)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... It comes as no surprise that Al Gore's claim of concern for the environment is, yet again, being questioned. Rainforest Action Network (RAN) organizers are calling on Gore to sell an estimated $250,000 to $500,000 worth of stock, inherited from...

Patently Absurd.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Parents are supposed to encourage innovation. But these days, the patent system stifles innovation and favors those with the deepest pockets. Patents are no longer given just for new gizmos, but also for broad and even pre-existing ideas....

Read and Grow Rich.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... The time-honored rules of the big capitalist -- crush the competition without mercy, and hog all the goodies for yourself -- are now available in a handy self-help format. According to a review of the book in Continental magazine, How to...

"Let Them Eat Cake".(Teamsters strike at Interstate Bakeries Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... While the mainstream media nibbles on second-rate fluff, 1,400 Teamster unionists employed by the Interstate Bakery Corporation are on strike against the snack-cake giant, maker of Hostess Cupcakes, Ring Dings, and Devil Dogs. According to...

In-defense-ible Costs.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... The Clinton administration's official figures put military spending at only 14% of the federal budget for fiscal year 2000. According to the War Resisters League (WRL) these numbers hide past military spending in other categories (like interest...

TempFare.(Campaign on Contingent Work & National Alliance for Fair Employment)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... A group organizing against abuse of temp workers in Massachusetts discovered the state was funneling welfare recipient into temp jobs through "One Stop Career Centers" run by nonprofits throughout the state. The report, "Temp Work,...

Banana Protest.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Mid-October 1999 saw 200 armed men violently disrupt and disperse a meeting of one of Guatemala's oldest banana workers' unions. Union members were debating a walkout to protest mass firings at Fresh Del Monte banana plantations. This raid...

Living Wage.(workers at Johns Hopkins University)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Students at Johns Hopkins University occupied the Administration Building lobby on March 4, demanding a living wage for University workers. For over two weeks, community and labor groups brought the protestors food and other necessities. The...

A MAY DAY MEDITATION.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... "Who shall be the John Brown of Wage-Slavery?" The question is as apt today, on the first International Workers' Day of a new millennium, as when Eugene V. Debs first posed it in a 1907 tribute to the abolitionist martyr John Brown. Brown and...

TWO CHEERS FOR OPEC.(higher gas prices may be only way to save environment)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... So gasoline prices have risen above $1.50 a gallon and threaten to go even higher. To hear many commentators and politicians talk, this is a tragedy rivaling the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages. How dare OPEC threaten Americans' god-given...

BIODEVASTATION MARCH.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Elementary and junior high school children turned out to protest the biotech industry Bio 2000 conference in late March. They were part of Biodevastation 2000, a week-long grassroots gathering of resistance to biotechnology genetically...

ECUADOR'S SHORT-LIVED REBELLION.
May 1, 2000... In late March, Ecuador's leading indigenous organization won control of a new government fund for its communities, the group's greatest victory in negotiations since it led the January 21 uprising that toppled the country's president, Jamil...

CORPORATE WELFARE: PORK FOR ALL.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Have you ever wondered why the United States has the biggest military budget in the world? Defense Secretary William Cohen had an answer at a press briefing in February: "We are putting more money into procurement, and that will help the...

"THERE ISN'T ANY GOOD DAY".
May 1, 2000... PORT TRUCKERS TAKE A BEATING The very week late last fall that megacorporations Exxon and Mobil announced their merger, the Federal Trade Commission (which oversees anti-trust law) could find nothing better to do than to subpoena three...

ECONOMY SETS RECORDS FOR LONGEVITY AND INEQUALITY.
May 1, 2000... In the midst of the Great Depression, Random House published the first paperback, Lost Horizon. James Hilton's novel transported its readers from the economic hardships of 1933 to the valley of Shangri-La, a utopian community tucked away in the...

EXTINCTION IS FOREVER.(salmon in the northwest)
May 1, 2000... DEBATING DAMS AND DOLLARS IN THE NORTHWEST SALMON CRISIS An unlikely combination of business executives, grassroots environmentalists, Pacific Northwest tribal leaders, and state and federal bureaucrats came together last September to sign...

THE NEW WORLD OF BANKING.
May 1, 2000... Beginning when Jimmy Carter was president in the late 1970s, the halls of Congress echoed almost annually with passionate speeches about the need to modernize the nation's banking laws. These laws, most importantly the Glass-Steagall Act of...

EL SALVADOR: PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS IN THE AGE OF PRIVATIZATION.
May 1, 2000... In October 1999, Salvadoran labor organizers Manuel Vasquez and Irma Orellana visited Boston on a U.S. tour sponsored by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Vasquez is Secretary General of the Association of...

THANK YOU, NOW LEAVE.(political and economic changes in Czech Republic since 1989)
May 1, 2000... CAPITALISM IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Winter does not come lightly to the lands of Bohemia and Moravia, when heavy clouds and coal dust blot out the sun from November to March. Tourists swarm over Prague in the warmer months, gaping at one...

ASK DR. DOLLAR.(distinction between real and speculative investments)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Dear Dr. Dollar, Wouldn't it be useful to distinguish between foreign investment that is purely speculative and investment that adds to productive capacity by creating plant, equipment and jobs? How can that be done? -- Peter Marcuse, New...

Scenes from Seattle.(Review)
May 1, 2000... GLOBAL VILLAGE OR GLOBAL PILLAGE? and SHOWDOWN IN SEATTLE The successful protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO) have created what one organizer with decades of experience has called "an incredible teachable moment."...

Media Watchdogs.(Review)
May 1, 2000... THE MYTH OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA by Edward Herman (Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2000) RICH MEDIA, POOR DEMOCRACY COMMUNICATION POLITICS IN DUBIOUS TIMES by Robert McChensey (University of Illinois Press, 1999) If we believe what...

A RISING TIDE FAILS TO LIFT ALL BOATS.(impact of tax cuts)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... "A rising tide lifts all boats," was John Kennedy's pitch for the pro-rich tax cur that he said would get the economy going again in the early 1960s. While untrue even for the economic boom of the 1960s, Kennedy's claim, still invoked by turn...