Dollars & Sense articles from May 2002

Dollars & Sense archives from May 2002

Veggie vandalism. (International Relations).(Mr. Potato Head)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A group of children vandalized a giant replica of Mr. Potato Head near the English town of Belper, reports the Associated Press, in the final chapter in a bizarre conflict over the fate of a 7-foot-tall fiberglass spud. Dressed up as the...

Dirty work. (Labor).(domestic workers' rights)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Taking a positive step to combat the exploitation of low-wage workers, the New York City Council is considering a bill to protect the rights of the city's 200,000 domestic workers, the New York Times reported in March. If made into law, the...

Smoked out. (The High Court).(elderly drug offences)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The U.S. government is not known for its compassion in prosecuting the "drug war." But thanks to a Supreme Court ruling handed down on March 26, four senior citizens have been evicted from public housing in Oakland, California, due to some...

All My Children use Revlon. (Television).(product promotion on TV)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The network suits at ABC have hit upon a clever new way to generate revenue in a slumping ad market--writing sponsors into the show. During the current season of the popular soap opera All My Children, the cosmetics producer Revlon will become...

Food fight. (Agriculture).(genetically modified foods)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Perhaps Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a more prescient film than people give it credit for. In March, activists protesting against genetically modified (GM) foods stormed a committee meeting of the Brazilian Congress and danced on...

For the jet set. (Travel).(luxury travel business)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... If you're wondering where that $1.3 trillion tax cut for the rich is going, perhaps the luxury travel business is a safe bet. While yeoman travelers scramble for seats on budget airlines such as Southwest, members of the silver spoon set are...

A WHO's who. (Medicine).(World Health Organization)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Despite the pharmaceutical industry's opposition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released a list of safe AIDS drugs that includes a handful of generic products, according to the March 20 Washington Post. Multinationals such as...

Letters.
May 1, 2002... To the Editors: I enjoyed your Enron pages very much, and would like to submit some updated verse, in the style of Edward Lear's "Owl and the Pussycat," to offer some comments on the Enron debacle. Larry Eisenberg, New York, NY ...

Another world is possible: The World Social Forum not only promoted economic democracy and global solidarity--participants put into practice what they preached. (Active Culture).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Part conference, part celebration, part protest, this year's World Social Forum (WSF) was an act of international solidarity among those fighting neoliberal policies--driven by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund--that force Third...

Independence Day for East Timor? (Comment).(economic outlook)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... The courageous people of East Timor, emerging from almost a quarter century of Indonesian military occupation, will mark their first Independence Day on May 20, 2002. They and their supporters have certainly earned the right to celebrate. It's...

Is the "New Economy" more productive? sorting fact from fiction: revised productivity figures have let the air out of the high-tech "New Economy" bubble. (Making Sense).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... One of the great glories of the so-called "New Economy" was supposed to be that information-age advances in productivity were making possible a soaring stock market and a permanent economic boom. Starting in the mid-1990s, the official measure...

"They can walk with their heads up": an interview with Joao Pedro Stedile, National Board member, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... "In Brazil, where there is fertile land, wealth and a tropical climate," said Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, after a recent visit there, "hunger is not a destiny." Rather, it is "the product of a totally unjust order....

High-school economics corporate sponsorship and pro-market bias.
May 1, 2002... In the push to standardize high-school curriculums and testing, corporations and foundations will have even more opportunities to foist their "free-market" bias on students. Where does the largest group of U.S. students learn about...

September 11 and the restructuring of the airline industry: The September 11 castastrophe hit the airlines hard, but it also opened the door for them to accelerate the restructuring already underway.
May 1, 2002... On September 11, stunned flight attendants and pilots learned that workplaces just like theirs had been transformed into lethal missiles. Flight workers lucky enough not to be on one of the hijacked planes prepared frantically for orders to...

What can radicals learn from Game theory? Game theory can help radicals understand class conflict, critique individual self-interest, and promote cooperation.
May 1, 2002... There aren't many Hollywood blockbusters about Nobel laureates in economics. In fact, this year's controversial A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe as 1996 winner John Forbes Nash, is probably the only one. Supposedly "based" on Sylvia...

Life and debt: A film by Stephanie Black. (In Review).
May 1, 2002... Life and Debt shows us farmers describing the destruction of their way of life, women sweatshop workers narrating the rise and fall of Jamaica's export sector, cooperative organizers explaining their hopes, and Rastafarians debating the...

Ask Dr. Dollar.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... Dear Dr. Dollar: During the course of a single day, a stock can go up and down frequently. These changes supposedly reflect the changing demand for that stock (and its potential resale value) or changing expectations of a company's...

High-tech stocks and "New Economy" hype. (Economy in Numbers).(Column)
May 1, 2002... Some day, we'll look back on the "New Economy" much as we do the "New Coke" marketing bonanza or Microsoft's latest Windows upgrade. Since the mid-1990s, we heard a lot of noise about how the Internet was sending the business cycle into a...