Dollars & Sense articles from November 2002

Dollars & Sense archives from November 2002

Wartime economics. (From the Editors).
November 1, 2002... News about the economy shifts in and out of the headlines, depending on other events that capture the press's attention from one day to the next. Monday it's an ImClone executive pleading guilty to insider trading, replaced by a D.C.-area...

Camelot's court. (Nobility).(Alan Greenspan)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Apparently Queen Elizabeth II felt it was high time to honor Alan Greenspan, knight in shining armor of U.S. high finance, for his "contribution to global economic stability." On the heels of Greenspan's decoration with the French Legion of...

Sticker shock. (Luxury Goods I).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... If this year's Paris Motor Show is any indication of what will soon show up on the showroom floor, keeping up with the Joneses just got a lot harder. Cars exhibited at the world's largest auto industry event reflected designs dreamed up during...

Designer camouflage. (Luxury Goods II).(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
November 1, 2002... For some, crimson leaves are the harbinger of autumn. For others, fall begins with the seven days of pre-season high-end clothing pageantry known as "Fashion Week." This year, Gucci's spring line mixed "microskirts in dusty pink or milk...

New Gap CEO starts (almost) at the bottom. (Retail Goods).(Pressler, Paul)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The United States' largest clothing company, the Gap, has been suffering losses lately, and has tapped former Disney executive Paul Pressler to turn things around. Pressler takes over a vast global corporation with annual revenues just shy of...

Calling regis philbin. (Television).(reality television)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Networks are cuckoo for reality TV! Who can blame them? With their low costs and sky-high ratings generating tons of advertising revenue, they're the biggest boon to networks' bottom lines in years. Reality shows have also come to countries...

Repentance = tax breaks. (Corporations I).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Times are tough for corporations caught engaging in unethical accounting practices. But the storm clouds of investigations and lawsuits may have a silver lining. If a corporation pays out "compensation" to victims instead of a "fine" to the...

Cooking the books. (Corporations II).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Ever thought about selling your house to your dog or cat, issuing a mortgage to your pet while continuing to live there as a renter, and deducting your fictitious rent payments on your income-tax return? If not, you're probably not CEO...

Tony Mazzocchi, Labor Party founder, 1926-2002.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
November 1, 2002... Tony Mazzocchi died of pancreatic cancer on October 5, ending a life spent in service to the U.S. working class Brother Mazzocchi was a long-time official of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union, first as president of OCAW local...

Janitors strike for Justice in Boston: Janitors in Boston demand health benefits, full-time work, and a raise. (Active Culture).
November 1, 2002... In the past year, unionized workers have seen massive layoffs and immigrants' rights have come under attack. Still, Luz Portillo--originally from El Salvador, currently working as a janitor in Boston, and a member of Service Employees...

Learning from each other: popular educators from Latin America and the United States gather at the Highlander Center to assess their changing role, and the future. (Active Culture).
November 1, 2002... "Globalization is driving many changes in the world... putting tremendous pressure on our communities, causing fragmentation, division, and alienation, while also changing the rules of the game when it comes to fighting for economic and social...

It all depends on who you rob. (Comment).(corporations)
November 1, 2002... Considering all the stories of corporate treachery that have made head-lines over the last year, you would think that accusations of massive and systematic theft at the United States' largest corporation would inspire exposes, set off...

"Work first"--where are the wages? As the experiences of New York and San Francisco show, workfare laws impose forced labor on people in poverty, while undermining public-sector workers. (Making Sense).
November 1, 2002... After Bill Clinton signed the 1996 "welfare reform" law, people working off their welfare benefits became a ubiquitous sight in New York City. "You'd see these ragtag groups of people all around the city," recalls Gregory Heller, a welfare...

Should this marriage be encouraged? The Bush administration and some in Congress want to spend welfare funds on "marriage promotion". (Making Sense).
November 1, 2002... Do George W. Bush and many members of Congress really believe that Cinderella is not just a fairy tale, but a policy brief for poor women? Encouraging marriage, Bush told the press last February, is a key part of his program for reducing...

Letters.
November 1, 2002... To the Editor: In issue 243 (September/October 2002), Bruce Boccardy asks Dr. Dollar whether it is true that wealthy people pay more taxes than the rest of us. Dr. Dollar (Ellen Frank) gives her usual informative, intelligent and...

The great stock illusion: the enormous paper wealth "created" by the stock market was bound to dissolve, because it never existed, save as a kind of mass delusion.
November 1, 2002... During the 1980s and 1990s, the Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's indices of stock prices soared ten-fold. The NASDAQ index had, by the year 2000, skyrocketed to 25 times its 1980 level. Before the bubble burst, bullish expectations reached a...

Taking one from the Bush team: the Social Security commission's plan for a universal portable pension makes sense, so long as it does not privatize Social Security.
November 1, 2002... Implausible as this may seem, President Bush's Social Security commission came up with a good idea. While no single proposal could possibly fix all the problems of the private pension system, the commission designed a scheme that could get part...

Haitian free trade zone: Aristide's "different" capitalism is the same old story.
November 1, 2002... The Maribaroux Plain spreads out along the Massacre River, a broad swatch of green on an otherwise arid, brown and exhausted landscape. Rice paddies, corn fields, rows of potato and bean plants are punctuated by stands of mango and other trees...

Recession: government spending to the rescue?
November 1, 2002... The 2000 Presidential election was conducted in what most observers considered a high noon of prosperity. The news media were filled with stories about the "New Economy," driven by the Internet and globalization, that would deliver an...

Capital stability and local democracy. (Primer).
November 1, 2002... What's the worst-kept dirty secret about local politics in the United States? That in most American cities, business groups and private land interests have vastly disproportionate influence over the political process. Why is this the case?...

Jobs--not people--for sale. .(THE JOB MARKET OF THE FUTURE: USING COMPUTERS TO HUMANIZE ECONOMIES)(Book Review)
November 1, 2002... James Cooke Brown, THE JOB MARKET OF THE FUTURE: USING COMPUTERS TO HUMANIZE ECONOMIES (M.E. Sharpe, 2001) Labor economists and progressive activists frequently point to inequalities in pay as a principal feature-and failure-of...

Ask Dr. Dollar.(politics and economic policy)
November 1, 2002... Dear Dr. Dollar, Since the United States is a representative democracy, it seems only natural that its citizens would look to their elected officials for answers to economic problems. However, given the limited number of things that the...

Mind the gap: the 1990s boom brought big increases in stock holdings--for the rich. (Economy in Numbers).
November 1, 2002... Two and a half years ago, a House of Representatives study touted increasing stock ownership as "cultivating a deeper appreciation and understanding of private enterprise," spreading "a better understanding of financial matters," and "erod[ing]...