Dollars & Sense articles from September 2005

Dollars & Sense archives from September 2005

From the editors.
September 1, 2005... If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break And all these people have no place to stay Oh cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do no good Oh cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do no good...

Mourning after Wal-Mart.(Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney vetoed morning-after pill bill)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The battle over access to emergency contraception--popularly known as the morning-after pill or "Plan B"--is heating up. Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney recently vetoed a bill that would give that state's residents easier access to Plan B,...

"Trustafarian" troubles.(the short run)
September 1, 2005... It's tough to be rich. At least that's what several young adults with trust funds told freelance writer Anya Kamenentz, who detailed their troubles in the Village Voice this July. "Those who bear the dreaded 'trustafarian' tag say they have...

If your life needs a redesign.(lifestyle designers services)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... What to do with a five- or six-figure tax cut? Throw a lavish party, buy a new wardrobe, redecorate the penthouse--sure. But how exhausting! Now a new breed of "lifestyle designers" will take care of it all, the Wall Street Journal reported in...

Brewing up an advertising scheme.(the short run)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Indian beer-makers have gotten creative in the face of a six-year-old law banning all advertisement of alcoholic beverages. They're now bottling nonalcoholic beverages--water, soda, juice--under the same brand names and advertising them, mainly...

Thumbs down for Ortega.(the short run)(Daniel Ortega)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... On July 19, 1979, the National Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) entered Managua, Nicaragua, and overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in the name of the poor and oppressed. Twenty-six years later, the FSLN has accepted the framework of neoliberal...

Brand America is fading fast.(United States ranked lower brand reputations)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... U.S. companies don't often demonstrate concern about the concrete consequences of the Bush administration's foreign policy for its victims around the globe. But they may soon feel its effect on their bottom lines. According to the Anhold-GMI...

Workers better off without unions?(the short run)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The Ayn Rand Institute can always be counted on for an unreconstructed free-market perspective on events. The Institute's press release on the breakup in the AFL-CIO this summer was no exception: "That private-sector union membership has...

"Workers of the world uniting".(Labour unions meeting in chicago to forming international building services union group)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... ... was the attention-getting title of an op-ed in the Washington Post this August. In it, Harold Meyerson, editor at The American Prospect and LA Weekly, described the other union convention in Chicago this summer: a meeting of about 1,500...

Water boondoggle averted--maybe.(San Antonio Water System and Alcoa)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Last year we reported on a December 1998 deal between the city of San Antonio and Alcoa, the giant mining multinational (see "The Bad Neighbor," D & S, July/August 2004). Under that deal, the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) would trade...

Ampersand.(the short run)
September 1, 2005... MORALLY ACCEPTABLE (ACCORDING TO WAL-MART) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Just Garments: a worker-run factory tries to wring the sweat out of the apparel business.(active culture)
September 1, 2005... When the workers at a garment-assembly factory (known as a maquila) in El Salvador started a union drive, their goal was simply to improve their working conditions and earn a living wage--they never imagined that they would be running the...

Falling off a cliff: millions of garment workers worldwide stand to lose their jobs with this year's changes in global textile trade rules.(making sense)
September 1, 2005... January 1, 2005, was just another New Years' Day for most Americans, but for millions of garment workers in developing countries around the globe, from Lesotho to Bangladesh to Jamaica, the date symbolizes cataclysm. On that day, a 30-year-old...

Don't blame China: the AFL-CIO's stance is a Cold-War holdover that impedes global labor solidarity.(comment)
September 1, 2005... In spring 2005, the cover story of the journal of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) entitled "China Dolls" featured a full-page photo of three Chinese women modeling Western fashions on the runway. The article contrasts this...

Taxing wealth Swedish style.
September 1, 2005... Economist Larry Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, once wrote that "in terms of substantive arguments, this estate tax argument [for repeal] is about as bad as gets," and that he couldn't see any case for cutting estate taxes other than...

Iraqi labor facing occupation, insurgency: an update.
September 1, 2005... In our September/October 2004 issue, independent journalist David Bacon reported on the suppression of fledgling union organizing efforts in occupied Iraq. He noted that, ironically but perhaps not surprisingly, the Coalition Provisional...

Unregulated work: is enforcement the next battle in the fight for workers' rights?
September 1, 2005... Guillermo regularly puts in 70-hour weeks as a prep cook in a New York City restaurant. He came to the United States from Ecuador six years ago because he heard that "you can earn something for your family." But these aspirations soured after...

Turmoil in the AFL-CIO: a Dollars & Sense roundtable.(Service Employees International Union and International Brotherhood of Teamsters withdraw from AFL-CIO )(Brief Article)(Cover Story)
September 1, 2005... No doubt this July's decision by the leadership of the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters to walk out of the AFL-CIO and form an alternative labor federation, Change to Win, underlines the severe problems the U.S. labor...

Labor's capital: putting pension wealth to work for workers.
September 1, 2005... Pension fund assets are the largest single source of investment capital in the country. Of the roughly $15.5 trillion in stock equity in the U.S. economy, $3.1 trillion, or 20.1%, is directly held by employee pension plans. Pensions own $8.5...

A deeper shade of green: interview with Omar Freilla of South Bronx's Green Worker Cooperatives.(Interview)
September 1, 2005... About a year ago, I heard Omar Freilla speak about Green Worker Cooperatives (GWC) at the founding conference of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. GWC's central idea--to build a network of worker-owned and environmentally sustainable...

Ask Dr. Dollar.
September 1, 2005... Dear Dr. Dollar: Of all the mysteries of economics, the one I find the most obscure is the money supply. I know that commercial banks increase the money supply by lending more money than they actually have on hand, but I also hear people...