Stories by Russell Mokhiber
Today's Silicon Valley nouveau riche are a far cry from yesterday's old money, says conservative David Brooks. He calls the information age elite Bobos for bourgeois bohemians, "highly educated folk who have one foot in the bohemian world of creativity and another foot in the bourgeois realm of worldly success."
Posted on Sep 5, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Bagel buttons, defrost buttons, reheat buttons, and cancel reset buttons: with all the wonders of modern technology, companies can't even make a reasonably priced toaster that lasts. It's symptomatic of what's gone wrong with our modern disposable society.
Posted on Aug 28, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Conference Board, the New York-based business-backed research enterprise best known for its monthly Leading Economic Indicators and Consumer Confidence Index, recently released a report detailing the widening of the wealth gap. What's more surprising is the list of Fortune 500s who underwrote it.
Posted on Aug 18, 2000, Source: AlterNet
It's not easy criminally prosecuting a major American corporation, especially when one of its top officers is a big Democratic Party contributor.
Posted on Aug 8, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The U.S. has pledged a billion dollars per year in loans to debt-saddled African nations that cannot afford high-priced HIV-treatment. Even though drug makers will sell the drugs at discounted prices, are the loans mere ploys to slow the development of less costly generic HIV-drugs?
Posted on Aug 1, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Given the spectacular advances in clean automobile technology over the century, there is just no reason -- other than pure criminality -- why we have been forced to live and die today with gas-guzzling, polluting automobiles.
Posted on Jul 31, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The legitimacy of a report warning that the UN Global Warming Treaty will push Blacks and Hispanics into poverty has been undermined by its questionable financing. Backed by a coal industry front group, the report was released by six Black and Hispanic labor, civil rights, and business organizations.
Posted on Jul 18, 2000, Source: AlterNet
There may be legitimate public policy rationales for raising gas prices -- notably, to spur conservation -- but if so, such price increases should be government mandated, with revenues used for appropriate public purposes. They should not be the result of industry rip-offs and profiteering.
Posted on Jul 4, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Two Congressmen have offered sweeping proposals to regulate multinational corporations and to reorient the global economy towards sustainable development, not corporate greed.
Posted on Jun 20, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The hot issue of genetically engineered foods will undoubtedly put Consumer Federation of America to a test.
Posted on Jun 13, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Last Wednesday, we walked down to the MCI Center to catch the "National Tribute to President Clinton." The event reeked of corporate corruption.
Posted on May 30, 2000, Source: AlterNet
General Electric's effort to pressure its supplier companies to move production to Mexico is becoming clearer.
Posted on May 23, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The endless amount of soft money cash flowing from corporate coffers into federal campaigns and national political parties have created a veritable tsunami of corruption that is crashing over the countryside. According to Charles Korb, president of the Committee for Economic Development, Washington's culture of corruption has given the green light to the rest of the country. "Go for it!" is the message being sent out from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue -- and the country is responding.
Posted on May 16, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The Time Warner-Disney conflict symbolizes how media concentration will hurt consumers and democratic processes.
Posted on May 4, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The Time Warner-Disney conflict symbolizes how media concentration will hurt consumers and democratic processes.
Posted on May 2, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism recently called the press conference to announce its opposition to Earth Day. Why in the heck would anybody be against Earth Day?
Posted on Apr 27, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Think Big Tobacco has been whupped? Think again. Philip Morris and company aren't throwing in the towel. With a series of image-enhancing ad campaigns that cast them as 'caring, responsible members of the community' Big Tobacco hopes to reform itself in the eyes of Americans."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
A trademark dispute erupts between the makers of the Clark Bar and a small North Dakota firm selling a Lewis and Clark candy bar to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Faced with the threat of the existing DaimerChrysler Jeep plant closing, Toledo put together a $281 million local, state and federal subsidy package to support company plant expansion plans. But a lawsuit on behalf of a number of residential and small business plaintiffs will challenge the massive subsidy as unconstitutional, and an unfair burden on average taxpayers."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The Chlorine Chemistry Council (CCC) has reason to be worried about Joe Thornton's new book. In it, Thornton argues that chlorine and the organochlorine chemicals made from it pose a global health and environmental threat.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
After her cutting edge plant tissue culture research was hijacked by biotech corporations, Indiana University biology professor Martha Crouch began teaching her students of the dangers of industrialized chemical agriculture -- and has come under fire from the scientific community in the process.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"A few years ago, even a few weeks ago, we might have opposed the AOL-Time Warner merger. In buying Time Warner, AOL suddenly acquires one of the largest cable systems in the country, and gains a material interest in opposing open access. But that's OK. We're satisfied by AOL's verbal commitment that it will voluntarily permit open access in the cable systems it will control...."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Today's financial and popular press suggests that the vast wealth of the United States comes from the creativity of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. In reality, many U.S. fortunes are based on somebody else's wealth -- the natural resources of Native Americans."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"The W.R. Grace corporation -- the chemical company featured in "A Civil Action" that poisoned wells in Massachusetts -- is at it again. This time, it has exposed people in Montana to deadly asbestos dust, causing a local epidemic of deadly asbestosis and mesothelioma diseases."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"A little bit of democratic empowerment can be a dangerous thing. If the broad coalition that came together in Seattle can stay together -- a big "if" -- it may eventually be able to force new rules for the global economy, so that trade is finally subordinated to the humane values of health, safety, ecological sustainability and respect for human rights, rather than the reverse."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
A leaked Department of Justice memo concerning corporate crime prosecution strategy doesn't quite agree with the Clinton administration's record of environmental prosecutions.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"We and others can advocate more democracy until we turn blue in the face, but at some point, we must look carefully at the question of why there is no mass human revolt against the corporate control over our democracy."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Few top government officials have managed to emerge as unscathed from a half dozen years in the Washington, D.C. spotlight as former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. And Rubin did better than escape without scratches -- he ended his term of office with his image enhanced."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Public health scientist Dr. George Carlo has found that the risk of acoustic neuroma, a benign brain tumor, was 50 percent higher in people who reported using cell phones for six years or more. Unfortunately, his findings may go unheeded -- because the cell phone industry has bought off the FDA.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Tired of getting fundraising letters in the mail? Just imagine how hard it would be if you were a corporate CEO. Not only does virtually every politician come hat in hand seeking a campaign contribution, but you are besieged by a long line of nonprofit organizations asking for support. And now there is a new panhandler standing at the CEO's door: the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
It was a bleak week for communications democracy in the United States. When MCI and Sprint announced their poten- tial merger, stock prices went up, and the investment banks that brokered the deals will surely collect inflated fees. But citizens are not likely to make out as well.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"A new book published by the Smithsonian covers "the promise of plastic in 1950s America." But why doesn't it cover any questions about the workers in the industry, and people who live near plastics manufacturing facilities, and the threat to their health and well being? Could it be because the Tupper Foundation -- funded by profits from plastic producer Tupperware -- gave $4 million to the Smithsonian?"
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"When corporations commit crimes -- environmental devastation, predatory pricing, even murder -- they are punished with fines. But even the largest criminal fines ever levied in the United States were too small to affect giant multinational corporations. That's why Robert Waldrop, a Catholic anti-poverty activist, came up with this astute list of Eleven Necessary Measures for Curbing the Corporate Crime Wave...."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Every year, corporate lists emerge -- the Fortune 500, the Forbes 400, the International 800 -- that identify and glorify the biggest and most profitable companies. Now there's a new list to add to the roster: The Top 100 Corporate Criminals, compiled by the watchdogs at the Corporate Crime Reporter. This year's list -- including criminals such as Exxon, Coors and GE -- proves that corporate crooks dominate every aspect of our market, culture and politics.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"The U.S. government was slow to act in stopping the East Timorese bloodbath not only because it wanted to protect Nike's and other U.S. multinationals' interests, but also because the U.S. foreign policy and military establishments attach great geopolitical importance to maintaining good ties with the Indonesian military..."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"A rebellion is brewing in Hollywood -- not on screen, but behind the scenes. Entertainment industry unions are protesting against 'runaway' film and television production, where studios set up shop in foreign countries to cut cost and exploit cheaper labor."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"If you commit a felony, you lose the right to vote. But what happens to corporations that break the law? Do they lose any rights or privileges? Finally, if a new White House-sponsored corporate accountability initiative passes into law, the answer could be yes."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Earlier this year, the American Public Health Association (APHA) accepted a $1 million grant from consumer giant Colgate Palmolive. Though the non-profit APHA assured us that it wasn't selling its soul to a corporation, the message has been sent: if not for sale, then for rent.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
In the early part of this century, a political cartoonist named Percy Crosby invented a comic strip character named Skippy. In 1933, the corporate entity behind Skippy Peanut Butter stole the Skippy character, without offering Crosby a dime. Now Crosby's daughter is fighting for her father's legacy with an inflammatory Web site. But if Skippy's corporate lawyers have their way, that site will soon be silenced -- just like her father's cartoons.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"A new report issued by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions details with piercing clarity how the thousands of American employers violate their workers rights by squashing unions, intimidating organizers and illegally firing pro-union workers."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
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