Hightower Lowdown
"No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
In This Issue
The subprime mortgage disaster
July's Lowdown
If Obama wins, who will be on his team--and who should be?
There'll be a crush of cameras at the front door of the White House on January 20 as scores of media outlets scramble to record the moment that the new president walks in. But, wait--who're those people who'll be sliding in quietly behind him? They're the ones who'll spend the next four years whispering in the president's ear, sitting in strategy sessions, running presidential councils, filling agency slots, and pulling the levers of executive power.
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SUING THE WORMPOOP PEOPLE
Corporate execs are always whining that they are besieged with lawsuits, but guess what group does more suing than anyone else? Corporations!
Consider Scotts MiracleGro, a multi-billion-dollar global chemical corporation that is suing a tiny upstart firm named TerraCycle. This enterprising small company is the sort of business that ought to be celebrated, not sued. A maker of all-natural garden products, TerraCycle's best seller is an ecofriendly plant food made of--are you ready?--liquified worm poop. Started in 2003 by a 25-year-old college dropout, the company feeds organic scraps to worms. The resulting waste is then brewed into a compost tea that is put into recycled soda bottles collected by school groups and charities.
Scotts, which makes synthetic plant food and controls some 60 percent of America's lawn and garden market, has unleashed a pack of corporate lawyers to sue TerraCycle because its recycled packages have green and yellow labels, the very colors used by Scotts. Anyone who looks at the two products can immediately see the difference, starting with the big words "Worm Poop" on TerraCycle's label. There's a clue! As for the green and yellow, no corporation can own colors, and many garden-care companies go for green and yellow.
To learn seven ways you can help TerraCycle survive this attempt to drive them bankrupt, go to www.suedbyscotts.com.