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Hightower Lowdown
Even a dead fish can go with the flow. -- Jim Hightower
In This Issue
The buying of the government 2004 (Part 1)
Bush II brought to you by...
Also in this issue:
- Growing up with your chip
- Merck execs' bailout loot
- One economic factor rising
- Hot peppers and 4-year tacos
- Your right to sue threatened
- Name that school!
- Growing up with your chip
- Merck execs' bailout loot
- One economic factor rising
- Hot peppers and 4-year tacos
- Your right to sue threatened
- Name that school!
Do Something!
July's Lowdown
Big biz wants to own the information superhighway while We the People bump along the backroads
In the 1970s, Lily Tomlin developed an iconic comic character she named Ernestine--a telephone clerk who took perverse pleasure from hectoring customers. Her character was a perfect portrayal of the arrogance of AT&T, the monopolistic telephone giant of that day. In one skit on on the TV show, Laugh-In, Tomlin had Ernestine delivering a TV pitch for the corporation:
"A gracious hello," she cheerfully began, speaking directly into the camera. "Here at the Phone Company, we handle 84 billion calls a year. So, we realize that every so often, you can't get an operator, or for no apparent reason your phone goes out of order, or perhaps you get charged for a call you didn't make. We don't care!"
[read more]
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Merck execs' bailout loot
When drugmaker Merck recently withdrew its best-selling drug Vioxx (because it can cause heart attacks) company executives took their time disclosing this little problem to regulators, doctors, or patients, and now the company faces federal investigations and thousands of lawsuits.
Merck's stock price has plummeted by 40 percent, on top of a 30 percent slide caused by a lack of new products, all of which makes it a likely target for a takeover by another drug giant.
But Merck executives are quick on their feet when protecting their own personal interests. Their exec retirement plan says that if another company takes over Merck—or even just 20 percent of it—the top 230 executives can bail out with a golden parachute of three times their annual salaries, plus their expected bonuses, as well as stock payments. For example, CEO Raymond Gilmartin, who helped engineer this sweet deal, would get about $57 million to soften his landing.