The Monopoly Makers

The Campaign to Eliminate the Separation Between Banking and Commerce

by Jake Lewis

Modernization. That is the new buzzword employed by many in the Clinton Administration and in the U.S. Congress to justify various schemes to enhance the power and profits of the financial industry. There are as many definitions of "modernization" as there are congressional bills that would allow banks, securities firms and insurance companies to acquire and be acquired by each other in a new monopoly game.

The game has taken a radical turn in the new Congress as factions of the Senate Banking Committee and the Treasury Department have launched serious efforts which go beyond the melding of "financial services" to permit a full-scale marriage of banking and commerce -- a total rollback of the Bank Holding Company Act's proscription against banks and commercial corporations owning each other. MORE >>

The Case for Preserving the Separation Between Banking and Commerce

by Jonathan Brown

The linking of banking and commerce could potentially unleash a broad array of anti-competitive forces. In large part, misallocation of credit and anti-competitive effects are simply different terms that describe the same economic injury. For example, preferential access to credit for bank affiliates, their suppliers and their customers is the crux of credit misallocation and, at the same time, a practice with obvious anti-competitive effects. However, the two perspectives offer different views on the nature of the potential public injuries. MORE >>

Taiwan Dumps on North Korea: State-Owned Taipower Schemes to Ship Nuclear Waste

by Jonathan Dushoff

TAIPEI -- Opening a new chapter in the annals of the international hazardous waste trade, Taiwan's state-owned power company, Taipower, sealed a deal in January to dispose of up to 200,000 barrels of "low-level" nuclear waste in North Korea.

The agreement with North Korea allows Taipower to ship 60,000 barrels of its nuclear power plant waste to North Korea over the next two years, with an option to ship up to 140,000 more barrels in the future. The terms of the deal are secret, but Taipower is rumored to be paying North Korea between $1,150 and $1,300 per barrel. At around $240 million for all 200,000 barrels, this is a deal that the cash-strapped North Korean government apparently could not refuse. MORE>>

The Political Economy of the Occupation of East Timor

An interview with Jose Ramos-Horta

Jose Ramos-Horta is the co-recipient, along with Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. Ramos-Horta is special representative of the National Council of Maubere Resistance, the underground umbrella organization representing East Timorese groups opposing Indonesian occupation. On behalf of the National Council of Maubere Resistance, he has called for a phase out of Indonesian occupation, to be followed by a UN-sponsored referendum on self-determination for East Timor. MORE >>