The Watchdog Blog
Those of us who have health insurance--or think we have health insurance--can get complacent about whether the nation needs that big, complicated health reform legislation. But just try getting sick. Is your insurance even real? If it is, can you afford it after the latest round of price hikes? Is your deductible so big that paying it will mean financial ruin? Check out these stories and think about what the White House and Congress, by wimping out again on health reform, will condemn all of us to...
In case all those ads about how great insurance companies are was starting to make you feel all fuzzy inside, Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Chronicle just posted a revealing and disturbing look into the widespread discrimination at California's 3rd largest auto insurer, Mercury Insurance....
It was hard to get away from Wall Street in Washington this week. Former Citibank Chairman John Reed, free to speak his mind in retirement, endorsed an independent consumer agency in testimony before the Senate Banking panel on Thursday...
Two Texas Congressmen have asked the U.S. of Justice to ensure that the proposed Google Books Settlement not hurt minority publishers and small businesses. The department is scheduled to file its view of the amended settlement in federal court on Thursday.
When a private club that is too cozy with corporations make the rules on consumer protection, guess what happens? The National Conference on Weights and Measures met last week voted to just dump years' worth of proposals and plans to fix the "hot fuel" ripoff. It reminded me of the old Soviet trick of removing purged bureaucrats from ceremonial photos.
The major oil companies all made less profit in 2009, but mostly because they could barely make a billion on refining and selling gasoline and diesel fuel, with demand running from down to stagnant. Yet they made plenty of billions on drilling and selling oil, which has more than doubled in price from around $30 a barrel (42 gallons) at the end of 2008 to around $75 a barrel on Monday. Yet global oil consumption was also down in 2009 from 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Does this make any sense at all?
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