Credit Battle Shows Legislation Shortfall
Kathy Kristof’s recounting of Judy Thomas’ six-year battle with Trans Union missed the deeper meaning of the story for the average consumer [“Woman Blazed a Paper Trail to Clear Her Credit,” Aug. 4].
Thomas’ victory is praiseworthy, but what about the other Americans whose financial and personal lives have been seriously damaged by mistaken credit reports, yet cannot devote years of their lives to litigation?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act is not sufficient protection for the public. Clearly, Trans Union and similar companies ought to be regulated by a federal agency (just as banks and lending agencies are), so when they screw up taxpayer-funded resources are available to bring them into line.
Bonnie Sloane
Westchester
#S#
Dividend Pay Would Spur Stock Rebound
Everyone is wondering when the stock prices will go up again. The answer is: when the companies pay dividends to stockholders. At this point, investors believe that the corporations are being raided by the officers.
We see fat CEO paychecks and stock options and puny (if any) dividends to investors. When stocks pay dividends again, people will want to own stocks. It isn’t that complicated.
Bill Serantoni
Thousand Oaks
#S#
FERC Power Grid Plan Is Unrealistic
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission again promises that by adding complexity, middlemen and bureaucracy, and by churning assets, electricity prices will go down [“FERC Pushes Conversion to a National Power Grid,” Aug. 1].
What planet are these people from?
John Hackl
Arcadia
#S#
Report on Drug Firms Missing Viewpoint
“Once Golden, Drug Firms Under Assault” [Aug. 4] goes on and on, but sadly, there is one common denominator that every single TV viewer knows that is apparently missing--the incredible amounts of TV advertising purchased by practically every drug company on the planet selling prescription drugs.
Articles tell us stuff we all have read about over the years, but where is the part that makes accusations about endless budgets set aside for expensive TV commercials?
We all pay for these ads by paying higher and higher health insurance premiums.
Tony Hart
Moorpark
*
“The Tufts Center estimates it costs $805 million and takes 10 to 15 years to bring a new drug to market. Yet only 3 in 10 drugs have recouped that average cost.” With only 32 new drugs coming to market last year, how are pharmaceutical companies expected to develop additional medications if they do not make a profit on current, branded medications?
How will the public feel when research and development halts because companies can no longer afford to invest in the public’s future?
What will happen when the drug industry stops providing free medication to indigent patients, or stops providing samples to physicians so patients can determine if they have adverse reactions to a new medication before they have to pay for it?
This cost is something that many pharmaceutical companies absorb to help the public.
Maybe next time any individual has to pay for their prescription, they might want to stop and think of the alternative of not having it available to them.
Kendall Yandell
Burbank
#S#
Stock-Sale Issue Just
Symptom at Motorola
So Christopher Galvin, CEO of Motorola Inc., had “absolutely no knowledge” that the company’s operating chief was about to quit when he sold 40,000 shares a day before the resignation announcement sent the stock plummeting [“Motorola CEO Defends Timing of Stock Sale,” July 31]?
Maybe this explains why this once-stellar company is but a shadow of its former self ever since Galvin’s father, son of the founder, turned over the reins of the company to him. If he’s so clueless as to not know what his second in command is doing, how can he be expected to be in touch with the operations of the company? Never has there been a better example of the first generation starting the company, the second generation growing the company and the third generation destroying it.
John Goodman
Oak Park
