Keith Epstein

Home Wreckers

How bank lobbyists undermine homeowner rescue efforts

Even as foreclosures surged, banking industry lobbyists undermined attempts to keep people in their homes. Big banks and their advocates in Washington delayed, diluted and obstructed attempts to address the problem. Industry lobbyists are still at it today, working overtime to whittle down legislative remedies, buy time and thwart regulation.(BusinessWeek)

In the Name of Healing

Unwitting test subjects in clinical trials often kept in the dark

Doctors infused a solvent also used as a gasoline additive into Laura Michalski’s abdomen. Within hours, she died. Eight years later, her family learned it had been an experiment. Such unwitting test subjects abound: Most of the researchers involved in clinical trials fail to clearly disclose the experimental nature of their work. Risks and alternatives are not always explained (The Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The New E-spionage Threat

Cyber attacks compromise military and corporate secrets

U.S. military and scientific institutions – along with the defense industry that serves them – are being robbed of secret information on rocket engines, satellites, launch systems, and even the Space Shuttle. Many of the digital intrusions, into sensitive networks of multiple agencies and defense contractors, have been traced to China. Officials say it’s espionage on a massive scale. (BusinessWeek)

The Poverty Business

The drive to extract corporate profits from the poor

Roxanne Tsosie was able to find a job and a car because greater access to credit has put many goods within reach of the working poor. Tsosie hoped it would help her achieve self-sufficiency. But zealous companies have new ways to lure unsophisticated shoppers into a thicket of debt. Furor over mortgages? That was only part of the larger story of the explosion in subprime credit. (BusinessWeek)

Network Security Breaches Plague NASA

Cyberspies, thieves lurk in satellite and shuttle networks

As workers prepared for a Space Shuttle launch in 2005, cyber-burglars slipped into supposedly super-secure digital networks at Kennedy Space Center. Their clandestine gathering of data soon spread to Mission Control in Houston, the Lockheed Corp., and other public and corporate networks. Nobody knew – even though NASA has suffered from such significant intrusions since the 1990s (BusinessWeek)

The Ugly Side of Microlending

Investors prosper as working poor borrowers sink in debt

Microlending is a popular tool for nonprofit economic development. It’s also turning the working poor into one of the world’s least likely sources of untapped profit. After all, they’ll pay interest rates most Americans would consider outrageous if not usurious. Many families are being drawn into a maze of debt. Meanwhile, banks, investors and executives prosper. (BusinessWeek)