Columns

Tom Beck, 2012, Shaw Media

During the holidays, my son, knowing that I’ve written columns about pharmaceutical and medical companies, gave me news articles relating to the hospital at the University at Wisconsin-Madison. It reported disclosures of an orthopedic surgeon who received $225,000 in consulting fees over a three-year period from Medronic, a manufacturer of medical devices used in spinal operations.

Tom Beck, 2012, Shaw Media

When I wrote last week’s column on the subprime mortgage meltdown, I had read earlier that we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Enron scandal. Under the sad “how soon we forget mantra,” we should never forget how such an emerging from nothing to giant corporation in such a short time also faded even more quickly to bankruptcy, bilking unsuspecting shareholders of $11 billion dollars in manipulative phony schemes.

Tom Beck, 2012, Shaw Media

Share a daydream (nightmare) with me. It is January 2015 and we, Team America, should pause to reflect.

There continues to be a dichotomy in the banking disaster that triggered the economic collapse that still affects all of us. What bothers most people is that the banks, which are characterized as too big to fail, were rewarded with huge bailout funds, all subsidized by taxpayers.

Tom Beck, 2012, Shaw Media

It is almost to the day, 51 years ago, on Jan. 17, 1961, that President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address, gave some illuminating remarks that should be heeded today.