Consumer Access to Health Care: Basic Right 21st Century Challenge

Today, this country is confronting a crisis in health care of broad and critical dimensions. Dwarfing all others is the issue of the consumer's right to affordable quality comprehensive health care. This paper deals first with the dimension of the health care crisis confronting this country. It considers the major proposals for health care reform. Finally, it examines the role of the consumer movement and of American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) in ensuring that the consumer's interest is protected in the current debate on how best to provide equitable and affordable health care to all Americans without regard to the individual's ability to pay.     

Scottish,Irish, and imperial connections: Parliament,the three kingdoms,and the mechanization of cotton spinning in eighteenth‐century Britain1

This paper offers a new perspective on the emergence of machinery in the cotton spinning trade during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. It does so by examining the interplay between economic, political, and national interests within the early Hanoverian state. Changes in trading relationships between textile producers across the three kingdoms of England/Wales, Ireland, and Scotland created escalating supply‐side problems, which, by the 1760s, would precipitate a quest for solutions based on new technologies.     

Oil and the Stock Markets

We test whether the reaction of international stock markets to oil shocks can be justified by current and future changes in real cash flows and/or changes in expected returns. We find that in the postwar period, the reaction of United States and Canadian stock prices to oil shocks can be completely accounted for by the impact of these shocks on real cash flows alone. In contrast, in both the United Kingdom and Japan, innovations in oil prices appear to cause larger changes in stock prices than can be justified by subsequent changes in real cash flows or by changing expected returns.     

ACCOUNTING FOR BIODIVERSITY: A PILOT STUDY

This exploratory paper investigates the concept of a natural inventory. Three stages are envisaged. In stage one, an organization's acreage and habitats would be established and one of six levels of natural inventory undertaken. In the second stage, the organization's non-critical habitats would be valued either at a market or at an amenity valuation, complemented by an ecological grading. Finally in stage three, the results would be aggregated and published in summary form in the organization's annual report. Levels 1, 2 and 5 of natural inventory are applied to an actual real-world organization. Further research is called for to apply the concept to a large land-owning corporation and to involve accountants in the preparation and, particularly, in the communication of the results.     

CONSUMER REPRESENTATIVES ON THE BOARDS OF NATIONALIZED INDUSTRIES

The paper examines the nature and role of the boards of nationalized industries and arguments for consumer representatives to serve on them. It concludes in favour of consumer representation and argues that consumer councils should develop and publish consumer audits for their industry as this would both support the work of consumer board members and enhance the role of the councils as defenders of the consumer interest.     

Characteristics of Consumers of Unpasteurized Milk in the United States

Despite considerable scientific evidence about the health risks of drinking unpasteurized (raw) milk, advocates continue to lobby for the reduction of state regulatory restrictions on the sale of unpasteurized milk. Multivariate analyses were performed on 1998–1999, 2002–2003 and 2006–2007 FoodNet Population Survey data to determine characteristics of unpasteurized milk consumers. Across all years of the survey, 3.4% of respondents reported consuming unpasteurized milk at some point in the previous seven days. Our findings indicate that unpasteurized milk drinkers in the states covered by the analysis are more likely to be Hispanic, less educated and of lower income than non‐drinkers and they are more likely to report drinking unpasteurized juice .