Balance Sheet

Jeff Taylor from the November 2002 issue

ASSETS

Steely Resolve

Domestic steel producers howl at the U.S. government's refusal to levy tariffs on imported steel. Both the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission find that imports of cold-rolled steel are not to blame for American steel's woes.

Joint Production

Teens polled by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse say that they can buy pot more easily than cigarettes or beer, suggesting that the best way to keep drugs from kids is to legalize them.

Peer Pressure

Citing the Recording Industry Association of America's plans to hack users of peer-to-peer file trading software, Internet service provider Information Wave Technologies blocks the RIAA from its network. In addition, Verizon resists the demands of Big Media to give up the names of file swappers.

Vice's Virtue

Texas investor Dan Ahrens sets up the Vice Fund, which will trade in the alcohol, gambling, tobacco, and defense stocks that politically correct "social equity" funds avoid. The vice stocks have done well in the bear market, and Ahrens says people "should invest to make money, not to make a political statement."

Pfysteria

Two teams of researchers say the periodic hysteria over the algae pfiesteria may be misplaced. Pfiesteria was thought to kill fish and make people sick. But independent analysis hasn't found a toxin.

Prize Poop

The Sustainable Development Network, a coalition of African and Asian farmers who support free trade, awards its "Bullshit Trophy" to Greenpeace, the Third World Network, and BioWatch in recognition of their contribution to the "preservation of poverty" in developing countries.

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