Show --- 4 - - - - t The Salt Lake Tribune Wednesday June 20 1990 Time Has Come to Eliminate By Bruce Fein and Edwin Meese HI Special to the Los Angeles Times The enforcement of insider-tradin- g laws by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission justify a twist on the words of Winston Churchill: Never have so many expended so much effort for so little Insider-tradin- g prohibitions in connection with the commercial purchase or sale of securities is akin to requiring war to be fought by Queensbury Rules They should be abolished The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 prohibits a corporate official or associate from purchasing or selling a security while possessing material c information regarding the financial prospects of his or another company — eg a large oil or gas discovery or an impending takeover bid That prohibition is en hyper-zealou- s non-publi- - EltVOMMOOlm!Irgicwg-T- The forced by steep criminal penalties and daunting financial liability The insider-tradinprohibition has helped the government slay such Wall Street giants as Ivan Boesky g Bruce Fein is a constitutional la If- yer in Washington Former US Attorney General Meese is a distinguished fellow of the Heritage Foundation — Dennis Levine and Michael Milken It is relentlessly enforced by the SEC and the Department of Justice For more than a decade both have hectored foreign nations to make insider trading a crime and have negotiated mutual assistance agreements to obtain international cooperation to enforce insider trading prohibitions This frenzy of law enforcement exertions would lead a layman to con Palk dude that insider trading is a comrivaled only by munity menace carinternational tels But insider trading is commercially innocuous and deserves no legal condemnation In ordinary commercial transactions neither the purchaser nor the seller is required to disclose nonpublic information that ensures his bargain will be exceptionally rewarding Suppose an art maven approaches a museum to purchase a Van Gogh portrait with a bid of $50 million The would-b- e buyer declines to inform the museum that if the sale is consummated a Japanese billionaire has agreed to then purchase the portrait from him for $82 million The sale is made the buyer immediately resells to the billionaire for a $32 million profit and the law does not condemn the buyer for failing to g ci Pr-T- r 11-- n J- -- a- n kALIL JL JL AIL -- a- -- A- inform the museum that a higher price could have been commanded by a direct sale to the Japanese Croesus Suppose a commercial aerospace company in California signs a nonpublic contract to build hundreds of fighter aircraft for a foreign country The contract will necessitate the immediate purchase of substantial industrial land to expand manufacturing capacity The company purchases the land it needs at a price far less than would have been demanded if the seller had known of the fighter aircraft contract and thus the buyer's urgent need to purchase the property Despite the company's failure to disclose the law of commercial land transactions is undis- Prnb11-it) I J t11L were not misled nor did they sell at a Pm LJJLIO '1714 er would cause corporate officers to price they believed was unfair Commercial law offers no redress to the seller simply because a more lucrative return might have been negotiated if he had known all facts known to the buyer So why should a corporate insider be legally or morally censurable for purchasing a security at a price satisfactory to the seller simply because he knows that within less than a month his company will bid for that security at a substantially higher price? The seller was neither misled nor coerced into a sale So what is the grievance? Stockholders may think the corporate official was unduly enriched in the transaction But if they are offended by such profits stockholders can ban insider trading by corporate officials in articles of corporation or corporate bylaws The result hoNvev turbed In these hypotheticals the sellers 4 A9 demand higher salaries or other: benefits that would reduce corporate and shareholder wealth Investors did not resist the allures: of Wall Street before the initiation of insider trading prohibitions in 1934 Further investors buy and sell stocks based on expectations of profit to them not on whether corporate officials are profiting even more by trading on inside information Insider-tradin- g laws were enacted because politicians needed a scapegoat for the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing economic depression But to criminalize business practices in securities markets that are innocent in all other lines of corn- -' merce is morally perverse and an in- excusable waste of resources when so much genuine crime escapes punishment e 4La ! History's Replete with Heartbreaking Proof That Capitalism Is ':ot Always a Panacea Forum Tribune Readers' Opinions e Not Always Proud Whose Values? When a convicted felon (011ie North) is praised by one of "my" rep resentatives in the United States Senate (Orrin Hatch) and is given a "resounding ovation by most of the senior citizens" at a conference in my state for giving a speech in which he states "Far too few of our political leaders university intellectuals and media elite still believe in the basic American values" I have to wonder just what are the "basic American values" this convicted felon is touting "my" senator is condoning and Utah seniors are resoundingly applauding? LOUISE HESS Best Medical Plan More than 30 million Americans don't have health insurance For them delays in obtaining care are common and preventative care is virtually unknown A major illness can mean personal bankruptcy and even minor illnesses can represent intolerably high expense Requiring all employers to provide health insurance for their employees would cover the majority of the uninsured The congressional Budget Office estimated this approach would cover about 23 million of the 30 million or more currently uninsured Small businesses — which understandably are concerned about how much the requirement would cost — should receive special assistanee to make health insurance affordable Many policy-maker- s support this approach In fact it's the basis for a plan proposed by the US Bipartisan Commission of Comprehensive Health Care (known as the Pepper Commission) Even if employers are required to provide insurance there still will be some people left without coverage — those who are unemployed Medicaid or work part-tim- e which currently covers just the poor should be turned into a source of funding for health insurance for all individuals regardless of income who are unable to obtain employer based insurance To control medical care costs research is being conducted to provide physicians with scientific information on what treatments are effective in what cases Reducing bureaucratic paperwork and complex claims procedures along with instituting reforms in the medical liability system also would help moderate costs In addition some level of patient is necessary to encourage both patients and physicians to use medical services judiciously Finally Congress should enact measures to encourage the availabilcare insurity of private long-terance Right now insurance that would cover an extended nursing home stay is too costly for the majority of Americans According to federal budget analysts closing the gaps in our current system so that everyone is covered would be far less of a tax burden on working Americans than asking the federal government to develop a whole new system to provide health care coverage for everyone In addition building on our current system would allow Americans to keep the freedom to choose different insurance plans to suit their individual needs STEWART L ELLINGTON MD cost-sharin- g President Utah Society of Internal Medicine Collect for Kids According to Geraldine Jensen national president of the Association for Enforcement of Support Utah sadly ranks third from the bottom in child support collections So what can Utah do to help the children of her state? It has been said that part of the problem in collecting support is the lack of staffing and funds available to work on the large number of cases Could the LDS Church with its strength in Utah lend a helping hand to assist the children of their state? Maybe they could offer volunteers to work at the Utah Office of Recovery Services donate funds look into their own wards for absent fathers Another sectoi of our economy that could help is employers They could submit a list of new employees with their Social Security numbers to Recovery Services monthly This would cut out a lot of the red tape in locating absent fathers who change their jobs so often that their child support payments cannot be collected We need to do something to solve the child support problems especially in a state that values family supso highly port And JULIE SORENSEN West Jordan well-bein- g Forum Rules Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writer's full name signature address and telephone number Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reason on others Writers are limited to one letter of 300 words or less every 14 days Preference will be given to typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writer's true name All letters are subject to condensation Mail to the Public Forum The Salt Lake Tribune PO Box 867 Salt Lake City Utah 84110 Can't Afford It? Returning home from the grocery store I heard on a local newscast that enough signatures had been acquired to place the removal of the food sales tax on the ballot Included in this announcement was the statement that Gov Norm Bangerter was against the tax removal Gosh Norm how much did you spend on the unneeded lake pumps that will deteriorate before being needed again if ever? How much did you spend on the Supercollider that you didn't have a chance of getting? How much does it cost to place "Ski Utah" on the license plates? How much to plow the roads to the ski lodges? How much less money will be going into the state coffers from the tax relief given to the ski industries? If they bring so much money into the state they should be filling the state coffers instead of emptying them And why does the state need a railroad that doesn't go anywhere? How about the money wasted on the freeway Syncrete? How much to remove it? How much to replace it? And why and how much to help the Jazz program to make the rich richer? And you seem to forget that you were elected by far less than half (40 percent as I recall) of the people in the state If you ran your building business like you run the state I can understand why you are in politics There are very few states with tax on food WOODROW E HAYWARD Fruit Heights Incongruous Choice dismayed that Sen Orrin Hatch chose to honor Oliver North by inflicting his unannounced presence on the senior citizen conference I find it incongruous that a convicted felon be chosen to lecture a group on the deterioration of American values I always thought one of those values was honesty Unlike Sen Hatch I do not believe that the receipt of an illegal gratuity and the destruction of government records can be excused because of "political differences more than anything else" ELEANOR WILLHARD Bountiful I am Give Him Life This letter is in reply to a May 12 article by Dawn House on a federal magistrate's rejection of an appeal by the nation's longest standing death-roinmate William Andrews Andrews was convicted of murder 15 years ago It's interesting that 15 years ago Utah was also the first state to execute a person in almost 10 years when we killed Gary Gilmore Now Utah is leading the nation again by holding a man on death row for the longest time in history Fifteen years is a long time to wait to die Why are we taking so long? Talk about cruel and unusual punishment Is is because William Andrews is a black man? Or is it the cost of housing an inmate for life compared to executing him? If it's because of the cost take a look at these statistics: New York claims it costs $668000 to jail a man for 40 years but $18 million to execute him In California it costs the taxpayers $45 million to sentence just one person to death and Arkansas found out about the cost of executions in 1971 when public officials commuted 15 death sentences to life imprisonment saving the state $15 million In Texas it costs $6 million to execute one person The list goes on If William Andrews were commuted to spending the rest of his life in prison without parole Utahns would save money and it would serve our need to punish and our need to protect FLOYD BEAL fiscal-minde- 1 d Thomas Goekler (Forum May 6) mentions the disastrous effect of US interference upon the economy and welfare of the Nicaraguan people resulting in the defeat of the Sandinistas in the election Mr Goekler's experiences as pastor and chaplain and the elections of 1984 and 1990 show religious freedom exists and political opponents have not been crushed It does not justify Sandinista actions but my government has censored coerced and managed the news media harassed political opponents through governmental agencies including the FBI indoctrinated (propagandized) the public and jailed and tortured political prisoners (Japanese-AmericanThe Sandinistas came to power by overthrowing an autocratic and oppressive dictatorship of Somoza and officer friends who owned most of the land and much of the industry Some of the confiscated land was deeded to groups of organized Cam- pesino (peasant) families who formed cooperatives The peasant relocation was necessitated by the war against the Somoza dictatorship and the Contras The people who fled Nicaragua are the privileged supporters of the Somoza dictatorship and many of these people will not return because they have hit it rich in the United States It is ironic that the fragile political alliance UNO forged by the United States contains two Marxist-Leniniparties the Communist Party of Nicaragua and Nicaraguan Socialist Party More distressing to me is the type of warfare conflict used by my government against the Nicaraguan poor and the disclosure that the CIA used illegal drug smuggling to help finance the Contras I am proud of many contributions my country has made but I can't condone some of its actions WH HILL Cedar City st By Alexander Cockburn Special to the Los Angeles Times ARDMORE Ireland — Here in County Waterford on the last Saturday in May Chief Hollis Roberts of um When tickets go on sale for events at other locations in Utah buying tickets in advance at the location of a the event saves the ticket-buye- r service charge The Colosseum does not sell tickets until the day of the show at which time they raise the price of tickets by $1 If you want to attend an event at the Colosseum and the advertised ticket price is $15 you can either wait until the day of the show to buy tickets for $16 and take the chance of the event being sold out or you can buy tickets in advance at other ticket outlets (eg Salt Palace Huntsman Center or Smith's Tix) and pay $185 service charge per ticket Since the Colosseum has no assigned seating I fail to see the need for any service charge The ticket outlet performs no service for the buyer other than making the tickets available for sale If the Colosseum cannot or will not sell tickets in advance arrangements should be made for tickets to be available without a service charge at another outlet such as the Salt Palace which like the Colosseum is maintained by funds from taxpayers CINDY SMITH Crook Confab Did Pat Bagley's Tribune cartoon June 1 speak well of those of us who don't believe as Fawn Hall said "Sometimes you have to go above the law"? I hope those who are overcome by Little 011ie's charm do some heavy thinking What was to have been a seminar for seniors turned into a fiasco with overtones of political slop Apparently Orrin Hatch loves to sponsor criminals as displayed by his open affection for Muhammad Ali during Hatch's last election (Ali refused to be drafted if you don't remember) and most recently by having a convicted felon Oliver North give his drivel to those attending the May 30 seminar I for one would not have attended if this disgrace to the uniform had been shown on the agenda What's next Orrin Richard "I'm not a crook" Nixon? life expectancy and social services'' as well as average income and wealth created The author of the survey Mahbub ul warns that social services are declining throughout Western countries: "There has been a drop in social spending from 17 percent of total expenditure to 10 percent over the last 10 years" ThiS4 is our old friend capitalist market' discipline in action again — estabth lishing the conditions in which more babies in poor families will die in which poor people will be unhealthij er and live shorter lives There is nothing necessarily evil about a market and the Soviet Union badly needs the flexibility of some market arrangements But there is a great leap from this sort of market to: the market relations and priorities of capitalism as it functions in large parts of Africa Latin America and Asia not to mention portions of the United States And what about the Choctaw? Where did their Trail of Tears take them? There are about 19000 on tribal lands in Oklahoma To ward off cultural disintegration and to battle 37 percent unemployment they have installed a vigorous system of social services with a free hospi-- 0 tal three clinics 70 pounds of food a month for those in need tuition supe ports housing Chief ' Roberts says money for this comes partly from bingo and substantially from subcontracted work for firms such as Boeing and Lockeed Thus sustained with proceeds from gambling and the military-industricomplex do the Choctaws try to steer clear of the trail of tears lin d the Choctaw Nation led a thousand people along the Trail of Tears — where 600 men women and children died on a trek in search of food in 1849 The Choctaw know all about such dark journeys On their own Trail of Tears in 1831 they were deported from southern Mississippi to Oklahoma Along that forced march 500 miles in the dead of winter 14000 Choctaws perished In 1847 in the Oklahoma Territory town of Skullville the Choctaw heard of the famine devastating Ireland They raised 8710 an immense sum for people themselves almost destitute and sent it across a continent and an ocean The 1990 march was organized by the voluntary group "Action From Ireland" which invited Chief Roberts to lead them on the "famine walk" from Doo lough to Louis-burg- h Their walk said the group's statement "symbolizes the continued suffering of millions of human beings on our planet today who die disof hunger and hunger-relateeases caused by the same injustice and human-right- s violations that crushed so many Irish and American Indians in the last century" It was eerie to turn from this moving episode of international solidarity to stories of Russian "radicals" cursing Soviet President Mikhail S Gorbachev himself mostly persuaded by their arguments for being tardy in plunging the Soviet Union into "free-market- M1MMMMM Alexander Cockburn writes for the Nation and other publications equivalent of El Salvador today overcrowded with 8 million inhabitants most of them on the edge of starvation With their land largely in the hands of the British and used for export crops — a familiar story throughout Latin America today — the Irish were forced to rely on just one staple grown on the tiny plots that remained to them When the potato blight struck Irish peasants starved to death as their imperial masters braced by liberal theory continued to export the grain that could have saved their lives while proclaiming their concern that the victims of famine not become welfare clients their moral fiber sapped by government handouts A million died These days according to the Quality of Life index devised by the United Nations Development Program Ireland ranks 17th two places ahead of the United States wither so many Irish fled after the famine The criteria used to establish this ranking (which Japan tops) include literacy L free-mark- d e 1 ' — ' - " :' - c: 1:11 t::! vio ::: tr lz41-- — : :" - - -- -- - - i ' sJ :::::::7p- : - t z Ticket Trouble I would like to point out an unfair practice by the Fairgrounds Colosse- the caldron of the capitalist market economy Millions of the worlds most desperately hungry people suffer in these same capitalist economies that well-feacademics politicians and journalists claim to be the success story of the late 20th century In fact the Great Famine of 1845- 49 was one of the most determined " tests of economic discipline in human history In those days Ireland was a 19th century : - '' -r ' - -- ' :f- Ibt :t- ” - kt - I (- i fa i:i ':::i:g:-:- 0 - toll -'-- w -' :1 V:: 'VitA i: It- ::' t U:: :"' ' 717''"-' 4 i -- ''' :442r:'"': - 777-z- fit '': :'::: I 7 'r i P171 VI'u '''- ' ' 11 so Nto $ - - 4 - 2t :4-- y r! :1k1 ‘ ::xx:v:::: 10t- -- - -' 'k ' ' i'-- ' - 11)1'ft i' 1 I ' 0 Jay: and "The auxiliary fuel cell assembly procedure for MD-8MD-9aircraft was being transferred to our plant so seven mechanics were sent to observe the structural buildup We were 0 0 taking notes of everything "We were also given an assembly outline to work from but it was way too general So my team decided that as we were going along and building our first assembly we'd document what we were doing "We wanted our auxiliary fuel cells to be the best So we had to learn the right way to build them and make sure everybody had the formula to build them the same way every time "From the first one off the line we've never had a tank turned back for leaks — and we doubled the rate of production "The spirit of the team made it happen They just have this tiger spirit like we can do anything' —Phyllis Trujillo aeft) Transport Aircraft Auxiliary Tanks Team Leader with from left to right) Tom Neil Production Associate Brad Rickards Manufacturing Industrial Engineer Willis Gray Quality Assurance filICIDONNIELL IDOIUGLAs A company of leaders CAROL T WORKMAN I : " F061bartr 0tit' t0a2 A0 wPrmamomff - Ag |