Short Fuse

November 30, 2008

Details: Hearing only the status quo
City Councilor Sam Yoon, who is contemplating a mayoral challenge, called a hearing recently on Boston's requirement for police details at construction and utility work sites. The current system, which Mayor Menino supports, adds about $30 million a year annually to the cost of doing business in Boston. Samuel Tyler, who heads the reliable Boston Municipal Research Bureau, was the sole voice of reason at the hearing, noting that the city government alone could save about $2 million annually by using civilian flagmen on many street construction projects. But union supporters dominated the session. Even with a budget shortfall expected to reach $80 million next year, Boston politicians keep falling for this paycheck protection racket. Yoon did. He had been on the fence but came down squarely on the wrong side of the issue.

Citigroup: The rip-off that doesn't sleep
When it was trying to stave off consumer-friendly reforms to credit card operations in Congress last year, Citigroup promised not to raise rates on its existing cardholders until the cards expired. But that was then. Earlier this month, just before the bank got a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the taxpayers, Citigroup announced it was reneging on that promise because of the "difficult market environment." So interest rates could go to 20 percent at the same time unemployment is rising, the economy is tanking, and consumers are being begged to spend. Meanwhile, credit card companies still demand the right to change interest rates at any time for any reason. Is it time to bring back the usury laws?

Lennon: You know it ain't easy
Forty-two years after John Lennon was condemned for an offhand observation that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus," the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has cast a gentler eye on the remark. In an editorial last week marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' "White Album," the newspaper praised the creativity and inspiration of the Beatles and said the Jesus remark - which resulted in thousands of ertswhile fans in the United States burning Beatles records in giant bonfires - should be recognized as the mere "boast" of a young man trying to come to terms with unexpected fame. Somewhere, Lennon and Galileo are singing a duet of "Let it Be."