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Big tobacco manufacturers deny that smoking tobacco is harmful.
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Congressional hearings revealed that automobile makers were making customers pay extra for safety features like seatbelts.
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Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe at Any Speed" is published. The book calls out automobile manufacturers for their failure to make cars safe because they don't want to spend the extra money.
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Congress passes the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966.
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Karen Silkwood, a worker at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant, complains about the lack of health and safety regulations after she finds her home has been contaminated with plutonium.
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Karen Silkwood was killed in a car accident under suspicious circumstances.
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The Kerr-McGee plutonium plant is closed after the controversy surrounding the mysterious death of Karen Silkwood.
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Banks and Savings and Loans were put under pressure after the federal reserve raises rates.
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Congress passes the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act to take pressure off of banks and Savings and Loans.
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16-year-old Barry Minkow starts a carpet cleaning business called ZZZZ Best, a disguised Ponzi-style scheme.
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"Silkwood," a movie drama about the life and mysterious death of Karen Silkwood, was released.
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When oil prices dropped, banks reported false numbers, making it seem like they were more secure than they were in actuality.
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Barry Minkow resigned from his position as CEO at ZZZZ Best when an investigation revealed fake clients.
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Barry Minkow sentenced to prison for fraud in the ZZZZ Best scheme.
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Congress passes the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act to end the Savings and Loan Crisis.
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Worldcom starts to monopolize the local telecommunications industry.
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Jeffrey Wigand blew the whistle on the tobacco industry in a 60 Minutes interview, claiming that he was told to keep quiet about the harmful effects of tobacco on smokers. Tobacco Industry Sources:
+ Nolo - “Tobacco Litigation: History & Recent Developments” by Kathleen Michon
+ “Big Tobacco finally tells the truth in court-ordered ad campaign” by Maggie Fox, 11/27/2017
+ Vanity Fair - “The Man Who Knew Too Much” by Marie Brenner May 1996 -
Congress passes the Telecommunications Act to prevent the monopolization of the telecom industry. Worldcom Sources:
+ PBS - “The Worldcom Wall Street Connection” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/wcom/cron.html
+ The Balance - “The Worldcom Scandal Explained” by Joshua Kennon, 5/20/21 https://www.thebalance.com/worldcom-s-magic-trick-356121 -
Archer Daniels Midland Co. was caught in a price-fixing scheme. They were trying to fix the price of lysine, a type of amino acid used in protein biosynthesis.
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Three higher-ups in the company were sentenced to prison: Michael Andreas, Terrence Wilson, and Mark Whitacre.
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The Master Settlement Agreement is put into place, putting restrictions on the tobacco industry.
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"The Insider," a movie drama about Jeffrey Wigand's whistleblowing and the aftermath of it, was released.
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The Phillip Morris tobacco company had to pay $51.5 million because it was found that the company did nothing to warn customers about nicotine addiction.
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Through false accounting, Worldcom fakes an increase in profits.
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Sherron Watkins, the former vice president of Enron, whistle-blew on the company.
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The USC launches an investigation into Enron to find corruption.
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Worldcom's internal audit unit found that the company was lying about and overstating its assets.
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Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was designed to prevent corporate fraud, in response to the Enron scandal.
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"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," a documentary movie about the Enron scandal, was released.
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Bernard Ebbers, the former CEO of Worldcom, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for investor fraud.
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Jeffrey Skilling, the former CEO of Enron, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for taking part in the Enron scandal.
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The television series "American Greed" did an episode on the corruption of Worldcom, entitled "Inside the Worldcom Scam."
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The CDC launched an anti-smoking campaign that displayed the very real effects of tobacco that the big tobacco corporations wanted to keep secret.
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Jeffrey Skilling was banned by the federal court from ever again holding a high-ranking or executive position at a publicly owned company.
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Volkswagen was found to have put "defeat devices" in the engines of diesel vehicles they manufactured in order to cheat on carbon emissions tests.
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Apple faced a lawsuit for the planned obsolescence of its devices. Allegedly, they planned for older devices to deteriorate so that customers would be forced to purchase newer products. Apple Obsolescence Sources:
+ US PIRG - “Right To Repair” https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/right-repair
+ Forbes - “On Apple’s ‘Batterygate’: Why Settling For $500-Million Is The Wrong Move.” by Vianney Vaute, 3/10/20 -
Allegations and evidence arise that teams in the NCAA were bribing students with extra pay in order to recruit players for their basketball teams.
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State legislatures start introducing Right to Repair laws that would prevent planned obsolescence from occuring.
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The basketball coach at USC, Tony Bland, was fired for playing a large role in the basketball bribery scandal.
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Rupert Stadler, the former CEO of Audi, was arrested for playing a significant part in the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
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Apple agreed to pay $500 million to settle the planned obsolescence lawsuit.
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The popular Chinese coffee chain, Luckin Coffee, debuted in the NASDAQ stock market.
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The Senate passed a bill that restricts Chinese companies from earning money off of US markets.
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The COO of Luckin Coffee was found to have overstated the company's sales for the year of 2019 by about $310 million.
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As of 2021, 40 states have introduced Right to Repair laws or have active bills supporting it.
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