Marketplace: News Archives

Monday, September 9, 2002
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It's Monday the 9th of September, I'm David Brancaccio.

Hundreds of companies headquartered both in the U.S. and abroad today moved to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to put the brakes on a lawsuit due for trial in West Virginia later this month. It's about asbestos, and the stakes are high, even though the primary producers of the dangerous material are now out of business. From the Marketplace Health Desk at WGBH, Helen Palmer has the story.

Palmer: "Some 250 companies are defendants in this latest asbestos suit. They include Ford, General Motors, ExxonMobil, Monsanto -- companies that didn’t make asbestos, but used asbestos in manufacturing processes. Asbestos can cause cancer, and huge numbers of defendants have already won cases."

Stephen Carroll: "My data runs through the end of 2000...600,000 claimants, about $54 billion."

Palmer: "Stephen Carroll of the Rand Corporation has done the numbers, but he says informed estimates for future claims range from $200 billion to $265 billion, so companies have reason to try and derail these suits. But Paul Martinek, editor of Lawyers Weekly USA, says he thinks the Supreme Court will refuse the companies’ petition."

Martinek: "The U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t intervene in cases until they’re over, absent some really compelling reason for the court to intervene."

Palmer: "The danger these suits pose to companies bottom lines does not constitute such a compelling reason, Martinek says, but it is a powerful argument for containing the potential damages, which have already bankrupted 11 companies so far this year. So, ubiquitous is asbestos in our society, and so potentially wide the pool of people exposed, that even some plaintiffs' lawyers now argue for control over who can sue. Steven Kazen, for example, a 30-year veteran asbestos litigator, says only the already-sick should apply."

Kazen: "We’re going to have more and more bankruptcies, and more and more retirees will lose their pensions funds -- more and more serious victims will go uncompensated."

Palmer: "That, Kazen says, will be fine for a few trial lawyers, but disaster for the really sick.

I’m Helen Palmer for Marketplace."

Steve Mort reports from Washington.

Mort: "Many analysts say President Bush's comments on Iraq over recent months have given the markets plenty of time to prepare for shocks. Still, Americans are already paying 'war premium' of between $4 and $6 a barrel.

Mikkael Herberg, a former oil market analysts with Atlantic Richfield in Los Angeles, says the only way to bring prices down is to boost production."

Herberg: "In the short run, the U.S. has to count on the other OPEC producers raising production to meet the shortfall, and, I think, they'll expect the Saudis, Kuwaits, Venezuelans and others to do that."

Mort: "The problem is that OPEC is currently at its lowest level in 10 years, and Middle Eastern countries are divided on whether to boost production.

Mikkael Herberg says America has another option."

Herberg: "If the oil price spikes for more than a week or two, the first thing it would do is probably release oil from the strategic oil reserve.

Mort: "But some oil analysts say that stockpile is being stored in the event an attack on Iraq, which would likely disrupt oil supplies.

In Washington, I'm Steve Mort for Marketplace.

Music Bridge: Al Samra Helwa - Ali Hassan Kuban

Rundown

Court Shopping
Today, laid-off WorldCom employees backed by the AFL-CIO asked the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan to force the telecom company to pay out tens of millions in additional severance and health benefits to at least 4,000 people, and possibly thousands more. Commentator and bankruptcy law specialist Lynn LoPucki argues that bankruptcy courts can only be effective if they can finish what they start.

Music Bridge: Jacksons Monk And Rowe - Elvis Costello

Marketplace's series "Accounting for the Unaccountable:"
our look at how one event has redefined our values.

Terrorist Money Trail
The Bush administration's anti-terror campaign focused on crippling terrorist activity worldwide by cutting off cash flow to terrorist operations. Marketplace correspondent Stephen Beard takes a look at the money trail a year after the crackdown.
»Listen in Real Audio

Music Bridge: Music For Six Marimbas - Steve Reich

9/11 Small Business
Although a number of small businesses in lower Manhattan folded up shop in the months following the Sept. 11 tragedy, many dug in and set upon the task of rebuilding. But many of the businesses find themselves in a slump, and have, out of necessity, started to cater to the booming post-9/11 tourist/consumer. Marketplace correspondent Sam Eaton looks at how the shops of lower Manhattan have adapted.
»Listen in Real Audio

Music Bridge: How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths

9/11 Entertainment
New York City serves as the backdrop to some of television s greatest sitcoms and movies. Last season's shows featured all the glamour of the Big Apple, but none of the real-life drama enveloping the city in the Sept. 11 aftermath. Marketplace Morning Report Host Tess Vigeland looks at the story Hollywood decided not to touch, and the impact of that absence on audiences.
»Listen in Real Audio

Music Bridge: Desert Flower - Comal

Look Ahead:
Coming up on Marketplace: Our special coverage of the 9/11 tragedy, "Accounting for the Unaccountable."