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NASD On-Line Broker Data Raises Privacy Concerns
A report in the December 14th issue of The Wall Street Journal discussed the plans of the National Association of Securities dealers to put its Central Registration Depository (CRD) a national database of broker information on the Internet in 1999. Some brokers are becoming concerned because the on-line database will include information about arrests for felonies in cases unrelated to securities (e.g., marijuana possession) where the charges were dismissed, a jury later found the defendant innocent, or the charges were reduced to misdemeanors.
An investor desiring to thoroughly investigate a broker today must make several telephone calls to state and federal agencies and exchanges. Replies may take a week or more. The new NASD system will make information retrieval almost instantaneous. According to the Journal, on one hand some investors and their advisors feel it's important that they and their clients know that a broker was involved in spring-break brawl in a Florida resort city 30 years ago - charges later dismissed. On the other hand, brokers and privacy advocates ask why NASD and similar organizations bother to collect such information at all.
According to the article, about 10% of the 595,000 registered brokers in the United States have information regarding criminal records and arbitration awards against them in their CRD file. [Editor's Note: Many arbitration awards are the result of the interpretation of complex securities regulations.] Before the NASD can post any broker information on the Internet there must be a consensus among NASD brokers about what information can be posted. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must approve the NASD's final proposal. It is possible that some brokers may sue the NASD on the grounds that the release of irrelevant infomation about them is discriminatory. The article was written by Dow Jones Newswires staffer Sean Davis and appears on page B7B.
NHTSA 'Crash Dummy' Standards - Essential for Vehicle Safety
A front page report in the December 15th issue of The Wall Street Journal discussed the strict standards the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration imposes when vehicles are "crash-tested." The crash-testing involves vehicles and highly-instrumented crash-test dummies.
The Journal article explains the steps NHTSA engineers and technicians take to ensure that the data obtained from crash tests accurately reflects the forces humans may experience during highway vehicle crashes. The dummies are stuffed with expensive sensors. Unfortunately, without "clothes" crash dummies would slide too much on vehicle seats. That might cause data quality problems. Therefore, NHTSA has a dress code for dummies to ensure the conditions for each crash test are close to identical.
Crash dummies are supposed to wear matched sets of cotton shirts and form-fitting shorts that cover the thighs, along with clunky black-leather oxford shoes. Child-size dummies are supposed to wear what children generally wear at home and in vehicles. The child dummy clothes must also be washed and dried at precise times and temperatures. Clothes color is optional - formerly the clothes had to be pink. Unfortunately, shoe manufacturers may soon stop manufacturing shoes that are used in crash tests. The article was written by Journal staff reporter Anna Wilde Mathews.
Nobel Winner Finds Her Story Challenged
A front page article in the December 15th issue of The New York Times challenged the account of Rigoberta Menchu, who was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. In her autobiography, "I, Rigoberta Menchu," first published in Spanish in 1983, at the height of Gautamala's civil war, Ms. Menchu tells a wrenching tale of violence, destruction, misery, and exploitatation. The book's impact was so powerful, according to the Times, that it immediately transformed her into a celebrated and much-sought-after human rights campaigner and paved the way for her being awarded the Nobel Prize.
Key details of that story are untrue, according to a new book written by American anthropologist David Stoll. His book , "Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatamalans" concludes that Ms. Menchu's book "cannot be the eyewitness account it purports to be" because the Nobel laureate repeatedly describes "experiences she never had herself." Using contacts provided by Dr. Stoll and others found independently, a reporter for The New York Times conducted several interviews that contradict Ms. Menchu's acount.
According to these sources, many of the main episodes related by Ms. Menchu have either been fabricated, or seriously exaggerated.. For example, the land dispute central to the book's plot involved a long and bitter family feud that pitted her father against his in-laws, and not a battle against wealthy landowners of European descent.
In his book, Dr. Stoll concludes that Ms. Menchu drew on experience common to others in Guatamala and "drastically revised the prewar experience of her village to suit the needs of the revolutionary organization she had joined." Ms. Menchu's parents and two of her brothers were killed by Government security forces during the country's 36 year civil war, which ended in 1996.
Others who were interviewed by the Times questioned how factual any autobiography really is. And even if an autobiography is factual, significant incidents in the subject's life may be unreported or may not be emphasized. The article was written by Larry Rohter.
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