Corporations

Don't look now, but over the past six weeks, we've quietly entered a new era for U.S. foreign policy. A decade after the end of the Cold War, we now have the Corporate Peace. Since mid-May, the American business community has won a breathtaking series of victories in Washington, stripping away the sanctions that have somewhat limited its overseas operations.

Corporate governance consulting has mushroomed after last year's outbreak of accounting scandals led to a crackdown on executive behavior, but experts now question the need for such a cottage industry. Barely a day goes by without a new seminar, research report or measurement tool to comply with a new law or run a better boardroom. This has some veteran specialists wondering if it is all necessary when a dose of common sense might do just as well.

"Activists Target Political Gifts" (April 26) caused me to wonder why corporations are allowed to make political contributions at all. Stockholders should certainly have the right to donate as individuals, but why should corporations, whose interests are increasingly global and decreasingly responsible to this country, be allowed to use their concentrated resources to influence American policy? Walt Petrovich Glendale

U.S. corporations shouldn't be able to avoid paying U.S. taxes just because they buy mailboxes in other countries, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee said. In the Democrats' weekly radio address, Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) used as an example a company whose jackhammers carved Mt. Rushmore. The company paid $28,000 to rent a mailbox in Bermuda in order to avoid a $40-million tax bill, he said. He didn't name the firm.

"Medical Device Maker Hid Malfunctions" (June 13) revealed the alarming way in which corporate misconduct, even if it leads to multiple deaths, is treated as a civil, rather than a criminal, matter. Guidant Corp. pleaded guilty to 10 felonies, including lying to the FDA, for covering up malfunctions of a device to treat aortic aneurysms that led to 57 emergency procedures and 12 deaths. For this, the company has been fined $92.4 million. "They intentionally misled the public, doctors, and the FDA," said Assistant U.S. Atty.

The Super Bowl is like a favorite child to corporate big daddies--a way for the National Football League to thank its sponsors and a way for corporations to reward its top executives and sales personnel. "We wish we had more tickets, and we wish we could do more to take care of Joe Fan, but you also want to take care of the corporations that make the game bigger by what they bring to the community and the hotels," said Jim Steeg, the NFL's director of special events.

Corporations' after-tax profits fell 5.4% in the April-June quarter, the biggest decline in three years, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The decline followed a smaller 1.1% drop in the first three months of the year and left after-tax profits at an annual rate of $164.3 billion in the second quarter. Analysts attributed the drop, the biggest since a 16.5% decline in the first quarter of 1986, to rising business costs. U.S.

Ever since the White House cut back on John H. Sununu's use of military aircraft for leisure and political travel, the controversial chief of staff has been soliciting free trips aboard jets provided by American corporations, White House officials said Monday. In the latest instance, Beneficial Corp., a consumer credit firm headquartered in Peapack, N.J.

Corporations' after-tax profits shot up 8.4% in 1987, the best performance in three years, as American manufacturers benefited from the weaker dollar, the government reported Wednesday. The Commerce Department said after-tax profits rose to $137.4 billion last year, the first increase since a 12% rise in 1984. In 1985, corporate profits plunged 12.3% and they dipped another 1% in 1986 as the widening trade deficit cut into sales by American manufacturing firms. U.S.

Corporations nationwide are turning wastepaper into money. American Telephone & Telegraph last year saved $1 million in disposal costs and made a $365,000 profit by recycling its office wastepaper instead of sending it to a trash heap. The Bank of America earns an estimated $354,000 a year, while cutting $62,000 from its annual waste-hauling expenses, by participating in a recycling program. Similarly, MCI Communications Corp. picked up an extra $30,352 last year and saved $7,000 in disposal expenses by selling 42 tons of used computer printout and ledger sheets to companies that turned the stuff into toilet paper and paper towels.