Transparency

Re "Right and Wrong Shouldn't Be Guesswork," Commentary, Oct. 9: John Balzar is timely and on target in calling for a blue-ribbon commission to reform and update our laws and regulations governing basic honesty in business. I am referring here to laws that mandate full disclosure, transparency, accountability and simple truthfulness. Lying in business has become obsolete and can be safely outlawed. Capitalism thrives on transparency and factual truth, which underlie trust, which is the basis of trade.

Finally, some bipartisan agreement in the House of Representatives. The new speaker of the House, Republican John A. Boehner, has agreed with the former speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Their point of agreement: Neither one wants independent television cameras prowling their lenses all over the House sessions. It's a transparent issue of transparency. Federal pols love to talk about it. Remember all those Barack Obama-Joe Biden promises about historic governmental transparency and how the healthcare legislative negotiations would be on C-SPAN?

Somewhere, Tony Soprano is having a good, long laugh. New Jersey is a state whose reputation for corruption has been immortalized in film, TV and in song by Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi alike. So there's just one question after learning that a new study puts New Jersey at the top of a State Integrity Investigation's ranking of the nation's states in terms of transparency and accountability to citizens. Who'd officials pay off? Actually, all bad jokes aside, New Jersey's long history of corruption has led to a litany of reforms in recent years.

Re "9/11 Reforms Could Weaken Rights, Says White House," July 31: The Bush administration, author of the Patriot Act and supporter of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, seems to have taken a sudden interest in civil rights. President Bush's reservations about some of the 9/11 commission's recommendations for revamping our intelligence structure have a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering what his real motivation is. My guess is it's the threat to the complete independence of the executive branch.

Key concessions from the United States and China jolted climate negotiations Thursday in Copenhagen, providing optimism a day before President Obama joins other world leaders seeking a new international agreement on controlling greenhouse gases. But success hinged on two issues that have vexed diplomats throughout the two-week summit: an agreement between America and China on how to ensure that fast-developing nations follow through with their pledges to limit emissions; and whether poor nations will accept smaller emission cuts than they would like from wealthy countries in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in financial assistance.

Bank of America Corp., which handles customer service on about 15% of U.S. home loans, has accounted for 30% of the mortgage complaints logged by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a new database made public by the federal watchdog. The level of customer discontent - far greater than at home-lending rivals Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. - reflects BofA's struggles since its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. in Calabasas. Countrywide had become the No. 1 mortgage firm by specializing in subprime and other high-risk loans.

Kim Kardashian's bikini flaunting her baby bump has been squarely placed on the cover of this week's Us Weekly. Apparently this is the story that will have people grabbing for the mag in grocery store checkout aisles. The cover photo showcases the pregnant reality TV starlet ambling on a Grecian beach. She's wearing a stringy two-piece while she and her family were vacationing on the island of Mykonos in late April to film their E! show "Keeping Up With the Kardashian. " The 32-year-old, due in July, is baring her growing belly and the cover bears this headline: "You Call This Fat?"

Generic prescription drugs have to meet exacting standards for ingredients and quality, which you'd think would make them uniformly priced at pharmacies. But that, of course, isn't the case. Generic drug prices can be all over the map, depending on where and how you buy them. Bruce Lowther, 45, takes five generic prescription meds daily for a heart condition. He had a heart attack a few years ago. Lowther was paying nearly $370 every three months for supplies of his drugs at Target.

MEXICO CITY - The project is of mind-boggling proportions: It would cost $40 billion, take a decade to complete and be more than twice the length of the mighty Panama Canal. Yet on Thursday, the Nicaraguan legislature controlled by President Daniel Ortega approved just such a plan, for a sea-to-sea canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean, with a little-known Chinese firm footing much of the bill. Proponents say the canal megaproject could bring to Nicaragua and the region a major share of the expanding global maritime trade business, especially from U.S. and Asian markets, worth trillions of dollars.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler didn't waste time responding to Taylor Swift's Vanity Fair comments slamming their Golden Globes hosting gig in mid-January. The consensus: Learn how to take a joke, Taylor. Swift, 23, whose litany of boyfriends and breakup songs have made her a tabloid favorite, made headlines Tuesday for agreeing with a Madeleine Albright quote she'd heard from Katie Couric. " 'There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women,' " Swift repeated to Vanity Fair regarding the "30 Rock" and "Parks and Recreation" stars.  PHOTOS: Taylor Swift is never, ever getting back together with...