Re: investing in sabatoge

[Joe Shea <joeshea@netcom.com>]

	How about fuses?


EDITORIAL
+
by Joe Shea
American Reporter Editor-in-Chief
Hollywood, Calif.
May 22-23, 1999
fuse
free

		      WHAT IF WE BLOW A FUSE?
			    by Joe Shea
     		  American Reporter Editor-in-Chief

	You never think much about your wiring until a fuse blows.  And
when you've got the fuses that blew replaced, you forget about it all over
again.  But I can't. 
	Around the time last week when the White House was convening a
summit meeting on antitrust enforcement to look at the huge mergers of the
past two years and to try understand what they may portend and intend for
our economy, I inadvertently had the hot plate, the microwave and the
toaster oven all going at once, along with the computer, the fridge and
two two-bulb lamps in the living room and dining room.  When I switched on
the toaster oven to toast a bagel, the house went dark.
	I figured I'd have no trouble finding a fuse -- the last time I
needed one, two stores within a block had them.  But now one of those has
been driven out by the advent of the Sav-on chain in our neighborhood,
which will sell beer, wine and spirits -- beer and wine being the main
profit center of the late Ivar Hill Market.  The other store I usually
find them at was the 7-Eleven, but for some reason, they have stopped
carrying them. I tried the fairly large Yucca Market across the street --
"Used to have them," a sales clerk muttered -- and then the big Pla-Boy
liquor store at Yucca and Wilcox.  No luck there.
	Strangely, there was one store with fuses even closer than the
7-Eleven, the Gladys Market in the middle of the next block.  The owner,
Santos, pulled out a paper bag of fuses of different sizes and kinds, but
of the 10 or 12 he offered me, none was the 25 ampere size my main box
needs.  He was selling what he had a $1.25 each.
	That left a chain store about a mile and half away, and so I sent
two boys on a bike looking for a box.  In a half hour or so, they were
back with a small box of four sold for $2.89.  I wondered what the box
would have been worth of the chain store knew they had a monopoly on
fuses for a couple of miles around?  (Actually, the independent Rampage
Hardware Store at Bronson and Hollywood probably had them, too, but I
thought it had closed when the cavernous, 24-hour Home Depot hangar opened
last year).
	Something tells me no one at the White House worries about little
things like fuses.  If they need one, they send the maid or the butler or
the valet or someone, just like I sent the kids.  The price, so long as it
doesn't exceed $10 or so, is in all likelihood immaterial to them.  $10
was all the money I had for more than 10 days earlier this month, though;
it was material as hell to me.  But the rarity of simple objects is
scarier still.  The box I got didn't even seem to have a brand name, and
two have since blown out without the metal strip melting, or at least
melting anywhere visible to me.
	A wire service report on the meeting that appeared on the Nando
Times site said the conferees had started their work in 1997 and ended it
before the huge mergers of Amoco and British Petroleum, Exxon and Mobil,
and Citicorp and Travelers Group.  Prior to those events, it looked to
them like it was worth keeping an eye on the mergers and hiring more
antitrust lawyers at the Justice Dept., but no new legislation or
enforcement action seemed warranted.
	I think our top-heavy economy is going to blow a fuse. 

			      -30-

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Joe Shea				|	1812 N. Ivar, No. 5
Editor-in-Chief				|	Hollywood, CA  90028-5026
The American Reporter			|	(213)467-0616
http://www.american-reporter.com	|	joeshea@netcom.com

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