Readers Report
Will the U.S. Still Attract the Best and the Brightest?
Kudos to Catherine Arnst and William C. Symonds for "How the war on terror is damaging the brain pool" (Science & Technology, May 19). Two decades ago, I attended Case Western Reserve University to pursue a PhD in organizational behavior. CWRU was the first university in the world to offer a doctorate in the subject, so naturally, there were many foreign students. I recall thinking: We're subsidizing foreign students and exporting our best technologies. But later, I saw a disproportionate number of foreign students matriculating to teach in the U.S. While many foreign students do repatriate, some of the best and brightest stay here to teach or find other employment.
The U.S. is a "brain drain" to the world's "brain pool." The Chinese know it. Last year, I taught at the Beijing International MBA program at Peking University. The Chinese government is actively soliciting Chinese scholars to come home, and I doubt it's the only country doing that. I won't take space debating the need to review student backgrounds in the interest of homeland security. I will say, however, that channeling funds from the Homeland Security Dept. or education budgets to expedite visa processing for students would probably yield the highest return on investment our government could make.
Richard B. Cogan
Round Rock, Tex.
A Law Degree, Loads of Debt--and No Job
"Congratulations, graduate -- you're unemployed" notes the lack of jobs for this year's graduating class and the increase in LSATs taken (News: Analysis & Commentary, May 19). My daughter graduates from law school this year, with good grades, $120,000 in school loans, and no job. Graduate school doesn't guarantee a job; it may just mean you have even more loans to repay.
Denise Woody
Nappanee, Ind.
Martha's Misdeeds, If Any, Are Minuscule
Thank you for Diane Brady's fair-minded commentary, "Martha: Under a cloud long enough" (The Corporation, May 19). Martha Stewart seems to be the least worthy target of wrath from justice, given her minuscule manipulation of the market relative to the Wall Street firms. Speaking of which: After a speedy settlement by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, we saw the subsequent gloating by Morgan Stanley (MWD
) & Co. CEO Philip Purcell, which obviously reflects the light punishment in the settlement.
Kamalesh Thakker
Beverly Hills
Two Simple Steps to Cut Down on Spam
Re "Hitting spammers where it hurts" (Technology & You, May 19): As a Web developer by trade, I have a small Internet service provider that includes an e-mail server, which recently had an "open relay" for a brief period while upgrading from MS Exchange 5.5 to 2000, and was used by spammers. After quickly closing my open relay, I had to deal with removing myself from all of the "bad lists" on the Internet.
Laws such as those you propose would be ineffective, and the effort required for an individual to seek damages would severely limit any actions. My recommendations come from a technical standpoint: First, revise the SMTP protocol (protocol used to send e-mail) to include absolute traceability. Second, have one public-sponsored "bad list."
Bryan Beam
Las Vegas
Regional ATM Networks Are Hardly Pygmies
In "Taking the card giants down a notch" (News: Analysis & Commentary, May 19), you describe the complaint of the owner of a small art gallery who says he was forced to use either MasterCard International or Visa to process his consumers' debit transactions. In fact, he has always been free to install the equipment to accept debit network PIN transactions. He, like millions of merchants, chose not to do so. Why? MasterCard debit cards mean incremental sales and are a good business proposition.
You quote a characterization of the regional automated-teller-machine networks as pygmies that haven't been able to compete. The growth of regional ATM networks has been exceptional -- far surpassing that of MasterCard debit. First Data (FDC
) Corp., which owns the NYCE PIN debit network, recently contracted to buy Concord EFS (CE
) Inc., which owns Star PIN debit network, giving it a combined 70% of the PIN debit business. Having 70% of transactions processed through the fastest-growing method of payment hardly makes one a pygmy.
Noah J. Hanft
General Counsel
MasterCard International
Purchase, N.Y.
Editor's note: In their recent lawsuit, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers contended that MasterCard and Visa's longstanding "Honor All Cards" policy effectively forced them to accept their debit cards -- and the higher fees -- lest they risk losing the right to accept their credit cards. As part of the settlement of that suit, MasterCard and Visa agreed to loosen those restrictions. The 70% market share figure Hanft cites does not include the "signature"-based debit business that MasterCard and Visa dominate.
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