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Focuses on the impact of the settlement of anti-trust suit of U.S.-based manufacturer of electronic products AT&T Corp. and software company International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) by the U.S. Justice Department, on stocks of companies. Overview of the anti-trust suits filed against AT&T; Assessment of the use of technology by AT&T; Evaluation of the prospect of the stock business of IBM; Views that the result of the dropping of the case against IBM will be to let it go and buying other companies; Opinion that strategy of a big company buying a small company has been to purchase technology.

The article offers brief comments on the conviction of Martha Stewart and on the voter turnout for the United States democratic primaries, as reported by Curtis Gans of the Study of the American Electorate. In March 2004, a jury convicted Martha Stewart of lying about a 2001 stock sale in which her broker gave her insider information on pharmaceutical maker ImClone. Reading the newspapers, you could be forgiven for thinking that Stewart had done as much damage to U.S. investors as WorldCom bad boys Bernie Ebbers and Scott Sullivan. Stewart may be both a corporate executive and guilty of wrongdoing, but that does not mean she is guilty of corporate wrongdoing. Her case is different from those of Ebbers, Jeff Skilling, or John Rigas, who allegedly used their positions atop WorldCom, Enron, and Adelphia to construct elaborate frauds that enriched not only themselves but their fellow executives--at a steep cost to lower-level employees and the investing public, not to mention the thousands who depended on the services their companies provided. Thanks to the media attention surrounding the Stewart verdict, however, readers may inaccurately conclude that corporate justice, rather than celebrity justice, has been served in this case.

The article discusses corporate crime in the U.S. The brokerage firm E.F. Hutton illegally profited from interest-free loans by check kiting, in which funds are transferred to different bank branches to cover checks. Attorney General Edwin Meese III chose not to prosecute executives of E.F. Hutton but imposed a fine. Deputy defense secretary Paul Thayer received letters from government officials recommending a lenient sentence following his conviction for obstruction of justice.

Focuses on an injunction suit filed by plaintiff Martin Stone against defendant Radio Station WHN. Information on a radio program called "The Author Meets the Critics," built by Stone which he moved from Station WHN to a competing station in New York City; Allegation by the plaintiff that the defendant by putting on a radio program called "Books on Trial" was engaging in unfair competition as well as violating the law of confidential relationship; Reason cited for Stone's loss in his suit against the WHN.

Focuses on efforts of Republic Steel Co. president Tom M. Girdler to file a suit against individuals and organizations for damages under the Sherman anti-trust law; Decision of the Federal Court in the Apex Hosiery to fine the Hosiery Workers' Union under the act that an upheld of the decision may be ruinous to unions and collective bargaining; Basis for the court decision on the hosiery strike case; Support of government policies of collective bargaining between the employers and the union of the employees' own choosing under the Wagner Act; Defiance of Girdler to abide with the law; Importance of the reversal of the decision of the District Court in the Apex case and the removal of labor in its collective-bargaining activities; Assertion of Senator George W. Norris that Sherman Act was not intended to apply to the activities of the trade unions.

Presents comments on political and social issues in the U.S. as of January 1961. List of political challenges facing the administration of President John F. Kennedy; Move by General Electric and Westinghouse to plead guilty in an antitrust suit; Highlights of the presidency of outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower.