Launched immediately after the U.S. election of 1984 so as to avoid any charge of partisanship, the U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter on the economy has taken the world's religious and intellectual communities by storm. This document applies the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching to problems of the economy, and then makes numerous public policy recommendations concerning poverty, unions, discrimination, unemployment, welfare, trade and foreign aid.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (lCBC) was established in 1973. It was designed to replace a conventional private automobile insurance system by a state monopoly operating as a nonprofit Crown corporation. ICBC has all the characteristics of public monopolies throughout the world. The data suggest that privatizing it would be very much in the interest of British Columbians. There is a great lack of knowledge and the much misinformation that characterizes public opinion on this issue.These conditions prompted the author to write this analysis of the ICBC operation.