A L S O__T O D A Y How far will Wall Street fall? By Jonathan Broder Russia's economic turmoil may spread, says one stock analyst, but the fundamentals of the American economy are still strong T A B L E__T A L K What do you mean when you say you're broke? Discuss being down to your last "dime" in Table Talk's Business and Personal Finance area R E C E N T L Y Bull marketing By Anita Bartholomew While Wade Cook rides high on lucrative investment seminars, its customers' portfolios take a tumble (08/21/98) Hip! Hip! Hooray! Anyone remember who we're boycotting today? By Kevin Kelleher Boycotts are more effective than ever -- but the public's role in them is becoming increasingly irrelevant (08/07/98) The economy of fake fat By Heather Chaplin Olestra: the oil that leaves you running for the bathroom (07/31/98) Farmers of the American Dream By Carol Lloyd Financial infomercials promise "free money," but what they're really selling is their faith in your "potential" (07/24/98) Glutton for luxury By Heather Chaplin One woman's necessity is another woman's excess (07/17/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Reluctant Capitalist archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Salon Columnists		[ T H E_.R E L U C T A N T_.C A P I T A L I S T ]________ _____________Dis Capital WHEN ANDY COX SPENT $798 DOLLARS ON AN AD-CAMPAIGN CRITICIZING OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM, HE TRAMMELED ONE OF THE LAST TABOOS OF OUR LOOSE-LIPPED ERA. BY HEATHER CHAPLIN Unless you've been in a coma, there's one very important lesson you should have learned this year. And that is that there is almost nothing that can't be discussed in public. Not to worry, this isn't an article about Monica Lewinsky. No, I'll just say that CNN's seven-month, 24-hour analysis of our president's apparent taste for oral sex -- besides grossing me out thoroughly -- made it clear that forbidden topics of discourse are going the way of the dinosaur, the gaslit lamp and the tuna casserole. Or are they? I ask because a group of San Francisco artists last month seems to have hit upon something more shocking, more out of the ordinary, more scandalous than even Geraldo's crew of analysts, strategists, commentators and assorted gold diggers would discuss in their nightly rounds of Clinton dishing. Dare I mention it? They took out an advertisement that questioned capitalism. Picture this: It's midsummer in a subway station in downtown San Francisco, and the crowd is eager to get home. Office workers and business people are reading their papers, standing in the neat lines that San Franciscans form while waiting for trains, yawning and idly watching the TV monitors that hang along the platform. The monitors announce train arrivals, run local news teasers and show commercial advertisements. But not this time. This time, those looking for the usual black background and white letters that announce their trains see instead the flashing phrase "CAPITALISM STOPS AT NOTHING." One official at Bay Area Rapid Transit thought it was an ad for Forbes magazine -- a teaser to be followed by something like, "Forbes Doesn't Stop at Anything Either." Not everyone was so trusting, however, and a bewildered station agent began to get complaints. The ad -- which was supposed to run for the month -- was pulled. Why a fairly innocuous bit of street art got the ax so quickly is a good question, and no one is jumping at the chance to take responsibility. BART says Metro Channel, the New Jersey company that runs the programming, pulled the plug not because the spot was offensive, but because it was so strange Metro Channel concluded it was an unfinished product put into rotation accidentally. Metro Channel, on the other hand, says it wasn't involved in the decision to pull the ad, but that BART did it because of the complaints it received. And Andy Cox, who masterminded the spot, says Metro Channel told him explicitly that it couldn't run the ad without adding a disclaimer because of its controversial nature. Hmmm. The need for a disclaimer interested Cox, who inquired if Metro Channel always ran disclaimers on its advertisements, as in, "We don't endorse the idea that you need to buy this product to be happy." The answer was no. Metro Channel also wanted Cox to include his group's name on the ad, but after hearing the name, Together We Can Defeat Capitalism, the company chose to run its own disclaimer when it finally reinstated the ad. N E X T+P A G E | The "confused" rabble-rouser