On the Money

Profiting from the Navy

Admiral Hyman Rickover may be in retirement, but his torpedo-like salvos against shipbuilders who rip off American taxpayers are still exploding. About six months before he finally left the Navy in January 1982 after 59 years of cantankerous service, Rickover, now 83, blasted four contractors in particular for making what he called "excessive profits" on their work for the Navy. A House committee asked the General Accounting Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, to find out whether Rickover was right.

Last week a GAO report declared that the admiral's numbers were essentially on target. Not even...

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