-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's Lesson From The Ayn Rand Cult by Jeff Walker Science destroys myth, but doesn't create the kind of personal values or meanings that myth provides. So even when a worldview fades, for most former believers the sustaining morality it produced lingers, while for others, a replacement myth or religion is sought, even a cult or some ideological 'ism'. But just as the 'isms' of the twentieth century from communism to feminism and environmentalism--all at-least-partly irrationalist reactions against the transformations wrought by industrial capitalism--have been found spiritually wanting by a great many adherents, so too psychoanalysis and other pseudoscientific therapies and new religions rose up against the overwhelming dominant ethos of lingering nineteenth-century rationalism. Objectivism is a reassertion of the beliefs and values of industrial capitalism and rationalism in response to so much negative fallout from the ideologies, pseudosciences, therapies, and religions that pretend to replace them. In other words, Objectivism is the proffered cure for the side-effects of prior failed cures for capitalism-rationalism. It consists of what we began with, though with presumed impurities removed, and is propagandized with the same fervent religiosity as characterized by those creeds which once had success in opposing capitalism-rationalism. ===== Digital Society Movie Premiere Will Take Place on Internet In other news, Clinton says he never heard of the Cali cartel LOS ANGELES - A company that produced a movie called ''What Dreams May Come'' has agreed to produce a film that will be released initially through the Web, a concept that Hollywood once saw as its worst nightmare. While many films are available on the Internet, backers of this project said it represented one of the first times that a movie by an established filmmaker was being made specifically for initial Internet distribution. The movie is being produced by Metafilmics, a four-year-old company that specializes in entertainment with spiritual themes. Its first theatrical movie, last year's ''What Dreams May Come,'' starred Robin Williams and won an Academy Award for best visual effects. The Internet movie, called ''The Quantum Project,'' will be about a physicist who has a mystical experience and will be directed by Francis Glebas, the director of ''Fantasia 2000,'' a forthcoming movie from Walt Disney Co. Barnet Bain, a co-founder of Metafilmics, said the company was interested in the new artistic possibilities presented by the Internet and by the chance to be its own distributor. ''It's just the most glorious opportunity to have an extremely new canvas and be among the first to do it,'' Mr. Bain said. But he conceded that the company was hedging its bets: The $3 million budget is tiny by Hollywood standards. ''It's important that we stretch ourselves but not sink the ship,'' he said. The movie will be distributed by Sightsound.com, a Web site that will charge a fee to people who want to download the movie, probably a few dollars for someone who wants access to the movie for, say, one to five days. An actual purchase would be more expensive. Sightsound.com is one of several new companies trying to offer movies over the Internet and generating interest in the movie business. Another company, Atomfilms, which specializes in short films, has attracted investments from Warner Brothers, Allen & Co., the media industry investment banking company, and Frank Biondi, the former chief executive of Universal Studios. Atomfilms, based in Seattle, announced agreements Monday to distribute some of its films through Warner Brothers Online, NBC's Snap.com and Real Networks Inc. ''The Quantum Project'' is scheduled to be available next May and will rely heavily on computer-generated animation, even though it will be a live-action film. It will be more than 40 minutes long but perhaps not as long as a full-length feature, an effort to minimize downloading time, Mr. Bain said. He said the company hoped that it could still show the movie in theaters even after its debut on the Web, perhaps by adding more visual effects for the theater version. The movie will also be available for television and home video, he added. Right now, full-length movies take hours, sometimes more than a day, to download using a conventional modem. The picture can be jerky and is confined to a small box on the screen. This is hardly a match for a movie theater or even a videocassette seen on a television. But as high-speed Internet connections grow more common, those barriers are expected to fall. Hollywood studios are watching warily, anxious to make sure they do not lose control of distribution, as record companies have to some extent. Indeed, pirated films like the recent ''Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'' are now available over the Internet. So far, however, most of the movies that are legally available on-line tend to be older movies, or B movies, or those made by small filmmakers who lack other means of distribution. The mainstream Hollywood studios have used the Internet to publicize films, not to distribute them. The value of the Internet for publicity was made clear with the runaway success of ''The Blair Witch Project,'' a small-budget picture that has become a smash hit because of excitement built up through a Web site. But the new agreement seems to indicate growing interest in the Internet by filmmakers who can get their fare into theaters. ''It's easy to get B, campy horror movies for Internet distribution,'' said Scott Sander, president of Sightsound.com, which is based in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. ''It's nice to get something that's uplifting.'' SightSound.com earlier this year offered on its site the movie ''Pi,'' which had been in theaters. But Scott Sander, the president of the company, said it had been difficult so far to attract mainstream movies. Its Web site now offers 10 films with titles like ''DOA,'' ''Troma Toxic Container'' and ''Reefer Madness.'' International Herald Tribune, August 25, 1999 Federal Reserve Markets Yawn as Fed Raises Discount Rate, Funds Target Another 25 basis points closer NEW YORK - U.S. central bankers raised interest rates Tuesday but signaled that their move would probably be the last for the year, allaying fears in the financial markets. The Fed raised two key rates, the federal funds rate and the discount rate, in an effort to slow the booming U.S. economy enough to keep inflation from increasing. The move followed an increase in the federal funds rate in June, which in turn came after the Fed had cut rates three times in response to turmoil in global financial markets last year. The central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said the latest increase, ''together with the policy action in June and the firming of conditions more generally in U.S. financial markets over recent months, should markedly diminish the risk of rising inflation going forward.'' James Glassman, senior economist at Chase Securities Inc., said those comments, along with the announcement that the Fed was taking a neutral stance on monetary policy - meaning that it is inclined neither to raise nor lower rates soon - indicated that the move Tuesday was probably the last for the year. The bond market, in particular, was buoyed by the move. Falling yields on long-term instruments indicated that investors felt that the central bank's actions would keep inflation under control. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond, the bellwether for the market, fell to 5.93 percent from 5.98 percent on Monday and more than 6.25 percent earlier in the month. Stocks were mixed, but they held on to most of the sharp gains recorded Monday. Consumer and wholesale price increases have remained tame, but Fed members have stated concerns this summer over rising pressure on wages and on the prices of raw and intermediate materials. Alan Greenspan, the central bank chairman, has suggested that the economy can safely grow at an annual rate of about 3 percent, taking into account the expansion of the labor force and of productivity, but it is on track for its third straight year of growth near 4 percent. At that pace, workers and materials could become scarce, forcing up the costs for both and setting the stage for an inflationary spiral that would eventually stifle growth. To slow the economy to a sustainable rate, the policymaking committee voted Tuesday to raise its target for federal funds to 5.25 percent from 5 percent. Federal funds are overnight loans among banks, and because healthy banks rarely fail overnight, they are virtually risk-free. These shortest of short-term loans thus effectively form the floor for U.S. interest rates, which affect borrowing costs around the world. Adding emphasis to the decision, the Fed governors accompanied the change with a quarter-point increase in the discount rate, to 4.75 percent. Unlike the interbank loans, the discount rate is charged on funds borrowed directly from the Fed. But this emergency rate is usually shunned by banks, so the change was mostly symbolic, a ''house-keeping detail,'' in Mr. Glassman's opinion. A year ago, the federal funds rate stood at 5.5 percent, but the central bankers reduced it in three quarter-point increments to counteract the financial crisis that followed Russia's default on some of its debt and the ensuing near collapse of Long-Term Capital Management LP, a huge hedge fund that threatened to drag the world financial system down with it. The rate reductions made credit available to borrowers around the world and encouraged American consumers to maintain their shopping spree, providing a market for goods from countries that were hard hit by the financial crisis that began in July 1997. Mr. Glassman of Chase noted that interest rates in the private markets had already gone up by more than the half-percentage point rise in federal funds caused by the two increases. Mortgage rates, for example, are up about 1 percentage point, to around 8 percent, and this is expected to have a significant slowing effect on the overall economy. It is also unlikely that the Fed will raise rates this autumn because it has indicated it will be generous with credit should the financial system need it because of the Year 2000 computer problem. At the close the Dow Jones industrial average was down 16.46 points at 11,283.30, but the Nasdaq composite was 32.79 points higher at 2,752.36. The Nasdaq gains reflected a strong market for technology stocks, particularly those involved in the Internet. Microsoft was sharply higher, and Dell, Intel and Cisco also rose. The four issues are the largest among the Nasdaq stocks. America Online was the most-active stock on the New York Stock Exchange, also rising. Time Warner, however, was sharply lower after Merrill Lynch cut earnings estimates for the entertainment conglomerate. International Herald Tribune, August 25, 1999 Japanese Financial Markets Japanese Government Bond Auction is a Flop Y2K Bug, or Just Low Interest Rates? The volume of bids for Japanese government bonds yesterday fell to their lowest level for at least 12 years amid signs that Japan has become the first global debt market to be infected by "millennium bug" concerns. A regular monthly auction of JGBs attracted only 1.41 bids for every bond offered, sharply down from 1.91 a month ago, and the lowest rate recorded since the 1980s. Investors' lack of enthusiasm partly reflects the recent improvement in the Japanese economy, and the rising budget deficit. However, it is also the result of concerns about the liquidity of Japanese bond markets in the run-up to December 31. Investors fear that the main institutions which hold JGBs, such as life assurance companies, Japanese banks and public institutions, will refuse to lend bonds for trading purposes over the year-end period because of the risk that customers' computers will fail. One senior foreign banker said yesterday: "What we are seeing in Japan is the first time that a bond market has been affected by millennium problems - it is potentially very serious." Prices in the futures market - or the price of JGB contracts settled in the future - have collapsed this month because of millennium bug concerns. Because JGB traders rely on being able to buy futures contracts to hedge their current cash purchases of JGB issues, some foreign investors were reluctant to buy bonds at yesterday's auction. William Campbell, head of fixed-income research at JP Morgan, said: "Without a hedging tool, it is unsurprising that demand at the government auctions falls off." Some US banks are now appealing to the Japanese authorities to restore liquidity by encouraging public and private institutions to continue lending bonds over the year-end period. The Japanese government insists that it is taking necessary precautions to avert any millennium bug problems. The Bank of Japan and Ministry of Finance have so far refused to make any statement, partly because they hope that the distortion is simply a temporary phenomenon. The problem of the millennium bug has arisen in Japan earlier than in other capital markets, partly because the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced earlier this year that it planned to implement a technical reform of the futures markets from next March. As a result, traders are reluctant to use the September and December contracts. When the first March contract became available in the markets this month, many investors rushed to buy this instead. The fact that investors already hold a contract that will be settled in 2000 has brought forward concerns about liquidity. The Financial Times, August 25, 1999 Cotton Market Cotton Glut & Government Policy Hit Chinese Cotton Industry One more basic commodity in oversupply (read: deflation) The Chinese cotton industry is in trouble because of ballooning cotton stocks, price controls and stockpile mismanagement. Fears of increasingly aggressive cotton export sales by China were a factor behind the sharp correction yesterday in world cotton prices. Chinese cotton stocks are estimated to be around 15.5m bales. This is equal to more than 80 per cent of China's annual production and about 40 per cent of world cotton stocks. And the coming Chinese harvest will add to the stock overhang. The US cotton futures market continues to trade just above its lowest level for 13 years and with Chinese stocks set to grow, cotton will struggle to move higher, says Thomas Mueller, president of Savcot, a Savannah-based cotton merchant. The situation is also being aggravated by Chinese government policy. Even with massive stocks, "state-owned cotton supply firms are unwilling to sell stockpiled cotton to textile mills", reports East West Consultants, a Beijing-based cotton consulting group. The government requires cotton companies that realise losses by selling stocks to take these losses into their books. However, if nothing is sold, unrealised losses on stock writedowns are subsidised by the government. In other words, subsidies are based on stock volumes, not realised losses, says East West Consultants. And the losses incurred by Chinese cotton groups are massive. According to the deputy director of the Tianmen Cotton Company in Hubei County, no cotton is being sold out of its 24,300-ton (about 105,000-bale) stockpile because the cotton last year was purchased at the government set price of $1,491.54 a ton but now the price is $1,207.73 a ton. Like all other cotton groups, if losses are incurred on sales, these are booked to the cotton company. In the case of Tianmen Cotton Company these amount to $22m at the moment. And this is a small loss compared with the larger state cotton companies. The Xing Jiang state cotton company is reported to be sitting on losses exceeding $1bn. On August 1, the Chinese government allowed cotton prices to be negotiated between buyers and sellers. Unless world cotton prices rally, this is likely to result in still lower Chinese cotton prices and add to unrealised losses on stocks. With this in mind and with the possibility of the US government soon refunding its cotton export program (referred to as Step 2) to try and assist struggling US cotton growers, cotton merchants and exporters around the world, including US, Chinese, Australian and Mexican shippers, are adopting a more aggressive selling posture, said Mario Balletto, senior cotton analyst with Merrill Lynch in Chicago. The Financial Times, August 25, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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