Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Charles Darwin vs slavery
>>Charles Darwin's research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to >>end slavery<< All those school boards in the South who don't want to teach evolution and Darwin can now breathe a collective sigh of relief: they don't have to rely on those weak religious arguments anymore! CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Some of the many things I learned over the past 8 years on 'leftist' discussion lists
OK now for the rest of the questions and comments. >>^^CB: What's your thinking on global warming<< Capitalism is never going to be up to the task of saving the planet because of one simple word: profits. Hell, as it turns out capitalism isn't even up to industrial capitalism because of one simple words: profits. >>CB: What abut the worker productivity part ?<< Huge numbers of Americans toil at the productive interface, but as defined by capitalists, the term 'productivity' is really just another way of looking at the profits. And those turned out largely to be profits got in a multiple bubble economy (gov't deregulation and privatization bubbles, such Enron and Carlyle Group, .com and telecoms/media bubbles, real estate investment trusts, oil pricing etc. etc. take your pick, I prefer the term 'credit bubble', although not because tens of thousands of home owners got credit). So the so-called gains in productivity that were supposed to be part of the 'IT Revolution' as reported breathlessly in the pages of Business Week (when they weren't telling us how Enron was a new model corporation for the world) are largely just illusions, created with some very clever collaboration from the usual army of accountants and tax lawyers. >>Since the creditors got bailed out, turns out they we'ren't taking a risk<< That's a good point. Business Week and others cover this under 'moral hazard', which sounds even better if you just take it for how it literally sounds. At any rate, I think it is a fairly obvious thing to say at this point that many of the way money was moved, borrowed, invested, placed here and there to avoid taxes in the name of 'risk management' wasn't anything that could have been called rational risk management. It was, however, DYNAMIC! CJ -- Japan Higher Education Outlook http://japanheo.blogspot.com/ We are Feral Cats http://wearechikineko.blogspot.com/ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Some of the many things I learned over the past 8 years on 'leftist' discussion lists
>>CB: If only Carter had beat Reagan...maybe things would have been different<< In some respects, Carter did beat Reagan. 1. He increased the military budgets before Reagan did. 2. He funnelled covert aid to the Afghan 'freedom fighters' before Reagan did. 3. He used military force against Iran. 4. He got a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2002). I can't wait for Obama's winter message in the first Year of Troubles: "America turn down your thermostats and wear a sweater like I am doing." But it won't be because of an oil shortage (unless he invades Iran and/or Venezuela and the DoD quadruples its purchases of GP-8 jet fuel and we run out of heating oil and gasoline); it will be because oil is cheaper than it was in 1979 but even then we can't afford to pay the bills for central heating. On the other hand, if the US really does bother to PRINT UP something reflecting all those trillion dollar tranches (afterall, it's nothing but a little numeral followed by a bunch of right?) we could burn that, couldn't we? Come to think of it, that is about the only way government bonds will rally this year. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Unemployment
I should think that unemployment is tracked fairly accurately within the parameters that the government sets to track it; however, it is important to remember that this concept of unemployment then is not really an indicator of unemployment, under-employment and lack of sufficient-paying employment for the working class of a given OECD country. Rather, it is an attempt to sample information from a sample of the population in order to get a set of data that is supposed to fall under a pre-defined concept the government calls 'unemployment'. As it is usually discussed on LBO T and PEN L (Charles B take note), it is discussed in terms of how the moderators prefer it. They want to use the government measure of this concept of unemployment as a leading or lagging indicator of the state of the economy (which at least since last July has been described by the controlling metaphor, 'a very sick patient' needing 'infusions' of liquidity, which are the 'lifeblood' of the financial system which oversees (who gets and who is denied credit in ) the capitalist political economy. See the following two links and articles, only excerpted below: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=402 AN ORGANIZATION that works to highlight the discrepancy between the official unemployment rate and what is often called hidden unemployment is the National Jobs For All Coalition (NJFAC), which posts unemployment data each month after the BLS data are made public. In October (the latest figures available at this writing), the official U.S. unemployment rate was 6.0 percent or 8.8 million individuals. This marked a slight decrease from June's numbers, when the official unemployment statistic reached a more than nine-year high of 6.4 percent or 9.4 million individuals. Although the decrease may mark the beginning of an economic turnaround, growth remains sluggish in many sectors. To calculate hidden unemployment, the coalition includes BLS figures for those working part time because they can't find full-time employment. In October, 4.8 million Americans fell into that category. In addition, it also reports the number of people who want jobs but who are not included in the official statistic because they do not qualify as actively looking. That figure amounted to 4.9 million individuals in October. Combining the official unemployment rate with these additional figures provides a more realistic picture of the U.S. economy: it increases the number of unemployed from 6.0 percent to 12.2 percent or 18.5 million persons for October, according to the coalition (the BLS doesn't calculate that figure although it provides the components to do so). We get an even better picture of the very large number of Americans facing economic hardship if we add in those working full time yet earning poverty level wages. Based on Census Bureau data for the year 2000, 16.8 percent of those working fulltime, or 16.9 million individuals, earn less than the official poverty rate for a four- person family. In other words, about one in seven men and one in four women, employed full time all year, earned less than poverty level wages for a family of four. In addition, the official unemployment figure excludes the incarcerated population from the labor force. During the 1980s and 1990s, the number of individuals held in federal and state prisons more than tripled, increasing from about 320,000 in 1980 to 1.3 million in 2000. And between 1980 and 2000 the total jail and prison population together increased from 503,586 to 1,937,482-a 284.7 percent increase, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics. The official unemployment rate has another flaw as well, namely that it is subject to the same under-coverage problems as all surveys are- and to any undercounting problems associated with the census from which CPS population controls are derived. Although efforts are made to correct for under-coverage, members of certain groups are more likely than others to be left out of census surveys. For instance, young black males are the most likely to be under- covered in the monthly CPS survey used to calculate the official unemployment rate. But they are not the only group inaccurately represented in the survey. Adjustments are made to correct for this under-coverage, yet the assumption is that members of the cohort left out of the survey resemble members of the cohort who responded to the survey. There is no way for statisticians at the Census and BLS to know for certain whether this is true, according to Ed Robison, a BLS statistician. Although he can't prove it one way or the other, Robison's assumption is that some of the under-covered groups experience at least slightly higher rates of unemployment than their covered counterparts. RATHER THAN developing a more broadly encompassing measure of unemployment, the BLS actually has narrowed the definition of those counted as officially unemployed over the years. It is interesting to note first how the BLS defines em
[Marxism-Thaxis] S&S Call for Papers
S&S Call for Papers To: Marxist Debate http://groups.google.com/group/marxist-debate Science & Society http://www.scienceandsociety.com/ CALL FOR PAPERS MARXISM AND CRISIS IN 21ST-CENTURY CAPITALISM The recent collapse of financial markets, housing, commodity prices, and employment has shattered the myths of neoliberalism and market fundamentalism. But conventional accounts of the crisis, focused on the role of subprime mortgage lending, complex mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, "shadow" banking, deleveraging, and widespread fraud leaves the deeper structural issues of capital accumulation, class relations, and systemic evolution out of the picture. How should the current crisis be understood in light of Marxist theoretical conceptions of capitalist dynamics? The current economic collapse has brought forth many questions. Is the ongoing crisis an event that is bringing about a new phase of capitalism? Will the crisis, and the responses to it, shift or disperse the geographic foci of capitalism? How do current theories of accumulation and the stages of capitalism hold up under recent events? How will the crisis affect the globalization of capitalist power; will it reinforce or damage it? What specific role will the state play in attempting to preserve capitalist accumulation? Is a new round of nationalization and decommodification on the agenda? If so, how extensive is this likely to be? What are the probable effects of the crisis, and of governmental responses to the crisis, on the working and living conditions of workers and on their political self- organization? How will women and minorities be affected? What is the future of relations among different sectors of the international working class, particularly between richer and poorer countries? As financial markets recoil, what direction will the economy take when a system that appeared to be invulnerable has failed? What will be the policy direction of the new rising economic powers, in particular the BRIC countries? What can be said about the current potential for revolutionary change? How will the recent attempts at social change in Latin America weather the international crisis? What are the consequences of the crisis for imperialism? Environmental crisis and capitalist accumulation are intertwined; in what new ways must existing theories of capitalist dynamics be altered to understand environmental degradation along with economic crisis? Science & Society encourages a diversity of views, and we do not expect any sort of convergence to settled conclusions. We are, however, hoping to focus on fundamental aspects of capital accumulation and crises in 21st-century capitalism from a Marxist standpoint, rather than on current developments and reportage belonging in publications that appear more frequently. Papers should not exceed 4,500 words in length. We will ask contributors to comment on each other’s work, with eventual responses to the comments, in what will emerge as a dialog format. The deadline for the first-round papers is September 1, 2009. The Guest Editors for the issue are Dr. Julio Huato (Department of Economics, St. Francis College), and Dr. Justin Holt (The Gallatin School, New York University), both of whom are members of the Science & Society Editorial Board. Potential contributors should contact, and contributions sent directly to, the Guest Editors at juliohu...@gmail.com, and jh...@nyu.edu. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Some of the many things I learned over the past 8 years on 'leftist' discussion lists
CeJ : Some of the many things I learned over the past 8 years on 'leftist' discussion lists 1. Peak oil is here, the price is on its way to 200 dollars a barrel, and we will never see oil priced below 100 dollars a barrel (or 80 or 70 or 50 ). (no comment necessary).^^^CB: What's your thinking on global warming 2. American workers really had got more 'productive' and American capitalism was 'dynamic' (doesn't look so dynamic now, does it?).CB: What abut the worker productivity part ? 3. Swaps, futures, derivatives, options, and securitization of real estate and student loans had eliminated 'risk' (I remember this one on LBO Talk oh so well).^^^CB: Since the creditors got bailed out, turns out they we'ren't taking a risk 4. The US went to war in Iraq over cheap oil (even though the immediate effect of taking Iraq's plentiful light sweet crude off the world markets was a rise in prices, which, combined with easy credit for the credit monopolists, led to an oil pricing bubble).CB: Yeah, it really was not believable that the oil monopolies' agentGeorge Bush would go to war to _lower_ oil prices.^ One more comment about oil. It would seem one thing that actually put a squeeze on the physical supplies was that the US military burns almost service-wide JP-8 jet fuel (in everything, right down to kerosene stoves) and this drove up the price of light sweet crude when the US military launched its all-out war on the planet. Meanwhile, at the same time, the Bushwa administration worked hard to more than DOUBLE the strategic reserves of oil stored in the US.^^^CB: Why am I not surprised ? Can't wait for another 8 years, with Obama as the driving force for admonition (such as, it's outrageous to pay bonuses like that to financial firm management--the guy already is starting to sound like Jimmy Carter!). CJ^^^CB: If only Carter had beat Reagan...maybe things would have been different ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Some of the many things I learned over the past 8 years on 'leftist' discussion lists
Some of the many things I learned over the past 8 years on 'leftist' discussion lists 1. Peak oil is here, the price is on its way to 200 dollars a barrel, and we will never see oil priced below 100 dollars a barrel (or 80 or 70 or 50 ). (no comment necessary). 2. American workers really had got more 'productive' and American capitalism was 'dynamic' (doesn't look so dynamic now, does it?). 3. Swaps, futures, derivatives, options, and securitization of real estate and student loans had eliminated 'risk' (I remember this one on LBO Talk oh so well). 4. The US went to war in Iraq over cheap oil (even though the immediate effect of taking Iraq's plentiful light sweet crude off the world markets was a rise in prices, which, combined with easy credit for the credit monopolists, led to an oil pricing bubble). One more comment about oil. It would seem one thing that actually put a squeeze on the physical supplies was that the US military burns almost service-wide JP-8 jet fuel (in everything, right down to kerosene stoves) and this drove up the price of light sweet crude when the US military launched its all-out war on the planet. Meanwhile, at the same time, the Bushwa administration worked hard to more than DOUBLE the strategic reserves of oil stored in the US. Can't wait for another 8 years, with Obama as the driving force for admonition (such as, it's outrageous to pay bonuses like that to financial firm management--the guy already is starting to sound like Jimmy Carter!). CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Charles Darwin vs slavery
Charles Darwin's research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to end slavery By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent 24 Jan 2009 The Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/4330132/Charles-Darwins-research-to-prove-evolution-was-motivated-by-his-desire-to-end-slavery.html "Charles Darwin, the scientist whose theories have become a corner stone of modern biology, was motivated to carry out his famous research by a desire to rid the world of slavery, according to a new book." New book: Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin's Sacred Cause. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Yo, go White People !
Naming a thread "Go White People" or "You Go White People," is bourgeois nationalism pure and simple. CB: More like proletarian internationalism when thought about more than simplistically. The division of the US working class by racism is the main division of it. The history in the election of Obama is especially that masses of White working class people voted fora Black candidate for President. Glory to the White American anti-racist spirit and sentiment. John Brown's soul is marching on !G ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
