[PEN-L:501] Huger in Russia
#3 From: "Frank Durgin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 10 Oct Subject: Hunger in Russia Anne Applebaum, in her Intellectual Capital piece (Vol 3, Issue 40 October8-14 "Don't forget about the Real Russians" , wrote "It is not true, for example, that people are starving" I don't know what she has in mind by the word starvation, but there is widespread malnutrition and hunger in Russia, and that fact is a significant contributor to that nation's deteriorating health and the soaring death rate. Up until about a year ago I collected and filed Russian press reports of hunger in Russia. I sent around a scaled down collection of those reports well over a year ago, but I guess the various lists mangers thought it took up too much space for posting. But even if no one read those reports, a priori reasoning inexorably leads to the conclusion that there is hunger in Russia. Agricultural production has plummeted. In 1997 gross agricultural production was down by 40% from the 1990 level. (Sels.zhizn', April, 28, 1998 p. 1) The decline in net agricultural output (a concept which factors in the depletion of the machine parks, livestock, soil degradation etc) was of a much larger magnitude. By way of comparison, the decline in gross output trigged by the collectivization in the 1930's was 24%. Meat production has plunged 55% and the production of milk and dairy products and eggs by over a third The plunging output has dragged per capita consumption with it and produced deterioration in the structure of diets. While the per capita consumption of bread has risen from 119 kg in 1990 to 130 in 1997 and that of potatoes 106 to 126, corresponding figures for other foods are: vegetables 89 to 70: fruits and berries 34 to 28: meat and meat products 75 to 52: fish and fish products 20 to 7:milk and dairy products 386 to 246: eggs 297 pieces to 208. The Russian daily per-capita caloric intake has declined by 25%: i.e., from an average of 3300 kcal. for the period 1986-1990, to 2,460 kcal. in 1997. Were it not for the imports it would have fallen by some 40% Those are per capita figures. Given the astronomic inequality of incomes that has swept the country, it is clear that many are going hungry. Sadly, the situation continues to deteriorate. This years grain harvest, according to Sov Ekon, will not exceed 50 million tons, i.e, less than in 1940. The potato crop, too. is expected to be a poor one and it is predicted that this comming winter some regions will be afflected by famine. The Russian's are requesting humanitarian aid. If there is interest, and with Michael's permission, I will post my edited file of very depressing Russian press reports on hunger, many running back. to 1991 and 1992, Frank ***
[PEN-L:502] Re: Screwed Up Digest
Art McGee has a problem with pen-l digest. I do not have access to the information right now, but there is a problem with reading the digest under microsoft mail. I will try to find out the answer unless someone else on the list recalls the fix. Art, I never received an e-mail from you on this subject. > > Does anyone else here have their options set to MAIL DIGEST? > > The digest for PEN-L is messed up, as none of the messages have headers. > I have no idea who wrote what. It's just a bunch of text thrown together. > > Yes, I emailed the listowner and the CSUCHICO postmaster. No response. > > > Art -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:500] Screwed Up Digest
This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. Send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for more info. Does anyone else here have their options set to MAIL DIGEST? The digest for PEN-L is messed up, as none of the messages have headers. I have no idea who wrote what. It's just a bunch of text thrown together. Yes, I emailed the listowner and the CSUCHICO postmaster. No response. Art
[PEN-L:499] Re: "Nobel" prize in Econ.
>On the other hand, it is said that Nobel adamantly opposed having a Prize >for mathematicians because a mathematician slept with his wife. "His" presumably refers to Alfred and not the mathematician. Regards, Tom Walker ^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:498] Re: Re: "Nobel" prize in Econ.
At 10:11 AM 10/12/98 -0700, you wrote: >Joseph Noonan asked: >That would certainly be fun, but the Economics prize is funded by some >Swiss bank(s), isn't it? I mean, it's not a *real* Nobel Prize, is >it? Alfred didn't set it up and I don't believe his legacy pays for >it. > >Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. > >-- >It is funded by the Swedish central bank (their FED). It was not set >up by Alfred. In fact, when it was suggested to him he said there >could be no prize in economics because econ was an ideology not a science. >Pretty astute for a chemist. On the other hand, it is said that Nobel adamantly opposed having a Prize for mathematicians because a mathematician slept with his wife. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:497] Re: "Nobel" prize in Econ.
Joseph Noonan asked: That would certainly be fun, but the Economics prize is funded by some Swiss bank(s), isn't it? I mean, it's not a *real* Nobel Prize, is it? Alfred didn't set it up and I don't believe his legacy pays for it. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. -- It is funded by the Swedish central bank (their FED). It was not set up by Alfred. In fact, when it was suggested to him he said there could be no prize in economics because econ was an ideology not a science. Pretty astute for a chemist. Doug Orr [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:496] Ko$$$ovo (fwd)
==> Having finally run wires down into my all-purpose disaster shelter this past weekend, I spent a short while online in search of overlooked gems. Here is something that none of the list's NYT hounds noticed during the summer, apparently, presented in his inimitable manner by the raging terror of psn-l. My own $0.02 on this is that Rosenthal is right, but not entirely; 5 billion dollars is not much more than a maitre d's tip these days and certainly not enough to justify the risk of another Balkan war. Palestine was the main source of potash in the British Empire, but that's not what put the blood and bone into Zionism. The irredentist passions of individual Serbs for Kosovo may be variable over time and circumstance but should never be totally dismissed, as Rosenthal does in his preface. valis From: "Steve Rosenthal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 15:59:45 + Subject: Ko$$$ovo As the U.S. and NATO threaten to carry out air strikes in response to recent Serbian massacres of Albanians in Kosovo, I am posting excerpts from a New York Times article that appeared this past July. The article shows literally what lies underneath the genocidal warfare and ethnic cleansing Balkan politicians have unleashed during the 1990s. While "experts" pontificate about ancient ethnic enmities, this article reveals the capitalist interests that actually promote the nationalist propaganda and disastrous wars. The Trepca mining complex in Kosovo is worth at least $5 billion and is "the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans." It's the real prize in the fighting over Kosovo, along with 17 billion tons of coal reserves. The article below, even after editing, is a bit long, but it is well worth reading. I learned more from it than from weeks of reports on National Public Radio. The Albanian miners, whose parents defeated an earlier generation of fascists in the 1940s, who marched under the red flag against the fascist Milosevic, and who were later fired and replaced by him, deserve a place in our memory for upholding internationalist working class principles. = = = = == = = July 8, 1998 Kosovo War's Glittering Prize Rests Underground By CHRIS HEDGES TARI TNG, Yugoslavia-The metal cage tumbled to the guts of the Stari Tng mine, with its glittering veins of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold and silver, its stagnant pools of water and muck, its steamy blasts, its miles of dank, gloomy tunnels and its vast stretches of Stygian darkness. Half a mile underground, hissing rubber air hoses were looped along tunnel walls and small lights hooked on the hard hats of miners bobbed in the inky universe. Worm-like diesel loaders roared through the corridors, laden with sparkling ore, and huge drills snarled and spat at the rock. "There is over 30 percent lead and zinc in the ore," said Novak Bjelic, the mine's beefy director. "The war in Kosovo is about the mines, nothing else. This is Serbia's Kuwait-the heart of Kosovo. We export to France, Switzerland, Greece, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Russia and Belgium. "We export to a firm in New York, but I would prefer not to name it. And in addition to all this Kosovo has 17 billion tons of coal reserves. Naturally, the Albanians want all this for themselves." The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex, the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, is worth at least $5 billion and has made millions of dollars for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, according to his critics. Serbia and its junior partner, Montenegro, are what remains of Yugoslavia. In March 1989, Milosevic revoked the autonomous status given to the ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the 2 million people in Kosovo, and he has refused to return any kind of self-governance. He is trying to crush a mounting armed resistance to his rule, and it appears that the mines, at least for a while, will earn him even more money. The Stari Tng mine, with its warehouses, is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal treatment sites, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. "In the last three years we have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore," said Bjelic, 58, "and produced 286,502 tons of concentrated lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and gold." When the Nazis seized this corner of the Balkans in 1941, they handed over the hovels in Pristina, the provincial capital, to the Italian fascists. But they kept the British-built Trepca mines for the Reich, shipping out wagonloads of minerals for weapons and producing the batteries that powered the U-boats. Submarine batteries, along with ammunition, are still produced in the Trepca mines
[PEN-L:492] Re: Re: Financial breakdown in Japan
G'day Barkley, Tom and Valis, Thanks for this rather important reminder, Barkley. > Hey, the Japanese have a huge trade surplus Which it needs, eh? Japanese exporters are taking a right kicking on the Nikkei just now. Weak regional demand and a strong yen ain't a long-term scenario. >and are >the world's largest net creditor nation. Which is good while the debtors can service their debts. Indonesia and Thailand - both basket cases - are into Japan for a lot of lolly. >The US, on the >other hand, has a huge and rising trade deficit and is the >world's largest net debtor nation and is now in a falling >interest rate scene. Interestingly, the *Australian Financial Review* cover story suggests a secret deal between Tokyo and Washington. But a structurally weak America is taking an awful risk deliberately putting its currency at risk in the hope the consequent Yen's windfall can cover the odd trillion of bad debt in the Japanese banking 'system'. Or is the Yen's appreciation such that this figure is substantially lessened (excuse the embarrassing ignorance)? >Plain old forex fundamentals suggest >such a movement. What is not suggested, and reflects the >new situation, is the speed of the movement. We've gotten >so used to the idea that forex markets ignore fundamentals >that we get shocked when they suddenly pay attention to >them. Taking into account Tom's reservations about 'rational expectations', interest rate projections and cross-currencies, would we now expect big climbs on Wall St (all that money deserting those Japanese exporters, and correspondingly improved prospects for American exporters), recoveries in Japanese banking stocks, continued rises on regional stock exchanges (as improved Japanese demand for imports is predicted), and an even skinnier greenback? If so, how skinny can the greenback get before the naturally conservative Greenspan resiles from a further cut? That cut not forthcoming then has the potential to start all the tumbling again, no - what, with all that manifest rational expectation being so fundamentally disappointed. I'd hate to be a hedge fund now. Do you get out of greenbacks or buy 'em up? It seems quite rational to do both just now. Put me down for a week or two of bullishness all round and a whopping dive thereafter - all round. Cheers, Rob.
