Re: [PEN-L:2284] Re: Shleifer and Incentives
apologize for the lateness of this reply, but I've had a heavy bout of teaching and have not had time to take a second look at Shleifer until today. To refresh memories: I had made the criticism that Andrei Shleifer, in his piece in the fall 1998 JEP, assumes away the existence of public service as a motive and then "proves" that nearly all services should be provided privately. I reread Shleifer (although admittedly not the more elaborate work on which his article is based) and see no reason to change my mind. Shliefer's theory of soft incentives goes like this: We know that private, profit-seeking firms minimize costs. Nevertheless, there may be instances in which cost minimization would lead to shortcuts the public would oppose. Thus an argument could be made for public provision precisely because cost minimization would be avoided through soft public incentives. Says Shliefer, this doctrine has limited applicability due to the great dynamic advantages of private, for-profit production (innovation), opportunities for members of the public to choose between providers (so they can punish shortcuts), and the possibility of using private, non-profit providers in certain cases. So, does Shliefer assume away public service motives? Of course. He assumes them away first by positing that private, competitive production achieves cost minimization more readily than public production. But an important aspect of public service is the willingness of workers to go "beyond the call of duty" (job description, what they are paid for), and this can have tremendous cost-reducing consequences. Many public health services, for instance, are provided more cheaply than their private counterparts, because of the extra work health professionals will perform if they serve the public directly, even though they are typically paid less. His second assumption is even more outlandish, because it contradicts the logic behind "soft incentives". Why should highly motivated public servants produce less innovation than private sector workers? If someone has an idealistic commitment to the provision of a service or achievement of a goal, this should be reflected equally in static and dynamic choices. The best example of this is the work we all do: academic research. Relatively few researchers are employed by for-profit institutions; many are employed by government. Their primary motive, we hope, is the advancement of knowledge, a form of public service. (Even many private companies that maintain large R&D shops have found it useful to replicate internally the atmosphere of a college campus, with substantial worker autonomy in setting the goals and pace of research.) It should also be added that Shliefer fails to recognize that a primary basis for public provision is the belief that particular qualities of the good or service in question have a value from a public perspective that differs from the sum of the private valuations that a market would perform. This is obviously true of schools, parks, social welfare and public health services, etc. A rousing case for this is made by Mark Sagoff in his still-relevant book "Economy of the Earth" (Cambridge, 1987). I get the sense that Shliefer can't even begin to conceptualize a difference between aggregate consumer willingness to pay and public value. (This does not mean that notions of public value, like Sagoff's, are unproblematic, just that they are indispensable and play a large role in real-world political debate.) So in the end I would say that Shliefer's piece remains a rant. He assumes away the basis for all counterargument and then announces that those who disagree with him have no arguments. (You know how these mushy-headed types are, they haven't studied serious economics and don't realize their positions have no foundation.) I thank the people who have posted more information on the Russian "aid" follies, although I don't know enough to pass judgment on Shliefer's personal role. Nevertheless, I am not surprised that someone whose moral universe is so bereft of public, as against private, values has got caught up in this mess. Peter Dorman Brad De Long wrote: > > >Peter Dorman wrote: > > > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> Subject: Shleifer and incentives > >> Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 13:12:03 -0800 > >> From: Peter Dorman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> References: <001501be3fd1$f6c56940$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> > >> I finally got around to reading Andrei Shleifer's rant against the > >> public sector in the Fall 98 J of Econ Perspectives. For those of you > >> who haven't looked at it (and I can understand why), Shleifer argues > >> that contract theory (post Williamson and Hart) supports the idea that > >> almost any good or service can be provided more efficiently by the > >> private sector. He even concludes with a brief, superficial plug for > >> educational
[PEN-L:2670] Re: Re: to poet piet
Tom Walker wrote, > Mathew Forstater wrote, > > >mine asked me why all the graves in the cemetery had "plus signs" on > >them > > More precisely, the plus signs are *over* the graves: a sur-plus. > > sur- [1] > 1. a prefix meaning " over, above, " " in >addition, " occurring mainly in >loanwords from French and partial >calques of French words: surcharge; >surname; surrender. > [ME < OF < L super- SUPER -] also "sur-titles" -- which are shown on a screen over the opera stage so that the audience can understand what is going on in the opera whatever language it is sung in -- to the extent that the opera makes sense in any language. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:2671] [Fwd: Workplace sabotage on the rise as job security wanes]
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --1EF4C080A8D8B9403976C0DC Sid Shniad wrote: > THE LOS ANGELES TIMES October 31, 1998 > > SURE, WORKERS GET MAD BUT MORE GET EVEN > > Sabotage Is on the Rise As Job Security Wanes > > By Mary Curtius > > SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it work rage. As the corporate world > slims down, speeds up and grows more uncertain, workers are > getting mad. Anger at employers is getting more pervasive, > security experts say, in a job market where few people expect to > finish a career where they began it. > > Resentment usually surfaces in the traditional form of griping. But > increasingly, it is playing itself out in a darker fashion -- sabotage. > > Most managers don't want to even talk about their workers who > deliberately inflict damage on the job. Few companies have worked > out programs to anticipate and deal with the problem. But > employee sabotage is costing American corporations hundreds of > millions, if not billions, dollars every year, and it is being carried > out by everyone from dock workers to corporate vice presidents. > > Just ask Dennis Dalton, president of security firm Dalton Affiliates > in Fremont, Calif. > > Hired recently to find out who was carving graffiti into the > imported hardwood that lined one of San Francisco's best-known > downtown skyscrapers, Dalton set up security cameras in the > elevators and posted signs outside warning riders they were being > monitored. > > The security consultant, a veteran of the business, could hardly > believe what the videotapes recorded. Vandals repeatedly gouged > profanity-laden hate messages into the wood, forcing the office > tower's owners to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing > paneling. > > Both the building's owners and Dalton initially believed they were > looking for outsiders, people who did not actually work in the > building. > > "There were a group of bicycle messenger folks that we strongly > suspected were the primary people," Dalton recalls. Instead, "we > caught office workers using pocket knives and other instruments > on the wood," he says. "It ran across the spectrum . . . to our > chagrin and surprise, up popped a professional white-collar > employee." All but two of the many vandals the cameras recorded, > he says, were employed by firms whose offices were in the > skyscraper. > > Companies Find the Enemy Within > > In another instance, Dalton says, owners of a Boston high-rise > wanted him to find out who was defacing elevators lined with > imported marble. > > "Again, we put in cameras, this time hidden -- with a court order. > We found that the vandals were dock workers, secretarial- > computer people, computer workers. And then we caught a vice > president who wrote graffiti on the elevator's marble in response to > the nasty messages from the employees. At that point, you think > 'This is getting bizarre."' > > The lesson to be learned, Dalton says, is one a lot of managers have > trouble accepting: Employee sabotage in the workplace is a > common occurrence and can range from the most simple acts of > vandalism to complex acts of technological revenge. > > Employee sabotage, particularly in the Information Age, "is a huge > issue," says Barbara J. Bashein, professor of information systems at > California State University at San Marcos. > > A specialist in computer systems and controls, Bashein wrote a > report this year for the Financial Executives Research Foundation > on internal corporation controls over technology. One of the things > she learned, Bashein says, "is that a lot of managers believe > employee sabotage won't happen to them. Our research showed > that the reality is that it will happen to you because it happens to > most organizations." > > It can be as simple as the angry employee who uses his car key to > scrape paint off a row of cars in the company parking lot, security > specialist Dalton says, or as complex as the computer technician > who plants a virus in the company's system as her final act before > taking a new job. > > In San Francisco a year ago, a power failure at a key downtown > substation of the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. plunged one-third of > the city into darkness for several hours and hopelessly snarled the > morning rush-hour commute. Within hours of the blackout, PG&E > and local law enforcement officials were declaring it an act of > sabotage -- someone had turned a long row of knobs in the > substation to cut the power. > > At the time, PG&E was struggling with the adjustments caused > deregulation of utilities in California. Employees who had long > counted on job security were suddenly faced with the realities -- > and stresses -- caused by jumping into a competitive market. > > >From the beginning, both PG&E al law enforcement officials said > employees were the primary suspects because access to the > substation was restricted and no one had br
[PEN-L:2669] Re: Art and revolution series<3.0.1.32.19990127101400.00c8a340@popserver.panix.com><3.0.1.32.19990127100512.00cc2284@popserver.panix.com><36AF2409.E5AE3219@mail.ilstu.edu> <3.0.1.32.19990127122027.00b374cc@popserver.panix.com>
And Bob Kaufman, the greatest of all Beat poets, started out as a union spokesperson. Louis Proyect wrote: > I have decided to write about Andy Warhol next. It sort of keeps a certain > consistency with what I have been writing about so far, but I wish I had > the time to pursue another thread, namely the connections between "new > poetry" of the 1950s with leftist culture of the 1930s. The new poetry > movement, as defined by Hall-Pack-Simpson in their legendary anthology, > consisted of several overlapping schools: the beats, the San Francisco > renaissance, the Black Mountain school, and the New York School. Beat poet > Allen Ginsberg's ties to the 1930s, both through his family and through > elective affinities, are profuse. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, basically the > founder of the San Francisco renaissance, was a long-standing anarchist. > The Black Mountain college, which I've written about before, was tied to > both Bauhaus culture through the presidency of Joseph Albers and to New > Deal culture, through the man who replaced Albers, Charles Olson. > > The New York School, which included Kenneth Koch and Frank O'Hara, > maintained an uneasy alliance with the beats, but really had more in common > with Abstract Expressionist/cold war liberalism than it did with the 1930s. > O'Hara was an Abstract Expressionist artist as well as a poet and had the > same sort of self-destructive bent as his drinking buddy Pollock. > > It is important to understand that the "new poetry" movement was one of the > main cultural influences on the student revolt of the 1960s. The > Hall-Pack-Simpson anthology was one of the few places a young student could > find outspoken denuciations of American capitalism, although phrased in > literary rather than political terms. > > One of the things that I have long believed is that the attempt to break > down history into the "30s", "40s", etc. is profoundly undialectical. In > actuality, there is a continuity that is not too hard to identify if you > take the trouble. I suppose the reason that bourgeois ideology tries so > hard to fragment our history in this fashion is that they don't want people > to take a long view, as Paul Baran emphasized. The artistic and political > traditions of the 1930s are still very much worth identifying with, just as > those of the 60s are. In the attempt to fashion new styles which make > everything else obsolete--in the Generation X mode--the mass media are > simply trying to lobotomize us. > > The material on Warhol is fascinating. He is an extremely complex figure, a > working-class homosexual who really represents bourgeois high culture at > the end of its tether. He loved to bite the hand that fed him. More to follow. > > Louis Proyect > > (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:2667] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: intern needed
Remember the old term "charismatic leader" ? Like Kennedy. "Charisma" means "sexy". This was the code word before talkshows unrepressed public discourse. When most candidates were men, still half of voters were women. CB >>> jf noonan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 01/27 1:37 PM >>> On Wed, 27 Jan 1999, Doug Henwood wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > >It is not age, Doug. It is power, the ultimate aphrodisiac as our > >fearless leader can attest. > > A few months ago, I was talking with a group of folks about Clinton and his > scandal, when one of the women there, who's not given to exuberant > outbursts, described seeing Clinton in person at the Denver G-7 summit. She > described him, with fervor in her eyes & voice, as "a furnace of sexual > energy." She repeated the phrase 2 or 3 times even. I think that's one of > the secrets of the guy's popularity. > > Doug > Just like Tina Brown, eh? -- Joseph Noonan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:2666] Re: Re: Re: Re: intern needed
STOP!!! PLEASE!!! I referred an intern to Doug once and she had a great _working_ experience. No interaction with or complaints about his libido. Cheers, Tavis On Wed, 27 Jan 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > At 12:36 PM 1/27/99 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote: > >Tom Walker wrote: > > > >>Would that be LBO as in LiBidO? > > > >I'm too old for one of those. > > > >Doug > > > It is not age, Doug. It is power, the ultimate aphrodisiac as our > fearless leader can attest. > > Wojtek > >
[PEN-L:2664] Re: Re: Re: Domestic consequences of global economicturmoil<36AF2409.E5AE3219@mail.ilstu.edu><3.0.1.32.19990127102905.00c849c0@popserver.panix.com> <3.0.5.32.19990127141734.007a94b0@emmanuel.edu>
Ellen: You should learn Chinese in whch gender does not figure in the language's grammer. Although, as I have pointed out in some of my earlier posts on another list, most Chinese chacracters with female roots deal with evil concepts. Incidentally, more of America's wealth is owned by females due to longevity and the widow syndrome. And in globalization, the female worker is the most exploited. Finally, which is more correct, motherland or fatherland? Parent land? Henry "Ellen T. Frank" wrote: > At 02:05 PM 1/27/99 -0800, you wrote: > to > > The US is pushing for the Japanese to open her financial markets, a > >move that promises more benefit to the US economy that saving the welfare the > >American Steel workers. She also need the Japanese to continue buying US > >Treasuries. > > Funny, this convention of calling America "she", when the "he's" are so > clearly calling the shots. > > Ellen Frank
[PEN-L:2663] Sen. Gramm on Fed Oversight; Reserve Bank Directors Study
New stuff at the Financial Markets Center's web site: Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm wants to end the Fed's semi- annual Humphrey-Hawkins reports to Congress. James K. Galbraith explains why that's a bad idea. 1999 is the Year of the Incumbent at Federal Reserve Bank boards of directors. That leaves labor, community and consumer interests underrepresented, according to the Center's annual report on Reserve Bank board composition. www.fmcenter.org
[PEN-L:2662] Re: Re: Domestic consequences of global economicturmoil
At 02:05 PM 1/27/99 -0800, you wrote: to > The US is pushing for the Japanese to open her financial markets, a >move that promises more benefit to the US economy that saving the welfare the >American Steel workers. She also need the Japanese to continue buying US >Treasuries. Funny, this convention of calling America "she", when the "he's" are so clearly calling the shots. Ellen Frank
[PEN-L:2641] po barteroe contra doema member
last saturday one of the best daily papers in Holland (NRC) carried an article claiming that barter is making a come back in Moscow. Doema member Borovoi scolded it for being a "gangster eldorado" (probably envious of his footloose competitors who are known to tax a little more directly and coercively than most states) but in the interview snatches this sentiment is not born out at all. I feel like my day of reckoning is at hand, no last judgement or anything but I bet at least a keystone prejudice will have to be overcome for you lot to go see the following links for instance and I doubt this news item would do it but it emboldens me to schlepp this part of my mountain to yall marxian mosaicoids: economy from the bottom up, imperative principles (if not reading) to aid the incessantly fresh attempts to liberate, seceed and emancipate from, start up, autonomize, in other words: make selfsufficient and independent numerous derelict lots, mininations, territories and (bio)regions like whole watersheds (preferably, since that would be able to pioneer, demonstrate and show an integral alternative way to hark back to constituencies both mute and very vocal):www2.free.de/geld (the substance of this site is in German though not the links) (the best work there was written in the 30ties by Ulrich von Beckerath', posted here along with some other classic social reformers from the monetarily savvy anarchist corner, in or translated into German; as I said elsewhere, he would make up for Hitler and all the other German speaking evil ones, past and future if only his ideas were given a go for a century or so. Will somebody please post some in english?.I did just that meanwhile myself: http://members.tripod.com/~poetpiet/guest_appearances/intro_to_currency_issues.htm 20 (text)files (about 100K each); work by Beckerath, Zander, Rittershausen and Zube informing about the symbolic currencies with Hensel, Callahan and Hamaker thrown in for good measure; to present a little something on subtle and substantial ones as well. I went to Australia to accomplish this but ended up with a course correction toward indiginous issues on which I and the custodian of Beckerath's remaining work (thousands and thousands of repetitive yet beautiful letters (20 on a good day; an achievement idolized and emulated by John; most of them have micropublishing as main theme) available from him on microfiche) did not see eye to eye; for more backscratch turned bite see the appendices) Another economist who deserves some focus now is Roland Vaubel (did him as well); he is one of the hundred something or so economics professors from Germany to speak out against a rush job for the EURO, arguing in favor of a proof of balance delivering step by step sort of progression as best for most such cases in a big fat academic tome about currency competition and unification. Two of the all too rare bits of info on John Zube's by now 1400 microfiche issues, see my appendices and value standard chapter. art.net/Poets/Jennifer/anarchy http://www.newciv.org/GIB/BOV/BV-620.HTML (it's been there a good long while) The later version of this adress, a huge site, has been renamed: globalideasbank.org; its the (London) people who put out the encyclopedia of social inventions ... new additions Progressive Economists Network (PEN-L) Archived @ CSF Communications for a Sustainable Future I go see their entries often since they attempt to strike a balance in, and make a stand for matters like nativity, ecology and.their unfortunate and atrociously reactionary conceptions of economics! Home Page (title) for a major (Marxist) contributor (thanks to scanning stuff) to the far and wide flung clique just caricaturized. For my attempts to challenge these geezers see: http://members.tripod.com/~poetpiet/progressive_ecoknomusts.htm http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/ijccr/ (International journal for community currency research with message board) http://cac.psu.edu/~jdm114/ (dead economists includes messages board) http://www.progress.org/econolink/ (good little trilingual service from Australia) http://www.greenmoney.com/gmg/index.htm (the green money online guide by the RCC group //inusa.com) http://www.goodmoney.com/ (Social, Ethical and Environmental Investing and Consuming & Corporate Accountability; frequent updates, sensible articles, NH based) ... [EMAIL PROTECTED](subscribe currency) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (subscribe) adressing the highbrows and bosses: cato.org (a libertarian thinktank) lp.org (the libertarian party) line.dk/line (libertarian network europe) normeconomics.org (Acres editor hobbyhorse: parity in monetization, maximum seven times that of raw material prices) adressing lowbrows and bases: mondragon.mcc.es/english/mcc.htm (the basque co-operative; meager site so far) //home.connectnet.com/peter/ss.html (stone society; an autonomous and imaginative scheme; have yet to find out if it is hybrid or viab
[PEN-L:2661] Re: Domestic consequences of global economic turmoil<36AF2409.E5AE3219@mail.ilstu.edu> <3.0.1.32.19990127102905.00c849c0@popserver.panix.com>
This is called "full-circle" imperialism. In classical imperialism, capital owning classes in imeprialist countries import raw material by exploiting all calsses in the colonies, and export manufacrued goods by exploiting the working class in the home countries, to drain specie money (gold) from the conlonies under a political regime to monopolized trade. This gives the imperialist countries wealth and power. In full-circle imperialism, imperialist countries through globalization ship commodities of all kinds (raw and manufactured) to high price markets and shift production to low cost (wages and benefits, environment, rent) locations across national borders. Because the US is still the overall winner in the globalization game, there is no real effort to protect American workers except making political noises. The steel negotiations with Japan has collpased, as expected, becasue the US needs to have Japan's ecnomy recover more than she needs to save American steel workers. The US is pushing for the Japanese to open her financial markets, a move that promises more benefit to the US economy that saving the welfare the American Steel workers. She also need the Japanese to continue buying US Treasuries. The same with cheap Chinese imports, 82% of the profits goes to US multinationals anyway. Still, the deal is that China will delay as much as possible the devaluation of its currency to stablilize the Asian finanacial crises in exchange for the US tolerating a high trade deficit. Similar geopolitical deals are at work with Russia and Brazil. A comprehensive analysis of US trade policy will reveal that it is US policy to abandon the America worker to support US led globalization. American imperialism has included the American worker among its lists of victim; has been for 2 decades. Henry C.K. Liu Henry Louis Proyect wrote: > The Christian Science Monitor > > January 26, 1999, Tuesday > > World trade beginning to tilt > > Suzi Parker, Special to The Christian Science Monitor > > DATELINE: HICKMAN, ARK. > > Fragile global economy is creating new problems for US tradepolicy - and > for steelworkers across America. > > When the local steel plant cut back on Tommy Higgins's hours, he did > everything he could to make ends meet. He carpooled to work to save money > on gas. He painted houses on days off. > > But it wasn't enough: He eventually had to put a "for sale" sign in front > of his Arkansas home. "You do what you have to do when times get bad," he > yells over the thunder of a furnace during one of his days at work. > > It's a situation that Mike Reichert of Tennessee knows well. So does Steve > Boren of nearby Blytheville, Ark. These steelworkers, like thousands of > others across the United States, have had their lives turned inside out by > the collapse of the American steel market. > > Cheap imports from Asia, Brazil, and Eastern Europe are pouring in as > foreign companies seek ways to boost struggling economies. Their plight > typifies how a fragile world economy is producing widening imbalances in > global trade - an issue that will be front and center in Washington this > week as US officials try to fend off protectionist sentiments. > > The result, for American steelworkers at least, has been disastrous as > companies either cut back or fold, unable to compete with imports. From the > banks of the Mississippi here in northeast Arkansas to plants amid the corn > fields of Indiana, it's one way that world economic malaise is touching > American lives. > > "We have been hit significantly," says David Chase, general manager of > Nucor Steel. "It started in July and it hasn't let up much. Production from > last year was off 20 percent Paychecks are being reduced by 30 to 40 > percent, sometimes more. Financial conditions are dictating spending > changes in the local economy. It's bad." > > The American Institute for International Steel in Washington announced last > week that the US imported 4.03 million tons of steel products in November, > up 72.3 percent from a year ago. And on Friday, US Steel, the largest > domestic steel producer, reported a 50 percent drop in 1998 fourth-quarter > profits. > > View from the Mississippi > > For areas like northeast Arkansas - the third-largest steel producing > region in the country - such numbers are a cause for great concern. In > Blytheville, a town of 22,000, new subdivisions resemble ghost towns as > contractors have left houses unfinished as the demand has vanished. > > The city has certainly taken its knocks. Located in Mississippi County - > one of Arkansas' poorest - Blytheville once flourished with cotton crops. > That revenue disappeared with the onset of agricultural mechanization, > though, and the region didn't rebound until the 1960s, when Eaker Air Force > Base opened. > > Then in 1988, Nucor Yamato decided to locate one of its plants in Armorel, > seven miles away from Blytheville. Four years later, when the military > closed Eaker, a
[PEN-L:2659] Re: Re: Re: Re: intern needed
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >It is not age, Doug. It is power, the ultimate aphrodisiac as our >fearless leader can attest. A few months ago, I was talking with a group of folks about Clinton and his scandal, when one of the women there, who's not given to exuberant outbursts, described seeing Clinton in person at the Denver G-7 summit. She described him, with fervor in her eyes & voice, as "a furnace of sexual energy." She repeated the phrase 2 or 3 times even. I think that's one of the secrets of the guy's popularity. Doug
[PEN-L:2640] Re: Re: Butler and bad writing
-- On Tue, 26 Jan 1999 23:38:56 William S. Lear wrote: >I'm quoting fairly heavily here because this is heavy treading, for me >at least, and I therefore want to be as clear and as unambiguous as >possible. My main gripes are: 1) There seems to be nothing really new >or helpful here (from Butler, not Mark); 2) Butler's formulations are >highly and needlessly arcane; 3) There seems to be a great deal >missing from her accounts (as Mark notes, incidentally). > >Let me offer a few random queries and thoughts up front: What *counts* >as an act of performativity? viewing a turn signal? paying cash for a >dress? picking up a candy wrapper? Does listening to a lecture by a >professor count as an act, or are references she makes to various >things each individual acts? Do acts shoot at you from her words like >shards of glass, making you think of certain things which trigger >performativity within you? I mean humans can make associations of the >most strange sort. mutability of the subject; perfor(m)ation; perfora(c)tivity; fresh mud; origin of species; metabolization of rockreduction of oxides; a royal serving of/for subjects..spontaneous generation.. illustrate your point enough? No? Plenty more of my attempts to tackle "subject(ivity) anchorment" placed at: http://members.tripod.com/~poetpiet/(your choice of 5 megs of text) I'm sure people wouldn't know what in earth this kind of strangelic straymbundles grows on about with properly coordinated placement. HotBot - Search smarter. http://www.hotbot.com
[PEN-L:2658] Re: Re: Re: intern needed
At 12:36 PM 1/27/99 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote: >Tom Walker wrote: > >>Would that be LBO as in LiBidO? > >I'm too old for one of those. > >Doug > It is not age, Doug. It is power, the ultimate aphrodisiac as our fearless leader can attest. Wojtek
[PEN-L:2660] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: intern needed
On Wed, 27 Jan 1999, Doug Henwood wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > >It is not age, Doug. It is power, the ultimate aphrodisiac as our > >fearless leader can attest. > > A few months ago, I was talking with a group of folks about Clinton and his > scandal, when one of the women there, who's not given to exuberant > outbursts, described seeing Clinton in person at the Denver G-7 summit. She > described him, with fervor in her eyes & voice, as "a furnace of sexual > energy." She repeated the phrase 2 or 3 times even. I think that's one of > the secrets of the guy's popularity. > > Doug > Just like Tina Brown, eh? -- Joseph Noonan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:2656] Re: Re: intern needed
Tom Walker wrote: >Would that be LBO as in LiBidO? I'm too old for one of those. Doug
[PEN-L:2655] Re: Re: Re: Nation article on Social Security
William S. Lear wrote: >I can't really evaluate this --- what do you think? Which figure do >you think sounds more reasonable? And, are the two figures measuring >(just about) exactly the same thing? Dunno. Dean Baker used to quote the 30% figure too, and he also used the 10-12% number for the U.S. life insurance industry. Doug
[PEN-L:2653] Art and revolution series
I have decided to write about Andy Warhol next. It sort of keeps a certain consistency with what I have been writing about so far, but I wish I had the time to pursue another thread, namely the connections between "new poetry" of the 1950s with leftist culture of the 1930s. The new poetry movement, as defined by Hall-Pack-Simpson in their legendary anthology, consisted of several overlapping schools: the beats, the San Francisco renaissance, the Black Mountain school, and the New York School. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg's ties to the 1930s, both through his family and through elective affinities, are profuse. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, basically the founder of the San Francisco renaissance, was a long-standing anarchist. The Black Mountain college, which I've written about before, was tied to both Bauhaus culture through the presidency of Joseph Albers and to New Deal culture, through the man who replaced Albers, Charles Olson. The New York School, which included Kenneth Koch and Frank O'Hara, maintained an uneasy alliance with the beats, but really had more in common with Abstract Expressionist/cold war liberalism than it did with the 1930s. O'Hara was an Abstract Expressionist artist as well as a poet and had the same sort of self-destructive bent as his drinking buddy Pollock. It is important to understand that the "new poetry" movement was one of the main cultural influences on the student revolt of the 1960s. The Hall-Pack-Simpson anthology was one of the few places a young student could find outspoken denuciations of American capitalism, although phrased in literary rather than political terms. One of the things that I have long believed is that the attempt to break down history into the "30s", "40s", etc. is profoundly undialectical. In actuality, there is a continuity that is not too hard to identify if you take the trouble. I suppose the reason that bourgeois ideology tries so hard to fragment our history in this fashion is that they don't want people to take a long view, as Paul Baran emphasized. The artistic and political traditions of the 1930s are still very much worth identifying with, just as those of the 60s are. In the attempt to fashion new styles which make everything else obsolete--in the Generation X mode--the mass media are simply trying to lobotomize us. The material on Warhol is fascinating. He is an extremely complex figure, a working-class homosexual who really represents bourgeois high culture at the end of its tether. He loved to bite the hand that fed him. More to follow. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:2652] intern needed
Help! LBO badly needs an intern (can we still use that word?). Any volunteers or suggestions? Doug
[PEN-L:2649] BLS Daily Report
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. --_=_NextPart_000_01BE4A14.CE7735F0 BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1999 __The AFL-CIO, pointing to new statistics from BLS that show membership in unions increased by more than 100,000 in 1998, says the organizing strategy laid out by the federation's leadership more than three years ago is working. At the same time, the Organizing Director noted that the labor movement is not growing enough to keep up with the economy's rate of job growth, which was 2.2 million new jobs created in 1998. According to the BLS statistics, the number of U.S. workers belonging to unions in 1998 grew from 16.1 million to 16.2 million, marking the first time in the last five years that membership outpaced the previous year's total. The density of union membership in the workforce, however, decreased from 14.1 percent in 1997 to 13.9 percent in 1998. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A13). __BLS announced that union membership grew by 100,000 last year, after three years of decline, causing the AFL-CIO to boast that its efforts to revive organized labor were beginning to pay off. ... (New York Times, page A20). __The number of workers who belong to labor unions grew slightly last year, the government said, but the percentage of unionized jobs continued to decline. ... Labor's biggest gains came among health-care workers, public employees, and service workers. It lost members in manufacturing and most other private sectors. ... (Wall Street Journal, page B2). Health benefits costs rose 6.1 percent in 1998 - nearly twice as fast as the medical component of the CPI, ending five years of nearly flat cost growth, a survey of 4,181 U.S. employers by William M. Mercer shows. The average cost of covering active and retired employees rose to $4,164 in 1998, from $3,924 in 1997, survey data showed. The medical CPI increased 3.4 percent in 1998. Employers predict their costs will rise even faster in 1999 with 72 percent of employers polled anticipating cost increases averaging 9 percent, Mercer said. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-8). Existing house sales set a record in 1998 for the third year in a row, thanks to low mortgage rates, strong job growth, and a rising stock market. Sales of existing single-family homes surged 13.5 percent to 4.79 million, beating 1997's record high of 4.22 million, the National Association of Realtors reported (Washington Post, page E6)_Sales of existing single-family homes jumped 3.1 percent in December from November, as a strong economy, low mortgage rates, and warm weather spurred a flurry of purchasers. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2) The Supreme Court rejected the federal government's plan for using a controversial counting method to estimate portions of the nation's population in the 2000 Census, ruling in a case that carries enormous political and economic consequences for communities around the country. By a 5 to 4 vote, the justices said federal law prevents the administration from supplementing the Census Bureau's traditional procedure of trying to reach every household with statistical estimates that would be used to determine the nation's population and divide seats in Congress among the states. But beyond the crucial apportionment purpose of the census, the court did not foreclose allowing "statistical sampling" for other important purposes, such as the drawing of political boundaries within each state and the allocation of federal funds for everything from road construction to housing for the poor. ... (Washington Post, page A1)_Dealing a bitter blow to Democratic hopes, the Supreme Court ruled today that the official census for 2000, which will be used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives, must be conducted by the traditional head count. ... (New York Times, page 1)_In a political setback for the Clinton administration, the Supreme Court limited the use of statistical sampling in the 2000 census, a method that Democrats argued would help to account for some minorities and others who historically have been hard to count. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2) --_=_NextPart_000_01BE4A14.CE7735F0 b3NvZnQgTWFpbC5Ob3RlADEIAQWAAwAOzwcBABsACwAwAAsAAwA7AQEggAMADgAAAM8HAQAb AAsAMAADAAMAMwEBCYABACEAAABGMzk0Qzk4QkNFQjVEMjExODg4RTAwQzA0RjhDNzgzMQA7BwEE gAEAEQAAAEJMUyBEYWlseSBSZXBvcnQAkAUBDYAEAAICAAIAAQOQBgC8DAAAHEAAOQCg hSTTFEq+AR4AcAABEQAAAEJMUyBEYWlseSBSZXBvcnQAAgFxAAEWAb5KFNHd i8mU+bXOEdKIjgDAT4x4MQAAHgAxQAENUklDSEFSRFNPTl9EAAMAGkAAHgAw U/ZryP8ACgEPAhUCpAPkBesCgwBQEwNUAgBjaArAc2V0LjIGAAbDAoMyESdwcu5xEiAHbQKDMwPF E3UHE+0CgzQDxhYVfQqACM8J2eI7GIIyNTUJuhnxGaMfCasa4hexDaILYG5nMTwwMxUgCwoVIgHQ IEKCTAXwREFJTFkH8EBFUE9SVCwT0FUURVMe4FkfoEpBTkhVQVIfIDI2H6AxDjkhIAqFCoVfX1Ro AmUWAEZMLUNJTykfoHBvC4B0C4BnINB0byBuB9FzAZAjYPkkIGljBCADUgrhHdoKIB8ekh29I6AR wAVAc2hvvwfgB4AG0ASQJ7AF
[PEN-L:2668] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: intern needed
On 27 Jan 99 at 14:32, Tavis Barr wrote: > > STOP!!! PLEASE!!! I referred an intern to Doug once and she had a great > _working_ experience. No interaction with or complaints about his libido. > > Cheers, > Tavis > > > > On Wed, 27 Jan 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > At 12:36 PM 1/27/99 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote: > > >Tom Walker wrote: > > > > > >>Would that be LBO as in LiBidO? > > > > > >I'm too old for one of those. > > > > > >Doug > > > > > It is not age, Doug. It is power, the ultimate aphrodisiac as our > > fearless leader can attest. > > > > Wojtek Speaking of His Royal Slickness and his paramour Monica, Monica, tired and depressed over continuous press references to her phenotype and weight, checked in to a prestigious Plastic Surgery Clinic and told the physicians she wanted her "love handles" removed. Two days later she emerged from the clinic with no ears. Jim Craven James Craven Dept. of Economics,Clark College 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tel: (360) 992-2283 Fax: 992-2863 -- "The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians; their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." (Northwest Ordinance, 1787, Ratified by Congress 1789) "To speak of atrocious crimes in mild language is treason to virtue." (Edmund Burke) *My Employer has no association with My Private and Protected Opinion*
[PEN-L:2648] Re: to poet piet
mine asked me why all the graves in the cemetery had "plus signs" on them Tom Walker wrote: > piet, > > Last night my five-year old son asked me: > > "When you add two plus two, > is it that the first two is 'one, two' > and the second two is 'three, four'?" > > Tom Walker > http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:2645] Re: Nation article on Social Security
William S. Lear wrote: >I thought Doug Henwood said >that Chile's system was gobbling up much higher percentages (30%?). I got that from: Diamond, Peter (1993). "Privatization of Social Security: Lessons From Chile," paper presented at the 12th Latin American meeting of the Econometric Society, Tucuman, Argentina (August 20). Doug
[PEN-L:2665] Re: Re: Re: Re: intern needed
In response to Doug's effort to hire an intern, >>Tom Walker wrote: >>>Would that be LBO as in LiBidO? Doug responded: >>I'm too old for one of those. Wojtek responds:> It is not age, Doug. It is power, the ultimate aphrodisiac as our fearless leader can attest. I wonder: if knowledge is power, and power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, why didn't _my_ Ph.D. pay off? and if knowledge is power and power corrupts, does that mean that knowledge corrupts? and that absolute knowledge corrupts absolutely? or maybe I really am ignorant. "all I know is that I know nothing." -- Socrates. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:2650] Re: Re: Nation article on Social Security
On Wed, January 27, 1999 at 11:25:15 (-0500) Doug Henwood writes: >William S. Lear wrote: > >>I thought Doug Henwood said >>that Chile's system was gobbling up much higher percentages (30%?). > >I got that from: > >Diamond, Peter (1993). "Privatization of Social Security: Lessons From >Chile," paper presented at the 12th Latin American meeting of the >Econometric Society, Tucuman, Argentina (August 20). I can't really evaluate this --- what do you think? Which figure do you think sounds more reasonable? And, are the two figures measuring (just about) exactly the same thing? Bill
[PEN-L:2644] Domestic consequences of global economic turmoil
The Christian Science Monitor January 26, 1999, Tuesday World trade beginning to tilt Suzi Parker, Special to The Christian Science Monitor DATELINE: HICKMAN, ARK. Fragile global economy is creating new problems for US tradepolicy - and for steelworkers across America. When the local steel plant cut back on Tommy Higgins's hours, he did everything he could to make ends meet. He carpooled to work to save money on gas. He painted houses on days off. But it wasn't enough: He eventually had to put a "for sale" sign in front of his Arkansas home. "You do what you have to do when times get bad," he yells over the thunder of a furnace during one of his days at work. It's a situation that Mike Reichert of Tennessee knows well. So does Steve Boren of nearby Blytheville, Ark. These steelworkers, like thousands of others across the United States, have had their lives turned inside out by the collapse of the American steel market. Cheap imports from Asia, Brazil, and Eastern Europe are pouring in as foreign companies seek ways to boost struggling economies. Their plight typifies how a fragile world economy is producing widening imbalances in global trade - an issue that will be front and center in Washington this week as US officials try to fend off protectionist sentiments. The result, for American steelworkers at least, has been disastrous as companies either cut back or fold, unable to compete with imports. From the banks of the Mississippi here in northeast Arkansas to plants amid the corn fields of Indiana, it's one way that world economic malaise is touching American lives. "We have been hit significantly," says David Chase, general manager of Nucor Steel. "It started in July and it hasn't let up much. Production from last year was off 20 percent Paychecks are being reduced by 30 to 40 percent, sometimes more. Financial conditions are dictating spending changes in the local economy. It's bad." The American Institute for International Steel in Washington announced last week that the US imported 4.03 million tons of steel products in November, up 72.3 percent from a year ago. And on Friday, US Steel, the largest domestic steel producer, reported a 50 percent drop in 1998 fourth-quarter profits. View from the Mississippi For areas like northeast Arkansas - the third-largest steel producing region in the country - such numbers are a cause for great concern. In Blytheville, a town of 22,000, new subdivisions resemble ghost towns as contractors have left houses unfinished as the demand has vanished. The city has certainly taken its knocks. Located in Mississippi County - one of Arkansas' poorest - Blytheville once flourished with cotton crops. That revenue disappeared with the onset of agricultural mechanization, though, and the region didn't rebound until the 1960s, when Eaker Air Force Base opened. Then in 1988, Nucor Yamato decided to locate one of its plants in Armorel, seven miles away from Blytheville. Four years later, when the military closed Eaker, a second Nucor plant in Hickman eased the strain on the economy. Indeed, the average steelworker at Nucor made about $ 60,000 a year, in contrast to the average per capita income in Mississippi County, which was $ 14,784 as recently as 1995. "We had just rebounded when the base closed," explains Steve Boren, a Blytheville native and seven-year Nucor employee. "Up until six months ago, houses were being sold before they were being built. Not anymore." Like many around here, Mr. Boren is angry. He loves his hometown and thinks the government should be doing more to help US steelworkers. "The government has let this community down twice," says Boren. "First, they shut down the air force base, and now the steel industry is hurting. The government should have done more to enforce trade and import laws. Now we have a situation where making ends meet is almost impossible, and who knows how long this will go on unless something is done." Washington's response Rep. Peter Visclosky (D) of Indiana and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D) of West Virginia hope to get something done soon. Following a protest by thousands of steelworkers in Washington last week, the two lawmakers said they plan to introduce legislation early next month to restrict imports. Although President Clinton vowed the US would enforce its trade laws when "imports unlawfully flood our nation" in his State of the Union address, any decisive action from the president - or from Congress - is unlikely. For one, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin has said that it would be a mistake to raise trade barriers during a time of global financial turmoil. Furthermore, the bill to restrict imports could run afoul of international trade agreements, and few members of Congress are expected to sign on. Still, the administration is watching the steel situation closely. In fact, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, recently warned that if Japan's steel exports don't decline "su
[PEN-L:2642] Re: Butler and bad writing
Bill Lear: >Again, she is arguing against something that I find absolutely >astonishing that anyone could belive in. How can anyone believe that >social conditions fully determine people? Why, obviously Marxists believe that social conditions fully determine people. Anybody who has read Marx knows that his main point is that there is a one-to-one relationship between the base and the superstructure. For example, everybody knows that students protested the war in Vietnam because they wanted to avoid getting killed rather than outrage over what was happening to peasants. Now before anybody raises the anti-Marxist critique that women protested as well, I have to remind you that male anti-war protesters often threatened to withhold penile performativity if their girl-friends supported the war. Then you have to explain why some students went all the way and became revolutionaries, like me for example. If you study the profiles of such students, you will discover that most of them were children of petty-bourgeois parents who were being swept up by the dislocations of monopoly capital in the 1960s. My father owned a fruit store in Woodridge, New York, a small town in the Catskill Mountains. One day an A&P opened up and he began to lose all his business. His economic discontent sparked me into trying to understand the cause of the misery of small shop-keepers in general and I dedicated myself to a 6 month study of Marx's Capital. I started with Volume 3 and worked backwards. (I have never read Volume 1). To my dying day, I will never forget the anguished cry of my father as he watched Doris Kaplan drive past his store on the way to the A&P. "What's the matter? My pickles aren't good enough for her?" Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:2657] Re: BLS Daily Report
>__The AFL-CIO, pointing to new statistics from BLS that show membership in >unions increased by more than 100,000 in 1998, says the organizing strategy >laid out by the federation's leadership more than three years ago is >working. In what is called putting a positive spin . . . >The density of >union membership in the workforce, however, decreased from 14.1 percent in >1997 to 13.9 percent in 1998. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A13). . . . on bad news. Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:2654] Re: intern needed
Doug, Would that be LBO as in LiBidO? >Help! LBO badly needs an intern (can we still use that word?). Any >volunteers or suggestions? > >Doug Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:2639] Re: Dark musings
Dear robbery, if you need a repriev from deprivatorily peeved sheepishness due to lack of sleep and vica versa I would advise following up on the post called "po barteroe" appearing in mail missive a target near you soon enough. Gotta read all of my first PEN-L installment first. On Wed, 27 Jan 1999 01:15:14 Rob Schaap wrote: >G'day Penners, > >Anyone fancy joining me in a muse about the next coupla months? I can't >sleep. > >Guandong and Ditic investment trusts have apparently gone belly-up (Japanese >banks having taken the bulk of the $140 million Ditic won't be paying back). > Banks all over the country are apparently insolvent. China's Keynesian >pump-priming strategy is faltering as both credit rating and currency come >under immense pressure. A devaluation is suddenly on the cards. > >China's imports will grind to a halt. Cheap manufactured goods, textiles >and primary product will be dumped into all those wide open economies. >Chinese debt will go up as the Yuan goes down. More bankruptcies. >Capitalism will reek to several hundred million Chinese - their iron rice >bowls torn from their grasp and replaced with an unemployment crisis to the >tune of 100 million. SE Asia's painful process of trading itself out of >debt comes to a grinding halt as they find it impossible to compete with the >suddenly desperate China. The hot money, slowly seeping back of late, bolts >skittishly. More devaluations. All those fire-sale pick-ups of productive >assets in the region suddenly don't look so cheap. > >America declares a trade war against Japan and its huge trade surplus. A >new wave of protectionism starts not with a desperate third world, but with >the hegemon itself. > >Argentina devalues to regain some trade parity with a collapsing Brazil. >American and European capital (incidentally, I hear, of all the cities in >the world, Sao Paolo constitutes the second largest concentration of >*German* investment!) evacuates. The IMF is forced to curtail its demands >for ever more impossible repayment schedules. Which might emasculate an >already fragile mode of international regulation and lend weight to >Buchananesque anti-UN, anti-everybody-else-ism. Oh, and by September the >prospect of Y2K might move significant poultices of people to turn their >stock into hard cash, finally getting Wall St to notice the milk cow has >actually been coughing up blood for some time. > >Or not, I s'pose. I mean, this is pretty unlikely, right? > >Still can't sleep. >Rob. > > HotBot - Search smarter. http://www.hotbot.com
[PEN-L:2643] A Classic Australian Orwellianism on East Timor
A friend of mine wrote to me this morning saying that Indonesia is allowing E. Timor independence. Says he heard about it on the BBC, though NPR had nothing. I'm dubious, but I went and searched for "East Timor" on my company's web-site, to see if anyone had been talking about this. I came upon a classic piece of Orwellian double-talk by the Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer: At the time, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that while Australia now supported self-determination for East Timor, the policy change did not extend to supporting full independence - something demanded by separatist guerrillas. So, "self-determination" does not equal "full independence". Those folks are so clever! Note also the "separatist guerrillas" bit: it is the guerrillas who are "separatist" (and you are only separatist if you are separating from something legitimate, otherwise you are "freedom fighters", etc.). This is from an article from the East Timor International Support Center (ETISC), that I think first appeared in the *Indonesian Observer* of today (1/27). The article can be seen in its entirety at http://www.dejanews.com/article/437301877. I'm not sure, but you also may be able to find this on their web-site, http://www.easttimor.com. Bill
[PEN-L:2651] Re: to poet piet
Mathew Forstater wrote, >mine asked me why all the graves in the cemetery had "plus signs" on >them More precisely, the plus signs are *over* the graves: a sur-plus. sur- [1] 1. a prefix meaning " over, above, " " in addition, " occurring mainly in loanwords from French and partial calques of French words: surcharge; surname; surrender. [ME < OF < L super- SUPER -] plus (plus) prep. 1. increased by: Ten plus two is twelve. 2. in addition to: to have wealth plus fame. adj. 3. involving or noting addition. 4. positive: on the plus side. 5. more or greater, as in relation to a certain amount or level: A plus for effort. 6. pertaining to or characterized by positive electricity: the plus terminal. 7. of a remarkable degree: She has personality plus. n. 8. a plus quantity. 9. PLUS SIGN. 10. something additional. 11. a surplus or gain. conj. 12. also; furthermore: It's safe plus it's economical. adv. 13. in addition; besides. >Tom Walker wrote: > >> piet, >> >> Last night my five-year old son asked me: >> >> "When you add two plus two, >> is it that the first two is 'one, two' >> and the second two is 'three, four'?" Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:2646] to poet piet
piet, Last night my five-year old son asked me: "When you add two plus two, is it that the first two is 'one, two' and the second two is 'three, four'?" Tom Walker http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:2647] Re: A Classic Australian Orwellianism on EastTimor
At 09:14 AM 1/27/99 -0600, you wrote: >A friend of mine wrote to me this morning saying that Indonesia is >allowing E. Timor independence. Says he heard about it on the BBC, >though NPR had nothing. > >I'm dubious, ... I don't know the details, but rapid decolonization has happened in the past. Consider Portugal in the mid 1970s, suffering economically at home and facing increasing costs (both in the colonies themselves and in terms of international reputaion) of maintaining the colonies and repressing the rebels. They basically decided to drop the colonies suddenly, including E. Timor. It seems to me that Indonesia is currently in a worse situation than Portugal was then. So a sudden exit might make sense. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:2603] British investment & Communications
Hi again, Penners, James Heartfield sent some interesting stats to another list (see at bottom), on the British economy's declining rate of investment, and avers: >Presumably this absence of industrial development is the reason that the >Government is currently promoting British pop music and arts. Brings to mind Nicholas Garnham's absolute corker *Capitalism and Communication*. We have unprecedented capital concentration in the manufacturing sector, massive lay-offs among these massive oligopolists, and high surpluses in search of investment opportunities outside the realm of nascent overcapacity. We have the logically consequent industrialisation of the formerly uncommodified. What we have, in short, is the 'absorption of the sphere of reproduction into full-scale commodity production'. It used to cost capitalists to maintain the superstructure; now they can get us to pay for maintaining it for them. It wasn't gonna be easy. Marx had said it wouldn't be. We're talking naturally public goods here, even in boojie terms, what's the exchange value of cultural use values? They can 'circulate in the interval between production and consumption' *C*1: 'Results of the immediate process of production'. And they're not consumed in their alleged consumption. But with a bit of guts'n'determination, capital could do it. Britain is a good place to start - they have an inflexible economy (full of concentrated capitals, old constant capital, and dependent on its sophisticated international finance sector) and they speak the language of the hegemon, which is consequently everybody else's second language. They'd have to wipe out the unions (I'd start with, say, Wapping). They'd have to see the implications of all that convergence technology coming out of erstwhile cold wars and space races (they'd have to get telecommunications companies privatised to get hold of carriage as well as content - I'd start with British Telecom and then start buying up across production houses, cable companies, aerospace companies, record labels, publishers and the like) and they'd have to get rid of the commie poison that is the public service broadcasting ethos (a good way to start would be to bleed the Beeb white, and regularly accuse it of bias and cultural elitism whilst the standard of its fare falls to meet its budget cuts). Oh, and they'd have to do away with the clumsy mass-advertising vehicle that is commercial broadcasting (me? I'd offer a plethora of subscription broadcasting services and be prepared to take years of heavy losses while I buy up movie libraries and sports leagues and teams - that way, I could siphon off the sexiest bits of free-to-air broadcasting, eventually corner the market, and then point at subscription levels and claim you always wanted pay TV!). Then I'd have a whole new little accumulator happening. And I could flog stuff that's already paid its way in the domestic market around the world, and it would all be cream - Ah, the beauty of a commodity choc'a'bloc full of use value (as commodity and superstructural sway) where I get to fix the price sans the limitations of exchange values ... Bugger manufacturing ... Cheers, Rob. James's stats: >Private Gross Fixed Capital Formation (Less Dwellings) as a percentage >of GDP. In Millions, Current Prices > >PGCFGDP % >198974,306 511,889 15% >199077,385 554,486 14% >199170,648 582,946 12% >199264,119 606,582 11% >199364,927 637,817 10% >199469,420 676,036 10% >199577,795 712,548 11% >199688,636 754,601 12% >199795,817 801,972 12% > >Numbers abstracted from the National Accounts 1998
[PEN-L:2602] Dark musings
G'day Penners, Anyone fancy joining me in a muse about the next coupla months? I can't sleep. Guandong and Ditic investment trusts have apparently gone belly-up (Japanese banks having taken the bulk of the $140 million Ditic won't be paying back). Banks all over the country are apparently insolvent. China's Keynesian pump-priming strategy is faltering as both credit rating and currency come under immense pressure. A devaluation is suddenly on the cards. China's imports will grind to a halt. Cheap manufactured goods, textiles and primary product will be dumped into all those wide open economies. Chinese debt will go up as the Yuan goes down. More bankruptcies. Capitalism will reek to several hundred million Chinese - their iron rice bowls torn from their grasp and replaced with an unemployment crisis to the tune of 100 million. SE Asia's painful process of trading itself out of debt comes to a grinding halt as they find it impossible to compete with the suddenly desperate China. The hot money, slowly seeping back of late, bolts skittishly. More devaluations. All those fire-sale pick-ups of productive assets in the region suddenly don't look so cheap. America declares a trade war against Japan and its huge trade surplus. A new wave of protectionism starts not with a desperate third world, but with the hegemon itself. Argentina devalues to regain some trade parity with a collapsing Brazil. American and European capital (incidentally, I hear, of all the cities in the world, Sao Paolo constitutes the second largest concentration of *German* investment!) evacuates. The IMF is forced to curtail its demands for ever more impossible repayment schedules. Which might emasculate an already fragile mode of international regulation and lend weight to Buchananesque anti-UN, anti-everybody-else-ism. Oh, and by September the prospect of Y2K might move significant poultices of people to turn their stock into hard cash, finally getting Wall St to notice the milk cow has actually been coughing up blood for some time. Or not, I s'pose. I mean, this is pretty unlikely, right? Still can't sleep. Rob.
