Re: RE: Martin Feldstein
thanks. I found it based on your clue: Social Security and Private Saving: New Time-Series Evidence (in Confirmations and Contradictions) Dean R. Leimer, Selig D. Lesnoy The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 90, No. 3. (Jun., 1982), pp. 606-629. "Max B. Sawicky" wrote: Lesnoy and Leamer did the debunking paper I think. Don't remember the particulars. mbs I lost my notes on Martin Feldstein regarding his attack on Social Security. Someone pointed out -- I can't remember who -- that his data was wrong. Feldstein later admitted this, blamed the error on a programmer, and then launched his attack anew. Can anyone refresh my memory on this? Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RE: Re: RE: More on A16 fire hazard
At 11:34 AM 04/16/2000 -0400, you wrote: "Max B. Sawicky" wrote: . . . Protesters' Headquarters Raided, Shut Down Incredible. What's incredible about it? It seems quite ordinary to me -- but I suppose it depends on one's assumptions about capitalist democracy. Carrol I think that it's important to remember -- and emphasize -- the contradiction between the "free speech" promises of the establishmentarian spokespeople and how the system works in practice. [*] The cynical "that's capitalism once again" response will never attract new people to the Left. On top of that, the "that's capitalism" response encourages maximalism (nothing good is possible under capitalism) and even maximally giving up. [*] In CAPITAL, Marx goes a long distance with the contrast between "what's good according to capitalist standards" (trading at value, equal exchange) and how the system works in practice (exploitation in production). In fact, Cornel West in his book (Ph.D. dissertation) on Marxism and Morality, argues that this "theory vs. practice" emphasis is Marx's main ethical approach in his later works. Of course, that's Chomsky's emphasis, too. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine
tax news
fromSLATE, April 16, 2000: The New York Times leads with a study showing that last year, for the first time, the IRS was more likely to audit the poor than the rich. ... The IRS stories detail a new Syracuse University study showing that audit rates for those making $100,000 or more have fallen 90 percent over the past decade, from 11.4 percent to 1.15 percent. Meanwhile, audit rates for those making less than $25,000 have crept up by a third, from 1.03 percent to 1.36 percent. The pattern is mirrored on the corporate side, with a greater portion of small businesses being audited than large ones. Audits of individuals fell for the right reasons: because more of their pay is fully reported by employers, and because Congress has eliminated the widest loopholes for individual filers. But audits of corporations and the self-employed fell for the wrong ones: because Congress has stiffed the IRS of the resources necessary to do its job. The Times (the online edition, at least) helpfully refers readers to the study itself, posted here www.trac.syr.edu. of course, this is exactly the result that the rich were pushing for when the marched on Washington (to Congressional committee sessions) to protest abuses by the IRS. happy tax day! Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine
RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: More on A16 fire hazard
O.K. This seems right. My question: Does the novelty (or at leas relative novelty) of the reaction reflect someone's deliberate estimation of the threat, or merely a more-or- less run of the mill police over-reaction? . . . [mbs] It's an over-reaction if you are interested in upholding the law, including everyone's basic rights. It's not if you have no scruples about doing whatever you can get away with to disrupt legal and/or non-violent dissent. And if the former, what precisely is the threat that someone feels? I use the vague someone because I don't have the remotest idea how high up the decision was. [mbs] I would guess the DC fuzz doesn't want to look hapless and out of control like the Seattle cops. As it happens, the local news is showing cops making gratuitous and random assaults on kids 1/3rd their size right now in front of the WB. In any case, a lot of people will be returning home with a rather intensified awareness of how swift and severe reactions by the state can be. Carrol Yup. No question about it. This is how revolutionaries are made. Or at least one way. mbs
Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: More on A16 fire hazard
- Original Message - From: "Jim Devine" [*] In CAPITAL, Marx goes a long distance with the contrast between "what's good according to capitalist standards" (trading at value, equal exchange) and how the system works in practice (exploitation in production). Surely Marx's entire point in Capital is to show that "how the system works in practice" is precisely by _trading at value_. Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList
billionaires (fwd)
probably too much to expect that below-types will start jumping from fifteenth floor windows any time soon (and their going bye-bye won't destroy capitalism), but one can hope... Michael Hoover Here's how some famous billionaires fared as the stock market plunged this week. William H. Gates III, chairman and chief software architect, Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), lost $11.1 billion on his 741.7 million shares of the company. Charles R. Schwab, chairman and co-CEO of Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCH - news), lost $2.6 billion on his 175.2 million shares. Jeffrey P. Bezos, chairman and CEO of Amazon.com, lost $2.4 billion on his 117.5 million shares. Michael S. Dell, Chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corporation (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) lost $2.3 billion on his 306.1 million shares. Jerry Yang, Chief Yahoo! of Yahoo!, lost $1.6 billion on his 45.4 million shares. Stephen M. Case, chairman and CEO of America Online, lost $122.4 million on his 8.90 million shares.
Re: worm on pen-l????
At 15:53 15/04/00 -0700, you wrote:
I just found this warning. The message with the worm seems to calm from
pen-l. Should I/we be concerned?
The (Win95/Happy99.Worm) virus was detected in (Perelman,
Michael\Happy99.exe) and was sent by ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
Action: (File was not Cured, Renaming.).
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I got a similar message but from a Kurdish source.
I attach the information on this virus. It seems likely to come from
newsgroups.
It might be worth searching for files especially LISTE.SKA
Below is the details from the McAfee library of viruses
http://vil.nai.com/villib/alpha.asp
Chris Burford
Profile
Virus Name
W32/Ska
Aliases
Happy99, Happy99.exe, I-Worm.Happy, W32/Skanew
Variants
Name
Type
Sub Type
Differences
W32/Ska2K
Virus
worm
Date Added
5/6/99
Virus Information
Discovery Date:
1/27/99
Type:
Virus
SubType:
worm
Risk Assessment:
High
Minimum Dat:
4012
Minimum Engine:
4.0.25
Virus Characteristics
*Note this edition of the worm is only a minor
variation of the original first
identified in February 1999. This worm is detected
with current DAT files. *
W32/Ska is a worm that was first posted to several
newsgroups and has been
reported to several of the AVERT Labs locations
worldwide. When this worm is
run it displays a message "Happy New Year 1999!!" and
displays "fireworks"
graphics. The posting on the newsgroups has lead to
its propagation. It can
also spread on its own, as it can attach itself to a
mail message and be sent
unknowingly by a user.
The file may be received by email with a size of
10,000 bytes. The worm if run
will patch WSOCK32.DLL to promote distribution by
email on the host system if
the email application supports SMTP email
communication. If the host supports
this environment, emails when sent from the host will
be followed by a second
message with the worm either attached or included as
MIME such as this:
X-Spanska: Yes
begin 644 Happy99.exe
M35I0`
`($``\`__\``+@`0``:
M``$``+H0``X?M`G-(;@!3,TAD)!4:ES('!R;V=R
AVERT cautions all users who may receive the
attachment via email to simply
delete the mail and the attachment. The worm infects a
system via email
delivery and arrives as an attachment called
Happy99.EXE. It is sent
unknowingly by a user. When the program is run it
deploys its payload displaying
fireworks on the users monitor.
When HAPPY99.EXE is run it copies itself to
Windows\System folder under the
name SKA.EXE. It then extracts, from within itself, a
DLL called SKA.DLL into
the Windows\System folder if one does not already exist.
Note: Though the SKA.EXE file is a copy of the
original it does not run as the
HAPPY99.EXE files does, so it does not copy itself
again, nor does it display the
fireworks on the users monitor.
The worm then checks for the existence of WSOCK32.SKA
in the
Windows\System folder, if it does not exist and a the
file WSOCK32.DLL does
exist, it copies the WSOCK32.DLL to WSOCK32.SKA as a
backup copy.
The worm then creates the registry entry -
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\
Ska.exe="Ska.exe"
- which will execute SKA.EXE the next time the system
is restarted. When this
Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: More on A16 fire hazard (fwd)
there is no "contrast" between the real (exploitation) and the moral (equal exchange) in Capital. It is capitalism, not Marx, that creates the contrast, to make us believe free market distributes fairly. Marx objectively reads capitalism as the way it is.. Mine [*] In CAPITAL, Marx goes a long distance with the contrast between "what's good according to capitalist standards" (trading at value, equal exchange) and how the system works in practice (exploitation in production). Surely Marx's entire point in Capital is to show that "how the system works in practice" is precisely by _trading at value_. Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList
Saturday
Just back from the festivities. I have no idea if or how the WB/IMF proceedings have been affected. It was quite clear, however, that downtown D.C. was shut down. For the convenience of the WB/IMF, the police blocked off a huge area in the heart of downtown. There were few cars to be seen on the fringes of the IMF zone, almost all stores shut down. The "Delhi Deli" near Pennsylvania and 20th did a great business. I got off at Farragut North metro like I do every day, but this time headed to where I saw people. I found myself surrounded by kids lying all over the sidewalk in black, bandanas, combat boots, gas masks, piercings, tatoos, radioactive hair colors, etc. I was in the middle of the Black Bloc. We were on the frontier of the Forbidden City, cops lined up behind metal fencing that blocked the street. After some "The Good, the Bad, the Ugly" face-offs, the mob started forming up, chanting "Our streets" and marching around the enclosed perimeter. They looked like the desert creatures in Star Wars. Could have been a thousand or two, though more kept coming along the way. Naturally I marched with them. It was either that or go the Ellipse and hear some speaker droning on. I kept looking for Chuck0 but never saw him. The march was uneventful. Eventually we got to the Ellipse. Very hot out there but dry. Bumped into Tom Kruse through a mutual friend -- he's in fine shape. Met David McReynolds in the flesh, after corresponding with him over the net for a couple of years. The Bloc seemed more stocked with gear than political slogans. More cultural than political on the surface, but clearly something with political implications. In general the demo was striking for its perfect chaos of slogans and causes, all around the general theme of capitalism stinks. Some of the cadre groups were out there, but not as many as at other demos I've been to, nor in much force. YSA seemed to be doing good business. Lots of races/nationalities in the crowd, predominantly young. A fair number of union types carrying Jobs with Justice signs. The media coverage here has not been awful, in my view, though there is not a lot of conveyance of the content of the protests. A lot of the coverage has been gossipy stuff in the "Style" section. Han Shan (an organizer) as teen heart-throb. The coverage of today will look a lot like Woodstock. Little trace of China/PNTR stuff. To me the potential of these two separate tracks to coalesce into something much more interesting gives them power even as separate things. Regarding CC's comment about who will 'control' this, I would say that nobody will control 'it,' because there is no 'it.' But both the AFL affiliates and the non- union types will evolve. It won't be your father's AFL-CIO anymore. I think the week is already a success, regardless of how the WB/IMF meetings are affected. The WB and IMF are confirmed topics of criticism. Tomorrow promises major disruption of downtown. From what I could see there are more than enough hardcore anarchists to cause total mayhem. Basically the police are reduced to protecting the meetings or protecting downtown from disruption. All indications are that the meetings come first. So they will end up looking stupid for that choice. They may also have erred in shutting down the protestors HQ yesterday. It has given them time to regroup, I suspect. Tomorrow . . . mbs
RE: Saturday
Just back from the festivities. . . . and I don't even know what day it is. Caveat emptor. mbs
Re: Saturday
Max wrote: Just back from the festivities. I have no idea if or how the WB/IMF proceedings have been affected. It was quite clear, however, that downtown D.C. was shut down. For the convenience of the WB/IMF, the police blocked off a huge area in the heart of downtown. There were few cars to be seen on the fringes of the IMF zone, almost all stores shut down. The "Delhi Deli" near Pennsylvania and 20th did a great business. Great reporting. This is why the Internet was created. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
Re: Saturday
Meanwhile, it's monday in Asia where the Nikkei has lost about 5% in early trading. Tom Walker
Re: Saturday II
Did I say 5%? Make that 9% now. The Hang Seng is down 8% as the wave sweeps around the globe. Tom Walker
Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: More on A16 fire hazard
"At 07:13 PM 04/16/2000 +0100, you wrote: - Original Message - From: "Jim Devine" [*] In CAPITAL, Marx goes a long distance with the contrast between "what's good according to capitalist standards" (trading at value, equal exchange) and how the system works in practice (exploitation in production). Surely Marx's entire point in Capital is to show that "how the system works in practice" is precisely by _trading at value_. what I was saying was that in volume I of CAPITAL, Marx shows "how the system works" precisely _when_ trading at value -- but that nonetheless there is exploitation of labor by capital. (It's a little like John Roemer's business of showing the existence of "exploitation" in a perfectly competitive system. But Marx's theory is much more profound.) In volume III, as he turns to the issue of how competition works and how the participants perceive the system and act on those perceptions, he drops the assumption that commodities trade at value (so that there is unequal exchange, the "transformation problem," and all that). So capitalism does not trade at value in practice (in Marx's view, at least). Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine
Re: billionaires
G'day Pen-Pals, The Margin Call - a sound never heard by ordinary punters in Australia before - is booming across the land. The market here is down 6 per cent for the morning, and there's no sign of serious bottom-feeding yet. Of course, you have to remember that NewsCorp is a whopping presence on the Sydney exchange, and news of Rupert's sick prostate hit only last night. House prices are gonna take a hit by all accounts, as apparently many have been putting their houses on the line to join the fun. And over in even more battered Japan, economists are saying (a) they can't see a tenable bottom (b) they don't think it's fair they should be taking such a hit for a problem that self-righteous ol' Unca Sam had so long and so obviously allowed to grow in his back yard. Asian economies got a real lecture to go along with their pain in '97 and '98 - and now they would doubtlessly like to return the favour. Only they're copping it this time as well. I guess the early exiters must have serious money lying fallow, but it's hard to imagine how they're gonna pick their moment for re-entry. The fund managers must always have been scared of the dot.con sector, contributing to the bloat only to keep their clients, and they must be hesitant to re-enter at values still above 1998 levels. When they do re-enter the NASDAQ, one would imagine we're going to see the behemoths gain huge relative value at the cost of all their smaller would-be competitors. This looks like the standard Marxian 'low profitscrisiscapital destructionincreased concentration and centralisation' process at work to me. Reckon the NASDAQ might be a shorter list in a month or two (and that the people Michael Hoover listed will have more market power than they had a month ago). I guess this needs only another few days of decline to expose the exposed. And then all those who've been saying that the upside of all this is that Greenspan won't have to hike again might have to think again. Credit might be very hard to get in economies waiting to see just how significant and widespread will be the bad-debt problem coming out of all this. And then the real economy might begin to groan. Is this the way to think about what's going on? Cheers, Rob.
Re: Re: Saturday II
And with every fall, wealth distribution becomes more equal, and I am relatively better off. Rod Timework Web wrote: Did I say 5%? Make that 9% now. The Hang Seng is down 8% as the wave sweeps around the globe. Tom Walker -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
Re: Re: Re: Saturday II
Going to buy an SUV? Gene Coyle Rod Hay wrote: And with every fall, wealth distribution becomes more equal, and I am relatively better off. Rod Timework Web wrote: Did I say 5%? Make that 9% now. The Hang Seng is down 8% as the wave sweeps around the globe. Tom Walker -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
D.C. Shut Down
If you work for the Feds at a site between 12th and 21st street, and south of K, you've got a day off tomorrow. Cars will be kept out of a larger area, south of M. So tomorrow may look a lot like today -- an inner, totally fortified area inside of which the meetings go on, and a somewhat larger evacuated downtown area for the demonstrators to mill around in. And surrounding that, a godawful traffic jam, though it's possible nobody will go to work. The precedent for the latter is the Million Man March, when lots of white people stayed home. Downtown was great -- quiet and totally uncongested. For the whole Fed govt, it's similar to a snow day. Regardless of where you work, 'liberal leave' is in effect. Meaning you can use one of your days off. TV showed one person arrested for having two molotov cocktails -- real ones, not empty coke bottles. The Chief is pretty slick. He was visiting the police lines, getting filmed telling his cops to chill out. Idiots on the demo side were shaking hands with him. Now I'm thinking tomorrow will be anti-climactic, unless the direct action people have some clever new ideas. In a sense the police have conceded the ground by fencing it in. You threaten to disrupt traffic, we will shut off traffic altogether. mbs
Lagavulin was Re: Hundreds arrested
Max, you should never have confessed to being teetotal. Helas, I drank the whisky. I did toast your health several times so the feng-shui might have done you some good. That's the only upside I can think of. Oh, and for being good sports, I've just subbed you and Enrique to the CrashList where you will get more news about the Great Crash of 2000, faster and with real-time Marxist commentary, than anywhere else on the Net. Any other disappointed Lagavulin drinkers are welcome to the same alternative. Just let me know. Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList - Original Message - From: "Max B. Sawicky" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 3:49 AM Subject: RE: Hundreds arrested damn straight about that one and i still haven't collected yet! kelley Don't forget you have to drink it out of your slipper. max
Re: Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: More on A16 fire hazard
- Original Message - From: "Jim Devine" In volume III, as he turns to the issue of how competition works and how the participants perceive the system and act on those perceptions, he drops the assumption that commodities trade at value (so that there is unequal exchange, the "transformation problem," and all that). So capitalism does not trade at value in practice (in Marx's view, at least). This seems misleading. In Cap III Marx does not 'drop the assumption that commodities trade at value'. It is NOT an assumption in the first place, if by this you mean a hypothetical speculation used to investigate a matter. What Marx tries to do in Cap III, and succeeds, is to show how real phenomena such as unequal exchange and value-price transformation can coexist with and even be entailed by, the fundamental fact of equal commodity exchange, including of course the exchange of labour with capital. Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList
