US EU haggling over [post] FSC's
[ah, sclerosis] GENEVA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The European Union and the United States, which had been expected to hold bilateral talks on Friday on a new U.S. law covering export tax relief, have postponed them to Monday, EU diplomats said on Thursday. The postponement means that should the two sides fail to reach a breakthrough -- as widely expected -- the EU will not be able to put the row on the agenda of the next regular meeting of the World Trade Organisation's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The 15-member bloc expects to request a special session of the DSB in the second half of December, at which it would seek the creation of a panel to judge the new law's compliance with WTO rules, according to EU sources. ``The bilateral consultations will be held on Monday now,'' an EU source in Geneva told Reuters. ``If there is no agreement, things will follow their course and we will request a panel before the end of the year,'' he added. On Tuesday, the DSB referred to arbitration the EU's request to slap on $4 billion worth of sanctions on U.S. goods in retaliation for what the EU says are illegal export tax breaks. But under a bilateral accord last September, the two blocs have agreed to suspend the arbitration proceedings pending the findings of the WTO panel looking into the legality of the U.S. law replacing the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) system. The wrangling means the EU request for WTO authorisation to impose sanctions will remain on hold for months until the panel issues its ruling, also subject to appeal.
Re: Techie Question
At 09:50 PM 11/30/00 -0800, you wrote: >I need a laptop computer. I can get a very good price on one now -- >several hundred dollars below the regular price on a fairly high-end >laptop. Here is the question: given the slowdown would you expect the >price of laptops to come down substantially in January? Sales >predictions are already shrinking with the recent Gateway news. i'm banking on the fact that they'll glut and crash, from what i heard on the news tonight. however, i also wonder how much of it was an attempt to whip up a frenzy of such buying... kelley
Techie Question
I need a laptop computer. I can get a very good price on one now -- several hundred dollars below the regular price on a fairly high-end laptop. Here is the question: given the slowdown would you expect the price of laptops to come down substantially in January? Sales predictions are already shrinking with the recent Gateway news. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: BLS Daily Report
I always appreciate Dave's posts -- a valuable service to us all, especially since the latest one has the Morgan Stanley forecast that agrees with my feeling that the odds for a recession are increasing. Here is the beginning of the article that I mentioned: Tech Equipment makers such as Lucent and Cisco Systems as creditors. Lucent Technologies has been a leader in this category, with about 5% of its sales last year coming from transactions it financed. The company's commitments to customers skyrocketed to $7 billion as of Sept. 30, of which about $1.6 billion is actually loaned, from $2.3 billion in commitments in September 1998. Rival financiers include Nortel Networks, which announced this week it would boost its financing for customer purchases to more than $2 billion by the end of next year, up from $1.1 billion at the end of 2000. Other lenders: Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Motorola and Qualcomm. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2000 U.S. economic growth slowed to 2.4 percent at an annual rate in the third quarter, revised down from the 2.7 percent estimated earlier, the Commerce Department reports. The real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced in the United States -- grew at its slowest pace since the third quarter of 1996, when GDP rose 2.0 percent. Economists had forecast the first estimate of third quarter GDP would be cut back based on inventory and trade data released since that initial report came out. They expect GDP in the October-December quarter to bounce back, although not to the steamy 6 percent rate of the past four quarters (Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_The U.S. economy grew at just a 2.4 percent annual rate in the July-September period, the slowest pace in 4 years. An unusual decline in federal government purchases of goods and services and smaller gains in business spending on new equipment and inventories were the primary reasons for the substantial drop from the second quarter's 5.6 percent growth rate. ... (Washington Post, page E1)_The economy expanded in the third quarter at the slowest pace in 4 years, holding down inflation and depressing corporate profits. ... (New York Times, page C13)_Will the first slowdown of the New Economy end in a soft landing or a rough one? More and more analysts are becoming a bit more bearish in their answer. The Commerce Department yesterday revised downward its estimate of third quarter gross domestic product growth. At the same time, several economists have been slicing their growth forecasts for the rest of this year, as well as for the opening months of 2001, to below 3 percent. If the estimates hold up, the nation's unemployment rate could increase substantially, throwing hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work. An economist at J.P. Morgan & Co. now puts the odds of a significant slowdown at 30 to 35 percent over the next year. But an inflation gauge linked to the GDP report showed prices increasing at an annual rate of just 1.9 percent in the third quarter, down from a 2.4 percent pace in the second quarter and the smallest increase this year. Still, the economic strains are increasingly apparent. Energy and labor costs continue to increase, threatening to push prices higher in coming months. The global economy is slowing and most currencies continue to fall against the dollar, reducing demand for American exports. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2). U.S. car and truck sales slowed in November to the weakest pace so far this year, analysts and industry officials say, as General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and DaimlerChrysler gave more ground to Japanese and European rivals. The expected poor November showing by Detroit's Big Three will likely mean further production cuts, temporarily idling thousands of workers or cutting the overtime that once swelled paychecks. The sales figures also will make auto makers likely to lower production levels in the first quarter of next year. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A3). Data compiled by the Bureau of National Affairs in the first 48 weeks of 2000 show a weighted average first-year wage increase in newly negotiated contracts of 3.8 percent. In the same period last year, the increase was 3.3 percent. Manufacturing settlements provided a weighted average increase of 3.2 percent, and the weighted average increase in nonmanufacturing agreements, excluding construction contracts, was 4 percent. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-12). For the last decade, corporate profit has paled next to the boom in companies' spending on new computers and software, industrial machinery, and buildings. With the help of bank loans, bonds, and, most of the time, a willing stock market, companies since 1991 have bought almost $9 trillion worth of equipment, lifting productivity and sustaining the longest economic expansion in American history. Now, however, that explosion in investment is showing broad signs of slowing. Corporate profits are falling in many industries, giving companies less money to spend. Banks have tightened their lending policies, raising the cost of money. And the swoon of technology stocks has forced the very companies that have made some of the most substantial investments in new equipment to reconsider how they operate. With consumer confidence falling at the same time, analysts say the moderation in capital spending has raised the odds that the economy will markedly slow next year. Some see an increased risk of recession, says the New York Times. ... (page C1). application/ms-tnef
Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(please check the lis
.> >I yield to none in my admiration for Doug. Shall we ask him about his >passions? Doug's passions area subject of burning interest. Justin is the same person as jks, i.e., me. You seem to be more interested in picking silly nits, like whether we can say "Marx is" rather than "Marx was"; perhaps in your circles one doesn't speak in present tense of writers, dead or alive, whose ideas one is discussing. Moreover, you prefer to be snide than to accept a clarifiaction when I explain that I am not attributing to Marx an epistemology like Hume's or Carnaps. I conclude that you are not s serious interlocutor. Resnick and Wolff's constructivist attitude towards facts is a matter of record; the burden is on those who wish dispute them. Good luck to you, then --jksGet more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
China: Reform outlook far worse than official picture, says researcher
SCMP Thursday, November 30, 2000 BANKING Reform outlook far worse than official picture, says researcher LOUIS BECKERLING Do not expect banking reform in China to proceed quickly or smoothly, warns Standard Chartered Bank treasury researcher Chi Lo. To read the full article, click here: http://www.scmp.com/News/ToBody.asp?Sec=Business&AID=20001130010430948 --- SCMP.com is the premier information resource on Greater China. With a click, you will be able to access information on Business, Markets, Technology and Property in the territory. Bookmark SCMP.com for more insightful and timely updates on Hong Kong, China, Asia and the World. Voted the Best Online newspaper outside the US and brought to you by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's premier English launguage news source. --- Copyright (c) 2000. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references toMarx?(please check the lis
Colin Danby wrote: >I yield to none in my admiration for Doug. Shall we ask him about his >passions? Gosh; thank god this was phrased as a question about a possible question, otherwise I might be too embarrassed to answer. Doug
Re: Re: Re: Re: A zillion is too many!
a clarifying correction: Justin wrote: >>Jim [i.e., me] is also wrong to hold that King & Howard consider Marx a >>"minor post-Ricardan," in Samuelson's insulting phrase. They would not >>have written several books on Marxian economics otherwise. Nor do they >>adopt a neo-Ricardan reading of Marx themselves. They accept a broadly >>Sraffan _criticism_ of Marx, but that is not the same thing. I wrote: >part of their problem is that they reduce Marx's analysis to the issues >that are addressed by Sraffians (basically price theory), leaving out >stuff that Sraffians don't deal with (e.g., commodity fetishism, the >social nature of production processes, etc.) Because of this reduction, >they think that Sraffa-type criticisms are profound _when they really are_ >superficial. > >Still, Howard & King's books are worth reading. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(please check the lis
Justin writes: > I don't "backpedal": I know a bit about philosophical empiricism, and can > also distinguish between what Hume called the strict and philosophical and > the loose and vulgar meanings of the term. I'm delighted to know how smart and well-educated you are, but I'm not interested in *your* personal characteristics, either. Are you the person who was posting as "jks" some weeks back? > "Cares" is not intended to denote > some inner mental state but to reflect the observable fact that Marx is full > off careful, exhaustive, extensive, empirical research, and anyone > interested in what you would doubtless call "Marx's method" has to take that > into account. Nobody is disputing Marx's very close interest in the world he lived in. > Wolff and Resnick don't: they confuse concern (oops! a > psychological word, how very bad of me! ooops A moral word, even worse!) > with empirical facts with "empiricism," a philosophical position, Do you have a cite? > reduced to > the vulgar caricature of one finds in some parts of the Marxist tradition, > e,g., in Mao, where "empiricism" means believing what shorted-sighted common > sense tells you is in front of your eyes as opposed to what Marxist theory > tells you. The debate is rather dull because it is so confused. > > Don't insult my by calling me a weasel. I didn't. I referred to the qualifying words "a lot" as weaselling because they are a way of making what looks like a strong statement while hedging at the same time. > I will say without quylaification, good > Marx is apssionate about empirical support for scientific claims; I though Marx was dead, but maybe "is" refers to some sort of philosophical present. Seriously, nobody is denying Marx's interest in finding out about the world around him. If it makes you happy to call that a "passion," fine. But there is more to epistemology, as a philosophically-sophisticated person like yourself must know, than that. The bit of Marx's writing I think of here is the little essay early in the Grundrisse on method, which is a nicely nuanced discussion which makes it clear that facts are not pretheoretical. > he woukd > regard the sort of fact-free "theory" How do you establish that W&R are fact-free? > espoused by Wolff and Resnick as drivel, a rather strong statement, especially given that we can't consult Marx on it. Your continued reliance on words like "drivel" and "silly" also tends to undermine your own seriousness. > and anyone who cares to emulate marx had better to her homework and > go down to the British Museum, start digging among those Blue Books. > Because > he does this, Doug is a better "Marxist" than many of you who actually claim > the title. I yield to none in my admiration for Doug. Shall we ask him about his passions? Best, Colin
Re: Re: Re: A zillion is too many!
At 08:27 PM 11/30/00 +, you wrote: >Jim [i.e., me] is also wrong to hold that King & Howard consider Marx a >"minor post-Ricardan," in Samuelson's insulting phrase. They would not >have written several books on Marxian economics otherwise. Nor do they >adopt a neo-Ricardan reading of Marx themselves. They accept a broadly >Sraffan _criticism_ of Marx, but that is not the same thing. part of their problem is that they reduce Marx's analysis to the issues that are addressed by Sraffians (basically price theory), leaving out stuff that Sraffians don't deal with (e.g., commodity fetishism, the social nature of production processes, etc.) Because of this reduction, they think that Sraffa-type criticisms are profound rather than superficial. Still, Howard & King's books are worth reading. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Re: Progressive Information Aggregation Institutions?
At 01:13 PM 11/30/00 -0500, you wrote: >Whose estimate should determine actions? A vote among everyone? A vote >among a random jury? Administrative agency experts? A panel of >distinguished academics? a vote among everyone seems needed to decide general principles. Experts and academics can advise the voters. Votes among those most affected seem appropriate for specific cases, under the rules set by general principles. A betting market encourages people to compete instead of working together on these issues, which is an error when external costs and benefits are so prevalent. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Re: Re: How the system works
Lou, I did not say that things were better than in the past. I said that they had not gotten as bad as in neighboring countries. Unemployment benefits may not have been heard of before but they are now and they are generous. More significantly, which is not in your article, child care and other such family support systems from the old system have been kept well intact, again in contrast with most neighboring countries. The article complains that there is little foreign investment. Do you want there to be foreign investment, control by foreign capitalists? The locals may be a bunch of crooks, but at least they are local. Also the article notes that people still have the mentality of the old system. Do you think that is bad? Frankly, that is probably one of the reasons there has been political support for maintaining social safety nets, although some things like medical care have clearly deteriorated. I haven't seen unemployment numbers recently on Slovakia, but I think that 19% number is too high. Also, Slovakia is now almost back to its 1989 level in terms of real per capita income, one of the few in the region to be in that status, along with Poland (well ahead of the 1989 level) and Slovenia and Hungary. BTW, Slovenia is still easily the best off of the lot over there. But then we have discussed the peculiar aspects of the Slovene economic system before, many of which are now under extreme external pressure since they are trying to join the EU, especially the widespread workers' ownership which is supposed to give way to that ole' foreign investment. Barkley Rosser -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, November 30, 2000 4:01 PM Subject: [PEN-L:5173] Re: Re: How the system works >At 03:29 PM 11/30/00 -0500, you wrote: >>Lou, >> But the Slovaks have had a sufficiently >>good functioning social support system that >>they are almost the only former socialist economy >>not to have an increase in income inequality. >>Their gini coefficient at about .20 is the world's >>lowest. >> Actually the reduction of those particular mills >>(who needs those tanks anyway?) probably >>did not hurt the inequality measure as those >>were very highly paid workers. >> I have heard from certain sources that inequality >>is now finally beginning to increase gradually in >>Slovakia. But, overall they have done very well >>in terms of social outcomes. Funny that Shrub >>can't keep them apart from the Slovenes in his >>so-called mind. >>Barkley Rosser > >The Irish Times, November 4, 1999 > >Eva and Thomas are happily married, childless, 30-something professionals. >They speak five languages between them, have all the freedom they need and >are qualified for jobs they love. > >But in a poignant moment that sums up the general condition 10 years after >revolution, Eva gestures wistfully towards Martina, a 23-year-old student: >"Things will be different for her." > >Of course there are success stories in the post-Communist east, but >optimism, in the main, is the preserve of the very young. For Eva, the >collapse of the old regime seems to have come a few years too late > >Eva, who teaches at a university institute gets 8,000 crowns gross (about >(pounds) 160) a month, 3,000 crowns (about (pounds) 60) below the average >industrial wage. A state-employed receptionist gets 12,000 crowns (about >(pounds) 240). Not surprisingly, strikes are in the offing. > >A recent article in the Slovak Spectator, a feisty English-language weekly, >showed how government politicians had sold valuable state companies to >friends at risible prices. > >"During the 1994 to 1998 reign of the third Meciar government, for example, >the state received only 28.15 per cent of the value of the companies it >privatised, cheating the public purse of over 80 billion crowns (over $ 2 >billion at the time)." > >A policy of allowing just a select group of domestic businessmen to >privatise state properties has meant that in 10 years, only 1.5 per cent of >direct foreign investment in the region has come to Slovakia. Hungary by >comparison, got 25 per cent. > >Worse, the privatisers, far from sweating to build the companies to meet >competition, simply tunnelled assets into holding companies they owned and >focused on building flashy homes in Bratislava's smarter suburbs > >Meanwhile, for Martina's father, who works in a fast-collapsing crane >factory, there is often no pay packet at the end of the month. > >While some factory managers run themselves ragged trying to raise standards >and productivity, some of the more "entrepreneurial" types have set up >their own little factories, hiving off contract work for personal profit, >leaving the main factory starved of work. > >The banks are in probably the worst state in the region, with 30 per cent >of their lending down to bad debts and requiring some $ 2 billion to tackle >the p
Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(please check the list)
I don't "backpedal": I know a bit about philosophical empiricism, and can also distinguish between what Hume called the strict and philosophical and the loose and vulgar meanings of the term. "Cares" is not intended to denote some inner mental state but to reflect the observable fact that Marx is full off careful, exhaustive, extensive, empirical research, and anyone interested in what you would doubtless call "Marx's method" has to take that into account. Wolff and Resnick don't: they confuse concern (oops! a psychological word, how very bad of me! ooops A moral word, even worse!) with empirical facts with "empiricism," a philosophical position, reduced to the vulgar caricature of one finds in some parts of the Marxist tradition, e,g., in Mao, where "empiricism" means believing what shorted-sighted common sense tells you is in front of your eyes as opposed to what Marxist theory tells you. The debate is rather dull because it is so confused. Don't insult my by calling me a weasel. I will say without quylaification, Marx is apssionate about empirical support for scientific claims; he woukd regard the sort of fact-free "theory" espoused by Wolff and Resnick as drivel, and anyone who cares to emulate marx had better to her homework and go down to the British Museum, start digging among those Blue Books. Because he does this, Doug is a better "Marxist" than many of you who actually claim the title. --jks > >Let me associate myself with Mat's comments, and reaffirm that >empiricism is *not* the same thing as using and respecting data and >taking history seriously. Shallow dichotomies like pomo-empiricist are >barriers to understanding. > >Justin backpedals to say he used "empiricist ... in the sense of someone >who cares a lot about empirical data, which Marx does. Resnick & Wolff >do not." The verb "cares" is carefully chosen because it denotes an >internal mental or emotional state of an individual that we can't >directly inspect, so it's an unfalsifiable statement; "a lot" provides >further weaseling cover. I would suggest that it is trivial to discuss >the emotional states or personal characteristics of economists living or >dead. We can usefully discuss the *work* people have done, and if >anyone wants to carefully *read* and critique work by R&W or anyone else >and make an argument about its epistemology, that's legitimate and >interesting critique. > >Like Mat I've been critical of R&W, but their approach is anything but >"silly" -- it has been worked out with considerable seriousness and >care. > >I included _Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical_ (not _Knowledge and >Class_, which would have been a *real* provocation to some on this >list!) because it's a very lucid presentation of a set of Marxian >ideas. I also think one should diversify one's secondary sources. > >Best, Colin > _ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
RE: Re: Dean Baker on the Bubble
I don't think Dean is reaching for respectability, though he gets it anyway. He uses n-c theory to point out the implications of what goes on in a language that his audience accepts. It's worked pretty well. Our job is get our conclusions into the press, and by extension, the public debate. Not to proselytize for non-standard theory. That's the job of youse guys. And you'd better get cracking. If you want to take up the substance with him, I can relay it for you. But I think if you want to pursue it he would like you to read the piece in its entirety. max Thanks for posting it. I admire and respect Dean, but, based on a quick reading of the summary, I worry that he has bent his argument too much in the direction of "standard economic theory" in order to gain respectability. In particular, I very much disagree with:
Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(please check the list)
Let me associate myself with Mat's comments, and reaffirm that empiricism is *not* the same thing as using and respecting data and taking history seriously. Shallow dichotomies like pomo-empiricist are barriers to understanding. Justin backpedals to say he used "empiricist ... in the sense of someone who cares a lot about empirical data, which Marx does. Resnick & Wolff do not." The verb "cares" is carefully chosen because it denotes an internal mental or emotional state of an individual that we can't directly inspect, so it's an unfalsifiable statement; "a lot" provides further weaseling cover. I would suggest that it is trivial to discuss the emotional states or personal characteristics of economists living or dead. We can usefully discuss the *work* people have done, and if anyone wants to carefully *read* and critique work by R&W or anyone else and make an argument about its epistemology, that's legitimate and interesting critique. Like Mat I've been critical of R&W, but their approach is anything but "silly" -- it has been worked out with considerable seriousness and care. I included _Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical_ (not _Knowledge and Class_, which would have been a *real* provocation to some on this list!) because it's a very lucid presentation of a set of Marxian ideas. I also think one should diversify one's secondary sources. Best, Colin
Re: Dean Baker on the Bubble
Thanks for posting it. I admire and respect Dean, but, based on a quick reading of the summary, I worry that he has bent his argument too much in the direction of "standard economic theory" in order to gain respectability. In particular, I very much disagree with: "At present, the additional consumption attributable to the bubble is having the same negative effect on national savings as a $320 billion budget deficit. According to standard economic theory, this loss of savings has reduced the amount of investment in the United States. More importantly, it has been a major cause of our trade deficit, which in turn has led to large U.S. borrowings from the rest of world." This confuses an accounting identity with a causal process. The trade deficit is as much a cause as a consequence of the stock market bubble. Peter
Re: Re: How the system works
At 03:29 PM 11/30/00 -0500, you wrote: >Lou, > But the Slovaks have had a sufficiently >good functioning social support system that >they are almost the only former socialist economy >not to have an increase in income inequality. >Their gini coefficient at about .20 is the world's >lowest. > Actually the reduction of those particular mills >(who needs those tanks anyway?) probably >did not hurt the inequality measure as those >were very highly paid workers. > I have heard from certain sources that inequality >is now finally beginning to increase gradually in >Slovakia. But, overall they have done very well >in terms of social outcomes. Funny that Shrub >can't keep them apart from the Slovenes in his >so-called mind. >Barkley Rosser The Irish Times, November 4, 1999 Eva and Thomas are happily married, childless, 30-something professionals. They speak five languages between them, have all the freedom they need and are qualified for jobs they love. But in a poignant moment that sums up the general condition 10 years after revolution, Eva gestures wistfully towards Martina, a 23-year-old student: "Things will be different for her." Of course there are success stories in the post-Communist east, but optimism, in the main, is the preserve of the very young. For Eva, the collapse of the old regime seems to have come a few years too late Eva, who teaches at a university institute gets 8,000 crowns gross (about (pounds) 160) a month, 3,000 crowns (about (pounds) 60) below the average industrial wage. A state-employed receptionist gets 12,000 crowns (about (pounds) 240). Not surprisingly, strikes are in the offing. A recent article in the Slovak Spectator, a feisty English-language weekly, showed how government politicians had sold valuable state companies to friends at risible prices. "During the 1994 to 1998 reign of the third Meciar government, for example, the state received only 28.15 per cent of the value of the companies it privatised, cheating the public purse of over 80 billion crowns (over $ 2 billion at the time)." A policy of allowing just a select group of domestic businessmen to privatise state properties has meant that in 10 years, only 1.5 per cent of direct foreign investment in the region has come to Slovakia. Hungary by comparison, got 25 per cent. Worse, the privatisers, far from sweating to build the companies to meet competition, simply tunnelled assets into holding companies they owned and focused on building flashy homes in Bratislava's smarter suburbs Meanwhile, for Martina's father, who works in a fast-collapsing crane factory, there is often no pay packet at the end of the month. While some factory managers run themselves ragged trying to raise standards and productivity, some of the more "entrepreneurial" types have set up their own little factories, hiving off contract work for personal profit, leaving the main factory starved of work. The banks are in probably the worst state in the region, with 30 per cent of their lending down to bad debts and requiring some $ 2 billion to tackle the problem. As a result, fledgling business is stunted - a sector which also has to compete with large-scale organised racketeering. To compound the misery, the country's Bohunice nuclear power station recently featured in Newsweek magazine as one of the six most dangerous plants in and around Europe. Despondency is widespread. In a year, the price of gas has doubled, rents have doubled, milk has soared from 11 crowns (about 20p) to 20 crowns (36p) but wages have remained static. Housing is in crisis and the health system so underfunded that patients needing operations may part with up to 10,000 crowns (about (pounds) 200) to the doctor "to be sure of a good outcome", in the words of one young woman. Unemployment is at 19 per cent, up nearly 4 per cent on last year. A third of those are 15 to 24-year-olds, with industrial and building workers in the south-east suffering most grievously. In Bratislava city, on the other hand, many people work two jobs to make ends meet and unemployment benefit - an unheard of entity in the old days, when unemployment officially didn't exist - has become a hot topic, a system seen to be "rewarding" the lazy. The legacy of communism, with its jobs for everyone, however phony, has left a workforce expecting jobs to be found for them, says one official. "They think a job will march into their kitchen and say 'here I am'." A recent trade union demand that university graduates be guaranteed their first jobs suggests that the concept of a market economy is still elusive for some Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
Re: How the system works
Lou, But the Slovaks have had a sufficiently good functioning social support system that they are almost the only former socialist economy not to have an increase in income inequality. Their gini coefficient at about .20 is the world's lowest. Actually the reduction of those particular mills (who needs those tanks anyway?) probably did not hurt the inequality measure as those were very highly paid workers. I have heard from certain sources that inequality is now finally beginning to increase gradually in Slovakia. But, overall they have done very well in terms of social outcomes. Funny that Shrub can't keep them apart from the Slovenes in his so-called mind. Barkley Rosser -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, November 30, 2000 2:40 PM Subject: [PEN-L:5170] How the system works >Financial Times (London), May 25, 2000 > >SURVEY - SLOVAKIA: Workforce pays a heavy price > >By ROBERT ANDERSON > >ZTS was once the biggest industrial group in Czechoslovakia, employing >85,000 workers, a quarter of them involved in defence, at a time when the >country was one of the world's top arms producers. > >In Martin, an historic town of 60,000 surrounded by mountains deep in >central Slovakia, the communists built ZTS TEES, the biggest tank producer >in the Warsaw Pact, which employed 16,000 in 1989. > >After the break-up of the Warsaw Pact, and then of Czechoslovakia, a shadow >of the once proud ZTS TEES still survives. It now employs only 2,300 and >operates mainly under the name of its chief subsidiary, Martinske >Strojarne, after the state-owned mother company declared itself bankrupt in >1998 with debts of Sk7bn. > >Martinske Strojarne operates at 10 per cent capacity, and the few remaining >workers take their time as they turn out outdated but sturdy diesel engines >and tractors for former Soviet Union countries in the huge production halls. > >The company limps on: last year, it registered a loss of Sk500m on revenues >of Sk1.3bn. Jaroslav Balogh, managing director, admits it is nearing the >end of the road unless it secures a partner who can provide working capital >and invest in new production lines. > >"We have invested almost nothing for two years," says Mr Balogh... > >=== > >NY Times, November 30, 2000 > >Steel City, Slovakia > >By EDMUND L. ANDREWS > >KOSICE, Slovakia - Lukas Cervienka vividly remembers the day the giant VSZ >steel mill here ran out of iron. > >It was January 1999, and Mr. Cervienka was sitting in a control room >overlooking the automated ladles that pour 180 tons of molten metal at a >time. The company was so broke that suppliers were refusing to deliver raw >materials, and the company's creditors had hired a new president to prevent >a complete collapse. > >"He came in here and asked why we weren't doing anything," recalled Mr. >Cervienka, head of a unit that maintains machinery. "I told him we didn't >have any iron to work with. We didn't have anything to do." > >Today, two years later, the mill has been rescued from the brink of >bankruptcy. And it now has a new owner: U.S. Steel, a unit of the USX >Corporation... > >=== > >All of you know that, from reasons I have not now to explain, capitalistic >production moves through certain periodical cycles. It moves through a >state of quiescence, growing animation, prosperity, overtrade, crisis, and >stagnation. The market prices of commodities, and the market rates of >profit, follow these phases, now sinking below their averages, now rising >above them. > >Considering the whole cycle, you will find that one deviation of the market >price is being compensated by the other, and that, taking the average of >the cycle, the market prices of commodities are regulated by their values. >Well! During the phases of sinking market prices and the phases of crisis >and stagnation, the working man, if not thrown out of employment >altogether, is sure to have his wages lowered. Not to be defrauded, he >must, even with such a fall of market prices, debate with the capitalist in >what proportional degree a fall of wages has become necessary. If, during >the phases of prosperity, when extra profits are made, he did not battle >for a rise of wages, he would, taking the average of one industrial cycle, >not even receive his average wages, or the value of his labour. It is the >utmost height of folly to demand, that while his wages are necessarily >affected by the adverse phases of the cycle, he should exclude himself from >compensation during the prosperous phases of the cycle. Generally, the >values of all commodities are only realized by the compensation of the >continuously changing market prices, springing from the continuous >fluctuations of demand and supply. On the basis of the present system >labour is only a commodity like others. It must, therefore, pass through >the same fluctuations to fetch an average price
Re: Re: A zillion is too many!
I wasn't using the word "empiricist" in a technical philosophical sense to describe Marx. I was using it in the sense of someone who caresa lot about empirical data, which Marx does. Resnick & Wolff do not. Jim is also wrong to hold that King & Howard consider Marx a "minor post-Ricardan," in Samuelson's insulting phrase. They would not have written several books on Marxian economics otherwise. Nor do they adopt a neo-Ricardan reading of Marx themselves. They accept a broadly Sraffan _criticism_ of Marx, but that is not the same thing. >> >As Mat points out, Marx was no empiricist (nor was he a rationalist). > * * * > >Howard & King have a very >specific interpretation of Marx (one that I think is wrong, but I'm willing >to be convinced). They see Marx as a minor post-Ricardian (follower of >David Ricardo) in terms of economics, though they acknowledge his >contributions to historical interpretation and sociology. > _ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
How the system works
Financial Times (London), May 25, 2000 SURVEY - SLOVAKIA: Workforce pays a heavy price By ROBERT ANDERSON ZTS was once the biggest industrial group in Czechoslovakia, employing 85,000 workers, a quarter of them involved in defence, at a time when the country was one of the world's top arms producers. In Martin, an historic town of 60,000 surrounded by mountains deep in central Slovakia, the communists built ZTS TEES, the biggest tank producer in the Warsaw Pact, which employed 16,000 in 1989. After the break-up of the Warsaw Pact, and then of Czechoslovakia, a shadow of the once proud ZTS TEES still survives. It now employs only 2,300 and operates mainly under the name of its chief subsidiary, Martinske Strojarne, after the state-owned mother company declared itself bankrupt in 1998 with debts of Sk7bn. Martinske Strojarne operates at 10 per cent capacity, and the few remaining workers take their time as they turn out outdated but sturdy diesel engines and tractors for former Soviet Union countries in the huge production halls. The company limps on: last year, it registered a loss of Sk500m on revenues of Sk1.3bn. Jaroslav Balogh, managing director, admits it is nearing the end of the road unless it secures a partner who can provide working capital and invest in new production lines. "We have invested almost nothing for two years," says Mr Balogh... === NY Times, November 30, 2000 Steel City, Slovakia By EDMUND L. ANDREWS KOSICE, Slovakia - Lukas Cervienka vividly remembers the day the giant VSZ steel mill here ran out of iron. It was January 1999, and Mr. Cervienka was sitting in a control room overlooking the automated ladles that pour 180 tons of molten metal at a time. The company was so broke that suppliers were refusing to deliver raw materials, and the company's creditors had hired a new president to prevent a complete collapse. "He came in here and asked why we weren't doing anything," recalled Mr. Cervienka, head of a unit that maintains machinery. "I told him we didn't have any iron to work with. We didn't have anything to do." Today, two years later, the mill has been rescued from the brink of bankruptcy. And it now has a new owner: U.S. Steel, a unit of the USX Corporation... === All of you know that, from reasons I have not now to explain, capitalistic production moves through certain periodical cycles. It moves through a state of quiescence, growing animation, prosperity, overtrade, crisis, and stagnation. The market prices of commodities, and the market rates of profit, follow these phases, now sinking below their averages, now rising above them. Considering the whole cycle, you will find that one deviation of the market price is being compensated by the other, and that, taking the average of the cycle, the market prices of commodities are regulated by their values. Well! During the phases of sinking market prices and the phases of crisis and stagnation, the working man, if not thrown out of employment altogether, is sure to have his wages lowered. Not to be defrauded, he must, even with such a fall of market prices, debate with the capitalist in what proportional degree a fall of wages has become necessary. If, during the phases of prosperity, when extra profits are made, he did not battle for a rise of wages, he would, taking the average of one industrial cycle, not even receive his average wages, or the value of his labour. It is the utmost height of folly to demand, that while his wages are necessarily affected by the adverse phases of the cycle, he should exclude himself from compensation during the prosperous phases of the cycle. Generally, the values of all commodities are only realized by the compensation of the continuously changing market prices, springing from the continuous fluctuations of demand and supply. On the basis of the present system labour is only a commodity like others. It must, therefore, pass through the same fluctuations to fetch an average price corresponding to its value. Karl Marx, "Value, Price and Profit" Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
Re: Re: RE: Farming manual far too practical for Chinese aut horities (fwd)
"The mountains are high, the emperor is far away." --Ancient Chinese proverb Barkley Rosser -Original Message- From: Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, November 30, 2000 11:43 AM Subject: [PEN-L:5162] Re: RE: Farming manual far too practical for Chinese aut horities (fwd) >At 10:27 AM 11/30/00 -0500, norm wrote: > >>very interesting article on current Chinese politics. it implies that local >>officials can oppress the masses w/o direct interference from Beijing which >>can only defend them indirectly thru the media? >> >>i thought that Beijing had more power than that. > >I think it's important to remember that no dictatorship (no matter how >bloody or disgusting) can totally dominate the countryside (or the cities). >They often don't have enough information about what's going on, while they >have to motivate people to follow orders. The latter means that the >underlings affect the way that central orders are expressed and carried >out. The bureaucracy thus isn't totally under the control of the elite, >especially as middle-level bureaucrats can create personal "empires" and >coalitions to promote their own power and influence. The central power >tries to standardize things, creating a "party line" which all underlings >must toe. But by standardizing things, they lose the ability to deal with >the nuances, the shades of gray, the cases where an ordinary person's >interpretation of the party line is more valid than that of a party >operative. This means that they can't control the countryside. > >Unlike Brad, I don't think that the Nazi/Communist China analogy works at >all, but even Hitler had to deal with various interest groups (the SS vs. >the Wehrmacht vs. the Navy, etc.) and had to balance their interests. >There's a book out (I've forgotten the author's name) who reinteprets the >history of the European Theater of WW2 in terms of this conflict of >interest groups. > >Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > >
A hot air balloon
The Washington Post, December 30, 1999, Thursday, Final Edition Nasdaq Hits 4000 for 84% Gain in '99 Mark Leibovich, Washington Post Staff Writer The Nasdaq Stock Market's composite index closed above 4000 for the first time yesterday, the latest in a run of milestones that underscores the degree to which technology is driving the fervid U.S. economy at century's end. Taken by itself, yesterday's gain was a symbolic benchmark in a year in which the technology-packed stock index rose an astonishing 84 percent, the biggest 12-month gain ever--barring a massive sell-off today--by a major U.S. stock market measure Even given these precarious measures, the Nasdaq's 4000 breakthrough highlighted the astonishing rate at which tech stock valuations have swelled this year. The Nasdaq composite index opened trading in January at 2219, tore through the 3000 mark in October and closed yesterday at 4041.46. The last time a major market indicator performed as well over the course of a year was 1916, when the Dow Jones industrial average rose 81.49 percent. "My reaction to this is profound awe and silence," said Laszlo Birinyi, of Birinyi Associates, a stock market research group in Westport, Conn. "The market is telling us there's a major revolution taking place." That revolution is anchored in technology, borne out by the stock market performance of the high-tech sector's signature and unknown companies alike. Nearly 1,000 Nasdaq-listed firms--more than one in five--have seen their shares at least double in value this year, according to Birinyi Associates data issued last week. In the most dramatic gain yesterday, shares of cell phone maker Qualcomm Inc. rose 31 percent in regular Nasdaq trading, from $ 503 to $ 659, closing out a year in which its stock ballooned by 2,400 percent. And so it goes. "What's so truly amazing is that seven years ago, 50 percent of the companies in the Nasdaq were not even in existence," said Richard Cripps, chief equity strategist at Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. in Baltimore. The top 100 companies in the Nasdaq have a total stock market valuation of $ 3.2 trillion, he said, accounting for 20 percent of the entire equity universe; seven years ago, they accounted for less than 5 percent, he said. "I'm most surprised by the sheer magnitude of everything," said Alfred Goldman, the chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. "If you had told me a year ago that the Nasdaq would be up over 80 percent this year, I would have hung up on you." Goldman compares the Nasdaq's rise to that of a hot-air balloon, not a bubble. Bubbles burst, he said. "But hot-air balloons go up, they make a little noise, and maybe they run into an air pocket and drop a little. And then they'll rev up the engines and go up again." Goldman predicts that the Nasdaq composite index will rise to between 4800 and 5000 by the end of next year. === By REUTERS Filed at 12:53 p.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks plowed lower Thursday after a couple of high-tech heavyweights warned about softer sales, sending the Nasdaq market plunging to its lowest in more than a year. Specialty chip maker Altera Corp. (ALTR.O) and computer maker Gateway Inc. (GTW.N) set off alarm bells among investors when they said that their fourth-quarter results would fall short of expectations. The news confirmed Wall Street's fears -- that a slowing U.S. economy would bite into corporate earnings, further bruising a Nasdaq already reeling from four straight sessions of selling. `"People have stopped looking for the bottom and are looking for an exit,'' said John Manley, chief equity strategist at Salomon Smith Barney. The Gateway warning dampened hopes the American consumer would come through with a holiday spending spree, and many Wall Streeters were finally beginning to give up all hope of decent fourth quarter corporate earnings, Manley added. The technology-packed Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 151.51 points, or 5.6 percent, at 2,555.42. Just minutes before, it had lost more than 6 percent to scrape a session low of 2,534.13, a level not seen since August 1999... Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
Phil Brown
Comment from attorney Phil Brown on Gore gambit. (( It seems to me that the National media are very much slanting their reporting of the Florida election in favor of "Curious George." The media are focusing on the lawsuits brought by Gore to have votes counted that have not yet been counted. Even though Gore may be legally correct, time is against him, since the decision to count or not to count some ten thousand plus ballots and the actual counting has to take place in a very short period of time. The Bush camp, realizing how important time is, have launched a strategy of insisting that if any counting takes place, that all the ballots from the respective counties must be counted, making it an even more remote chance that the task can be accomplished timely But all those suits won't matter at all if, the judge in Seminole County rules that some 5,000, mostly republican ballots must be thrown out ( that is not counted) because of improper and illegal tampering by republican party members who literally retrieved thousands of absentee applications from the trash, doctored them up and resubmitted them, so that ballots could be sent out! If the Judge ! in Seminole County uses that same legal logic and standard that was used in the other contested counties to keep out thousands of ballots, she will logically have to exclude the 5,000 republican ballots! And guess what? Without the need to count a single new ballot, Bushes count will drop perhaps by as many as two to three thousand votes, and Gore will have to be declared the winner!If you checked out Tom Brokaw yesterday evening (he is probably the least subtle National News person when it comes to keeping his personal views to himself as he pretends to report the news objectively) you heard him attack Gore for not withdrawing the Seminole lawsuit, to which Gore responded appropriately that he was not a party to that lawsuit, that it was brought by the local election official who had excluded the application in the first place, as required under Florida law, and most importantly that there were thousands of similar applications excluded across the entrie state of Flor! ida, many if not most being submitted by democrats. The nice thing about this situation is that, on Appeal, any court that finds that the ballots in Dade, and Miami counties have to be excluded, will legally and logically have to uphold the exclusion of the Seminole County ballots!... Unfortuntately legality and logic won't necessarily carry the day. We are tallking major power politics here! The Republicans control just about every position that could ultimately decide the issue, i.e., The U. S. Supremes, the U. S. Congress, the Florida legislature, and of course the Florida governor's mansion!
Re: Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion referencesto Marx?(plea se check the list)
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/29/00 05:26PM > It seems to me that Ellen Wood is the most important Marxist writing in English today. (( CB: However, our own Lou P. deserves a plug for this epithet as well.
Re: Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion referencesto Marx?(plea se check the list)
Yes, and Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. : What is to be Done? Materialism and Empirio-Criticism Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism The State and Revolution CB >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/29/00 05:26PM >>> Preliminary: You aren't reading Marxism seriously unless you read Amilcar Cabral and the major works of Mao. To see Marxism in gritty practice, see the greatest U.S. book of the 20th century, Hinton, *Fanshen.*
Re: Progressive Information Aggregation Institutions?
On 11/6/2000, I wrote: >Peter Dorman wrote: >> > if people disagree about who the best analyst is, then a betting >> market might >> > give people good incentives to be honest with themselves about who to >> rely on. >> >>This is where democratic discourse comes in. Have you read Mark Sagoff's >>ECONOMY >>OF THE EARTH? I like his analogy to juries, which applies to this case. ... > >I haven't read it, but will if that would enable our discussion to continue. >It might take me a few weeks though. It did take a few weeks, but I have now read Sagoff's book. Sagoff criticizes environmental willingness to pay surveys as not sufficiently informing subjects, by analogy to a court which asks for juror votes without letting jurors hear the case. Sagoff also praises democratic deliberation more generally, relative to formal analysis. In hindsight what I said in my last message seems directly relevant. I do not propose to replace or prevent discourse. I do not want prevent jurors or anyone from listening to the case. The question is how to choose when, on matters of fact as opposed to value, disagreement persists, even after substantial discourse. Whose estimate should determine actions? A vote among everyone? A vote among a random jury? Administrative agency experts? A panel of distinguished academics? My proposal was to use the estimate of a betting market. Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030- 703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY LABOR REPORT, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2000 RELEASED TODAY: In October, 200 metropolitan areas recorded unemployment rates below the U.S. average (3.6 percent not seasonally adjusted), while 124 areas registered higher rates. Thirty-five metropolitan areas had jobless rates below 2.0 percent, with 19 of these located in the Midwest, 8 in New England, and 7 in the South. Among the six areas with rates above 10.0 percent, four were in the West and two were in the South. ... Two California metropolitan areas with concentrations of high-tech workers --San Jose, the hub of Silicon Valley, and San Francisco -- were among the highest-paid workforces in the country in 1999, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. San Jose posted an annual average of $61,110 in overall pay. New York was second with an average of $52,351, followed by San Francisco with an average of $50,169. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). Presidential politics and concerns about higher oil prices as the nation heads into the winter months trimmed consumer confidence in November, but not enough to dampen holiday spending, the Conference Board reports. ... The employment outlook turned less favorable, with only 15.0 percent of respondents expecting jobs to become more plentiful over the next 6 months, down from 18.6 percent a month earlier. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-10). Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell 5.5 percent in October, as demand for metals including steel dropped the most in nearly 2 years, the Commerce Department reported. The report said that last month's decline in orders for durable goods, items expected to last 3 or more years, was the first since a 13.2 percent decrease in July. Orders rose 2.4 percent in September. ... (New York Times, page C2). Statistics reinforce slowdown. Consumer optimism about the U.S. economy fell in November to the lowest level in more than a year. ... A separate report shows a 5.5 percent decline in October orders to factories for such durable goods as aircraft, furniture, and machinery. This underscores the fact that higher borrowing costs are injecting some caution into Americans' spending plans. The durable goods decline was the largest since July. ... (Washington Post, page E2)_Durable goods orders fell sharply in October, suggesting that business investment in new technology and machinery will cool in coming months. Separately, uncertainty over the presidential election took a bite out of consumer confidence, leaving it at its lowest level in more than a year. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2) The value of new construction contracts rose 3 percent in October, supported by strong increases in the building of offices and manufacturing plans that compensated for a slight falloff in residential and other types of construction, like sewers and power plans, according to F.W. Dodge, a building research division of publisher McGraw-Hill Cos. ... The Dodge index, a measure of national construction value, was at 187 in October compared with 182 the prior month. The index uses 1992 as a base year of 100. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2). A new study of the Washington, D.C., area shows that, even as the region made significant strides in the 1990s as a home for innovative and entrepreneurial business, crucial aspects of the quality of life have worsened, and the gulf between rich and poor grew markedly wider. According to the Potomac Index, a series of numerical indicators measuring the successes and shortcomings of the region in five categories ... the household incomes of those at the top of the economic ladder have increased significantly in the past 7 years, while incomes actually fell slightly for those at the bottom rung. From 1993 to 1998, the income gap between the wealthiest 20 percent and the poorest 20 percent of households widened from a ratio of 3 to 1 to a ratio of 4 to 1. ... The index cost more than $100,000 to produce and was funded by the Chicago-based Somnenschein law firm, which has Washington, D.C., offices, the Morino Institute in Reston, which has served as an incubator for start-up tech firms, Anderson Consulting, and The Washington Post. ... (Washington Post, page E1). Amazon.com has come out swinging in its fight to stop a new unionization drive, telling employees that unions are a greedy, for-profit business and advising managers on ways to detect when a group of workers is trying to back a union. A section on Amazon's internal Web site gives supervisors antiunion material to pass on to employees, saying that unions mean strife and possible strikes and that, while unions are certain to charge expensive dues, they cannot guarantee improved wages or benefits. ... The Communications Workers of America has undertaken a campaign to unionize 400 customer-service representatives in Seattle, where Amazon is based. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the Prewitt Organizing Fund, an indepen
Re: RE: Farming manual far too practical for Chinese aut horities (fwd)
At 10:27 AM 11/30/00 -0500, norm wrote: >very interesting article on current Chinese politics. it implies that local >officials can oppress the masses w/o direct interference from Beijing which >can only defend them indirectly thru the media? > >i thought that Beijing had more power than that. I think it's important to remember that no dictatorship (no matter how bloody or disgusting) can totally dominate the countryside (or the cities). They often don't have enough information about what's going on, while they have to motivate people to follow orders. The latter means that the underlings affect the way that central orders are expressed and carried out. The bureaucracy thus isn't totally under the control of the elite, especially as middle-level bureaucrats can create personal "empires" and coalitions to promote their own power and influence. The central power tries to standardize things, creating a "party line" which all underlings must toe. But by standardizing things, they lose the ability to deal with the nuances, the shades of gray, the cases where an ordinary person's interpretation of the party line is more valid than that of a party operative. This means that they can't control the countryside. Unlike Brad, I don't think that the Nazi/Communist China analogy works at all, but even Hitler had to deal with various interest groups (the SS vs. the Wehrmacht vs. the Navy, etc.) and had to balance their interests. There's a book out (I've forgotten the author's name) who reinteprets the history of the European Theater of WW2 in terms of this conflict of interest groups. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: A zillion is too many!
quoth Rob: >Heilbroner's gorgeous *The Worldly Philosophers* (cheap, lovable, wise, fair and voluptuously written) hands you all the big names on a plate in four hours. A beaut history-of-ideas context piece to whet the appetite (which it will - the dismal science kinda gets to you - a sorta maliciously playful coquette, ever divulging more of herself, but never, alas, taking you all the way).< The problem is that Heilbroner puts forth a very deterministic (automatic socialist revolution) picture of Marx's ideas. His MARXISM: FOR AND AGAINST is much better. Justin writes: >I don't care for the Wolff & Resnick volume. W&R have a silly postmodernist or post-ALthusserian "antiempiricist" theory that viates their critique of NCE and weakens their presentation of Marx, who is a consummate empiricist--all those Blue Books! < As Mat points out, Marx was no empiricist (nor was he a rationalist). His method -- which involves an effort to synthesize empiricism and rationalism -- is explained pretty well in his introduction to his GRUNDRISSE. (Empiricism sees facts as "speaking for themselves" (needing no theoretical massaging to understand them) whereas rationalism involves simply cooking up theories in one's mind (requiring no empirical referents). Both are silly if not impossible.) BTW, the problem I find with Wolff & Resnick is they seem to make a conscious effort to avoid taking a stand on anything. No factor is society is more important than any other, while the disagreement between the neoclassical and Marxian schools seems to be nothing but a matter of opinion (subjective). However, they write extremely well, despite their somewhat idiosyncratic jargon. >The best thing I know on Marxist economics is King and Howard, The Political Economy of marx. They also have a two-vol. History of Marxian Economics that is really indispensible for people who are seriously intersted in the technical matters. The Sweezy book is of course a classic, clear, lucid, accessible to the beginner and rewarding to the advanced reader even today.< Though they do the work of yeopeople in surveying what many authors have written about Marx and Marxian political economy, Howard & King have a very specific interpretation of Marx (one that I think is wrong, but I'm willing to be convinced). They see Marx as a minor post-Ricardian (follower of David Ricardo) in terms of economics, though they acknowledge his contributions to historical interpretation and sociology. If I were to start off, I'd do so with Sweezy, whose sort of Keynes/Schumpeter interpretation makes a lot of sense (even though much of his discussion is dated). Sweezy is very clear from the start that Marx approached issues in a different way than do orthodox economists. He's also a very clear writer. BTW, coming into work today reminded me of any episode of "Cheers": every e-mail seemed to shout "Norm!" Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
meltdown?
I think the odds are increasing fairly quickly that we are heading into a slowdown. I'm also seeing evidence of financial difficulty. The Wall Street Journal had an article about the companies that sell telecommunications equipment having extended more credit than they can easily collect. The St. Louis branch of the Fed has an article about problem loans at big banks. What is the likelihood of a meltdown? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
RE: Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(please check the list)
Marx had an historical approach. That is not the same thing as "empiricism." Taking empirical data seriously does not necessarily carry the epistemological baggage of "empiricism." There is nothing inconsistent about a Marxist rejection of empiricist methodology, epistemology, ontology. I am not uncritical of Resnick and Wolff, and in fact I think they themselves sometimes seem to conflate empiricism and an historical approach, but I think they raise important issues, their basic critique of rationalism and empiricism is sound, and their insistence on careful consideration of methodological, epistemological and ontological questions are important contributions to conversations in and around Marxian economics and political economy. Mat -Original Message- From: Justin Schwartz To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11/30/00 9:28 AM Subject: [PEN-L:5157] Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(please check the list) The best Marx bio is still David McLellan's Karl Marx. Franz Mehring's older book is good on Marx as a political activist. The new bio by Wheen is interesting but a bit lightweight. I don't care for the Wolff & Resnick volume. W&R have a silly postmodernist or post-ALthusserian "antiempiricist" theory that viates their critique of NCE and weakens their presentation of Marx, who is a consummate empiricist--all those Blue Books! The best thing I know on Marxist economics is King and Howard, The Political Economy of marx. They also have a two-vol. History of Marxian Economics that is really indispensible for people who are seriously intersted in the technical matters. The Sweezy book is of course a classic, clear, lucid, accessible to the beginner and rewarding to the advanced reader even today. --jks Three very >different introductory works are: > >David Riazonov, _Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels_ >Paul Sweezy, _Theory of Capitalist Development_ >Wolff and Resnick, _Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical_ > >There are also lively historical accounts that get a lot of ideas >across, like Edmund Wilson's _To the Finland Station_. > >What do people think is the best Marx biography? > >Best, Colin > _ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
RE: Farming manual far too practical for Chinese authorities (fwd)
sorry if i sent a blank msg. --- "Needless to say, local officials were none too pleased. Within days of its publication in late July, members of the Public Security Bureau were sent out into the countryside to retrieve as many copies of the publication as possible. They managed to get back about 11,000 copies, even going so far as offering to pay more in compensation than the sale price of the book. Extant copies now fetch 15 times the original price. The seized books were lodged in a warehouse to await destruction. The tale of the Handbook is even more remarkable in that the central government has clearly given the go-ahead for the state-controlled media to report on the publication and seizure of the book, pitting itself squarely against the local administration." --- very interesting article on current Chinese politics. it implies that local officials can oppress the masses w/o direct interference from Beijing which can only defend them indirectly thru the media? i thought that Beijing had more power than that. norm
Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(please check the list)
The best Marx bio is still David McLellan's Karl Marx. Franz Mehring's older book is good on Marx as a political activist. The new bio by Wheen is interesting but a bit lightweight. I don't care for the Wolff & Resnick volume. W&R have a silly postmodernist or post-ALthusserian "antiempiricist" theory that viates their critique of NCE and weakens their presentation of Marx, who is a consummate empiricist--all those Blue Books! The best thing I know on Marxist economics is King and Howard, The Political Economy of marx. They also have a two-vol. History of Marxian Economics that is really indispensible for people who are seriously intersted in the technical matters. The Sweezy book is of course a classic, clear, lucid, accessible to the beginner and rewarding to the advanced reader even today. --jks Three very >different introductory works are: > >David Riazonov, _Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels_ >Paul Sweezy, _Theory of Capitalist Development_ >Wolff and Resnick, _Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical_ > >There are also lively historical accounts that get a lot of ideas >across, like Edmund Wilson's _To the Finland Station_. > >What do people think is the best Marx biography? > >Best, Colin > _ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
RE: Farming manual far too practical for Chinese authorities (fwd)
-Original Message- From: Stephen E Philion [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 4:26 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:5147] Farming manual far too practical for Chinese authorities (fwd) The Age (AU) Farming manual far too practical for Chinese authorities By JOHN SCHAUBLE CHINA CORRESPONDENT BEIJING Saturday 25 November 2000 In Chinese publishing terms it was a sensation. Selling 12,000 copies in just 13 days, the short volume titled Handbook on the Work of Reducing Farmers' Burdens walked off the shelves in the southern province of Jiangxi. The book was published by the provincial Agriculture and Industry Committee after the vice-director, Gui Xiaoqi, became disturbed at the lack of information provided to local farmers on their rights. The cheaply printed 147-page book, with a picture of Premier Zhu Rongji on the cover, was in fact a guerrilla manual on how farmers could avoid being exploited by local officials in a province notorious for its arbitrary taxes on farmers. The 10 yuan ($A2.20) book spelt out central government policies on easing the farmers' tax burden and told them they could defend their interests against exploitation. It also set out documents, regulations and policies from the local government on such topics as village self-rule, land management and itinerant laborers. Even more provocatively, it suggested ways in which farmers could ease the "unreasonable burden" placed on farmers. These included a simple boycott, reporting the offending agencies, applying for an administrative review and writing letters to higher authorities. Needless to say, local officials were none too pleased. Within days of its publication in late July, members of the Public Security Bureau were sent out into the countryside to retrieve as many copies of the publication as possible. They managed to get back about 11,000 copies, even going so far as offering to pay more in compensation than the sale price of the book. Extant copies now fetch 15 times the original price. The seized books were lodged in a warehouse to await destruction. The tale of the Handbook is even more remarkable in that the central government has clearly given the go-ahead for the state-controlled media to report on the publication and seizure of the book, pitting itself squarely against the local administration. The latest issue of the China International Business magazine carries one account, largely derived from a report last month in the spirited Southern Weekend newspaper. State-run television has also been reporting in recent days on the saga of illegal taxes being imposed in Jiangxi. It also showed the tale of a farmer who was detained for two weeks for selling copies of the offending manual. A month after the book was published, up to 20,000 farmers rioted in protest at unfair local taxes. The levies come on top of a general rural tax and are imposed by local officials. Farmers claim much of the money raised is squandered by officials on banquets, cars and high living. Four days of protests centred on the city of Fengcheng were put down by police and paramilitary forces. Beijing has been loudly campaigning against corruption in Jiangxi for more than a year as part of a broader crackdown on official graft. The provincial vice-governor, Hu Changqing, was executed earlier this year after being convicted on corruption charges. While the riots in Jiangxi might not in themselves have posed a serious threat to national stability, they did send a salutary message to Beijing about the future sources of challenge to the authority of the Communist Party. It is a message repeated in similar disturbances in recent months - an uprising by thousands of miners in north-eastern province of Liaoning and another by farmers starved for water in Shandong province. A drifting population of an estimated 120million rural workers - representing up to 10per cent of the country's population - poses another uncertainty. The central government has heeded in part the call for a fairer go in rural China, where 900million of the country's 1.3billion people live. "Reducing the financial burdens on Chinese farmers is an imperative government task," Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao told officials after the Jiangxi riots. Whether the message gets through in Jiangxi, remains to be seen.
Re: RE: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Mar x? (please check the list)
Norm, Let me also put in a plug for what I would consider a classic in the "applying Marx to Socialist transformation" literature -- Branko Horvat's 1982 _The Political Economy of Socialism_ (M.E. Sharpe). It contains some of the same ideas as _Against Capitalism_ but to my mind is much deeper and more grounded in Marx and related economics and sociology. Speaking of deep -- a couple of years ago I posted a review on Pen- l of a concert by "The Men of the Deeps", a coal miners' choir from Cape Breton. Some of you asked for information about getting CDs. They were back intown last night for another concert along with Rita McNeil, a very popular singer-songwriter also from Cape Breton who wrote what has become the Men of the Deeps theme song, "Working man". Together they have just released a joint album as they are doing a national tour (19 concerts in 22 days.) The tour is called "A Mining the Soul Christmas" and their new album is called simply "Mining the Soul" and includes: Working Man, Plain Ole Miner Boy Emigrant Eyes We Rise Again In A town this size Farewell to Nova Scotia Woring in a Coal Mine Sweet Jesus Dark As A Dungeon Home I'll Be I Shall Not Walk Alone Stirring stuff which got two standing ovations last night to a sold- out crowd of 2300 at our concert hall. Anyone interested can order by mail $16.99 for Tape, $19.99 for CD plus $5 S& H + 7% GST. (Canadian $). Send Visa or Mastercard number with order to Rocklands Promotions, PO Box 1586, Peterborough Ontario, K9J 7H7. (For newcomers to the list, you can read my review and the origins of this unique workers choir in the Pen-l archives.) Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba From: Mikalac Norman S NSSC <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject:[PEN-L:5153] RE: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Mar x? (please check the list) Date sent: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 08:38:14 -0500 Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > yeah, you're right, i need more focus. trying to figure that out right now. > > thanks for another great book! > > norm >
A zillion is too many!
G'day Norman, I like this bit of advice - saves money and time: >If it's introductions we're looking for Tucker's _Marx-Engels Reader_ is >arguably the classic; of course it's mainly original writings but if >Norm can buy it used it'll be a lot cheaper and easier than printing all >that stuff off the web, plus there's the benefit of an intelligent >selection. Beyond that much depends on one's taste. Heilbroner's gorgeous *The Worldly Philosophers* (cheap, lovable, wise, fair and voluptuously written) hands you all the big names on a plate in four hours. A beaut history-of-ideas context piece to whet the appetite (which it will - the dismal science kinda gets to you - a sorta maliciously playful coquette, ever divulging more of herself, but never, alas, taking you all the way). As to yer basic Marxian angle, well, David McLellan's very well organised (and usefully anotated) *Karl Marx: Selected Writings* is a beaut start if a second-hand Tucker's not lying around. I always have McLellan's *The Thought of Karl Marx* next to it, as there McLellan collates bite-sized quotes according to topic (McLellan's biography is beaut, too). Anyway, start with McLellan, and you'll have enough to spend a year or two deciding whether it's worth going further in. And those two collections alone will get you through the most gruelling bona fide tests on Marxism lists, too. Oh, and I have to agree with Jim Devine (as usual): Charlie Andrews' new book kicks bottom most accessibly and compellingly. Makes sense of Marxian economics like little else. When it comes to putting Marx into the big picture sociological tradition, I'm repeatedly blown away by Simon Clarke's *Marx, Marginalism & Modern Sociology: From Adam Smith to Max Weber* (an absolutely ripping critique of the political economy of liberalism in yer basic modern English, definitely Marxist throughout, but Englishly sensible - a warning, though, if you ain't a Marxist by the end of this one, you won't be a liberal any more either: EVERYBODY cops it!) 'Course, it all tends to take a person over eventually, and now I'm fast running out of shelf-room for necessities like George MacDonald Fraser and Patrick O'Brian. Ya gotta watch that, Norm! Cheers, Rob.
RE: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (please check the list)
yeah, you're right, i need more focus. trying to figure that out right now. thanks for another great book! norm -Original Message- From: Colin Danby [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 5:45 PM To: pen-l; p2 Subject: [PEN-L:5132] Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (please check the list) There are some fine books in this group, but it's not a coherent list -- looks like it was thrown together by someone with a vague idea that Marxism, socialism, communism etc. were all the same thing. If you are looking for readings _on Marx_, less than half of these would really be appropriate. Are you looking for Marxian exegesis? Debates on issues within Marxism? Comparisons of Marxian thought on specific issues to other schools? While we're on the subject let me plug one neglected classic: I.I. Rubin's _Essays on Marx's Theory of Value_. Best, Colin Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy - Schumpeter Principles of Political Economy: And Chapters on Socialism - J.S. Mill The Power Elite - C. W. Mills Capitalism and Freedom - M. Friedman The Fatal Conceit: Errors of Socialism (Collected works of Hayek) - Bartley Marginalized in the Middle - Alan Wolfe The Pathology of the U.S. Economy - Perelman Marxism: For and Against - Heilbroner Capitalism & Modern Social Theory:Analysis of Marx, Durkheim, Weber - Giddens Marxism and the Philosophy of Language - Volosinov Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity - D. Kellner >From Marx to Mises: Post-Cap. Society & the Challenge of Econ. Calc. - Steele Against Capitalism - D. Schweickart Intro. to Marx & Engels: A Critical Reconstruction - R. Schmitt, et.al. Race to the Bottom: Why a Worldwide Worker Surplus - Alan Tonelson Interrogating Inequality:Essays on class Analysis,Soc.,Marxism - E.O.Wright Introduction to the Logic of Marxism - George Novack Marxism in the Postmod Age: Confronting the New World Order - A. Callari Economic Calculation in the Socalist Comonwealth - von Mises >From Capitalism to Equality: Laws of Econ. Change - C. Andrews Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis - von Mises
RE: Re: Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(plea se check the list)
looks like lots of meat here . kuhching, kuhching! yes, Wood and Cabral are often discussed on this list, so they must be saying something important. norm -Original Message- From: Carrol Cox [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 5:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:5131] Re: Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx?(plea se check the list) Preliminary: You aren't reading Marxism seriously unless you read Amilcar Cabral and the major works of Mao. To see Marxism in gritty practice, see the greatest U.S. book of the 20th century, Hinton, *Fanshen.* Ellen Meiksins Wood, *The Retreat from Class: A New "True" Socialism* __, *Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Histsorical Materialism* __, *Peasant-Citizen and Slave: The Foundations of Athenian Democracy* __, *The Origin of Capitalism* __, *The Pristine Culture of Capitalism* David Harvey, *Justice, Nature & the Geography of Difference* John Bellamy Foster, *Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature* Sebastiano Timpanaro, *On Materialism* Hal Draper, "The Myth of Lenin's 'Concept of the Party': Or What They Did to *What Is To Be Done*," *Historical Materialism* 4 (Summer 1999) Barbara Jeanne Fields, "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America," NLR 181 (May/June 1990) Stephanie Coontz, *The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families 1600-1900. Martha Gimenez, "Marxist Feminism/Materialist Feminism" (See archives of the Marxism-Feminism list) It seems to me that Ellen Wood is the most important Marxist writing in English today. Fields is the best account I know of the grounding of ideology in everyday experience. Foster recaptures the materialist bases of Marx's thought, which had been undermined by the predominant trends in "Western" Marxism. (Foster disagrees with Timpanaro on one point, on which Timpanaro is probably correct.) I have books by Michael Perelman and Levins & Lewontin on order. When I get them I may want to add them to the list. Carrol
RE: RE: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (please check the list)
yeah, back to 800 books . kuhching kuhching! interesting titles tho. maybe i'll have to rank them and buy 15 now and the rest later in the year. norm -Original Message- From: Lisa & Ian Murray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 4:27 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:5124] RE: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (please check the list) Norm, Try "Is Capitalism Sustainable" edited by Martin O'Connor [Guilford, 1994]still in paperback. Also, "Cyber-Marx" by Nick Dyer-Witheford [University of Illinois Press, 1999]in paperback. Both are very readable. Plus you should try to find any works by Nancy Folbre, Iris Marion Young, Asoka Bandarage and one of Justin's [former?] colleague's Alan Gewirth "The Community of Rights" [Univ. of Chicago Press, 1996]paperback too. Kuhching on the 'ol cash register, Ian > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Mikalac Norman S > NSSC > Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 12:49 PM > To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' > Subject: [PEN-L:5118] RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? > (please check the list) > > > i'm thinking of buying the socialist-capitalist list of Amazon books below > for starters. > > trying to get an assortment of views. if anyone out there thinks > that it is > too skewed to the Left or Right or irrelevant and silly in some ways, then > please feel free to suggest substitutes. > > (no need to buy any Marx or Engels or Lenin texts since the U of Colo. and > marxlist have them in total on line.) >
RE: Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (plea se check the list)
ok, ths, louis. Novack goes back onto the list. norm -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 4:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:5123] Re: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (plea se check the list) Justin: >>Introduction to the Logic of Marxism - George Novack > >Dull and antiquated. George was a friend of mine. Whatever he lacks in stylistic panache, he more than makes up for in thoroughness and ease of understanding. As far as the complaint of being "antiquated" is concerned, I suppose this is a refererence to Novack's classical Marxism. As far as I am concerned, a classic never goes out of style. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
RE: Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (plea se check the list)
thanks, justin, for culling the junk out of this list. norm -Original Message- From: Justin Schwartz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 4:15 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:5121] Re: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (plea se check the list) > >Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy - Schumpeter > >Principles of Political Economy: And Chapters on Socialism - J.S. Mill > >The Power Elite - C. W. Mills > >Capitalism and Freedom - M. Friedman > Rather overrated in my view. >The Fatal Conceit: Errors of Socialism (Collected works of Hayek) - Bartley Better would be Individualism and the Economic Order, also (if still avaialble) Collective Economic Planning. > >Marginalized in the Middle - Alan Wolfe Rubbish. > >The Pathology of the U.S. Economy - Perelman > >Marxism: For and Against - Heilbroner > >Capitalism & Modern Social Theory:Analysis of Marx, Durkheim, Weber - >Giddens OK if you want to place Marx in that context, but hsi understanding of marx is very flat and determinist. > >Marxism and the Philosophy of Language - Volosinov > >Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity - D. Kellner > > >From Marx to Mises: Post-Cap. Society & the Challenge of Econ. Calc. - >Steele Excellent, but very cranky, idionsyncratic, and right wing. > >Against Capitalism - D. Schweickart > >Intro. to Marx & Engels: A Critical Reconstruction - R. Schmitt, et.al. The best short intro there is. > >Race to the Bottom: Why a Worldwide Worker Surplus - Alan Tonelson > >Interrogating Inequality:Essays on class Analysis,Soc.,Marxism - E.O.Wright > >Introduction to the Logic of Marxism - George Novack Dull and antiquated. > >Marxism in the Postmod Age: Confronting the New World Order - A. Callari Valuable only if you want to read what pomos think aboutMarx. > >Economic Calculation in the Socalist Comonwealth - von Mises Unnecessary if you read Steele and Hayek, or indeed Mises 1920 paper. > > >From Capitalism to Equality: Laws of Econ. Change - C. Andrews > >Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis - von Mises See above on Mises. You have to be a real Mises fan to get into thsi long winded rant, even if you think,a s I do, taht he is right about a lot. Hayek put Mises' essential points better and more briefly. I'd also add: John Roemer, ed, Analytical Marxism (good collection of essays) Raymond Geuss, the Idea of a Critical Theory (the basic work on ideology) Robert Brenner's New Left Review essay (takes up whole issue) on Turbulance in the World Economy (1998, I think) --jks _ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
RE: RE: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (please check the list)
ok, i'll give google a try. norm -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 4:01 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:5120] RE: RE: thanks for the zillion references to Marx? (please check the list) Don't buy Amazon. Buy used. You can search and order over the Web and save a ton. Plus Amazon is currently fighting a unionization drive so they're on the shit list. Try searching on Alibris, Powell's, or "used books" with Google. (www.google.com) mbs --- Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy - Schumpeter
Farming manual far too practical for Chinese authorities (fwd)
The Age (AU) Farming manual far too practical for Chinese authorities By JOHN SCHAUBLE CHINA CORRESPONDENT BEIJING Saturday 25 November 2000 In Chinese publishing terms it was a sensation. Selling 12,000 copies in just 13 days, the short volume titled Handbook on the Work of Reducing Farmers' Burdens walked off the shelves in the southern province of Jiangxi. The book was published by the provincial Agriculture and Industry Committee after the vice-director, Gui Xiaoqi, became disturbed at the lack of information provided to local farmers on their rights. The cheaply printed 147-page book, with a picture of Premier Zhu Rongji on the cover, was in fact a guerrilla manual on how farmers could avoid being exploited by local officials in a province notorious for its arbitrary taxes on farmers. The 10 yuan ($A2.20) book spelt out central government policies on easing the farmers' tax burden and told them they could defend their interests against exploitation. It also set out documents, regulations and policies from the local government on such topics as village self-rule, land management and itinerant laborers. Even more provocatively, it suggested ways in which farmers could ease the "unreasonable burden" placed on farmers. These included a simple boycott, reporting the offending agencies, applying for an administrative review and writing letters to higher authorities. Needless to say, local officials were none too pleased. Within days of its publication in late July, members of the Public Security Bureau were sent out into the countryside to retrieve as many copies of the publication as possible. They managed to get back about 11,000 copies, even going so far as offering to pay more in compensation than the sale price of the book. Extant copies now fetch 15 times the original price. The seized books were lodged in a warehouse to await destruction. The tale of the Handbook is even more remarkable in that the central government has clearly given the go-ahead for the state-controlled media to report on the publication and seizure of the book, pitting itself squarely against the local administration. The latest issue of the China International Business magazine carries one account, largely derived from a report last month in the spirited Southern Weekend newspaper. State-run television has also been reporting in recent days on the saga of illegal taxes being imposed in Jiangxi. It also showed the tale of a farmer who was detained for two weeks for selling copies of the offending manual. A month after the book was published, up to 20,000 farmers rioted in protest at unfair local taxes. The levies come on top of a general rural tax and are imposed by local officials. Farmers claim much of the money raised is squandered by officials on banquets, cars and high living. Four days of protests centred on the city of Fengcheng were put down by police and paramilitary forces. Beijing has been loudly campaigning against corruption in Jiangxi for more than a year as part of a broader crackdown on official graft. The provincial vice-governor, Hu Changqing, was executed earlier this year after being convicted on corruption charges. While the riots in Jiangxi might not in themselves have posed a serious threat to national stability, they did send a salutary message to Beijing about the future sources of challenge to the authority of the Communist Party. It is a message repeated in similar disturbances in recent months - an uprising by thousands of miners in north-eastern province of Liaoning and another by farmers starved for water in Shandong province. A drifting population of an estimated 120million rural workers - representing up to 10per cent of the country's population - poses another uncertainty. The central government has heeded in part the call for a fairer go in rural China, where 900million of the country's 1.3billion people live. "Reducing the financial burdens on Chinese farmers is an imperative government task," Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao told officials after the Jiangxi riots. Whether the message gets through in Jiangxi, remains to be seen.
