Re: Re: RE: Bankruptcy again

[Ken Hanly]

So the whole story is:
  My right pocket is bankrupt, my left overflowing.
  I go to the state crying out that I need money in my right pocket to keep
providing these great power services to the public..
  The state fills my right pocket...
  I go laughing all the way to the bank..
Cheers, Ken Hanly...
---
-- Original Message -
From: Eugene Coyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 11:25 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:7094] Re: RE: Bankruptcy again


> The Calif utilities transformed themselves into holding companies a few
years
> back.  The incumbent utility pieces have got severe cash problems but the
other
> pieces of the two holding companies are doing very well.
>
> FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) astonishingly on Dec. 28th
let
> PG&E put an additional fence between the utility piece and the rest, so
that
> the cash and assets of the rest can't be touched by the sister company.
People
> are a little annoyed.
>
> A little annoyed, yes, like having the "Annoyed cow disease."
>
> We'll see what happens.
>
> Gene Coyle
>
> MORE:  Even within the utility piece, they have declared that there are
two
> pots of money, never to be mingled.  The utilities still retain
signifigant
> generating capacity and are selling the output at high market prices.
This
> offsets roughly half of what they claim to be losing.  The utilities
contention
> is that the cash in-flow is to go in a separate and untouchable pocket
from the
> emptying cash out-flow pocket.
>
> Gene
>
>
>

Re: Re: RE: Bankruptcy again

[Ken Hanly]

So your right pocket can be bankrupt but your left pocket overflowing with
bucks?

 Cheers, Ken Hanly

- Original Message -
From: Eugene Coyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 11:25 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:7094] Re: RE: Bankruptcy again


> The Calif utilities transformed themselves into holding companies a few
years
> back.  The incumbent utility pieces have got severe cash problems but the
other
> pieces of the two holding companies are doing very well.
>
> FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) astonishingly on Dec. 28th
let
> PG&E put an additional fence between the utility piece and the rest, so
that
> the cash and assets of the rest can't be touched by the sister company.
People
> are a little annoyed.
>
> A little annoyed, yes, like having the "Annoyed cow disease."
>
> We'll see what happens.
>
> Gene Coyle
>
> MORE:  Even within the utility piece, they have declared that there are
two
> pots of money, never to be mingled.  The utilities still retain
signifigant
> generating capacity and are selling the output at high market prices.
This
> offsets roughly half of what they claim to be losing.  The utilities
contention
> is that the cash in-flow is to go in a separate and untouchable pocket
from the
> emptying cash out-flow pocket.
>
> Gene
>
>

Re: RE: Bankruptcy again

[Eugene Coyle]

The Calif utilities transformed themselves into holding companies a few years
back.  The incumbent utility pieces have got severe cash problems but the other
pieces of the two holding companies are doing very well.

FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) astonishingly on Dec. 28th let
PG&E put an additional fence between the utility piece and the rest, so that
the cash and assets of the rest can't be touched by the sister company.  People
are a little annoyed.

A little annoyed, yes, like having the "Annoyed cow disease."

We'll see what happens.

Gene Coyle

MORE:  Even within the utility piece, they have declared that there are two
pots of money, never to be mingled.  The utilities still retain signifigant
generating capacity and are selling the output at high market prices.  This
offsets roughly half of what they claim to be losing.  The utilities contention
is that the cash in-flow is to go in a separate and untouchable pocket from the
emptying cash out-flow pocket.

Gene


Ken Hanly wrote:

> How could it be otherwise as long as there is a cap on prices to consumers
> but the utilities purchase in a (partially) deregulated market at higher
> prices.
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
>
> - Original Message -
> From: David Shemano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 4:56 PM
> Subject: [PEN-L:7080] RE: Re: RE: Bankruptcy again
>
> > It appears to be a rather straightforward cash flow problem.  Even
> assuming
> > their assets on a balance sheet exceed their liabilities, because those
> > assets are illiquid (e.g. plants and equipment), they can still be unable
> to
> > pay their debts as they become due.  (FYI -- there is no requirement that
> a
> > company be insolvent to file for bankruptcy, but the inability to pay
> debts
> > as they become due is a form of insolvency in any event).  According to
> the
> > utilities, they have paid $12 billion more for electricity than they have
> > collected from consumers since May 2000.  That is an incredible cash drain
> > and they are now out of cash.
> >
> > David Shemano
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 2:38 PM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: [PEN-L:7075] Re: RE: Bankruptcy again
> >
> >
> > David, how could these bandits be in the hole?  I would be sure to defer
> > Gene Coyle in this regard, is that I thought they had been making money in
> > hand over fist for many months before the financial crunch hit
> >  --
> > Michael Perelman
> > Economics Department
> > California State University
> > Chico, CA 95929
> >
> > Tel. 530-898-5321
> > E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >

Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Eugene Coyle]

Doug's report of the interview with Bhagwati -had this passage

 I mean I grew up in England and we were just taught
> >to read everything. I tell my students I don't teach them this
> >stuff, they pay their tuition to study proper economics, but I tell
> >them look you can't be a good economist unless you read some
> >political theory, sociology, literary theory, international
> >relations, but you've got to do it on your own time. There are only
> >so many hours in the day, I cant teach it in the classroom.


Bhagwati's import is something like this:  "We can't teach
a broad political economy because the students paid to get neo-classical." 
Wow!   A long time ago I was teaching what I hoped was a dynamic
micro economics.  The department insisted that I teach neo-classical
micro, because that's what the students needed to get into a "good" graduate
school.  "Then," the department said, "they can learn this other stuff."
Now Bhagwati is saying they have to get it AFTER grad school. 
But by then they'll be professors at the "best" schools and ...
    Why is this interesting discussion focused on the
"best" grad schools.  Certainly they are the most prestigious but
they are also the most hopeless.  Better lefties should cluster together
and develop the real "best" departments.
Gene Coyle
 
 

Russia's Debt

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

*   Financial Times (London)
January 5, 2001, Friday London Edition 1
SECTION: WORLD NEWS - EUROPE; Pg. 6
HEADLINE: WORLD NEWS - EUROPE: Russia turns its back on western aid: 
As its economy starts to come right, Moscow can afford to ignore 
international donors, even to the extent of declining to make 
repayments.  Andrew Jack reports
BYLINE: By ANDREW JACK

Just as international organisations are seeing Russia achieve the 
kind of economic performance they long hoped for, their prospects of 
influencing the country's future policy are declining fast.

With growth of 7 per cent last year, a strong trade balance, a 
projected budget surplus for this year, the rouble stable and foreign 
currency reserves building up, Russia's economy looks stronger than 
it has for years.

A compliant parliament, an energetic president and a team of liberal 
economic reformers in key government positions ought to be well 
placed to implement structural reform - notably in banking and of 
natural monopolies - that has long been demanded by bodies such as 
the International Monetary Fund.

Yet an IMF mission hoping to agree a new programme left Moscow 
empty-handed in late November after unexpected and fundamental 
disagreements over issues including the levels of government 
expenditure.

Since then, there has been little sign of reconciliation.  Indeed, 
the supposedly private meeting in Moscow this weekend between 
Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and President Vladimir Putin 
has taken on a new public importance following hints yesterday that 
Russia would not honour repayments this month to the Paris Club of 
sovereign creditors.

One reason for Russia's apparent lack of concern over making 
repayments is that it does not now need money from foreign donors and 
is more confident in dictating its own terms as a result.  "We have 
far less leverage than in the past because of the strong financial 
situation," says a senior official at one international organisation.

Another factor is that Mr Putin, concerned about Russia's dependence 
on the outside world, has sent signals to his administration in 
recent months that foreign aid should be reduced in an effort to 
establish greater autonomy.

Just as important, however, is that the main foreign lenders are 
rethinking their strategies towards Russia and taking a tougher 
stance.  Organisations as diverse as the World Bank and the Soros 
Foundation have reduced their commitments.

"There was a tremendous urge in the early 1990s to pump a lot of 
money into Russia, but the actual results were less than the 
expectations," says Tom Graham, a political analyst at the Carnegie 
Foundation and former US diplomat.  "Everybody is reassessing what 
happened."

Janine Wedel, a US academic, argued in her book Collision and 
collusion that western assistance to Russia focused on supporting a 
small circle of individuals - the young liberal reformers - rather 
than on specific policies.  When these individuals fell out of 
favour, so did the foreign sponsors and their programmes.

US Republican congressman Christopher Cox, who last September 
produced a scathing report on President Bill Clinton's policy towards 
the country during the 1990s, concluded: "Russia today is more 
corrupt, more lawless, less democratic, poorer and more unstable than 
it was in 1992."

An analysis published this month by the US General Accounting Office 
(GAO) examined the Dollars 38bn provided to Russia in the 1990s by 
five leading international institutions: the IMF, the World Bank, the 
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European 
Union's Tacis and the US Aid programme.

Albeit couched in more diplomatic language, the report is also 
critical, citing studies by the organisations themselves.  It says 
that approaches were unco-ordinated, expectations too high, and both 
corruption and a lack of Russian political consensus in favour of 
reform substantially limited progress.

Mr Graham says that much aid was directed at supporting companies in 
the donor countries and "trying to persuade Russians to do things 
they didn't want" with little thought to local social and economic 
conditions.  The result only helped boost corruption.

Meanwhile the IMF, the largest individual lender, came under 
political pressure to offer repeatedly credits in exchange for 
promises that never materialised, while apparently turning a blind 
eye to less attractive aspects of policy.

If international organisations are reconsidering their approach to 
Russia in the wake of the difficulties of the past, the political 
environment in which they are operating is also changing.

The fading memory of the collapse of communism, disillusionment over 
the slow pace of progress, and recent scandals including allegations 
of money laundering through the Bank of New York and Russia's 
campaign in the breakaway republic of Chechnya and cultivation of 
"pariah states" have done much to reduce the appetite 

Re: Re: Zyuganov Interview 11 September 2000: Russian CP

[Justin Schwartz]

You overesitimate the size of Soli by a factor of four. I would also suspect 
that there are about half as many organized leftists in the US as you 
estimate. If you would be happier in Soli, join us. Then we will be one 
member larger.--jks

>
>   Heh, I'd most likely be happier in Solidarity than DSA, when it comes to
>position on the Democratic Party and most int'l. positions. However
>pessimist me would rather be in a sect of 10,000 or so than one a tenth 
>that
>size. DSA isn't all of one mind on most matters that divide the left here 
>in
>the belly of the beast. And given how deliberately undiscipined it is, 
>DSA's
>influence for good or ill (ilk? heh!) over progressives isn't that large.
>I'd have to guess that the # of self-conscious socialists in the USA  not
>active in socialist organizations is 2-5 times what formal membership #'s
>are. Which add up DSA, C of C, CPUSA,BRC, Solidarity, FRSO, ISO, WWP and 
>all
>the rest is say 20,000 tops, no?
>
>Michael Pugliese, Heresy Hunter Obsessed With Spouting Off On Things He Can
>Have No Influence Over ;-)
>

_
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Re: RE: Re: RE: Bankruptcy again

[Ken Hanly]

How could it be otherwise as long as there is a cap on prices to consumers
but the utilities purchase in a (partially) deregulated market at higher
prices.
Cheers, Ken Hanly

- Original Message -
From: David Shemano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 4:56 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:7080] RE: Re: RE: Bankruptcy again


> It appears to be a rather straightforward cash flow problem.  Even
assuming
> their assets on a balance sheet exceed their liabilities, because those
> assets are illiquid (e.g. plants and equipment), they can still be unable
to
> pay their debts as they become due.  (FYI -- there is no requirement that
a
> company be insolvent to file for bankruptcy, but the inability to pay
debts
> as they become due is a form of insolvency in any event).  According to
the
> utilities, they have paid $12 billion more for electricity than they have
> collected from consumers since May 2000.  That is an incredible cash drain
> and they are now out of cash.
>
> David Shemano
>
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 2:38 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [PEN-L:7075] Re: RE: Bankruptcy again
>
>
> David, how could these bandits be in the hole?  I would be sure to defer
> Gene Coyle in this regard, is that I thought they had been making money in
> hand over fist for many months before the financial crunch hit
>  --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>

Re: Re: warning on pen-l

[Ken Hanly]

Maybe Cal State should relocate to Medicine Hat. I am not sure how Ralph
Klein compares to the governor of California though... His government just
finished paying out about 800 thousand dollars to defend their former
treasurer Stockwell Day who was sued for defaming a lawyer..Day had
suggested that the lawyer was a pederast since he was defending one.
Stockwell Day is the leader of the opposition party in the federal
parliament. The suit could have been settled earlier at a cost of 67,000 to
the taxpayer but Stockwell Day refused to settle then. His lawyer cost over
400 thousand while the lawyer's lawyer cost over 200 thousand..
   CHeers, Ken Hanly

- Original Message -
From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 4:50 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:7077] Re: warning on pen-l


> Now that's a trip.
>
> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/17/01 05:39PM >>>
> Pen-l could go down at anytime due to impending power blackouts at the
> University.
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>

Re: The "clincher"

[Tom Walker]

maggie coleman wrote,

>Tom, Great pamphlet -- does my heart good to read what the conservatives really
>think and not have their beliefs couched in careful language.  Another
source of
>incredibly racist labor writings are those of Henry George of the nineteenth
>century.  His anti-Chinese ravings were used as the basis for the Chinese
>Exclusion Acts.  maggie coleman

To be even-handed, I have to raise the issue of the anti-Chinese racism of
the A.F. of L. and Samuel Gompers. I found an article in a issue of the
A.F.L newsletter from this same period celebrating anti-Chinese riots in
Vancouver as if they were a great victory for the working class and another
report on travels in China that was as every bit as vile as the stuff I just
posted.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island, BC

Re: re: Hires

[Margaret Coleman]

I have to disagree with Jim Devine on this one -- the original message is
reprinted below.  I really don't think the problem is that academics are
expected to succeed on their own merit -- I think that is the propaganda, but
the reality is more sordid.  If this individualized merit system really were
the case, then some percentage of women, minorities, lefties would make it even
in large and conservative departments -- after all, good work is good work,
right?  I think that a huge part of the problem is that the academy rewards
look-a-like research, ass-kissing, and promotes people with demographic
features reflecting their own.  F'rinstance, I have know a few women economists
who went through the Chicago school, are conservative as hell, but still can't
get hired in mainstream departments.  One example story -- while I was active
on femecon-l a few years ago, one conservative woman and I battled out over a
number of issues.  Her position on sexual discrimination/harrassment was
similar to that of Chavez.  AFter she graduated, and I dropped off all lists,
we lost track of each other.  About two years into a career at a business firm,
she contacted me looking for someone to give her legal advice -- apparently she
had been discriminated against both as a woman and a minority...  So, not
only was she not hired into the academy, where she was hired she had a
problem.  maggie coleman

Jim Devine wrote:

> Michael P wrote: >I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good
> job of supporting each other.<
>
> Justin writes: >I don't think this problem is limited to economics. When I
> lost my job in philosophy, I didn't get much help from left philosophers;
> people responded, with a few honorable exceptions, "Bad luck, old chap,"
> and kept away. There is a sort of ancient Greek attitude in academia that
> good luck is to be rewarded and bad luck punished. I'm an attorney now.<
>
> Academia encourages individualism. Each of us is judged on his or her
> individual "merits," where collaborating with others on research is not
> rewarded as much as one's individual work. This encourages a competitive
> attitude, even toward those who have similar political perspectives. (This,
> of course, conflicts with the way in which knowledge is a collective
> product.) Also, I think academia attracts and rewards those with poor
> social skills.
>
> On top of that, the tenured insiders and the Deans and other powers that be
> can take advantage of the inherent ambiguity of the "merit" criteria for
> granting promotion and tenure. You're supposed to be an excellent
> researcher, an excellent teacher, and an excellent colleague (in terms of
> committee work and the like). How to measure "excellence" is a really
> difficult question, especially when specialization is encouraged so much
> (so those who judge you may not know anything about the quality of your
> work). (In economics, the quality of one's math is probably the easiest
> thing to judge, so that's used most of the time in judging, thus
> encouraging the emphasis on formalism.) In most cases, the same evidence
> can be used to justify both tenure/promotion or "hit the road, Jack."
> No-one's perfect, so there's always an excuse for the latter response. The
> essential capriciousness of the tenure/promotion process encourages the
> kind of fatalistic response that Justin reports.
>
> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Margaret Coleman]

David Dorkin's experiences resonate strongly with me.  At the point
where I had finished all but my dissertation, I was ready to drop out of
the economics program at the New School, in part because of the
indifference/antagonism I felt from most of the department on a number
of levels (the exception being the professor who became my dissertation
advisor).  I then attended my first IAFFE conference and was energized
to continue by seeing a group of women economists in action.  Also,
Barbara Bergmann, anti-left, anti-union as she was, and is, was
incredibly supportive of me while disagreeing with just about every word
out of my mouth.  Between her, several other feminist economists, and my
dissertation advisor who was absolutely 100% supportive, I did finish
and now practice as an economist -- though not, as Doug Henwood would
point out, in either academia or in a major department.  On the other
hand, I am very happy doing what I am doing.  So, yes, lefties are
more famous for infighting than supporting their own, imho.  maggie
coleman

Michael Perelman wrote:

> I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good
> job of supporting each other.
>
> dave dorkin wrote:
>
> > I am a graduate student and  I chose law over a PhD in
> > economics (after having been accepted in some of the
> > heterodox econ PhD programs that have been mentioned).
> > I already had a masters in econ from Italy and wanted
> > to continue (and still do to some degree).
> >
> > I encountered general indifference from more than one
> > economist at the various departments when I tried to
> > speak with them about just these same problems. It was
> > along the lines of, if you want to do this fine if
> > not, don't waste our time.  Few qualified left
> > candidates will make such a significant investment in
> > time and money without more support, institutional and
> > otherwise. Several URPE members were dismissive of my
> > questions and concerns as well. When one has other
> > options, this makes a big difference.
> >
> > David Dorkin
> >
> > __
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
> > http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
>
> --
>
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: The "clincher"

[Margaret Coleman]

Tom, Great pamphlet -- does my heart good to read what the conservatives really
think and not have their beliefs couched in careful language.  Another source of
incredibly racist labor writings are those of Henry George of the nineteenth
century.  His anti-Chinese ravings were used as the basis for the Chinese
Exclusion Acts.  maggie coleman

Tom Walker wrote:

> Yesterday I received in the mail a photocopy I had ordered from the New York
> Public Library of a lengthy (85 pages) pamphlet published in 1903. The
> pamphlet is notable for two reasons: 1. it was written and compiled under
> the direction of William Wolff Smith, who, in 1902, was the first public
> relations counselor to set up operations in Washington, D.C. and 2. it dealt
> with the issue of legislation for the eight hour day. Thus it is a key
> source document in the history of corporate public relations in the service
> of an organized political lobby on the labor issue. The title of the
> pamphlet is "An Arbitrary Workday?"
>
> The pamphlet consists largely of an excruciatingly tedious, tendentious and
> rambling account of a 'correspondent's' investigation of the issue through
> visits to two shipyards and a steel mill. Of particular interest, though,
> are the editor's transparently disingenous disclaimer of reportorial
> "impartiality"; the reporter's own conclusion, culminating in an
> extraordinarily vile racist digression (which he and his editors must have
> viewed as the "clincher" for their case); and a summary of the congressional
> testimony of Mr. A.B. Farquhar, of the National Association of
> Manufacturers, which obviously drew heavily on the squalid (and equally
> tendentious) London Times series from November 1901 on the "Crisis in
> British Industry".
>
> In my view, Farquhar's testimony establishes the final link in the chain of
> evidence establishing the London Times series and its zealous propagation by
> the National Association of Manufacturers as the actual source of the
> alleged "lump of labor fallacy" claim against proposals for reduced work
> time, repeated ad nauseum as received wisdom by economists, including the
> Samuelson textbook. My previous investigation of the spuriousness of the
> lump of labor claim as economic doctrine will be published by Routledge next
> month in _Working Time: International Trends, Theory and Policy
> Perspectives_. The sequel to that work will detail the propaganda campaign.
>
> AN ARBITRARY WORKDAY?
>
> SHALL THE AMERICAN WORKINGMAN BE FETTERED THE TRIUMPHAL PROGRESS OF AMERICAN
> ARTS AND INDUSTRIES ARRESTED, THE MANUFACTURING OUTPUT DIMINISHED AND
> INDIVIDUAL EFFORT REGULATE BY LAW?
>
> CAPITAL AND LABOR UNITE IN OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION
>
> SOME OF THE OBJECTIONS PRESENTED BY MANUFACTURERS AND MECHANICS WHO WOULD BE
> AFFECTED
>
> (Editor's disclaimer)
>
> NOTE. - Mr. Robert H. Watkins, a well-known newspaper correspondent at the
> Capitol, was requested by the Editors to visit several industrial
> institutions with a view of ascertaining the effect the application of the
> eight-hour law now on the Senate Calendar would have on them. He received no
> instructions whatever, except to be absolutely impartial. His observations
> are embodied in the following article.-Editors.
>
> (Watkins' conclusion)
>
> The passage of the bill would indeed in its clumsy way go far toward
> engrafting the system of eight hours a day throughout the United States, but
> to contemplate what that would mean is to think of nothing less than a
> national folly. In my humble opinion, if the bill should pass and every
> manufacturing concern in the country and every employer of labor should
> consent to and adopt the eight-hour system, it would instantly mark the
> decay of the splendid prestige of the United States as the richest and most
> powerful country on earth. As I have already said, I believe the measure an
> assault upon the liberty of both the employer and the employee. I do not
> wish to see the day when American manufacturers and American workmen should
> not have all the chances they desire with the manufacturers and workmen of
> the rest of the world. The arbitrary rule of eight hours would make men
> machines that would surely rust, and would discourage indivuality of effort
> and purpose. It would subject us to a competition with foreign producers
> with which we could not possibly cope. Civilization has not yet reached the
> period of impossible felicity when multitudes of men may every day, year in
> and year out, quit work and go to improving themselves with idleness. The
> notion that the employer, finding be can not get as much out of his men by
> only eight hours, will be obliged to employ more men to complete the job,
> will not do to consider in these days. Under that system manufacturing in
> America will go backward and employers grow less. As line after line of
> production is abandoned the crowds of idle will be correspondingly increased.
>
> Having lived f

Re: Zyuganov Interview 11 September 2000: Russian CP

[Michael Pugliese]

  Heh, I'd most likely be happier in Solidarity than DSA, when it comes to
position on the Democratic Party and most int'l. positions. However
pessimist me would rather be in a sect of 10,000 or so than one a tenth that
size. DSA isn't all of one mind on most matters that divide the left here in
the belly of the beast. And given how deliberately undiscipined it is, DSA's
influence for good or ill (ilk? heh!) over progressives isn't that large.
I'd have to guess that the # of self-conscious socialists in the USA  not
active in socialist organizations is 2-5 times what formal membership #'s
are. Which add up DSA, C of C, CPUSA,BRC, Solidarity, FRSO, ISO, WWP and all
the rest is say 20,000 tops, no?

Michael Pugliese, Heresy Hunter Obsessed With Spouting Off On Things He Can
Have No Influence Over ;-)

Re: Predicting 9 of the last 3 recessions

[Margaret Coleman]

About a year ago, a famous economist came out, once again, and predicted the end
of recessions all together in the "new economy."  I can visualize the man giving
the interview, but I can't remember his name -- anyone?  maggie coleman

Lisa & Ian Murray wrote:

> 
>
> The Unpredictable Economy: Experts Missed Last 9 Recessions
>
> Steven Pearlstein Washington Post Service  Wednesday, January 17, 2001
>
> WASHINGTON In presenting his annual economic outlook last Thursday, the
> chairman of President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers was having
> nothing to do with all the recession talk going around.
> .
> "Let me be clear," Martin Baily said. "We don't think that we're going into
> recession."
> .
> The same message was delivered the next day by Mr. Clinton in a Rose Garden
> economic valedictory. Citing the predictions of 50 private forecasters known
> as the Blue Chip Consensus - "the experts who make a living doing this," as
> he put it - Mr. Clinton assured Americans that the economy would continue to
> grow this year at an annual rate of 2 percent to 3 percent.
> .
> What the president and his adviser failed to mention was that "the experts"
> did not predict any of the nine recessions since the end of World War II.
> .
> That is true of the members of the Blue Chip Consensus as well as the
> Council of Economic Advisers, the forecasting staffs of the Federal Reserve
> Board and the Congressional Budget Office.
> .
> And if, as a few renegades have begun to predict, the U.S. economy is
> heading into a mild recession this year, that would mean one more forecast
> added to that dismal record.
> .
> "We really aren't very good at calling the turning points of the economy in
> either direction," said Murray Weidenbaum, the top economic adviser in the
> Reagan administration.
> .
> Allen Sinai of Primark Decision Economics Inc., a respected private
> forecaster, agreed. "It's probably only fair for forecasters to admit at
> times like this that we're simply not well equipped to predict turning
> points," he said. "A recession, by its nature, is a speculative call."
> .
> At first blush, such humility may seem at odds with the aura surrounding
> modern-day forecasters.
> .
> Using high-speed computers and sophisticated models of the U.S. economy,
> they constantly revise their two-year predictions for everything from
> unemployment to business investment to long-term interest rates, expressed
> numerically to the first decimal place.
> .
> But according to the forecasters themselves, what may appear to be a precise
> science is really a black art, one that is constantly confounded by the
> changing structure of the economy and the refusal of investors, consumers
> and business executives to behave as rationally and predictably in real life
> as they do in economic models.
> .
> "The reason we have trouble calling recessions is that all recessions are
> anomalies," said Joel Prakken, president of Macroeconomic Advisers of St.
> Louis, one of the leading U.S. forecasting firms.
> .
> According to Mr. Prakken, every modern recession has been caused by a
> combination of overly aggressive interest rate increases by the Federal
> Reserve Board, which weakens the economy, and some "external shock" that
> pushes it over the edge.
> .
> Because such shocks - the 1973 oil embargo, for example, or the 1990 Iraqi
> invasion of Kuwait - are random and, by their nature, unpredictable, Mr.
> Prakken argues that it is virtually impossible to predict when a slowing
> economy will turn into a shrinking one.
> .
> For the moment, Mr. Prakken, like most other forecasters, is confidently
> predicting that the economy will skirt the edge of recession early this year
> and then pick up its pace, growing at the annual rate of 2.6 percent.
> .
> A hearty band of optimists in the forecasting community still says it should
> be possible to come up with leading indicators for the economy that could
> state, with some reliability, that a recession is just over the horizon. It
> is just that such indicators have not been found yet.
> .
> James Stock of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government said there
> had been any number of early warnings that, for 20 to 30 years, were highly
> correlated with a recession: sharp declines in the stock market, a slump in
> housing starts, a rapid expansion of the money supply and an unusual
> alignment of interest rates in which long-term bonds had lower yields than
> short-term securities did.
> .
> The problem is that just when there are enough occurrences to prove an
> indicator reliable, the economy changes in some fundamental way, and the
> model loses its predictive power, Mr. Stock said.
> .
> Victor Zarnowitz, a longtime student of the business cycle, said much of the
> problem was that forecasters had become prisoners of an economic ideology
> that assumed too much rationality on the part of the economic players or
> factors.
> .
> T

Re: Zyuganov Interview 11 September 2000: Russian CP Leader

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>I don't trust Zyuganov in the least.

Who does?  Not even himself, I'd think!

>(And btw, he did have millions
>of votes stolen from him in the last election in the fSU. That
>certainly should be an issue whatever I or others who don't like
>his "Red-Brown" politics.)

*   The Independent (London)
September 11, 2000, Monday
SECTION: FOREIGN NEWS; Pg. 10
HEADLINE: MILLION PEOPLE 'INVENTED' FOR RUSSIAN ELECTION
BYLINE: Helen Womack In Moscow

BALLOT PAPERS were burnt, voters bullied and entire electorates 
invented in large-scale fraud perpetrated during Russia's 
presidential election in March, The Moscow Times newspaper has 
claimed.  In its weekend edition, the respected English-language 
daily said its journalists had gathered enough evidence to question 
the legitimacy of the vote that brought Vladimir Putin, an obscure 
former KGB agent, to the pinnacle of power.

The defeated Communist Party candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, complained 
at the time that he had been robbed of the chance to go into a second 
round against Mr Putin.  And observers from the Organisation for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe, while finding the elections on 
the whole "democratic and a step forward for Russia", spoke of 
abuses.  However, the newspaper's inquiry, carried out over the last 
six months, was the most far-reaching and hard-hitting critique of 
the poll on 26 March.

Perhaps the most startling discovery, it said, was that 1.3 million 
new voters had appeared between the State Duma elections on 19 
December 1999 and the presidential election just over three months 
later.  These were not "dead souls", as described in Nikolai Gogol's 
famous novel of that name, but "new-born souls" who were given the 
vote.  Not only were children listed as adults but also corrupt 
officials added fictional floors to multi-storey apartment buildings 
and had their occupants vote for Mr Putin.

The newspaper did not even consider the gross manipulation of the 
media that smeared and sidelined the opposition and made Mr Putin 
seem the only viable candidate.  It concentrated only on the 
instances of bosses bullying workers to vote for Mr Putin or risk 
losing their jobs and of election officials "correcting" unacceptable 
results.  It interviewed a policeman who witnessed government 
officials burning sacks of votes for Mr Zyuganov.

In the Caucasian region of Dagestan, the newspaper said, theft of 
votes from opposition candidates amounted at a conservative 
calculation to 551,000 and there were disturbing discrepancies in 
Saratov, Kabardino-Balkaria, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan as well. The 
latter two regions voted en masse for Mr Putin even though their 
leaders had been involved in the opposition.  In Chechnya, the public 
was asked to believe that 50.63 per cent of a population whose lives 
and homes had been destroyed by Russian bombing had voted for Mr 
Putin.

"Fraud was far from insignificant," The Moscow Times commented. 
"Given how close the vote was - Putin won with just 52.94 per cent or 
by a slim margin of 2.2 million votes - fraud and abuse of state 
power appear to have been decisive.  The inescapable conclusion is 
that Putin would not have won outright on March 26 without cheating."

While the Communists and other opposition candidates complained, 
however, all seemed to accept that after a second round, victory 
would have gone to Mr Putin in the end.  And in a country where 
people still fear the authorities, few seemed inclined to take the 
matter of vote-rigging to the courts.   *

The last paragraph in the above article is the key to understanding 
the CPRF.  It is ready to accept Putin's rule, presenting no serious 
political challenge to it.

*   THE HINDU
December 4, 2000
HEADLINE: Communists call for Putin's resignation

MOSCOW, DEC. 3. The Russian Communist leader, Mr. Gennady Zyuganov, 
has accused the President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, of failing to deliver 
on his election promises and called for "irreconcilable opposition" 
to his regime.

Speaking at the opening of a Communist Party congress in Moscow, Mr. 
Zyuganov called for the resignation of Mr. Putin's Government, which 
he said, had blindly followed economic reforms prescribed by the 
International Monetary Fund.  The Communist leader said the party was 
forming a shadow government that would suggest alternative policies 
in all spheres of life, especially economics.

"The party remains a responsible and irreconcilable opposition," Mr. 
Zyuganov said.

Interestingly, Mr. Putin sent a congratulatory message to the 
Communists' congress, expressing the hope that the party "will firmly 
adhere to the principles of constructive dialogue and reasonable 
compromise in its work.

"I believe that national interests, stability and civil peace in 
Russia will continue to be unconditional priorities for the Russian 
Communist Party," the message said.

Mr. Zyuganov said his party's top priority was establishing a 
"Soviet-type democracy" and bu

Re: New risk rules of FI's

[Michael Perelman]

I have read accounts to the effect that the inability to comply with the
Basel agreement was what did in the Japanese banks.  I wonder what the
consequences would be of this new policy.
 -- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

RE: Re: RE: Bankruptcy again

[David Shemano]

It appears to be a rather straightforward cash flow problem.  Even assuming
their assets on a balance sheet exceed their liabilities, because those
assets are illiquid (e.g. plants and equipment), they can still be unable to
pay their debts as they become due.  (FYI -- there is no requirement that a
company be insolvent to file for bankruptcy, but the inability to pay debts
as they become due is a form of insolvency in any event).  According to the
utilities, they have paid $12 billion more for electricity than they have
collected from consumers since May 2000.  That is an incredible cash drain
and they are now out of cash.

David Shemano

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 2:38 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:7075] Re: RE: Bankruptcy again


David, how could these bandits be in the hole?  I would be sure to defer
Gene Coyle in this regard, is that I thought they had been making money in
hand over fist for many months before the financial crunch hit
 --
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

New risk rules of FI's

[Lisa & Ian Murray]

New Risk Rules Proposed for Banks

By John M. Berry
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 17, 2001; Page E02



NEW YORK, Jan. 16 -- In an effort to head off financial crises around the
world, a committee representing the central banks of major industrial
nations today proposed important changes in the way banks assess the risks
they face.


In Mexico in 1994, in Asia in 1997, in Russia in 1998 and in Turkey late
last year, weak banking systems either caused or greatly magnified the
impact of financial crises. The one in Russia caused world financial markets
to virtually seize up.


Under the new plan, developed over 21/2 years by the Basel Committee on
Banking Supervision, banks with riskier portfolios of loans and other
commitments would have to keep more capital on hand to cover potential
losses. At the same time, banking supervisors are supposed to check much
more closely whether bank managers are tracking those risks adequately.


Finally, to force banks to expose themselves to the discipline of the
marketplace, financial institutions would be required to make public far
more detail than they do now about how they manage risks and the amount of
capital they hold.


William J. McDonough, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and
chairman of the Basel Committee, said the disclosures would allow firms
doing business with an institution to better know whether it is sound and to
act accordingly. If a bank doesn't make enough information available, "it
will be punished immediately by its counter-parties and punished immediately
in the equity market" when investors sell its stock, McDonough said.


"Market discipline will be tougher than any supervisory and more immediate,"
he said.


The proposed new Basel Capital Accord would replace a more limited one
dating from 1988. Over the years, bankers have found ways to circumvent that
accord's much less detailed risk-based capital standards, which clearly did
not prevent the crises that marked the 1990s.


Among the new features are many risk categories, with banks being allowed to
rely for the first time on outside rating agencies, such as Standard &
Poor's Corp. and Moody's Investors Services Inc., which assign
creditworthiness ranking to firms, with AAA at the top. In addition, many
well-managed institutions, especially larger ones, would be allowed to use
their own knowledge to create internal risk-assessment plans, if their
supervisors approve them.


The Basel Committee, based at the Bank for International Settlements in
Basel, Switzerland, was created by the central banks of the Group of 10, an
organization of industrial nations. The heads of those central banks,
including Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, have approved all
the principles in the new proposal.


The committee, however, has no enforcement power. It will be up to the
banking supervisors in each country to implement the new requirements. In
this country, that will involve the Fed, the Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision, among others.


The proposal, which was crafted with input from supervisors in many
countries and from the banking industry worldwide since its basic framework
was made public in mid-1999, is expected to be adopted formally "well before
the end of the year," McDonough said. Given the competitive environment
faced by banks, most nations will have little choice but to accept its
terms, though with some differences from one country to the next, he said.

***

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Zyuganov and Dugin , the right and left hand of Reaction...

[Michael Pugliese]

http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Cont/ContEpst.htm
(Main Trends of Contemporary Russian Thought (1)
Mikhail Epstein
Emory University)
http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0004/1300.html

http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Cont/ContEpst.htm
...6. Nationalist ideology, which emerged in the early 1970s and escalated
rapidly in post-communist Russia, has produced its own intellectual elite:
writers, critics, historians, and scientists who attempt to create a
philosophy of national spirit (which is routinely, though not necessarily,
linked to rightist views). Its major intellectual predecessors include the
Russian Slavophiles of the 19th century and the Eurasianists of the 1920s.
20th-century German, French and Italian sources, such as René Guénon
(1886-1951) and Julius Evola (1898-1974), the founders of contemporary
traditionalism as a metaphysical system, are also abundantly cited. The
influential publicistic writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the
historio-ethnographic treatises of Lev Gumilev (1912-90) can be placed in
this category insofar as they concern general philosophical issues, such as
the relation between culture and nation, collective responsibility and
guilt, biological energy and the moral patterns of ethnic groups. For
example, Gumilev advances an original theory (which sometimes echoes Oswald
Spengler's "morphology of culture") that explains the rise and decline of
ethnic formations by biological rather than social factors, namely by
disproportionate infusions of cosmic energies into the biological mass of
humankind. Gumilev's key concept is "drive," or "passionality," which
accumulates in the "heroic personalities" of certain nations and epochs,
accounting for their historical accomplishments. Even more extreme
representatives of the same conservative nationalism are critic Vadim
Kozhinov and mathematician Igor Shafarevich, who have developed a
pessimistic view on Russian and Soviet history as permanently threatened and
undermined from within by non-Russians, particularly Jews.
 Finally, two modifications of nationalism surfaced in the 1980s-90s.
One presented by Viktor Aksiuchits is moderate conservatism, claiming the
timeless values of Orthodox Christianity as a specifically Russian legacy
destined to introduce the spirit of national reconciliation into a society
torn apart by militant pluralism and partisanship. The other promoted by
Aleksandr Dugin is radical traditionalism, proclaiming the restoration of a
paganist, esoteric legacy and the unification of Eurasia into one Empire
under Russian guidance with the aim of waging spiritual war on the
secularized and materialist West. Unlike other conservatives, with their
exclusively Russian or Slavic nationalism, traditionalists attempt to unite
the extreme Rightist movements of the entire world, which reveals that they
are more indebted to German, French, and Italian fascist or para-fascist
ideologists than to the nineteenth-century Russian Slavophiles. Radical
traditionalists believe that after the fundamentally leftist and democratic
revolutions in France, America and Russia, the world abandoned Tradition and
sold its soul to the devil of material prosperity. That is why a new,
metaphysical revolution is needed, this time a rightist one, antithetical to
the conventional revolutionary formula insofar as it pursues the restoration
of the spiritual foundations of the world that were buried by decadent
civilization in its pursuit] of "progress."


...The death of one "big" totalitarianism gave birth to a number of smaller
ones. Many politicians, of both leftist and rightist orientation, such as
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Aleksandr Rutskoi, and even the new communist leader
Gennady Zyuganov more or less consistently wielded metaphysical ideas to
justify their ambitions for intellectual leadership.


This overall tendency, characteristic of the Russian mentality in general
but aggravated in the early 1990s by increasing political instability, can
be called "metaphysical radicalism." Political radicalism flows from the
very core of this type of metaphysics, which, following Marxist paradigm,
does not limit itself to explaining the world but attempts to change it. At
the same time, any politics with pretensions to radically transforming the
world cannot limit itself to the social, economic, and legislative
dimensions, but must entail metaphysical assumptions. In the contemporary
West, politics usually pursues less expansive goals of partially improving
existing systems, and therefore, it is divorced from metaphysical
considerations, or at least pretends to be. Since Russia's historical
dynamics are not evolutionary but disruptive and catastrophic, each break in
political continuity necessitates renewed metaphysical speculation and
indoctrination designed to justify the entirely new social order. It is the
privilege of metaphysics to address the world as a whole, as it is the
objective of political radicalism to transform this whole completely. Thus
metaphysical

Re: warning on pen-l

[Charles Brown]

Now that's a trip.

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/17/01 05:39PM >>>
Pen-l could go down at anytime due to impending power blackouts at the
University.
-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] 

warning on pen-l

[Michael Perelman]

Pen-l could go down at anytime due to impending power blackouts at the
University.
-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: RE: Bankruptcy again

[Michael Perelman]

David, how could these bandits be in the hole?  I would be sure to defer
Gene Coyle in this regard, is that I thought they had been making money in
hand over fist for many months before the financial crunch hit
 -- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D]

BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2001

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods was unchanged in December from
the prior month as higher prices for consumer goods and capital equipment
were offset by lower energy prices, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
The core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3
percent in December on rising prices for cars, light trucks, and civilian
aircraft. ...  A senior economist at Merrill Lynch in New York said he found
the core PPI's growth surprising, but he expects producers to begin
discounting more items as the economy continues to slow, possibly bringing
the core PPI back down.  The core PPI's growth rate has remained in a narrow
range throughout 2000, varying between a low of a 0.2 percent decline and a
high of 0.3 percent gain. ...  (Brett Ferguson in Daily Labor Report, page
D-4).

A surprise uptick in auto dealership sales helped retail sales inch ahead
0.1 percent in December, but sales in October and November were revised
down, the Commerce Department reports. ...  A spokesman for Economic
Analysis Associates Inc. in Greenwich, Conn., attributed the surprise growth
in auto sales to a problem with seasonal adjustment factors.  Christmas
falling on a Monday gave shoppers two extra days in the malls and on the
streets.  But then there were several down days because of severe winter
weather in the Northeast. ...  (Daily Labor Report, page D-14)_Retail
sales are likely to continue their slump for the first 6 months of 2001,
analysts and industry leaders predicted at the National Retail Federation's
annual convention in New York.  The chief economist for the retail
federation predicts that the economy and consumer spending will start to
pick up by the second half of the year, saying the Fed's interest rate cuts
will eventually spark consumer spending (Washington Post, page E2).

__Retail sales increased a mere 0.1 percent last month, the Commerce
Department reported, a weak performance but nevertheless an indication that
consumer spending hasn't collapsed, analysts said.  "Slowing job growth,
higher energy prices and declining equity values are taking a toll on
consumers, says a Merrill Lynch & Co. economist in New York. ...  Meanwhile,
BLS said producer prices for finished goods were unchanged last month after
rising 0.1 percent in November. ...  (John M. Berry in Washington Post, Jan.
13, page E1).
__Retail sales, while clearly weak, defied gloomy expectations and rose
slightly in December, ending a week in which economic data showed some
surprising resilience.  The retail numbers -- combined with other reports on
inflation, mortgage applications, and unemployment claims -- have decreased
the chances that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by another
half-point at its next meeting, scheduled for January 30-31. ...  The Bureau
of Labor Statistics said that the prices that dealers pay for cars and light
trucks rose last month.  The overall Producer Price Index -- which measures
the cost that manufacturers charge for their goods -- was flat last month
and finished the year up 3.5 percent, largely because of rising energy
costs. The core index -- which excludes the volatile energy and food sectors
-- rose 0.3 percent in December, causing some alarm among economists that
inflation remains a threat and that the Fed will be reluctant to cut rates.
But for all of 2000, the core index grew just 1.2 percent, only slightly
faster than in 1999 and about half its pace in 1998.  "One month doesn't
make a trend," said Brian Catron, an economist at the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, which compiles the index. ...  (David Leonhardt in New York
Times, Jan. 13, page B1).
__The old year went out with a whimper for retailers, and the slump in the
overall economy may persist well into the new one. ...  The upward creep in
sales at the end of a lackluster holiday season hardly dispelled fears of a
sharp slowdown in economic growth. ...  The report on wholesale prices was
largely positive, though it held a bit of a surprise.  While the producer
price index was unchanged in December from November, the important core rate
-- which excludes the volatile food and energy categories -- rose 0.3
percent last month, its biggest jump since May. ...  (Nicholas Kulish in
Wall Street Journal, Jan. 15, page A2).

Based largely on strong labor demand in many industries, the Wage Trend
Indicator reversed direction in the fourth quarter to show renewed pressures
on wages at least through the middle of this year, according to the latest
figures released by BNA. ...  The index declined slightly in the third
quarter of last year from the prior quarter, only to reverse direction in
the final quarter. ...  (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).

The vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, Roger W. Ferguson Jr., said today
that the central bank's surprise decision last week to cut interest rates
sharply was not based on any nonpublic information about economic or
financial 

'Anti-globalizationactivists have their facts wrong.' Really?

[Charles Brown]

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/13/01 11:52AM >>>
Jim Devine wrote:

>right. But whatever "globalization" may mean, my point was that 
>foreign trade is only a part of the story. It's the part that the 
>orthodox economists emphasize, seeming to want to either not talk 
>about capital mobility or to treat it as a form of foreign trade.

Actually, orthodox economists talk a lot about capital mobility, 
don't they? But what exactly does it explain?

((

CB: Being able to run plants away was a strategic advantage for the industrial corps 
vis-a-vis workers in class struggle bargaining.

Rockefeller Residency Site Fellowship

[Stephen Cullenberg]

The Center for Ideas and
Society at U.C. Riverside would like to alert recent Ph.D.s to the
following fellowship opportunity.  This is an excellent opportunity
and if you are interested, please contact us at the address
below.
Steve Cullenberg




U.C. Riverside Center for Ideas
& Society 
Rockefeller Residency Site 

Multi-Year, Multi-Theme
Project:

MIGRATION, IMMIGRATION AND Cultural Transformation

January through
June 2002:
Two $35,000 Residency Fellowships

Applicants' projects should address the research theme for
2001-2002:

Migration,
Immigration, and 
Social Transformations

Applications Due in
Triplicate February 1, 2001:
(Send by mail only; no faxes
or email attachments)

n Cover Sheet
Name; address; office and home phone numbers; fax number; email address;
institutional title and affliation or indication of independent scholar
status; brief project title

n Letter of Application

n Project Description 
8 pages maximum; 12 point font; double-spaced, with 1 inch margins

n Curriculum Vitae

n Additional Requirements:
Two confidential letters of recommendation from referees qualified to
comment on the applicant's project, due February 1, 2001


Mail To:

Center for Ideas and Society 
1150 University Avenue 
227 C Highlander Hall 
U.C. Riverside 
Riverside, CA 92521

For more information see: http://www.ucr.edu/cis 
or Contact Trudy Cohen at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Phone: 909-787-3987 

#
Stephen Cullenberg  
Professor of Economics    
University of California   
Riverside, CA 92521 

Office:  909-787-5037, ext. 1573
Fax:    909-787-5685
Email:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.economics.ucr.edu/people/cullenberg.html
 

In search of excellence

[Tom Walker]

I wrote,

>the foregone conclusion that
>candicacy+heterodoxy = mediocrity is a foregone conclusion, if you'll pardon
>the deliberate redundancy.

What I was trying to say is: C + H = M is a design principle. Do you want to
know how to get better quality heterodox applicants? Drop the degree
requirements. But then there would be no way of systematically screening and
short-listing the applicants. You would get better quality applicants, but
you wouldn't know which ones they were they were!


Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island, BC

RE: Bankruptcy again

[David Shemano]

You should all be happy to know that my firm is now representing an energy
producer that sells electricity to the utilities and is owed several hundred
million dollars.  Cross your fingers that the present negotiations are
unsuccessful and a bankruptcy ensues.

David Shemano



-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 9:17 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:7043] Bankruptcy again


Bankruptcy seems to be the tactic du
jour to get what you want out of the
political system.  The New York Times
reports that Chiquita banana is
threatening bankruptcy because Clinton
has been unable to open up the European
market for it.  Coming on the heels of
the California energy companies, we
might be seen a wave of such threats.

Perhaps David will share some of his
forthcoming affluence with the list.and

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

The State of Working Mexico!

[Max Sawicky]

To be released tommorrow (Thursday) by EPI:


Trabajo Y Trabajadores en el Mexico Contemporaneo
(220 pp.)

authors:

Arturo Alcalde
Graciela Bensusan
Enrique de la Garza
Enrique Hernandez Laos
Teresa Rendon
Carlos Salas

(sorry for missing accents)

Check our web site after tomorrow for ordering information,
or send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Don't ask me what's in it.  It looks more text-heavy than
State of Working America, but there are plenty of tables
and graphs.

Re: hires

[Tom Walker]

Hires? I am an Old Fashioned Mug man, myself. Seriously, though, the drift
of this conversation seems to me symptomatic of something more disturbing
that the lack of quality of heterodox candidates or the lack of
opportunities for quality heterodocs -- that is the bland assumption that
jumping through the "quality" hoop, the academic hoop and the heterodox hoop
is, at least in theory, feasible and desirable.

What a pile of stinking dog shit, if I may be so rude. I don't have no PhD.
but I've been close enough to 'em and spent enough time in a program to see
quite clearly that the trodden scholarship, recognition and heterodoxy paths
point in different directions and the untrodden paths go nowhere near the
tenure track. It may be entirely possible for the odd extremely bright young
person to negotiate these hoops or paths but the foregone conclusion that
candicacy+heterodoxy = mediocrity is a foregone conclusion, if you'll pardon
the deliberate redundancy.

When I went to Cornell (not in economics) I was told I was a star, drooled
over and told to put my mind and my politics on the shelf and wank-off for
seven years so I could inherit the teaching load of some geezer at Columbia,
Berkeley or MIT. This advice was from a faculty member who specialized in
Habermasian communicative ethics and had written a book titled "Speaking
Truth to Power". (No bitterness, he did me a favour).


Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island, BC

Economic Reporting Review 1/16/01 by Dean Baker

[Robert Naiman]

Economic Reporting Review
By Dean Baker

Weekly analysis of economics reporting in the New
York Times and the Washington Post.

You can sign up to receive ERR via email
every week at
http://www.cepr.net/columns/subbaker.htm.
You can find the latest ERR at
http://www.tompaine.com/news/2000/10/02/index.html
and archived at http://www.fair.org/err/.

**


OUTSTANDING STORIES OF THE WEEK

 "Romania's AIDS Children:
A Lifeline Lost," by Donald G. McNeil, Jr., in
the New York Times, January 7, 2000, Section 1,
page 1.

 This article examines the
situation of Romanian orphans who are afflicted
with AIDS. It reports that major pharmaceutical
manufacturers have been willing to provide very
limited assistance to these children. At the
same time, they have worked hard to ensure that
these children do not have access to lower cost
generic drugs.

 "The First Unionization
Vote by Dot-Com Workers Is Set," by Steven
Greenhouse in the New York Times, January 9,
2001, page C4.

 This article discusses
unionization efforts at high tech companies in
the context of an impending union election
(subsequently delayed) at etown.com.  A very
small segment of the workers in the high tech
sector are currently unionized and none of the
Internet retailers have yet recognized a union.
The article discusses the reasons that workers
in this sector are becoming interested in
joining unions.

THIS WEEK'S ECONOMICS REPORTING REVIEW:  OIL
PRICES

 "For OPEC, Cuts in Production Are a Delicate
Balancing Act," by Neela Banjeree in the New
York Times, January 11, 2001, page A1.

 This article examines
factors that OPEC's leaders will take into
consideration when they decide on oil
production targets next week. At one point the
article refers to the "havoc that high energy
costs can wreak," pointing to the large
increases in fuel and energy costs over the
last year and a half. It is worth noting that,
for the most part, recent cost increases have
simply offset declines in energy prices in 1997
and 1998. These price declines gave the economy
a boost in those years, but there was little
reason to expect that the low prices could be
sustained.

 THE NAIRU

 "Clinton Team's Final Forecast: No Recession,"
by Richard W. Stevenson in the New York Times,
January 12, 2001, page C1.

 This article discusses the
last annual "Economic Report of the President"
from the Clinton administration. At one point
the article discusses the report's prediction
of future changes in the non-accelerating
inflation rate unemployment (NAIRU). According
to the article, the report predicts that this
will rise from a current level of "just over 4
percent to just over 5 percent."

 It is worth questioning
whether the NAIRU theory can still be taken
seriously. The theory holds that inflation will
continually accelerate -- eventually leading to
hyperinflation -- if the unemployment rate
stays below the NAIRU. However, in the last six
years the United States has maintained
unemployment rates well below the conventional
estimates of NAIRU, with no increase in the
inflation rate. If it is possible for the NAIRU
theory to be disproved, then it has been by the
economic performance of the last six years. In
most sciences, when events contradict the
predictions of a theory, the theory is
considered to be false.

 This issue is extremely
important, because the Federal Reserve Board
has repeatedly used its belief in the NAIRU as
a basis for keeping millions of workers
unemployed. If the NAIRU theory is been
discredited, then it is much harder to justify
an interest rate hike that is intended to keep
people out of work.

 JAPAN

 "Slowdown at Home Spells
Risks Abroad for Bush," by David E. Sanger in
the New York Times, January 7, 2000, Section 1,
Page 1.

 This article assesses the
likely impact of an economic slowdown in the
United States on economies elsewhere. It
examines the situation in Japan and asserts
that Japan's large government deficits have
"created unsustainable national debt."

 The article implicitly
referred to a measure of debt that includes
Japan's future Social Security obligations.
This is comparable to adding our Social
Security commitments to living workers to the
U.S. debt and not deducting the taxes that will
paid during those workers' lifetimes. Japan
routinely presents its debt this way in its own
accounts, but the OECD pulls it when making
international comparisons.

 Japan's publicly held debt
-- the measure most often used in the United
States and internationally -- is still under 70
percent of its GDP. This is higher than the
average for the OECD, but far lower than the
debt-to-GDP ratios of several nations,
including Italy and Belgium. Furthermore,
because the interest rate on Japan's debt
avera

Prices Byte 01/17/01 by Dean Baker

[Robert Naiman]

Prices Byte 01/17/01


Prices Byte
By Dean Baker


CEPR's Prices Byte is published each
month upon release of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics' reports on the consumer
price and producer price indexes.
For more information or to subscribe
by fax or email contact CEPR at
202 293-5380 ext. 206 or
[EMAIL PROTECTED]





ONCE AGAIN, INFLATION UNDER
CONTROL DESPITE LOW
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

The December price reports provide yet more
evidence that inflation continues to be well
under control almost everywhere. The CPI rose by
0.2 percent in December, while the core index
increased by just 0.1 percent, its smallest
rise since a 0.1 percent increase in December of
1999. For the year, the overall index rose by 3.4
percent, while the core index increased 2.6
percent, a rise of 0.7 percentage points from its
1.9 percent rate in 1999. The annual rate of
inflation in the overall CPI for the last quarter
has been 2.1 percent. It has been 2.0 percent in
the core index.

Nearly half of the increase in the core inflation
rate from the 1999 to 2000 is attributable to a
0.9 percentage point rise in the inflation rate
in the shelter component, an acceleration that
can be directly traced to the stock market.
Removing this effect, the change in the core rate
in 2000 has been minimal, indicating both that
the low unemployment rate did not appear to be
driving inflation higher, and that the large rise
in energy costs has not spilled over in a
significant way to other sectors of the economy.

The producer price indexes continue to show that
inflation is not much of problem at earlier
phases of production. The core finished goods
index rose by 0.3 percent in December, but this
was driven largely erratic jumps of 1.2 percent
in the price of alcoholic beverages and 0.5
percent in new cars. Over the last three months,
the core index has risen at a 0.8 percent
annual pace. The core intermediate goods index
was flat in December. It has declined at a 0.6
percent annual rate over the last quarter. The
price of non-energy crude goods was also flat in
December, but has been falling sharply over the
last three quarters.

The most important factors holding down the core
inflation rate in the last quarter have been
large declines in hotel and tobacco prices. The
December CPI reported a drop of 2.7 percent in
hotel prices, reducing the core inflation rate by
approximately 0.08 percentage points for the
month. Over the quarter, hotel prices declined at
a 7.4 percent annual rate. The measure of hotel
prices is highly erratic. In the first two
quarters of last year they were reported as
rising at a 14.7 and 7.9 percent annual rate,
respectively. It is likely that this pattern will
be repeated, with this sector adding to the core
inflation rate in coming months.

Tobacco prices have shown a similarly erratic
pattern. They were reported as dropping 3.5
percent in December, and have fallen at a 10.7
percent annual rate over the last quarter.
This decline will also be reversed in the next
few months.

Two anomalies in the other direction were a 0.9
percent rise in telephone prices in December and
a 0.6 percent increase in used car prices. For
the quarter, these components have risen
at a 5.9 and 10.6 percent annual rate,
respectively. The reversal of these anomalies
will slow the inflation rate, but not by enough
to offset the more rapid increases that we will
see in hotel and tobacco prices. In short, the
core rate of inflation probably remains close to
its year long rate of 2.6 percent.

A positive element in this report was the
relatively slow increase in medical costs. With a
0.3 percent rise in December, medical care costs
have risen at a 3.4 percent annual rate over
the last quarter. This compares to an increase of
4.2 percent over the last year. The biggest
factor in this slowdown has been a slower rate of
increase in the cost of hospital services, 3.5
percent over the first quarter, compared to 6.2
percent over the last year. If this lower pace of
medical care cost inflation can be sustained, it
will be very good news for the economy.

The one place where problems may arise in
future months would be with higher import prices
due to a falling dollar. Non-petroleum import
prices rose by 1.4 percent last year after being
flat in 1999, and falling in both 1997 and 1998.
As the dollar falls from its recent peaks, import
prices are almost certain to rise more rapidly.
There is no real way to avoid the higher
inflation that this will cause, since the high
dollar could not be sustained indefinitely, but
it could complicate the picture for the Federal
Reserve Board if it is attempting to stave off a
recession with lower interest rates.

--

Robert Naiman
Senior Policy Analyst
Center for Economic and Policy Research
1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
202-293-5380 x212
Fax: (202) 822-1199
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.cepr.net

RE: Zyuganov Interview 11 September 2000: Russian CP Leader

[debsian]

I don't trust Zyuganov in the least. (And btw, he did have millions
of votes stolen from him in the last election in the fSU. That
certainly should be an issue whatever I or others who don't like
his "Red-Brown" politics.)
  If this starts a thread on the CPRF and the Russian left
and it's difficulties over the Chechnya slaughter that Zyuganov
supports or the allies he has in the neo-fascist "National Bolshevik"
circles and Slavophile/Russian Orthodox Church circles, I can
post more on why I think he's a dangerous and ludicrous figure.
Russia needs a miltant and democratic left rooted in the w/c.
Not in Stalinist nostagia of the the dominent factions of the
CPRF
which are thoroughly suffused with anti-semitism and other forms
of national chauvanism.
  For more, besides, the below fwd. see, "The Black Hundreds,
" from W. Laqueur. Lots of documentation on
Zyuganov collaoerator from the far right NBP, A. Dugin.
Dugin, co-wrote the last platform of the CPRF. This "patriotic
union" is the Zyuganov front with Anpilov, the NBP and other
neo-fascist swine. And a newish book from 
A.J. Gregor, "The Face Of Janus." Tons of material on far leftist
nuts cooperation with far right types. "Third Position" slogan,
"Hitler and Mao United In Struggle!"
(Yes, Gregor and Laqueur are on the Right) For a leftiast work
that confirms this stuff on Zyuganov and the Red-Brown charge
I'm making see Martin A. Lee, "The Beast Reawakens."
Michael Pugliese

--- Original Message ---
Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wrote on 
Wed, 17 Jan 2001 15:22:11 -0500
 -- 
Zyuganov Interview 11 September 2000

BBC MONITORING
ZYUGANOV INTERVIEW: RUSSIAN COMMUNIST LEADER EXPANDS ON MOVE
TO 
SUPPORT KREMLIN, DROP OLD ALLIES
Source: Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian, 11 September 2000

Leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennadiy

Zyuganov has said that he is prepared to back the Kremlin provided

Putin gets rid of ministers who want to wipe out the natural

monopolies and privatize the national wealth. Interviewed on
Russia 
TV's "Podrobnosti" programme on 11th September, he said he did
not 
intend to insist that the government resign but suggested that
Putin 
should bring more representatives of the Unity movement into
it at 
the expense of the privatizers. He said that the break announced

today with governors Tuleyev, Rutskoy and Gorbenko had come about

because the latter had chosen to go their own way and predicted
that 
his party would score major successes in the governor elections

without them. The following are excerpts from the interview.

Subheadings have been inserted editorially.

[Pashkov] Gennadiy Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of
the 
Russian Federation, said today that he is ready to support the

executive authority in every way which corresponds with Russia's

national interests, that the State Duma's progovernment Unity
faction 
will very soon split and that this will be connected with the

activities of former State Duma deputy Boris Berezovskiy and,

finally, that the CPRF will refuse to support governors Rutskoy,

Tuleyev and Gorbenko in the forthcoming elections for governor.
Our 
guest on "Podrobnosti" today is CPRF leader Gennadiy Zyuganov...

Conditions for supporting Kremlin

Let's get down to the main issues straight away. Is the CPRF
faction 
really ready this time to support the executive authority, the

Kremlin?

[Zyuganov] We have always worked energetically with people who
are 
interested in the rebirth of our country and in the creation
of 
normal conditions for people to work and live in.

Russia today is at a crossroads. Either we following the new
state 
line which takes the national interest as its guide or continue
with 
the old policy of [acting prime minister in the early nineties
Yegor] 
Gaydar or rather [Economic Development and Trade Minister German]

Gref. If the choice is in favour of the latter, of liberal reforms

when the land is sold off and they try to finish off the nuclear

missile shield, when the railways are sold off and the last natural

monopolies are eliminated and when even our forests are sold
into 
private hands then there will be nothing left of Russia.

So we shall do everything we can to ensure that people who understand

how far things have gone and recognize that very little time
indeed 
is left in which to take decisions gain the upper hand in the

executive structure.

Just lately Berezovskiy has been kicking up a big rumpus and
putting 
on a public display with just one aim in mind: he wants to distract

the public's attention from the main thing. The government is

currently developing one policy to revive the homeland and another

which is promoted by the same group which has tortured the country

for ten years and which seeks to sell off all the natural monopolies,

including our forests. We will work with those who support our

national interests.

[Q] And so, there is a sort of duality, a two-si

Re: Re: hires

[Justin Schwartz]

>
>I think perhaps you in the US may be a little paranoid on this
>issue.  We have never had any problem with getting our heterodox
>graduates jobs though not perhaps at some of the "prestige"
>institutions such as Toronto or Queen's.

Canada's a different world in many fields. The leading Canadian philosophy 
journal, CJP, takes Marxism seriously; regularly publishes in radical 
philosophy; has published not one but two issues on analytical Marxism. In 
contrast, my own pieces on exploitation in Nous and on historical 
materialism in Philosophy of Science are among the few pieces of that sort 
published in leading US philosophy journals in the 90s, and they counted 
_against_ me, not for me, when I came up for review.

--jks

_
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Zyuganov Interview 11 September 2000: Russian CP Leader SupportsKremlin, Drops Old Allies

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Zyuganov Interview 11 September 2000

BBC MONITORING
ZYUGANOV INTERVIEW: RUSSIAN COMMUNIST LEADER EXPANDS ON MOVE TO 
SUPPORT KREMLIN, DROP OLD ALLIES
Source: Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian, 11 September 2000

Leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennadiy 
Zyuganov has said that he is prepared to back the Kremlin provided 
Putin gets rid of ministers who want to wipe out the natural 
monopolies and privatize the national wealth. Interviewed on Russia 
TV's "Podrobnosti" programme on 11th September, he said he did not 
intend to insist that the government resign but suggested that Putin 
should bring more representatives of the Unity movement into it at 
the expense of the privatizers. He said that the break announced 
today with governors Tuleyev, Rutskoy and Gorbenko had come about 
because the latter had chosen to go their own way and predicted that 
his party would score major successes in the governor elections 
without them. The following are excerpts from the interview. 
Subheadings have been inserted editorially.

[Pashkov] Gennadiy Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the 
Russian Federation, said today that he is ready to support the 
executive authority in every way which corresponds with Russia's 
national interests, that the State Duma's progovernment Unity faction 
will very soon split and that this will be connected with the 
activities of former State Duma deputy Boris Berezovskiy and, 
finally, that the CPRF will refuse to support governors Rutskoy, 
Tuleyev and Gorbenko in the forthcoming elections for governor. Our 
guest on "Podrobnosti" today is CPRF leader Gennadiy Zyuganov...

Conditions for supporting Kremlin

Let's get down to the main issues straight away. Is the CPRF faction 
really ready this time to support the executive authority, the 
Kremlin?

[Zyuganov] We have always worked energetically with people who are 
interested in the rebirth of our country and in the creation of 
normal conditions for people to work and live in.

Russia today is at a crossroads. Either we following the new state 
line which takes the national interest as its guide or continue with 
the old policy of [acting prime minister in the early nineties Yegor] 
Gaydar or rather [Economic Development and Trade Minister German] 
Gref. If the choice is in favour of the latter, of liberal reforms 
when the land is sold off and they try to finish off the nuclear 
missile shield, when the railways are sold off and the last natural 
monopolies are eliminated and when even our forests are sold into 
private hands then there will be nothing left of Russia.

So we shall do everything we can to ensure that people who understand 
how far things have gone and recognize that very little time indeed 
is left in which to take decisions gain the upper hand in the 
executive structure.

Just lately Berezovskiy has been kicking up a big rumpus and putting 
on a public display with just one aim in mind: he wants to distract 
the public's attention from the main thing. The government is 
currently developing one policy to revive the homeland and another 
which is promoted by the same group which has tortured the country 
for ten years and which seeks to sell off all the natural monopolies, 
including our forests. We will work with those who support our 
national interests.

[Q] And so, there is a sort of duality, a two-sidedness in your 
relations with the Kremlin, the government, the presidential 
administration and the president himself. You say you will support 
those who support the national interests of Russia, Can you name some 
names for us please.

[Zyuganov] Indeed I can. There is a real fight going on right now. 
There are two groups: one is the continuation of the family [Yeltsin 
clan], Berezovskiy, [energy chief Anatoliy] Chubays and Gref. This 
group is now doing everything it can to divide the railways into 17 
sectors and privatize them. That would spell the end of Russia as a 
single unit. Let's say [Deputy Prime Minister Viktor] Khristenko and 
his team have prepared a programme for selling off our forests into 
private hands. Sixty-nine per cent of the territory of Russia is 
forest. It is our national wealth... Putin instructs him to stop 
destroying the industry. But they have already sold the pulp and 
paper industry and stopped timber processing. So instead of doing 
what he's told, Khristenko summons and sacks all those who are 
investigating and tries to have the forests destroyed by some other 
mafia. So there's a few names for you from the group which is now 
ruthlessly and quickly trying to - [words lost as presenter 
interrupts]

[Q] But you are naming people with whom the CPRF and you personally 
have had poor relations for a pretty long time already. There is 
nothing new about that -

[Zyuganov] Hang on a minute Serezha. For now there is no Putin 
government. There is no [Prime Minister Mikhail] Kasyanov government 
either. There are these groups, one is the family [Yeltsi

Re: hires

[Paul Phillips]

I think perhaps you in the US may be a little paranoid on this 
issue.  We have never had any problem with getting our heterodox 
graduates jobs though not perhaps at some of the "prestige" 
institutions such as Toronto or Queen's.  Now it is true that hirings 
of young left academics is down across the country  but that is 
largely because all hirings are way down due to neo-liberal cuts to 
education funding.  In fact now that things are beginning to turn 
around a bit and we are hiring what we are finding is that we are 
having difficulty getting anyone of reasonable quality -- orthodox or 
heterodox -- in the fields we have open.  We are in the third year of 
a search for a position in economic theory -- someone who can 
teach graduate level (orthodox) micro (or macro) theory whatever 
their own theoretical proclivities are.  We interviewed a total of six 
over this period but only two, (one orthodox, one heterodox) were of 
sufficient quality to make an offer to.  Unfortunately, both got better 
offers from other institutions leaving us still without anybody.  By 
the way the more heterodox candidate was hired by a US state 
university at 50% more than we could offer.  In short, we just don't 
get quality heterdox people with the needed qualifications.

We did a few years ago, but the candidate gave his 'audition' paper  
for an position in an applied field on Marxian value theory (against 
the strong advice of all of his supporters in the department)  which 
scuttled his chances among the non-departmental members of the 
hiring committee.

This year we are trying to hire in both theory and political 
economy/history/institutional.  So far, I don't know what sort of 
response we have had but I'm willing to bet that, at least for the 
theory position, the selection of candidates will be less than 
thrilling.

Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba

On 17 Jan 01, at 12:43, Charles Brown wrote:

> 
> 
> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/17/01 11:10AM >>>
> 
> >I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good
> >job of supporting each other.
> >
> 
> I don't think this problem is limited to economics. When I lost my job in 
> philosophy, I didn't get much help from left philosophers; people responded, 
> with a few honorable exceptions, "Bad luck, old chap," and kept away. There 
> is a sort of ancient Greek attitude in academia that good luck is to be 
> rewarded and bad luck punished. I'm an attorney now. --jks
> 
> ((
> 
> CB: Not that attorneys are any more comradely than academics in this regard.
> 

The "clincher"

[Tom Walker]

Yesterday I received in the mail a photocopy I had ordered from the New York
Public Library of a lengthy (85 pages) pamphlet published in 1903. The
pamphlet is notable for two reasons: 1. it was written and compiled under
the direction of William Wolff Smith, who, in 1902, was the first public
relations counselor to set up operations in Washington, D.C. and 2. it dealt
with the issue of legislation for the eight hour day. Thus it is a key
source document in the history of corporate public relations in the service
of an organized political lobby on the labor issue. The title of the
pamphlet is "An Arbitrary Workday?"

The pamphlet consists largely of an excruciatingly tedious, tendentious and
rambling account of a 'correspondent's' investigation of the issue through
visits to two shipyards and a steel mill. Of particular interest, though,
are the editor's transparently disingenous disclaimer of reportorial
"impartiality"; the reporter's own conclusion, culminating in an
extraordinarily vile racist digression (which he and his editors must have
viewed as the "clincher" for their case); and a summary of the congressional
testimony of Mr. A.B. Farquhar, of the National Association of
Manufacturers, which obviously drew heavily on the squalid (and equally
tendentious) London Times series from November 1901 on the "Crisis in
British Industry".

In my view, Farquhar's testimony establishes the final link in the chain of
evidence establishing the London Times series and its zealous propagation by
the National Association of Manufacturers as the actual source of the
alleged "lump of labor fallacy" claim against proposals for reduced work
time, repeated ad nauseum as received wisdom by economists, including the
Samuelson textbook. My previous investigation of the spuriousness of the
lump of labor claim as economic doctrine will be published by Routledge next
month in _Working Time: International Trends, Theory and Policy
Perspectives_. The sequel to that work will detail the propaganda campaign.

AN ARBITRARY WORKDAY?

SHALL THE AMERICAN WORKINGMAN BE FETTERED THE TRIUMPHAL PROGRESS OF AMERICAN
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES ARRESTED, THE MANUFACTURING OUTPUT DIMINISHED AND
INDIVIDUAL EFFORT REGULATE BY LAW?

CAPITAL AND LABOR UNITE IN OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION

SOME OF THE OBJECTIONS PRESENTED BY MANUFACTURERS AND MECHANICS WHO WOULD BE
AFFECTED

(Editor's disclaimer)

NOTE. - Mr. Robert H. Watkins, a well-known newspaper correspondent at the
Capitol, was requested by the Editors to visit several industrial
institutions with a view of ascertaining the effect the application of the
eight-hour law now on the Senate Calendar would have on them. He received no
instructions whatever, except to be absolutely impartial. His observations
are embodied in the following article.-Editors.

(Watkins' conclusion)

The passage of the bill would indeed in its clumsy way go far toward
engrafting the system of eight hours a day throughout the United States, but
to contemplate what that would mean is to think of nothing less than a
national folly. In my humble opinion, if the bill should pass and every
manufacturing concern in the country and every employer of labor should
consent to and adopt the eight-hour system, it would instantly mark the
decay of the splendid prestige of the United States as the richest and most
powerful country on earth. As I have already said, I believe the measure an
assault upon the liberty of both the employer and the employee. I do not
wish to see the day when American manufacturers and American workmen should
not have all the chances they desire with the manufacturers and workmen of
the rest of the world. The arbitrary rule of eight hours would make men
machines that would surely rust, and would discourage indivuality of effort
and purpose. It would subject us to a competition with foreign producers
with which we could not possibly cope. Civilization has not yet reached the
period of impossible felicity when multitudes of men may every day, year in
and year out, quit work and go to improving themselves with idleness. The
notion that the employer, finding be can not get as much out of his men by
only eight hours, will be obliged to employ more men to complete the job,
will not do to consider in these days. Under that system manufacturing in
America will go backward and employers grow less. As line after line of
production is abandoned the crowds of idle will be correspondingly increased. 

Having lived for some years in a Southern State which has made remarkable
progress in manufacturing, especially in metal production and in mining, I
contemplate with dread the effect there of a possible eight-hour system for
labor. A great proportion of Southern labor is negro labor. To turn loose
every day the hordes of negroes that would be idle so much of the day as the
eight-hour system would give them would visit on the South nothing short of
calamity. The negro problem is grave enough at best. It is vexing the 

hires

[Charles Brown]

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/17/01 11:10AM >>>

>I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good
>job of supporting each other.
>

I don't think this problem is limited to economics. When I lost my job in 
philosophy, I didn't get much help from left philosophers; people responded, 
with a few honorable exceptions, "Bad luck, old chap," and kept away. There 
is a sort of ancient Greek attitude in academia that good luck is to be 
rewarded and bad luck punished. I'm an attorney now. --jks

((

CB: Not that attorneys are any more comradely than academics in this regard.

Re: Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Peter Dorman]

Or perhaps the view is that defeat is contagious

Peter

Justin Schwartz wrote:

> >I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good
> >job of supporting each other.
> >
>
> I don't think this problem is limited to economics. When I lost my job in
> philosophy, I didn't get much help from left philosophers; people responded,
> with a few honorable exceptions, "Bad luck, old chap," and kept away. There
> is a sort of ancient Greek attitude in academia that good luck is to be
> rewarded and bad luck punished. I'm an attorney now. --jks
> _
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

re: Hires

[Jim Devine]

Michael P wrote: >I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good 
job of supporting each other.<

Justin writes: >I don't think this problem is limited to economics. When I 
lost my job in philosophy, I didn't get much help from left philosophers; 
people responded, with a few honorable exceptions, "Bad luck, old chap," 
and kept away. There is a sort of ancient Greek attitude in academia that 
good luck is to be rewarded and bad luck punished. I'm an attorney now.<

Academia encourages individualism. Each of us is judged on his or her 
individual "merits," where collaborating with others on research is not 
rewarded as much as one's individual work. This encourages a competitive 
attitude, even toward those who have similar political perspectives. (This, 
of course, conflicts with the way in which knowledge is a collective 
product.) Also, I think academia attracts and rewards those with poor 
social skills.

On top of that, the tenured insiders and the Deans and other powers that be 
can take advantage of the inherent ambiguity of the "merit" criteria for 
granting promotion and tenure. You're supposed to be an excellent 
researcher, an excellent teacher, and an excellent colleague (in terms of 
committee work and the like). How to measure "excellence" is a really 
difficult question, especially when specialization is encouraged so much 
(so those who judge you may not know anything about the quality of your 
work). (In economics, the quality of one's math is probably the easiest 
thing to judge, so that's used most of the time in judging, thus 
encouraging the emphasis on formalism.) In most cases, the same evidence 
can be used to justify both tenure/promotion or "hit the road, Jack." 
No-one's perfect, so there's always an excuse for the latter response. The 
essential capriciousness of the tenure/promotion process encourages the 
kind of fatalistic response that Justin reports.

Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Peter Dorman]

I think this response, while honest (I hope), is disingenuous.  All it takes is
one senior economist to veto a new hire.  "Building coalitions" doesn't begin to
describe the entry barrier.

Peter

Doug Henwood wrote:

> When we (Liza Featherstone & I, for our forthcoming Lingua Franca
> article on ACIT) interviewed Jagdish Bhagwati - who, despite his
> free-trade zealotry is a quirky and open-minded guy - he lamented the
> mediocrity of the left candidates. Here's a bit of what he said:
>
> >  its very difficult to find really attractive, intellectually
> >respectable people you would want to hire. [Names of certain leftish
> >economists deleted.] In the sense that he's an interesting guy, but
> >difficult to build any coalitions for, because hes not a compelling
> >figure. Intellectually. No marxist leftist who is worth trying to
> >get...
> >
> >DH: UMass pumps out a few
> >
> >JB: yeah but again, you don't have people like EH Carr even in
> >political science. I would vote for somone like EH carr. My view is,
> >I don't care what your politics is as long as you're brilliant and
> >youre giong to make me think. I don't want more pepople like myself
> >because that's not going to stimulate me. But its very difficult to
> >build coalitions now for anybody. Very difficult to think of any
> >compelling persons. It's a bit like trying to hire black economists.
> >Today there are more, think of ten years ago, but everyone wants to
> >hire somebody. Also a demand problem, because large numbers younger
> >folks would simply not admit it. Older folks probably would. Because
> >there are no great jobs very few people are going into those kinds
> >of ways of thinking about things. So I think it tends to be a
> >vicious circle. I think at the moment it is a triumph of capitalism,
> >a triumph of markets. Um, I think a few of us with these broad
> >backgrounds--. I mean I grew up in England and we were just taught
> >to read everything. I tell my students I don't teach them this
> >stuff, they pay their tuition to study proper economics, but I tell
> >them look you can't be a good economist unless you read some
> >political theory, sociology, literary theory, international
> >relations, but you've got to do it on your own time. There are only
> >so many hours in the day, I cant teach it in the classroom.
>
> Doug

Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Justin Schwartz]

>I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good
>job of supporting each other.
>

I don't think this problem is limited to economics. When I lost my job in 
philosophy, I didn't get much help from left philosophers; people responded, 
with a few honorable exceptions, "Bad luck, old chap," and kept away. There 
is a sort of ancient Greek attitude in academia that good luck is to be 
rewarded and bad luck punished. I'm an attorney now. --jks
_
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Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Michael Perelman]

His name is John McLaren.  I have a short section in
my new book comparing Colombia's treatment of him with
that of Robert Barro, whom the University tried to
hire with a truly regal offer.

Eric Nilsson wrote:

> RE
> >
> > Jagdish Bhagwati - who, despite his
> > free-trade zealotry is a quirky and
> > open-minded guy - he lamented the
> > mediocrity of the left candidates. ..
>
> I recollect reading sometime within the past year
> from an economist denied tenure are Columbia
> complaining about the unusual amount of unfair and
> cruel behavior he experienced within the economics
> department there. For instance, he was told he was
> a star but was eventually rejected for tenure for
> not very compelling reasons (so he thought).
>
> Eric

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Michael Perelman]

I think that David is correct, that we do not to a good
job of supporting each other.

dave dorkin wrote:

> I am a graduate student and  I chose law over a PhD in
> economics (after having been accepted in some of the
> heterodox econ PhD programs that have been mentioned).
> I already had a masters in econ from Italy and wanted
> to continue (and still do to some degree).
>
> I encountered general indifference from more than one
> economist at the various departments when I tried to
> speak with them about just these same problems. It was
> along the lines of, if you want to do this fine if
> not, don't waste our time.  Few qualified left
> candidates will make such a significant investment in
> time and money without more support, institutional and
> otherwise. Several URPE members were dismissive of my
> questions and concerns as well. When one has other
> options, this makes a big difference.
>
> David Dorkin
>
> __
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
> http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Re: dollarization

[Jim Devine]

right -- but the point was that the interests of Germany & France would 
dominate. It's a little like Alan Blinder's experience on the Federal 
Reserve board (as vice-chair). He found he was powerless. Greenspan 
wouldn't even share data with him.

At 10:41 AM 01/17/2001 +0100, you wrote:
>Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama do not have seats on the Federal Open Market
>Committee.
>
>Trevor Evans.
>
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: 17 January 2001 00:41
>Subject: [PEN-L:7020] dollarization
>
>
> >from SLATE:
> >>The Wall Street Journal looks at dollarization, a trend gaining ground in
> >>Latin America. Ecuador,  El Salvador, and Panama have made the dollar
> >>official currency; several other countries have shown interest. Pros: more
> >>trade, investment, and stability. Cons: The dollar is the "ultimate symbol
> >>of Yankee imperialism," and there are too many dead, white guys on our
>bills.
> >
> >one of the more interesting insights from the URPE@ASSA convention in New
> >Orleans was that the entry of Greece and Portugal into the European Union
> >was equivalent in almost all ways to "dollarization," except that it should
> >be called "Euroization."
> >
> >Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
> >

Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine

Re: hires

[Justin Schwartz]

How about that, indeed. --jks

>
>A while back I queried folks about the last time a major department
>hired a seriously left-of-center economist. The most recent anyone
>could remember was David Levine at Yale something like 20 years ago.
>Well, the Lingua Franca factchecker came up with a more recent hire:
>Yale again, this time John Roemer, last year (though it's a joint
>appointment with poli sci). How about that?
>
>Doug
>

_
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Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[dave dorkin]

I am a graduate student and  I chose law over a PhD in
economics (after having been accepted in some of the
heterodox econ PhD programs that have been mentioned).
I already had a masters in econ from Italy and wanted
to continue (and still do to some degree).

I encountered general indifference from more than one
economist at the various departments when I tried to
speak with them about just these same problems. It was
along the lines of, if you want to do this fine if
not, don't waste our time.  Few qualified left
candidates will make such a significant investment in
time and money without more support, institutional and
otherwise. Several URPE members were dismissive of my
questions and concerns as well. When one has other
options, this makes a big difference.

David Dorkin

__
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. 
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Eric Nilsson]

RE
>
> Jagdish Bhagwati - who, despite his
> free-trade zealotry is a quirky and
> open-minded guy - he lamented the
> mediocrity of the left candidates. ..

I recollect reading sometime within the past year
from an economist denied tenure are Columbia
complaining about the unusual amount of unfair and
cruel behavior he experienced within the economics
department there. For instance, he was told he was
a star but was eventually rejected for tenure for
not very compelling reasons (so he thought).

Eric

Re: hires/fires

[Charles Brown]

Auto layoffs highest since early 1990s
Industry cuts 85,231 jobs in 2000, keeps slashing in new year

By Mark Truby / The Detroit News 1/17/01

DETROIT -- Auto industry layoffs tripled last year, reaching the highest levels 
since the early 1990s, as the red-hot car market slowed drastically in the second half 
of the year. 
   The job cuts, tracked by the Chicago recruiting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, 
illustrate the auto industry's growing pessimism about the coming year. 
   "Layoffs come when companies foresee a fairly prolonged period of soft demand -- 
for six months to a year," said David Littmann, chief economist for Comerica Bank. 
   The auto industry announced 85,231 job cuts in 2000 -- up from 27,779 in 1999 -- 
the biggest cutbacks since Challenger began compiling the data in 1993. Only the 
retail sector laid off more employees last year. 
   The stream of job cuts has continued in 2001. On Tuesday, supplier BorgWarner Inc. 
said it would cut 200 workers. Research firm R.L. Polk and Co. fired 141 people 
Tuesday. 
   Detroit's automakers slowed first-quarter output by a collective 20 percent while 
car and truck supplies are at their highest levels in nearly a decade. 
   The soaring layoffs -- more than double industry's average of 34,271 job cuts per 
year since 1993 -- show auto companies are determined to stanch their financial 
losses. 
   "The industry has seized the opportunity to cut costs and gain efficiencies," said 
Diane Swonk, chief economist at Bank One Corp. 
   She added that the cutbacks will be easier to absorb than in past downturns because 
of low unemployment rates and thousands of employees nearing retirement. 

Re: Re: Re: Re: hires

[Doug Henwood]

Peter Dorman wrote:

>One of the problems with relying solely on UMass, the New School etc. for our
>new PhD's is that these folks are very unlikely to get jobs at non-heterodox
>PhD-granting institutions.  So that leaves us in a defensive 
>position, and with
>a shrinking future pool to draw on for staffing heredox lines.

When we (Liza Featherstone & I, for our forthcoming Lingua Franca 
article on ACIT) interviewed Jagdish Bhagwati - who, despite his 
free-trade zealotry is a quirky and open-minded guy - he lamented the 
mediocrity of the left candidates. Here's a bit of what he said:

>  its very difficult to find really attractive, intellectually 
>respectable people you would want to hire. [Names of certain leftish 
>economists deleted.] In the sense that he's an interesting guy, but 
>difficult to build any coalitions for, because hes not a compelling 
>figure. Intellectually. No marxist leftist who is worth trying to 
>get...
>
>DH: UMass pumps out a few
>
>JB: yeah but again, you don't have people like EH Carr even in 
>political science. I would vote for somone like EH carr. My view is, 
>I don't care what your politics is as long as you're brilliant and 
>youre giong to make me think. I don't want more pepople like myself 
>because that's not going to stimulate me. But its very difficult to 
>build coalitions now for anybody. Very difficult to think of any 
>compelling persons. It's a bit like trying to hire black economists. 
>Today there are more, think of ten years ago, but everyone wants to 
>hire somebody. Also a demand problem, because large numbers younger 
>folks would simply not admit it. Older folks probably would. Because 
>there are no great jobs very few people are going into those kinds 
>of ways of thinking about things. So I think it tends to be a 
>vicious circle. I think at the moment it is a triumph of capitalism, 
>a triumph of markets. Um, I think a few of us with these broad 
>backgrounds--. I mean I grew up in England and we were just taught 
>to read everything. I tell my students I don't teach them this 
>stuff, they pay their tuition to study proper economics, but I tell 
>them look you can't be a good economist unless you read some 
>political theory, sociology, literary theory, international 
>relations, but you've got to do it on your own time. There are only 
>so many hours in the day, I cant teach it in the classroom.

Doug

Re: Re: hires

[Doug Henwood]

Jim Devine wrote:

>is Levine still there?

Nope. At least he's not listed on the econ department's website 
.

Doug

(no subject)

[prak-hz001]

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Re: dollarization

[Trevor Evans]

Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama do not have seats on the Federal Open Market
Committee.

Trevor Evans.


-Original Message-
From: Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 17 January 2001 00:41
Subject: [PEN-L:7020] dollarization


>from SLATE:
>>The Wall Street Journal looks at dollarization, a trend gaining ground in
>>Latin America. Ecuador,  El Salvador, and Panama have made the dollar
>>official currency; several other countries have shown interest. Pros: more
>>trade, investment, and stability. Cons: The dollar is the "ultimate symbol
>>of Yankee imperialism," and there are too many dead, white guys on our
bills.
>
>one of the more interesting insights from the URPE@ASSA convention in New
>Orleans was that the entry of Greece and Portugal into the European Union
>was equivalent in almost all ways to "dollarization," except that it should
>be called "Euroization."
>
>Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
>