Is the WB unreliable?
Steve Philion forwarded: Inter Press Service Finance: Learn from Cuba, says World Bank by Jim Lobe Washington, 30 Apr -- World Bank President James Wolfensohn Monday extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro for doing a great job in providing for the social welfare of the Cuban people. snip I think Cuba has done -- and everybody would acknowledge -- a great job on education and health, Wolfensohn told reporters at the conclusion of the annual spring meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). I have no hesitation in acknowledging that they've done a good job, and it doesn't embarrass me to do it. ...We just have nothing to do with them in the present sense, and they should be congratulated on what they've done. = Look out for more press reports concerning the disintegration of WB staff morale under the hopelessly erratic Wolfenshohn. Michael K.
Paleo-conferencism
Louis Proyect wrote: So far, panel discussions are being organized for the following topics: 1. The relevance of the Shining Path for the trade union movement today. 2. Stalin in context. 3. Why empiro-criticism must be smashed in order for the workers movement to go forward. 4. Why tractors remain a suitable subject for revolutionary artists. 5. The Marxism of Slobodan Milosevic. In addition, we are organizing workshops on how to make an atomic bomb from materials purchasable on the Internet and on Kung Fu for people over 50. = Is there going to be a session on Linen? Michael K.
RE: Paleo-conferencism
Michael wrote: Is there going to be a session on Linen? no, hair shirts are de rigeur Mark
Engels and indigenous peoples
May 1, 2001 A May Day Meditation by Peter Linebaugh Comrades and Friends, May Day Greetings! Here is 'the day.' The day we long to become a journee', those days of the French Revolution when a throne would topple, the powerful would tumble, slavery be abolished, or the commons restored. Meanwhile, we search for a demo for the day, or we gather daffodils and some may for our loved ones and the kitchen table. We greet strangers with a smile and Happy May Day! We think of comrades around the world, in Africa, India, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, Hong Kong. With our comrades we remember recent victories, and we mutter against, and curse our rulers. We take a few minutes to freshen up our knowledge of what happened there in Chicago in 1886 and 1887 before striding out into the fight of the day. So during this moment of studying the day, I'm going to take a text from Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, and I'll ask you to take it down from the top shelf of the spare room where you stuck it when Reagan came to power, or to go down into the basement and dig it out of a mildewed carton whence you might have disdainfully put it during the Clinton years. No where does Engels mention the slave trade. No where does Engels mention the witch burnings. No where does Engels mention the genocide of the indigenous peoples. He writes, A durable reign of the bourgeoisie has been possible only in countries like America, where feudalism was unknown, and society at the very beginning started from a bourgeois basis. Dearie me. Dear, dear, dear! He has forgotten everything, it seems. He has swallowed hook, line, and sinker the whole schemata of: Savagery leads to Barbarism leads to Feudalism leads to Capitalism which, in turn, with a bit of luck, c., c., will be transformed, down the line, in the future, when the times are ripe, c. c. into socialism and communism. He has overlooked the struggle of the Indians, or the indigenous people, of the red, white, and black Indians. The fact is that commonism preceded capitalism on the north American continent, not feudalism. The genocide was so complete, the racism so effective, that there is not even a trace or relic of memory of the prior societies. So we fling him away as another Victorian European Imperialist and white male, to boot. But, wait. Look again. Check out the essay at the back. He called it The Mark. It's only a few pages. Perhaps you are misled by its German localism - its Gehferschaften and its Loosgter. The former term is the way the commoners of the Moselle valley practiced the jubilee and the latter term is a land distribution system based on periodical assignments by lot. Engels is describing the Commons of his neighborhoods. It is as substantial as Maria Mies in The Subsistence Perspective. You can smell the barnyard as you walk down the lane arm in arm to pick berries in the commons. Engels becomes a scholar of that feudalism which we thought he was discarding. But, no, in describing the pigs, the mushrooms, the turf, the wood, the unwritten customs, the mark regulations, the berries, the heaths, the forests, lakes, ponds, hunting grounds, fishing pools, he has quite forgotten his polemic against the economics professors (which is what inspired his tract) and he is relishing, shall we say? his very own indigenous self. I dare say he has had a few encuentros himself among the Germans. And we'll never forget that it was the criminalization of customary access to the commons which first drove Karl Marx to the study of political economy. No, Engels is full of contradictions. I say get him back from the mildew and air our your copy. He has a political purpose. Engels is not that theorist we tossed off as hopelessly politcally incorrect, and, taking all in all, a bad case for tenure. Part of his book he wrote for the professors of the SPD, but another part he wrote for the commoners and indigenous people - the peasants - who fled to the industrial towns. Moreover, he listened to them. They had lost their commons. Engels records the traces, the relics. These survive because of the French Revolution and the German one which once again produced a free peasantry. But how inferior is the position of our free peasant of today compared with the free member of the mark of the olden time! His homestead is generally much small, and the unpartitioned mark is reduced to a few very small and poor bits of communal forest. But, without the use of the mark, there can be no cattle for the small peasant; without cattle, no manure; without manure, no agriculture. That is the living commons. Engels knew of it. Engels is a free man; he knows that communism is possible. Engels is a revolutionary; he knows that it is not scheduled. I say this not to rehabilitate Engels. I personally am less interested in him that I am in Tecumseh who refused to enter the house of Governor W. H. Harrison in August 1810, insisting on meeting in the open air. The earth was the most proper
RE: article on being left
In the 1960's I knew a physics professor at Berkeley who became politically active on the left (still is). He immediately became persona non grata in the department. The big social nexus of the department were periodic parties at the house of (as they use to say) Dr. and Mrs. Edward Teller. As soon as is politics became public they were dropped from the invitation list. Not that they suffered; they found their new friends a lot more interesting. I will say one good thing about Teller. He is coauthor on the original aritcle on Monte Carlo Markov Chains. This is a very useful mathematical technique used in simulation models and applied Bayesian statistics. I assume it was originally developed by Tellers and others (probably mainly other mathematicians working for Teller) to simulate nuclear reactions. Today it is part of them models used to predict global warming. So when the right wing says where is the science, the Green's can point to this legacy. -Original Message- From: Andrew Hagen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 11:11 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11136] article on being left And now for something completely different. . . . I came across a good article. A highlight: Although in many ways I'm a fairly conventional person (I'm a professor, with no tattoos or piercings), my political activity on campus and in the community has alienated me from most of my colleagues. It's not that they are nasty to me -- the vast majority are civil in routine dealings, so long as I don't press political topics -- but I am not part of the department in any meaningful social way. With a couple of exceptions, even those who say they support and respect the political work I do almost never engage me in conversation about it. That's the price I have paid for being openly left and engaging in what many see as unnecessarily confrontational politics. http://commondreams.org/views01/0430-03.htm Andrew Hagen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: brad de long textbook
On Wednesday, May 2, 2001 at 21:20:47 (-0700) Brad DeLong writes: Is there something specific about software that makes the open-source management problem particularly easy? Or can we look forward to the development of similar collective freeware intellectual efforts in other areas as well? Software techniques and modern software language features allow you to decompose problems fairly readily. This decoupling of various parts allows you to work in common on describing what is to be done by designing the interfaces and then to work in smaller groups on how to implement the needed functionality described in the various interfaces. This, coupled with software that is designed to allow developers to share code and to work concurrently on the same body of code (this software is usually known as source code control software, a popular example is CVS), makes it relatively easy to do. An example is the writing of a stopwatch program. You might discuss what the interface would be like: you need to start it, stop it, get the elapsed time, etc. So, you'd need three functions to implement this, and given a bit more info (what the internal data type looks like and a bit more description), the three functions could be coded by three developers in three separate source code files that resided on the same central machine but were shared via the internet through a version control system. There are some aspects of this type of work that are difficult, though: the communication medium is very inefficient compared to face-to-face interchange. Imagine Crick and Watson sitting on opposite coasts and trying to work out ideas via e-mail. It can be quite difficult without face-to-face communication, but you can compensate by being careful in what you write and learning others' assumptions, styles, etc. I might also add that software is written in very highly constrained languages, so perhaps writing natural language texts would be more difficult, but perhaps not. Bill
Re: Shared Constraints?
We saw last time the difficulties P encounters arguing that Europe was nearing its limits of pre-industrial growth by 1800. He could not have it both ways: that Europe had an inefficient agrarian system with underutilized resources and that Europe had few remaining ways for further grow without significant industrial changes. Still, P manages to salvage this argument (from full inconsistency) by narrowing his focus and comparing England/The Netherlands to other similar core regions in China. A good case is made that England had fewer underutilized resources, and faced serious limitations in two key sectors of forestry and agriculture. There were few forested areas in England, and as the scarcity of timber became evident, the price of fuel rose 700% between 1500 and 1630. After 1700, the shortage was so serious that iron production even declined. English agriculture was facing similar limitations, as crop output could not keep pace with population growth. The fertility of the soil seemed to have reached a dead end; productivity could not be increased any more using the old pre-industrial techniques. English agricultural productivity seems not to have changed much between 1750 and 1850...per acre and total yields from arable land remained flat and the threat of decline constant... (216). Between 1760 and 1790 the price of wheat relative to other products rose 40%, and England had to import food to feed its population. ...Britain did not meet its growing food needs in the way that Grantham suggests for continental Europe; and thus it strengthens our sense that without the dual boons of coal and colonies, Britain would have faced an ecological impasse with no apparent internal solution (218).
RE: Re: RE: Re: Re: brad de long textbook
Good example of Robinsonian (Joan not Crusoe) waste of competition. Do you give this example in the textbook? I have shown similar results in the market for pesticides and oranges in California (got me attacked by the Council on Agricultural Science and Technology and had industry lawyers trying to suppress publication of the ultimate EPA report) and in the market for mammography machines in the U.S. (that's why the US spends 2-4 more money on breast cancer screening per capita than any other country). The question is, are mc markets with entry a textbook oddity (that is the impression, I think given by most micro textbooks) or much more the norm for what gets called competitive markets in the U.S. I think another interesting point, is that you can't abstract from institutional context in these situations. In the case of textbooks and mammography you have what nc's call the prinicpal-agent relationship (but it really goes beyond individuals to institutional structures and social norms) and in the case of pesticides and oranges the stucture of the market depends on the institutional arrangements of grower coops and chemical industry rep - farmer relationships. The problem with the typical micro textbook is that all institutional relationships are assumed away (more than that - they are obliterated as a subject of economics) so that one is left with model of perfect competition as the natural state of the market. -Original Message- From: Brad DeLong [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 12:26 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11140] Re: RE: Re: Re: brad de long textbook Jim wrote, After all, it's the sovereign consumers who decide what sucks and what doesn't suck. But remember one of the key characteristics of the textbook market--the ultimate user (the student) does not pick the book. The professor does (and most often the professor does not have information about the price). Say, rather, that demand for books is highly inelastic once the professor has adopted it, and that total $$$ spent by students doesn't play a large role (it does play some role) in the professorial adoption decision. Publishers and editors will say that although they use their local post-adoption monopoly power to the fullest to extract revenue from students, they and their companies don't get to keep it. They compete for course adoptions by spending more and more money on supplements and add-ons that they hope will make the professor happy, and make him or her adopt the book. This is a highly dissipative activity: the value of the supplements to the professor is much less than the cost to the students of the money spent producing them. It is a perfect illustration of how monopolistically competitive markets with entry do not produce anything like the social optimum... Brad DeLong
Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
On a more concrete or detailed level, much of the data is not gathered by the UN but through the national stastistical offices. So the quality of the data is in doubt when the conuntry's bureau of statistics in Benin has a reputation for rigging stuff. Statistics from the the transition economies are fairly reliable because these countries had highly qualified people in place. UN statistics are better or at least used to be before the big restructuring. Some of the old stock of UN statisticians studied with Tinbergen, and people like Kalecki, Myrdal and others were UN economist-statisticians. But the big restructuring beginning with the end of the cold war killed off any reliable statistics on the poor, women, and other essential developmental programs because it attacked anything to do with development and emphasized the role of private capital in developemntal processes, hence, the rise of microcredit, fdi, tncs etc An area which which everyone should be aware of the poor quality of trade statistics in the developing world. The point I want to make is again much of the statistics are nationally generated; back in the good old days the qulaity was a bit better because UN statisticians tried to systemetize the data and the data collection process and provide assitance to national bureaus as needed. by the way Kalecki was serving in the new york office in the 1950's as senior UN official, but with macarthy having influence in the un administration, the un demoted to a lower level. this to my knowledge is the only demotion in UN history. One area of concern --- Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jim Devine: Don't you think that the UN statistics indicating a rise in mortality in Russia are valid, at least as ballpark estimates? why do you accept these statistics -- which make a newly capitalist country look horrible -- and not others, that might indicate that it's possible for workers to win longer life-spans under capitalism if they fight hard enough and they're lucky? Is it because you agree with the political conclusions that jump out of the one set of statistics (that the transition to capitalism is a bad thing) and not those of the other (that capitalism might allow some reforms)? If so, that's totally fallacious. This is not about whether one should use or not use the enemy's statistics. It is about using them in a reductionist way like Doug and Brad do. If somebody asked me if South Korea was making progress or not making progress, the last place I'd look is the HDI report. I'd look at Marty Hart-Landsburg's books. I have been studying Latin America closely since 1974 when I was involved in a faction fight in the Fourth International over guerrilla warfare. As a reporter for the anti-Mandel faction, I worked closely with Argentine Trotskyists and learned a lot about the problems of the country through discussions with them and reading their documents. In the early 1980s I got involved with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador first and then with Nicaragua solidarity organizations from 1987 onwards. Through a combination of studying, organizing and publishing a newsletter for a city-wide coalition, I learned much about the region. If somebody asked me how Central America was faring, I wouldn't dream of extrapolating a column from a UN spreadsheet and saying, Things are looking better. (In fact, GDP was on the rise all through the Somoza era. But the social impact of the economic changes wrought through the introduction of large-scale cattle-ranching was what produced the Sandinista revolution.) There is an implicit logic in Brad and Doug relentless touting of these figures. If you take some god-forsaken third world country that is experiencing something like a 10 percent growth rate over some defined time-span, you might conclude that--ceteris parebis--the country would eventually reach first world levels. This is a reformist illusion. It is at odds with a Marxist understanding of how capitalism operates in places like Argentina, South Korea, etc. I can understand why Brad would argue along these lines. He is an outspoken neoliberal. Why Doug argues along the same lines (while holding out for some vague classless humane regime) is another story altogether and a depressing one at that. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/
RE: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
I have been working with OECD on a cross-national study of breast cancer. This study only involves developed countries (I guess with the exception of Mexico). Even within this group it is true that that quality and reliability of statistics is highly variable by country. Of course, developing national statistics on national expenditures and outcomes at the disease-specific level is a lot more arcane than more general national health and income statistics. I felt a little guilty working for this NATO - like agency (I don't get any money from them, this is considered part of my professional NCI duties like virtually every consulting I do - we have real ethics regulations, unlike Universities). But then I saw an article in the Washington Post the other day reporting that OECD has become the latest favorite villain of the U.S. right. It seems that OECD published a very mild report suggesting development of an international code of standards to prevent off-shore banking havens from being used to shield money gained from criminal activity and tax evasion. This caused a torrent of abuse from the U.S. right, portraying the OECD report as calling for a world government that would violate the sacred right of wealth holders to freely move their assets anywhere in world for any reason, especially tax avoidance. -Original Message- From: ALI KADRI [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 10:44 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11154] Re: Re: the enemy's statistics On a more concrete or detailed level, much of the data is not gathered by the UN but through the national stastistical offices. So the quality of the data is in doubt when the conuntry's bureau of statistics in Benin has a reputation for rigging stuff. Statistics from the the transition economies are fairly reliable because these countries had highly qualified people in place. UN statistics are better or at least used to be before the big restructuring. Some of the old stock of UN statisticians studied with Tinbergen, and people like Kalecki, Myrdal and others were UN economist-statisticians. But the big restructuring beginning with the end of the cold war killed off any reliable statistics on the poor, women, and other essential developmental programs because it attacked anything to do with development and emphasized the role of private capital in developemntal processes, hence, the rise of microcredit, fdi, tncs etc An area which which everyone should be aware of the poor quality of trade statistics in the developing world. The point I want to make is again much of the statistics are nationally generated; back in the good old days the qulaity was a bit better because UN statisticians tried to systemetize the data and the data collection process and provide assitance to national bureaus as needed. by the way Kalecki was serving in the new york office in the 1950's as senior UN official, but with macarthy having influence in the un administration, the un demoted to a lower level. this to my knowledge is the only demotion in UN history. One area of concern --- Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jim Devine: Don't you think that the UN statistics indicating a rise in mortality in Russia are valid, at least as ballpark estimates? why do you accept these statistics -- which make a newly capitalist country look horrible -- and not others, that might indicate that it's possible for workers to win longer life-spans under capitalism if they fight hard enough and they're lucky? Is it because you agree with the political conclusions that jump out of the one set of statistics (that the transition to capitalism is a bad thing) and not those of the other (that capitalism might allow some reforms)? If so, that's totally fallacious. This is not about whether one should use or not use the enemy's statistics. It is about using them in a reductionist way like Doug and Brad do. If somebody asked me if South Korea was making progress or not making progress, the last place I'd look is the HDI report. I'd look at Marty Hart-Landsburg's books. I have been studying Latin America closely since 1974 when I was involved in a faction fight in the Fourth International over guerrilla warfare. As a reporter for the anti-Mandel faction, I worked closely with Argentine Trotskyists and learned a lot about the problems of the country through discussions with them and reading their documents. In the early 1980s I got involved with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador first and then with Nicaragua solidarity organizations from 1987 onwards. Through a combination of studying, organizing and publishing a newsletter for a city-wide coalition, I learned much about the region. If somebody asked me how Central America was faring, I wouldn't dream of extrapolating a column from a UN spreadsheet and saying, Things are looking better. (In fact, GDP was on the rise all
Re: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
Ali: The point I want to make is again much of the statistics are nationally generated; back in the good old days the qulaity was a bit better because UN statisticians tried to systemetize the data and the data collection process and provide assitance to national bureaus as needed. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the IMF adopted a new method of calculating GDP in 1993. Instead of being limited to cash transactions, barter would be allowed as well. So if in China a peasant walks four miles to trade a watermelon for a pair of hand-made sandals, this gets factored in the same as buying a pair of sandals from Kmart that were made on an assembly line in Taiwan. With this new methodology, China all of a sudden became the world's fourth largest economy. So when you look at the HDI, keep in mind that improved GDP might not be what it seems. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
bottled water
The World Wildlife Fund said today that in most developed countries the tap water is as safe to drink as bottled water, although up to 1,000 times less expensive. The annual distribution of 90 billion liters of bottled water may contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The 1.5 million tons of plastic used also may pose a threat to t environment. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010503/ts/environment_water_dc_1.html Earlier this week, during Dick Cheney's speech on the National Energy Policy where the Vice-President harangued against renewable energy sources and conservation, called for 38,000 miles of additional gas pipelines, demanded aggressive drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and announced plans for between 1,300 and 1,900 new power plants, or one a week for at least 25 years, most of them burning coal, apparently to be paid for by crypto-corporate-socialist government subsidies, Dick Cheney had at his podium bottled water, apparently because he does not trust the tap water to be fre pollution. http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,288475-412,00.shtml http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/energy_cheney010430.ht ml (I observed the bottled water next to Cheney on a news program Monday. I think it was ABC's evening news.) The National Energy Policy will be formally released next month. Andrew Hagen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Finance Query
G'day pen-pals, Briefingscom has beens saying, in a sad tone, that Warren Buffett has been buying zero coupons. What are those, then? And I see the great Wall St charge has come to a halt after all of five days ... Cheers, Rob.
Shared Constraints?
As if to imprint on us the gravity of England's organic fuel shortage, P reminds us, at one point, that the British economy was already using over 8,000,000 Kcal of coal-based energy per person in 1815, before most of the boom in steam engines (222). But isn't this a clear indication that England was actually finding and using inanimate sources of energy? Having dealt already to some degree with this issue here and elsewhere (the one obvious weak link in P's book which Vries and others have pointed out) I just want to add that Britons were well aware of the land-fuel constraints they were facing and, for complex historical reasons, were able to find a technological solution to those difficulties. If we look at the iron industry we will find that already in the 17th century there serious efforts underway to use coal as a fuel for smelting iron, and that in 1709 Abraham Darby managed to use coke rather than charcoal. Here sinologists will point out that, as early as the 11th century, the Chinese were capable of smelting iron with coal. But, to me, this gives us permission to ask the very question sinologists like Sivin feel we should not ask but which Eric Jones says are legitimate: why a society that had achieved so much then passed so many centuries without achieving it again? (Jones, 1990). And, conversely, why were discoveries like Darby's followed up in a sustained way during the eighteenth century in England? Why did Henry Cort develop, in 1784, the puddling process for converting cast iron to wrought iron using coal? - innovations which in the course of the 18th century allowed iron production to grow by more than 10 times!
RE: Re: RE: Re: Re: brad de long textbook
RE Brad's It is a perfect illustration of how monopolistically competitive markets with entry do not produce anything like the social optimum... It is also a clear example of how firms, seeking to make profits, shape market structure: market structure is often endogenously determined by profit-seeking firms. I recollect this sort of thing being discussed in the NC literature in the mid-to late-1980s but I don't think this point of view has done much to change how micro is taught at the undergraduate level. Competition in NC textbooks is still of the static sort rather than the dynamic type of competition discussed in the classical literature. (Debating note: when in doubt label what you don't like as static and label what you do like as dynamic.) Eric .
BC Government on GATS
Thanks to: Ellen Gould [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Government of British Columbia, Canada, has published its analysis of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), including detailed analysis of how the GATS will limit publicly provided services, such as education and health care. If you are concerned about trade agreements that limit government authority and promote the privatization of public services, I urge you to read the document and do a key-word search for health or education. I can send the document to you, if you are not able to get the document from BC Government website. (approximately 40k) http://www.ei.gov.bc.ca/TradeExport/FTAA-WTO/governmentalauth.htm ..... GATS and Public Service Systems Discussion Paper 02 April 2001 International Branch Ministry of Employment and Investment Government of British Columbia PO Box 9327, Stn Prov Govt Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 9N3 (250) 952-0707 Introduction and Overview This paper on the =93exercise of governmental authority=94 considers the extent and range of interpretation of an important exclusion in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). To the best of our knowledge, there are no other papers that discuss the meaning of this important exclusion in any detail. In the absence of more exhaustive interpretive materials, as well as a lack of decisions by trade panels on the meaning of the governmental authority exclusion, it is not possible to determine how broadly or narrowly this provision might be interpreted. Since the Canadian government has signed onto the GATS in 1995, it is important to understand how governments might be affected by its obligations. An important part of understanding the GATS is to have clarity about what types of measures governments can exclude from coverage of the agreement. The GATS is an important agreement since services represent anywhere from 60%-80% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of WTO member nations. The GATS also has a built-in agenda that requires on-going negotiations. Negotiations to broaden and deepen the GATS have been taking place since January 2000. There is no agreed-to completion date but typically such negotiations last for several years. There is no definition for services in the agreement. It has often been said that a service is anything that cannot be dropped on your foot. It is hard to imagine a good that is not connected to a series of services. Obviously, each good contains labour services but often also requires a series of services in order to allow for use/consumption of that good. For example, computers have to be transported, distributed, advertised, sold, have software installed, provide education on software use, repaired and guaranteed. All of these services are essential to bring a good to market and to ensure that the good is sold and consumed. Many services have a strong public policy dimension to them, including health care, education, water treatment, tobacco advertising, alcohol distribution, electricity distribution, information services, among others. Knowing the importance of some of these services to Canadians, the federal government has given assurances that it will not negotiate the inclusion of public health, education and social services. In an effort to enhance trade in services, and to otherwise open up services markets, the GATS contains rules which discipline or restrict government action (measures). The scope of the agreement is extraordinarily broad because it potentially covers everything that governments do which affect trade in services and, it potentially covers all levels of governments. Government measures include legislation and regulation as well as requirements, procedures, practices or other actions. WTO trade panels have recently ruled that government measures which cover goods, but which affect trade in services, are also covered by the GATS rules. WTO trade panels also ruled that measures designed to cover services, but which affect trade in goods, are covered by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). This adds another layer of complexity for governments and their citizens when attempting to assess whether or not new measures will be trade consistent. The GATS is structured to include parallel but interrelated sets of rules. One set of rules is found in Part II General Obligations and Disciplines. These rules apply to all service sectors unless they are explicitly excepted. This is known as the top down approach; and in principle, every service is covered unless explicitly exempted. Negotiations taking place at present are designed to =93deepen=94 the existing obligations in this part of the GATS, that is, to increase the number of rules which apply to government measures. Part III of the GATS contains an additional and more demanding set of rules that are bottom-up, that is, these rules only apply to service sectors where governments
Re: RE: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16365-2001Apr28?language=printer - Original Message - From: Brown, Martin (NCI) [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 8:00 AM Subject: [PEN-L:11155] RE: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics I have been working with OECD on a cross-national study of breast cancer. This study only involves developed countries (I guess with the exception of Mexico). Even within this group it is true that that quality and reliability of statistics is highly variable by country. Of course, developing national statistics on national expenditures and outcomes at the disease-specific level is a lot more arcane than more general national health and income statistics. I felt a little guilty working for this NATO - like agency (I don't get any money from them, this is considered part of my professional NCI duties like virtually every consulting I do - we have real ethics regulations, unlike Universities). But then I saw an article in the Washington Post the other day reporting that OECD has become the latest favorite villain of the U.S. right. It seems that OECD published a very mild report suggesting development of an international code of standards to prevent off-shore banking havens from being used to shield money gained from criminal activity and tax evasion. This caused a torrent of abuse from the U.S. right, portraying the OECD report as calling for a world government that would violate the sacred right of wealth holders to freely move their assets anywhere in world for any reason, especially tax avoidance. -Original Message- From: ALI KADRI [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 10:44 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11154] Re: Re: the enemy's statistics On a more concrete or detailed level, much of the data is not gathered by the UN but through the national stastistical offices. So the quality of the data is in doubt when the conuntry's bureau of statistics in Benin has a reputation for rigging stuff. Statistics from the the transition economies are fairly reliable because these countries had highly qualified people in place. UN statistics are better or at least used to be before the big restructuring. Some of the old stock of UN statisticians studied with Tinbergen, and people like Kalecki, Myrdal and others were UN economist-statisticians. But the big restructuring beginning with the end of the cold war killed off any reliable statistics on the poor, women, and other essential developmental programs because it attacked anything to do with development and emphasized the role of private capital in developemntal processes, hence, the rise of microcredit, fdi, tncs etc An area which which everyone should be aware of the poor quality of trade statistics in the developing world. The point I want to make is again much of the statistics are nationally generated; back in the good old days the qulaity was a bit better because UN statisticians tried to systemetize the data and the data collection process and provide assitance to national bureaus as needed. by the way Kalecki was serving in the new york office in the 1950's as senior UN official, but with macarthy having influence in the un administration, the un demoted to a lower level. this to my knowledge is the only demotion in UN history. One area of concern --- Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jim Devine: Don't you think that the UN statistics indicating a rise in mortality in Russia are valid, at least as ballpark estimates? why do you accept these statistics -- which make a newly capitalist country look horrible -- and not others, that might indicate that it's possible for workers to win longer life-spans under capitalism if they fight hard enough and they're lucky? Is it because you agree with the political conclusions that jump out of the one set of statistics (that the transition to capitalism is a bad thing) and not those of the other (that capitalism might allow some reforms)? If so, that's totally fallacious. This is not about whether one should use or not use the enemy's statistics. It is about using them in a reductionist way like Doug and Brad do. If somebody asked me if South Korea was making progress or not making progress, the last place I'd look is the HDI report. I'd look at Marty Hart-Landsburg's books. I have been studying Latin America closely since 1974 when I was involved in a faction fight in the Fourth International over guerrilla warfare. As a reporter for the anti-Mandel faction, I worked closely with Argentine Trotskyists and learned a lot about the problems of the country through discussions with them and reading their documents. In the early 1980s I got involved with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador first and then with Nicaragua solidarity organizations from
RE: Re: RE: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
Yeah, that's it. -Original Message- From: Michael Pugliese [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 11:18 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11162] Re: RE: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16365-2001Apr28?language=printer - Original Message - From: Brown, Martin (NCI) [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 8:00 AM Subject: [PEN-L:11155] RE: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics I have been working with OECD on a cross-national study of breast cancer. This study only involves developed countries (I guess with the exception of Mexico). Even within this group it is true that that quality and reliability of statistics is highly variable by country. Of course, developing national statistics on national expenditures and outcomes at the disease-specific level is a lot more arcane than more general national health and income statistics. I felt a little guilty working for this NATO - like agency (I don't get any money from them, this is considered part of my professional NCI duties like virtually every consulting I do - we have real ethics regulations, unlike Universities). But then I saw an article in the Washington Post the other day reporting that OECD has become the latest favorite villain of the U.S. right. It seems that OECD published a very mild report suggesting development of an international code of standards to prevent off-shore banking havens from being used to shield money gained from criminal activity and tax evasion. This caused a torrent of abuse from the U.S. right, portraying the OECD report as calling for a world government that would violate the sacred right of wealth holders to freely move their assets anywhere in world for any reason, especially tax avoidance. -Original Message- From: ALI KADRI [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 10:44 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11154] Re: Re: the enemy's statistics On a more concrete or detailed level, much of the data is not gathered by the UN but through the national stastistical offices. So the quality of the data is in doubt when the conuntry's bureau of statistics in Benin has a reputation for rigging stuff. Statistics from the the transition economies are fairly reliable because these countries had highly qualified people in place. UN statistics are better or at least used to be before the big restructuring. Some of the old stock of UN statisticians studied with Tinbergen, and people like Kalecki, Myrdal and others were UN economist-statisticians. But the big restructuring beginning with the end of the cold war killed off any reliable statistics on the poor, women, and other essential developmental programs because it attacked anything to do with development and emphasized the role of private capital in developemntal processes, hence, the rise of microcredit, fdi, tncs etc An area which which everyone should be aware of the poor quality of trade statistics in the developing world. The point I want to make is again much of the statistics are nationally generated; back in the good old days the qulaity was a bit better because UN statisticians tried to systemetize the data and the data collection process and provide assitance to national bureaus as needed. by the way Kalecki was serving in the new york office in the 1950's as senior UN official, but with macarthy having influence in the un administration, the un demoted to a lower level. this to my knowledge is the only demotion in UN history. One area of concern --- Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jim Devine: Don't you think that the UN statistics indicating a rise in mortality in Russia are valid, at least as ballpark estimates? why do you accept these statistics -- which make a newly capitalist country look horrible -- and not others, that might indicate that it's possible for workers to win longer life-spans under capitalism if they fight hard enough and they're lucky? Is it because you agree with the political conclusions that jump out of the one set of statistics (that the transition to capitalism is a bad thing) and not those of the other (that capitalism might allow some reforms)? If so, that's totally fallacious. This is not about whether one should use or not use the enemy's statistics. It is about using them in a reductionist way like Doug and Brad do. If somebody asked me if South Korea was making progress or not making progress, the last place I'd look is the HDI report. I'd look at Marty Hart-Landsburg's books. I have been studying Latin America closely since 1974 when I was involved in a faction fight in the Fourth International over guerrilla warfare. As a reporter for the anti-Mandel faction, I worked closely with Argentine Trotskyists and learned a lot about the problems of the country through
Re: Finance Query
Rob Schaap wrote: Briefingscom has beens saying, in a sad tone, that Warren Buffett has been buying zero coupons. What are those, then? Bonds that pay interest only at maturity. Instead of getting $25 twice a year on a $1,000 bond, you buy it at, say, $230, and get your $1,000 at maturity. Since you have to pay tax on the imputed interest every year, even though you're not getting any cash, it only makes sense in a tax-sheltered retirement account (or if you're a tax-exempt pension fund). The charm of zeroes is that the price moves a lot more than a coupon bond, so Buffett must be expecting a good drop in interest rates. And I see the great Wall St charge has come to a halt after all of five days ... Bad numbers on initial claims for unemployment insurance. Instead of reading weakness as good news, the markets are now reading it as bad news; worries that profits will suck are now outweighing enthusiasm over future Fed easing. Today at least. Doug
Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: brad de long textbook
Someone asked if the monopolistic competition theory was going to appear in Brad's text. I would guess not, since it's a macro textbook and MC is seen as a micro topic. But it should appear, since it is the normal form of markets (except for the bits about equilibrium and the common assumption of homogeneous competitors, in terms of cost structures) when there is no oligopolistic interdependence. Arrow pointed out years ago that since there's no Auctioneer to set prices, firms and consumers do it. (Nonetheless, economists, who usually love their Nobel-prize winners, ignore his point.) Price-taking is silly except as a first approximation in some markets in finance. Most importantly, in discussion of a macro textbook, it gets us away from the notions of inflationary expectations that occur in the NAIRU literature. It's true that expectations play a role, but so do institutional forces such as the price/wage spiral and wage/wage inflation. That's why I replace inflationary expectations with the formally similar notion of an inflationary hangover, which includes the objective/institutional factors along with the subjective factors. This allows for slow adjustment of the hangover, along with the ratchet effect (inflationary hangover rising more easily that it falls, unless there's a big or sustained recessionary impulse). Of course, as Michael Perelman argues in his NATURAL INSTABILITY OF MARKETS, the degree of competition varies historically. After the neoliberal policy revolution, more of the world has been forced into the pure market strait-jacket, so institutional factors play a smaller role (which naturally enough encourages instability). Say, rather, that demand for books is highly inelastic once the professor has adopted it, and that total $$$ spent by students doesn't play a large role (it does play some role) in the professorial adoption decision. Publishers and editors will say that although they use their local post-adoption monopoly power to the fullest to extract revenue from students, they and their companies don't get to keep it. They compete for course adoptions by spending more and more money on supplements and add-ons that they hope will make the professor happy, and make him or her adopt the book. This is a highly dissipative activity: the value of the supplements to the professor is much less than the cost to the students of the money spent producing them. It is a perfect illustration of how monopolistically competitive markets with entry do not produce anything like the social optimum... Brad DeLong Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: Re: RE: Re: brad de long textbook
Brad wrote: If you wished (although God knows why you would) to portray your actions as a gamble by a flinty-eyed amoral profit-maximizing academic careerist, you could say that: Okay, Okay -- you saw right through me. But you missed one key aspect of my free (sic) text: while I will not make any money off the text itself, I do hope to market a line of action figures that come out of my book: Supply-Demand Man and Working-Class Heroes vs. Exploiting Surplus Extractors WWF-style action figures. And, again to be honest, I hope to make money off of product placement. For instance (from my text): Suppose you have a very strong preference for Martha Stewart's pine-scented aromatherapy candles which sell at K-Mart for $9.99. In this case, you might buy lots of them at this price. And your utility will be very high if you do this. Still, I must protest the flinty-eyed insult: my eyes are kinda droopy and not flinty at all. Eric;)
Re: Re: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
Ali wrote: The point I want to make is again much of the statistics are nationally generated; back in the good old days the qulaity was a bit better because UN statisticians tried to systemetize the data and the data collection process and provide assitance to national bureaus as needed. I recently read an article by Brad deLong (http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/Econ_Articles/Jaffe/new_macroeconomy.html) in which he cited an article by my old undergraduate senior thesis dvisor, William Nordhaus, as saying that we should throw the construction, services, government, and the 'finance, insurance, and real estate' sectors of the economy overboard as far as productivity calculations are concerned, and to focus on the remaining sectors which he calls 'well-measured output.' (This is a quote from Brad, not from Bill. I can't tell which Nordhaus article(s) Brad is summarizing.) What's interesting is that this says that for many important purposes, the old Soviet-style national income accounting (the calculation of the Gross Material Product) was a better way of doing things! (Of course, we'd have to throw out the double-counting.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Finance Query
Most bonds pay a return every quarter. Zeros pay none. As a result, they sell for relatively little. A $1000 bond could sell for $400 [making up numbers, which depend on the duration of the bond] Each year, as they come closer to their expiration date their value comes closer to their face value -- $1000. Their value depends more on interest rates than regular bonds. He is betting that inflation will be low and interest rates lower -- at least as long as he holds the bonds. Rob Schaap wrote: G'day pen-pals, Briefingscom has beens saying, in a sad tone, that Warren Buffett has been buying zero coupons. What are those, then? And I see the great Wall St charge has come to a halt after all of five days ... Cheers, Rob. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Query on Terminology, was ... textbook
What, exactly, is monopolistically competitive markets with entry? It is partially but not wholly decipherable as ordinary language. Carrol
Re: Query on Terminology, was ... textbook
Monopolistically competitive industries consist of small firms facing minimal entry barriers which compete by carving out distinct market niches (mini-monopolies). Because their products are - initially - unique, monopolistically competitive firms can charge higher prices than their perfectly competitive counterparts and avail themselves - temporarily - of monopoly rents. Of course low entry barriers ensure that such differentiated products will be emulated and the niche market eventually saturated. The restaurant industry is a good example of a monopolistically competitive industry. Ellen [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: What, exactly, is monopolistically competitive markets with entry? It is partially but not wholly decipherable as ordinary language. Carrol
The contradictions of methodological individualism
[this is fascinating even from a Whitehead-Russel logical types perspective] Published on Wednesday, May 2, 2001 Ari I White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer May 2, 2001, 2:00 p.m. by Russell Mokhiber Mokhiber: Ari, last month, Koch Industries, one of the nation's largest oil companies, pled guilty to a felony environmental crime. The Washington Post reported, also last month, that the company and its employees gave $30,000 to President Bush during the Presidential race and a similar amount in 1995 as Governor of Texas when he was running. Mokhiber: -- is the President now willing to give the money back because the company has been convicted of a felony? And does the President have a policy of accepting campaign contributions from convicted felons? Ari Fleischer: Can you give me a list of who the individuals were who gave the campaign contributions? Mokhiber: David Koch -- Fleischer: And were these individuals convicted, or was it just the company? Mokhiber: The company was convicted -- Fleischer: So, it was not the individuals -- Mokhiber: But the company also gave -- Fleischer: So, it was not the individuals. Mokhiber: The company was convicted of a felony and the company gave money to the -- Fleischer: And therefore every employee of the company is a felon? Mokhiber: Now, wait, wait, wait, wait -- if I could follow up. The company was convicted of a felony. The company gave money to the campaign. Fleischer: The company gave money to the campaign? Mokhiber: According to the Post, Bush received more than $30,000 from Koch Industries and its employees in the Presidential race and received a similar amount since 1995 as Governor of Texas. Fleischer: As you are aware, it is illegal to accept corporate contributions in federal campaigns, so therefore, any contributions came from individuals. So, unless you are prepared to say that a company that has a conviction means that all of its employees are felons -- I'd be careful there. Mokhiber: Let me just ask one further follow-up. Does the President have a policy of accepting money from executives of corporate felons? Fleischer: Again, individuals are free to give money in their own capacity. And it is illegal to accept money from corporations, as you know. [Note to readers: On April 10, 2001, the Washington Post's Dan Eggen (Oil Company Agrees to Pay $20 Million in Fines, Koch Allegedly Hid Releases of Benzene) reported the following: The company and its employees donated $800,000 to GOP candidates and organizations during the last election cycle, half of which came from David H. Koch, the firm's executive vice president, according to campaign finance records. Bush received more than $30,000 from Koch Industries and its employees in the presidential race and had received a similar amount since 1995 as governor of Texas, campaign records show. Fleischer said it is illegal to accept corporate contributions in federal campaigns, so therefore, any contributions came from individuals. True and false. It is true that it is illegal for a corporation to write a check out of its general treasury to a federal candidate. But a corporation's political action committee (PAC) can give money. And in this case, Koch Industries PAC gave $5,000 to Bush during the last election. I rang up Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. Noble said that Fleischer was engaged in a diversion and that it reminded him of Clinton saying it depends on what the definition of is is. The PAC is run by the company, it is a separate account within the company, Noble said. The company decides who the PAC gives money to. And most often, the individual Koch executives who give money to the Bush campaign often give at about the same time - as they did here - indicating that a fundraiser from the company was in progress. It's a distinction without a difference, Noble said of Fleischer's parsing.] -Thanks to Russell Mokhiber Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
Jim Devine wrote: I recently read an article by Brad deLong (http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/Econ_Articles/Jaffe/new_macroeconomy.html) in which he cited an article by my old undergraduate senior thesis dvisor, William Nordhaus, as saying that we should throw the construction, services, government, and the 'finance, insurance, and real estate' sectors of the economy overboard as far as productivity calculations are concerned, and to focus on the remaining sectors which he calls 'well-measured output.' (This is a quote from Brad, not from Bill. I can't tell which Nordhaus article(s) Brad is summarizing.) Ah, Nordhaus. In his intermediate macro course, he had us devise fiscal and monetary policy for a model economy he'd developed. It was my right-wing days, so I ran a tight ship. I had unemployment up to 20% in no time! I like the idea of this: throw out the stuff we don't like. Productivity sucks in these sectors, so let's forget them! Does he mean to imply that hedonic computer pricing produces well-measured output? Doug
Re: Query on Terminology, was ... textbook
At 11:10 AM 5/3/01 -0500, you wrote: What, exactly, is monopolistically competitive markets with entry? It is partially but not wholly decipherable as ordinary language. it does sound oxymoronic, but it fits with a Marxian point, i.e., that pure monopoly and pure competition are almost nonexistent while capitalism is always competitive and always monopolistic. The standard model of MC describes a large bunch of firms in a market, where each offers a slightly different product. My example for teaching it is rock 'n' roll bands (of the garage-band rather than the superstar variety). Because each offers different music (or music to old fogies like myself), there's brand -- or band -- loyalty, so that each can raise prices a little (or lower quality a little) without losing all customers. (In a perfectly competitive market, no firm can raise prices. If one does, it loses all customers.) The garage-band market also has easy entry: kids can buy electric guitars, amps, etc. at their local pawnshops and set up bands. Accumulation of human capital (i.e., talent) isn't important. (Sorry, my ear is jaundiced.) So any profits that a band makes disappear as we see a decline in the demand for each band's services. In the end, we see excess capacity, meaning that the bands don't have as many gigs as they'd like to have. Their equipment goes unused. (This may be a good thing, since it gives them opportunity to practice.) The problem with the standard model of MC is that (1) it assumes that all firms have the same cost structure (even though they produce different products); and (2) it focuses on equilibrium, ignoring the process. In reality, at any one time, there are bands that have profits and others that have losses. So some are trying to expand, while others are leaving the market (unless they _hope_ to make it big in the future). If the zero-profit prediction is to make any sense, it would be _on average_, not for any individual firm. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: Query on Terminology, was ... textbook
For example in the case of California oranges, the growers coop as power to set price (through aggregate supply control) and earn monolpoly profits because of this and also because of the market power associated with consumer loyalty to the brand name (California oranges, Sunkist etc.). But there is easy entry in the sense that it doesn't take a whole lot of capital or specialized knowledge to establish or expand an orange grove (but is does take time for the trees to mature so this allows the monopoly profits to be made in the short-run). The added twist here is that the only legal way to control supply as the aggegrate level is to ration individaul grower crops (this for fresh fruit) onto the market through the enforement of quality standards, that include a large component of purely cosmetic appearance (this appearance, in turn is used in national advertising to reinforce consumer loyalty to the Sunkist brand). In turn , the best way to get the highest proportion of your crop through the quality standards is to use chemical pesticides. So, we end up with more oranges being grown each year, an average higher percentage of each growers crops be rejected and an ever increasing expenditure on chemical pesticides by each grower. If there were an equilibrium it would be at a point where all farmers earn zero profits and the returns to market power are distributed among the managers of the coop, advertising firms and the chemical industry. In terms of social welfare the farmers are no better off than they would be in a (hypothetical) competitive market, consumers are worse off because they pay more oranges, farm workers and the environment is worse of because of the increased use of pesticides and agricultural science is worse off because integrated pest management techniques can never produce the blemish-free oranges that the quality standards call for. Of course, there is no equilibrium there are boom and bust cycles punctuated now and then by climate disasters. The best quasi-mathematical presentation of this in my opinion is in the micro textbook of Layard and Walters. -Original Message- From: Carrol Cox [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 12:10 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11169] Query on Terminology, was ... textbook What, exactly, is monopolistically competitive markets with entry? It is partially but not wholly decipherable as ordinary language. Carrol
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: the enemy's statistics
Ah, Nordhaus. In his intermediate macro course, he had us devise fiscal and monetary policy for a model economy he'd developed. It was my right-wing days, so I ran a tight ship. I had unemployment up to 20% in no time! I did some statistical regressions on that model. One of them had an R-squared equal to 1 and an F-stat equal to infinity. It turns out that there was no stochastic component in the model, so I was in effect regressing an identity. (Of course, one of my colleagues does that on purpose, asking his students to regress C, I, G, and NX against Y. The university is trying to get him to retire. He's one of the best arguments against the institution of tenure.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: The contradictions of methodological individualism
This same company was convicted of cheating the federal government and American Indian tribes of oil royalties by systematically un-reporting the amount of oil that they were pumping from these properties. The fraud was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, I believe. My brother, a computer engineer, worked for a company that was started by the Koch brother who blew the whistle on the rest of the family in regard to this. He was making super-computers at a time when the market for these technological dinasours was disappearing. So he went around the country passing out grants to University departments who, in turn, used the money to buy the machines. The hope was that this would build market reputation and eventually additional customers would materialize and they would actually start to sell machines for a profit. This never happened and after a few years my brother had to find a new job. (He has now outlived half a dozen companies and works for a temp consulting firm). And this was the HONEST Koch brother! -Original Message- From: Ian Murray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 12:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Lbo-Talk@Lists. Panix. Com Subject: [PEN-L:11170] The contradictions of methodological individualism [this is fascinating even from a Whitehead-Russel logical types perspective] Published on Wednesday, May 2, 2001 Ari I White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer May 2, 2001, 2:00 p.m. by Russell Mokhiber Mokhiber: Ari, last month, Koch Industries, one of the nation's largest oil companies, pled guilty to a felony environmental crime. The Washington Post reported, also last month, that the company and its employees gave $30,000 to President Bush during the Presidential race and a similar amount in 1995 as Governor of Texas when he was running. Mokhiber: -- is the President now willing to give the money back because the company has been convicted of a felony? And does the President have a policy of accepting campaign contributions from convicted felons? Ari Fleischer: Can you give me a list of who the individuals were who gave the campaign contributions? Mokhiber: David Koch -- Fleischer: And were these individuals convicted, or was it just the company? Mokhiber: The company was convicted -- Fleischer: So, it was not the individuals -- Mokhiber: But the company also gave -- Fleischer: So, it was not the individuals. Mokhiber: The company was convicted of a felony and the company gave money to the -- Fleischer: And therefore every employee of the company is a felon? Mokhiber: Now, wait, wait, wait, wait -- if I could follow up. The company was convicted of a felony. The company gave money to the campaign. Fleischer: The company gave money to the campaign? Mokhiber: According to the Post, Bush received more than $30,000 from Koch Industries and its employees in the Presidential race and received a similar amount since 1995 as Governor of Texas. Fleischer: As you are aware, it is illegal to accept corporate contributions in federal campaigns, so therefore, any contributions came from individuals. So, unless you are prepared to say that a company that has a conviction means that all of its employees are felons -- I'd be careful there. Mokhiber: Let me just ask one further follow-up. Does the President have a policy of accepting money from executives of corporate felons? Fleischer: Again, individuals are free to give money in their own capacity. And it is illegal to accept money from corporations, as you know. [Note to readers: On April 10, 2001, the Washington Post's Dan Eggen (Oil Company Agrees to Pay $20 Million in Fines, Koch Allegedly Hid Releases of Benzene) reported the following: The company and its employees donated $800,000 to GOP candidates and organizations during the last election cycle, half of which came from David H. Koch, the firm's executive vice president, according to campaign finance records. Bush received more than $30,000 from Koch Industries and its employees in the presidential race and had received a similar amount since 1995 as governor of Texas, campaign records show. Fleischer said it is illegal to accept corporate contributions in federal campaigns, so therefore, any contributions came from individuals. True and false. It is true that it is illegal for a corporation to write a check out of its general treasury to a federal candidate. But a corporation's political action committee (PAC) can give money. And in this case, Koch Industries PAC gave $5,000 to Bush during the last election. I rang up Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. Noble said that Fleischer was engaged in a diversion and that it reminded him of Clinton saying it depends on what the definition of is is. The PAC is run by the company, it is a separate account within the company, Noble said. The company decides who the PAC gives money to. And most often, the individual Koch executives who give money to the
Agricultural Revolution?
I think P is far from persuasive that both China and Europe shared constraints. He stands on firmer ground when it comes to the English case. The timber famine and the problem of mines filling with groundwater, as mine shafts were pushed down deeper, were real enough. (Of course, we have seen that it is too far a stretch to argue that the fortunate location of coal made the industrial revolution.) But I think that P makes a very weak argument when it comes to the agricultural sector. I am not convinced at all that English agriculture was facing similar limitations, and the fertility of the soil had reached a limit which it could not transcend using the old pre-industrial techniques. For a book that looks at every *quatitative* aspect of the sugar industry (i.e. British consumption, Caribbean exports, Chinese consumption, Chinese ritual uses of, prices, calories per day) one would expect something more about English agriculture than the paltry statistics that: i) English agricultural productivity seems not to have changed much between 1750 and 1850...per acre and total yields from arable land remained flat and the threat of decline constant... (216). ii) Thompson estimates that English farm output grew perhaps 50 percent per laborer between 1840 and 1914, but since the number of laboreres fell, this represented an increase in total output of perhaps 12 percent in seventy years... (217) iii) Britain's own grain and meat output were becoming inadequate, as indicated first by a sharp rise in the rise of wheat relative to other products (40 percent between 1760 and 1790... (217) iv) In England...animal herds were...probably increasing; but the outlook for soil fertility was still far less rosy than is suggested by some accounts of the 'Agricultural Revolution'...the manure generated on these new pastures...increased total farm output (grain plus animal products) but not crop output (223-24). One or more irrelevant ones and that's it. Remember this is a crucial aspect of P's thesis. He has to show that, by 1800, England had reached severe ecological limitations which it was lucky to overcome thanks to the importation of land-intensive crops from the New World (including timber from the North America). He has to show that there was not Agricultural Revolution in England prior to the 1850s (though we are left to wonder whether there might have been substantial changes before 1750 and whether by 1750 productivity could no longer keep pace with population growth). Which sources does he use to support these statistical claims? Just three: Ambrosoli (1997); Thompson, (1968, 1989); and my friend Greg Clark's 1991 article in EHR.
A Bush family member on Imperialism :-)
Imperialism, Race and Resistance In Stock:Ships within 24 hours . Barbara Bush / Paperback / Routledge / May 1999 Our Price: $24.99 http://www.routledge-ny.com
Re: bottled water
And many people (myself included) drink bottled water because it isn't chlorinated. Besides health concerns with chlorine, there's a simple matter of taste. I wonder how much chlorine is actually needed, and if it would be necessary at all if watersheds were protected, farmland wasn't overgrazed, and so forth. I don't drive a car in part because I think it is the most wasteful and polluting form of transportation imaginable; I can make that personal statement, but please! don't send me on a guilt trip about my bottled water, especially when most of it is consumed when I'm on my bicycle. --- Andrew Hagen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The World Wildlife Fund said today that in most developed countries the tap water is as safe to drink as bottled water, although up to 1,000 times less expensive. The annual distribution of 90 billion liters of bottled water may contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The 1.5 million tons of plastic used also may pose a threat to t environment. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010503/ts/environment_water_dc_1.html Earlier this week, during Dick Cheney's speech on the National Energy Policy where the Vice-President harangued against renewable energy sources and conservation, called for 38,000 miles of additional gas pipelines, demanded aggressive drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and announced plans for between 1,300 and 1,900 new power plants, or one a week for at least 25 years, most of them burning coal, apparently to be paid for by crypto-corporate-socialist government subsidies, Dick Cheney had at his podium bottled water, apparently because he does not trust the tap water to be fre pollution. http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,288475-412,00.shtml http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/energy_cheney010430.ht ml (I observed the bottled water next to Cheney on a news program Monday. I think it was ABC's evening news.) The National Energy Policy will be formally released next month. Andrew Hagen [EMAIL PROTECTED] = Subscribe to the Chico Examiner for only $30 annually or $20 for six months. Mail cash or check payabe to Tim Bousquet to POBox 4627, Chico CA 95927 __ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/
Re: Re: Re: brad de long textbook
On Wednesday, May 2, 2001 at 21:20:47 (-0700) Brad DeLong writes: Is there something specific about software that makes the open-source management problem particularly easy? Or can we look forward to the development of similar collective freeware intellectual efforts in other areas as well? Software techniques and modern software language features allow you to decompose problems fairly readily. This decoupling of various parts allows you to work in common on describing what is to be done by designing the interfaces and then to work in smaller groups on how to implement the needed functionality described in the various interfaces. This, coupled with software that is designed to allow developers to share code and to work concurrently on the same body of code (this software is usually known as source code control software, a popular example is CVS), makes it relatively easy to do. An example is the writing of a stopwatch program. You might discuss what the interface would be like: you need to start it, stop it, get the elapsed time, etc. So, you'd need three functions to implement this, and given a bit more info (what the internal data type looks like and a bit more description), the three functions could be coded by three developers in three separate source code files that resided on the same central machine but were shared via the internet through a version control system. There are some aspects of this type of work that are difficult, though: the communication medium is very inefficient compared to face-to-face interchange. Imagine Crick and Watson sitting on opposite coasts and trying to work out ideas via e-mail. It can be quite difficult without face-to-face communication, but you can compensate by being careful in what you write and learning others' assumptions, styles, etc. I might also add that software is written in very highly constrained languages, so perhaps writing natural language texts would be more difficult, but perhaps not. Bill Good and interesting points. I wish you had a bottom line, but I think you would be foolhardy to have one at this stage...
RE: Re: Re: Re: brad de long textbook
We have multiple grantees working on very complicated population level disease simulation models. They are iteracting using an Internet - based, open form relational database tool called Sciwiki. We'll see how it works but it looks pretty neat. -Original Message- From: Brad DeLong [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 1:39 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11179] Re: Re: Re: brad de long textbook On Wednesday, May 2, 2001 at 21:20:47 (-0700) Brad DeLong writes: Is there something specific about software that makes the open-source management problem particularly easy? Or can we look forward to the development of similar collective freeware intellectual efforts in other areas as well? Software techniques and modern software language features allow you to decompose problems fairly readily. This decoupling of various parts allows you to work in common on describing what is to be done by designing the interfaces and then to work in smaller groups on how to implement the needed functionality described in the various interfaces. This, coupled with software that is designed to allow developers to share code and to work concurrently on the same body of code (this software is usually known as source code control software, a popular example is CVS), makes it relatively easy to do. An example is the writing of a stopwatch program. You might discuss what the interface would be like: you need to start it, stop it, get the elapsed time, etc. So, you'd need three functions to implement this, and given a bit more info (what the internal data type looks like and a bit more description), the three functions could be coded by three developers in three separate source code files that resided on the same central machine but were shared via the internet through a version control system. There are some aspects of this type of work that are difficult, though: the communication medium is very inefficient compared to face-to-face interchange. Imagine Crick and Watson sitting on opposite coasts and trying to work out ideas via e-mail. It can be quite difficult without face-to-face communication, but you can compensate by being careful in what you write and learning others' assumptions, styles, etc. I might also add that software is written in very highly constrained languages, so perhaps writing natural language texts would be more difficult, but perhaps not. Bill Good and interesting points. I wish you had a bottom line, but I think you would be foolhardy to have one at this stage...
Re: The contradictions of methodological individual ism
While the Kochs do not pay taxes, they exercize their social responsibility by donating hefty amounts to Cato and Heritage. On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 12:45:58PM -0400, Brown, Martin (NCI) wrote: This same company was convicted of cheating the federal government and American Indian tribes of oil royalties by systematically un-reporting the amount of oil that they were pumping from these properties. The fraud was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, I believe. My brother, a computer engineer, worked for a company that was started by the Koch brother who blew the whistle on the rest of the family in regard to this. He was making super-computers at a time when the market for these technological dinasours was disappearing. So he went around the country passing out grants to University departments who, in turn, used the money to buy the machines. The hope was that this would build market reputation and eventually additional customers would materialize and they would actually start to sell machines for a profit. This never happened and after a few years my brother had to find a new job. (He has now outlived half a dozen companies and works for a temp consulting firm). And this was the HONEST Koch brother! -Original Message- From: Ian Murray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 12:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Lbo-Talk@Lists. Panix. Com Subject: [PEN-L:11170] The contradictions of methodological individualism [this is fascinating even from a Whitehead-Russel logical types perspective] Published on Wednesday, May 2, 2001 Ari I White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer May 2, 2001, 2:00 p.m. by Russell Mokhiber Mokhiber: Ari, last month, Koch Industries, one of the nation's largest oil companies, pled guilty to a felony environmental crime. The Washington Post reported, also last month, that the company and its employees gave $30,000 to President Bush during the Presidential race and a similar amount in 1995 as Governor of Texas when he was running. Mokhiber: -- is the President now willing to give the money back because the company has been convicted of a felony? And does the President have a policy of accepting campaign contributions from convicted felons? Ari Fleischer: Can you give me a list of who the individuals were who gave the campaign contributions? Mokhiber: David Koch -- Fleischer: And were these individuals convicted, or was it just the company? Mokhiber: The company was convicted -- Fleischer: So, it was not the individuals -- Mokhiber: But the company also gave -- Fleischer: So, it was not the individuals. Mokhiber: The company was convicted of a felony and the company gave money to the -- Fleischer: And therefore every employee of the company is a felon? Mokhiber: Now, wait, wait, wait, wait -- if I could follow up. The company was convicted of a felony. The company gave money to the campaign. Fleischer: The company gave money to the campaign? Mokhiber: According to the Post, Bush received more than $30,000 from Koch Industries and its employees in the Presidential race and received a similar amount since 1995 as Governor of Texas. Fleischer: As you are aware, it is illegal to accept corporate contributions in federal campaigns, so therefore, any contributions came from individuals. So, unless you are prepared to say that a company that has a conviction means that all of its employees are felons -- I'd be careful there. Mokhiber: Let me just ask one further follow-up. Does the President have a policy of accepting money from executives of corporate felons? Fleischer: Again, individuals are free to give money in their own capacity. And it is illegal to accept money from corporations, as you know. [Note to readers: On April 10, 2001, the Washington Post's Dan Eggen (Oil Company Agrees to Pay $20 Million in Fines, Koch Allegedly Hid Releases of Benzene) reported the following: The company and its employees donated $800,000 to GOP candidates and organizations during the last election cycle, half of which came from David H. Koch, the firm's executive vice president, according to campaign finance records. Bush received more than $30,000 from Koch Industries and its employees in the presidential race and had received a similar amount since 1995 as governor of Texas, campaign records show. Fleischer said it is illegal to accept corporate contributions in federal campaigns, so therefore, any contributions came from individuals. True and false. It is true that it is illegal for a corporation to write a check out of its general treasury to a federal candidate. But a corporation's political action committee (PAC) can give money. And in this case, Koch Industries PAC gave $5,000 to Bush during the last election. I rang up Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. Noble said that Fleischer
I may be unsubbing you
I am going to remove about 5 people whose address seems to be wrong. If you get one of these notices, please contact me. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: I may be unsubbing you
Clarification. Everyone on the list should be receiving the information about the unsubbing. Only those people who receive a notification of their being unsubbed should be concerned. Sorry. On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 12:18:21PM -0700, Michael Perelman wrote: I am going to remove about 5 people whose address seems to be wrong. If you get one of these notices, please contact me. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: I may be unsubbing you
This is my correct address. --jks From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11183] I may be unsubbing you Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 12:18:21 -0700 I am going to remove about 5 people whose address seems to be wrong. If you get one of these notices, please contact me. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
RE: I may be unsubbing you
[sob] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 8:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:11183] I may be unsubbing you I am going to remove about 5 people whose address seems to be wrong. If you get one of these notices, please contact me. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2001: RELEASED TODAY: From 1998 to 1999, multifactor productivity rose 0.8 percent in the private business sector and 0.6 percent in the private nonfarm business sector, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Multifactor productivity is designed to measure the joint influences on economic growth of technological change, efficiency improvements, returns to scale, reallocation of resources, and other factors. Multifactor productivity, therefore, differs from the labor productivity (output per hour) measures that are published quarterly by BLS since it requires information on capital services and other data that are not available on a quarterly basis. Multifactor productivity increased for the eighth consecutive year in both the private business and private nonfarm business sectors, but at the lowest rates since 1995. The number of Americans filing new claims for state unemployment insurance rose sharply last week to a 5-year high. The report offered fresh evidence that employers' demand for workers has waned as the economy slowed. The Labor Department reported today that jobless claims went up by a bigger than expected 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 421,000 for the workweek ended April 28. Many economists were expecting claims to fall. The increase kept claims at their highest level since March 23, 1996, when they stood at 428,000. Claims hit a 5-year high 2-weeks ago when they rose to 412,000, according to revised figures, a bigger increase than the government previously thought (The Associated Press, http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38417-2001May 3.html; hht://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2001-05-03-jobless.htm; Reuters, http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010503/tCB00a2866.html). U.S. economic growth was slow throughout March and early April as industrial activity continued to soften and demand for many consumer goods was lackluster, the Federal Reserve Board says in its beige book report. The report finds one of the few bright spots in the economy was an increase in home sales and refinancing activity due to lower mortgage rates. The Fed also said that although businesses are beginning to feel less pressure from rising wages, sharply higher energy costs are continuing to spoil profit margins. The manufacturing sector, which economists say has been in its own recession since July 2000, showed few signs of improving in March and April, the Fed said (Daily Labor Report, page D-1; The Wall Street Journal, page A2). Labor markets, which were tight for most of last year, have loosened somewhat in most parts of the country and employers are finding it easier to fill vacancies, the Federal Reserve's latest survey of nationwide economic conditions shows. Wages are rising very moderately or are unchanged in most parts of the country except for the Richmond and San Francisco (Federal Reserve Bank) districts where scattered wage increases are noted. Retail prices are steady in most districts, except Richmond, where retail prices have been rising at a quicker pace in recent weeks (The Washington Post, page E3). According to data compiled by the Bureau of National Affairs in the first 18 weeks of 2001, newly bargained contracts in the manufacturing industry provide a weighted average first-year increase of 3.5 percent, compared with 3.3 percent in the comparable period of 2000, while agreements in the nonmanufacturing (excluding construction) sector produced a weighted average increase of 4.2 percent, compared with 3.9 percent in 2000. The current median manufacturing increase was 3 percent, unchanged from 2000, and the median nonmanufacturing increase was 3.8 percent, compared with 3.2 percent last year (Daily Labor Report, page D-3). The economy slowed in the last 2 months as retail sales were weak in March and manufacturers reported falling orders and production, the Federal Reserve said in its latest regional economic report card (Bloomberg News in The New York Times, page C4). The information-technology revolution should keep boosting productivity and living standards, writes Laura D'Andrea Tyson, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley in Business Week (April 30, page 26). According to a recent study by the Council of Economic Advisers, labor productivity accelerated by 1.6 percentage points from 1995 to 2000, compared with its growth from 1974 to 1995. The lion's share of this acceleration stemmed from more investment in information technology and efficiency improvements made possible by this technology. Most of these productivity gains occurred outside the computer sector and were highest in large service industries like wholesale and retail trade, finance and business services. From 1989 to 1999, those sectors that added the most value through information technology enjoyed the largest productivity gains, with a 50 percent
Re: BLS Daily Report
The BLS wrote: Labor Secretary Chao, in her first budget presentation to congressional appropriators, outlined on May 2 what she views as highlights in the Bush Administration's first budget proposal for the Labor Department. These include an $8.1 million funding increase for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is dedicated to improvements [sic] in the consumer price index so their emphasis is on reducing the estimated rate of inflation? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: I may be unsubbing you
Are my messages bouncing back to you? My ISP (Los Angeles Free Net) is a small nonprofit and it has been bouncing messages it thinks are spam but, in fact, are not. My email is [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sorry if this is causing problems, but I have already tried my best to get LAFN to stop bouncing messages. They don't seem capable of it. marta Michael Perelman wrote: I am going to remove about 5 people whose address seems to be wrong. If you get one of these notices, please contact me. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Marta Russell author, Los Angeles, CA http://disweb.org/ Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract http://www.commoncouragepress.com/russell_ramps.html
Learn from Cuba, Says World Bank
Learn from Cuba, Says World Bank By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (IPS) - World Bank President James Wolfensohn Monday extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro for doing ''a great job'' in providing for the social welfare of the Cuban people. His remarks followed Sunday's publication of the Bank's 2001 edition of 'World Development Indicators' (WDI), which showed Cuba as topping virtually all other poor countries in health and education statistics. It also showed that Havana has actually improved its performance in both areas despite the continuation of the US trade embargo against it and the end of Soviet aid and subsidies for the Caribbean island more than ten years ago. ''Cuba has done a great job on education and health,'' Wolfensohn told reporters at the conclusion of the annual spring meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). ''They have done a good job, and it does not embarrass me to admit it.'' His remarks reflect a growing appreciation in the Bank for Cuba's social record, despite recognition that Havana's economic policies are virtually the antithesis of the ''Washington Consensus'', the neo-liberal orthodoxy that has dominated the Bank's policy advice and its controversial structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) for most of the last 20 years. Some senior Bank officers, however, go so far as to suggest that other developing countries should take a very close look at Cuba's performance. ''It is in some sense almost an anti-model,'' according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank's Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators. Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank's dictum that economic growth is a precondition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not downright wrong. The Bank has insisted for the past decade that improving the lives of the poor was its core mission. Besides North Korea, Cuba is the one developing country which, since 1960, has never received the slightest assistance, either in advice or in aid, from the Bank. It is not even a member, which means that Bank officers cannot travel to the island on official business. The island's economy, which suffered devastating losses in production after the Soviet Union withdrew its aid, especially its oil supplies, a decade ago, has yet to fully recover. Annual economic growth, fuelled in part by a growing tourism industry and limited foreign investment, has been halting and, for the most part, anaemic. Moreover, its economic policies are generally anathema to the Bank. The government controls virtually the entire economy, permitting private entrepreneurs the tiniest of spaces. It heavily subsidises virtually all staples and commodities; its currency is not convertible to anything. It retains tight control over all foreign investment, and often changes the rules abruptly and for political reasons. At the same time, however, its record of social achievement has not only been sustained; it's been enhanced, according to the WDI. It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank's Vice President for Development Policy who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself. By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999; Chile's was down to ten; and Costa Rica, 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999. Similarly, the mortality rate for children under five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50 percent lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba's achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999. ''Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,'' according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. ''You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.'' Indeed, in Ritzen's own field the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100 percent in 1997, up from 92 percent in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations, higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90 percent rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries. ''Even in education performance, Cuba's is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.'' It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7 percent of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin America and Caribbean countries and even Singapore. There were 12 primary pupils for every Cuban teacher
MSOFT versus Open Source movement
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/03/technology/03SOFT.html May 3, 2001 Microsoft Is Set to Be Top Foe of Free Code By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO, May 2 - Microsoft is preparing a broad campaign countering the movement to give away and share software code, arguing that it potentially undermines the intellectual property of countries and companies. At the same time, the company is acknowledging that it is feeling pressure from the freely shared alternatives to its commercial software. In a speech defending Microsoft's business model, to be given on Thursday at the Stern School of Business at New York University, Craig Mundie, a senior vice president at Microsoft and one of its software strategists, will argue that the company already follows the best attributes of the open-source model by sharing the original programmer's instructions, or source code, more widely than is generally realized. The speech is part of an effort by Microsoft to raise questions about the limits of innovation inherent in the open-source approach and to suggest that companies adopting the approach are putting their intellectual property at risk. Advocates of the open-source movement say that making the code available permits other developers to tinker with it, find problems and improve the software. Although the movement has not yet had a significant effect on sales of Microsoft's Office and Windows products in the personal computer market, the company wants to enter the corporate software market, where open source has gained ground. In his speech, Mr. Mundie will argue that one aspect of the open-source model, known as the General Public License, or G.P.L., is a potential trap that undercuts the commercial software business and mirrors some of the worst practices of dot- com businesses, in which goods were given away in an effort to attract visitors to Web sites. G.P.L. requires that any software using source code already covered by the licensing agreement must become available for free distribution. This viral aspect of the G.P.L. poses a threat to the intellectual property of any organization making use of it, Mr. Mundie said in a telephone interview this week. I.B.M. in particular has been heavily marketing the free Linux operating system. Mr. Mundie does not identify I.B.M. by name in his speech, which was provided beforehand, but he says that large companies are naïve in adopting the open-source model. I would challenge you, he said, to find a company who is a large established enterprise, who at the end of the day would throw all of its intellectual property into the open- source category. An I.B.M. executive said that his company had considered the issues surrounding the protection of intellectual property and had decided that it was possible to follow both a proprietary and a shared business model, even one based on the G.P.L. The executive, Irving Wladawsky- Berger, an I.B.M. vice president, said, If we thought this was a trap, we wouldn't be doing it, and as you know, we have a lot of lawyers. In February, Jim Allchin, a software designer at Microsoft, became a lightning rod for industry criticism when he said in an interview with Bloomberg News that freely distributed software code could stifle innovation and that legislators should be aware of the threat. Mr. Mundie said he would elaborate on Mr. Allchin's comments while also trying to demonstrate that Microsoft already practices many of what he called the best aspects of the open-source model. We have been going around the industry talking to people, Mr. Mundie said, and have been startled to find that people aren't very sophisticated about the implications of what open source means. He acknowledged that the open-source movement was making inroads. The news here is that Microsoft is engaging in a serious way in this discussion, he said. The open- source movement has continued to gather momentum in a P.R. sense and a product sense. He said Microsoft was particularly concerned about the inroads that the open-source idea was making in other countries. It's happening very, very broadly in a way that is troubling to us, he said. I could highlight a dozen countries around the world who have open-source initiatives. Mr. Mundie said that in his speech, he would break the open-source strategy into five categories: community, standards, business model, investment and licensing model. Microsoft, he said, in support of the community ideal, already has what he called a shared-source philosophy, which makes its source code available to hardware makers, software developers, scientists, researchers and government agencies. Microsoft would expand its sharing initiatives, he said. But he added that the company's proprietary business model was a more effective way to support industry standards than the open-source approach, which he said could lead to a forking of the software base resulting in the development of multiple incompatible versions of standard programs.
Re: Re: The contradictions of methodological individualism
See this on David Koch. http://www.potomac-inc.org/seduclft.html Michael Pugliese Libertarians don't like to talk about how David Koch came to be their party's vice-presidential nominee, and you can't blame them. To be blunt about it, Koch bought the nomination; it cost him a half-million dollars. There is no law against selling a slot on the national ticket to the highest bidder, and in the Libertarians' case , it made a good deal of financial sense. Still, it's not the kind of thing they like to talk about. I was disturbed by it, admits Robert Poole, editor of Reason, a California magazine that is the voice of the Libertarian movement's right wind. Several weeks before the Libertarian party staged its national convention in Los Angeles last September, David Koch sent a letter to the delegates announcing that he would contribute several hundred thousand dollars to the 1890 campaign if he were nominated. In Los Angeles he upped the ante to a half-million. David Koch has not been active in the party, concedes Poole, But everyone made the calculations, and they were explicit about it in their speeches, He was a Libertarian, he agreed with us, he was offering money we couldn't otherwise get.. (Federal campaign laws limit the amount individual may contribute to a presidential campaign, but places no restrictions on a candidate's spending in his own race.) The vote was never in doubt. There was no good reason not to nominate him, Poole said. Koch's name is not a household word, not even to the delegates who voted for him, and if he has his way, it won't become one any time soon: he is conducting what one prominent Libertarian calls a front porch campaign. But the party did not sell its nomination to a total stranger, David Koch, 39, head of Koch Engineering, is the brother of Charles Koch, 44, chairperson and chief executive officer of Koch Industries. Charles Koch is also the Friedrich Engels of Libertarianism. More than any other single factor, it is his money that has transformed the Libertarian movement from a doughty band of true believers into a political force that is on the verge of becoming the first party since the Socialists to offer a serious challenge to the Republocrat monopoly. You have probably never heard of the Libertarian party, but thanks to Koch's money, that will have changed by the end of the election campaign. The party's presidential candidate, Ed Clark, is a 49-year old antitrust lawyer for the Atlantic-Richfield oil company, with be on the ballot in some 4-odd states, and his campaign strategists are hoping to raise $3 million to buy newspapers, radio and television ads in major media markets, including 60 five-minute spots on network TV. The Libertarians' message will be a simple one: the only way to solve the nation's problems is to get rid of government. snip - Original Message - From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 12:00 PM Subject: [PEN-L:11182] Re: The contradictions of methodological individual ism While the Kochs do not pay taxes, they exercize their social responsibility by donating hefty amounts to Cato and Heritage. On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 12:45:58PM -0400, Brown, Martin (NCI) wrote: This same company was convicted of cheating the federal government and American Indian tribes of oil royalties by systematically un-reporting the amount of oil that they were pumping from these properties. The fraud was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, I believe. My brother, a computer engineer, worked for a company that was started by the Koch brother who blew the whistle on the rest of the family in regard to this. He was making super-computers at a time when the market for these technological dinasours was disappearing. So he went around the country passing out grants to University departments who, in turn, used the money to buy the machines. The hope was that this would build market reputation and eventually additional customers would materialize and they would actually start to sell machines for a profit. This never happened and after a few years my brother had to find a new job. (He has now outlived half a dozen companies and works for a temp consulting firm). And this was the HONEST Koch brother! -Original Message- From: Ian Murray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 12:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Lbo-Talk@Lists. Panix. Com Subject: [PEN-L:11170] The contradictions of methodological individualism [this is fascinating even from a Whitehead-Russel logical types perspective] Published on Wednesday, May 2, 2001 Ari I White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer May 2, 2001, 2:00 p.m. by Russell Mokhiber Mokhiber: Ari, last month, Koch Industries, one of the nation's largest oil companies, pled guilty to a felony environmental crime. The Washington Post reported, also last month, that the
Re: MSOFT versus Open Source movement
Ian Murray wrote: Microsoft Is Set to Be Top Foe of Free Code what is interesting is that jim allchin (identified as a software designer in the news report, but who is, if i remember right, a senior VP) called open software unamerican and used similar red-baiting rhetoric. if capitalistic free market is what is american, then, according to allchin, it is strange that various microsoft minions are scurrying around the countryside arguing philosophy to suggest that the poor software giant and capitalism itself is under attack by open software. after all, if the market decides the winner, given their huge financial and other resources, all microsoft has to do would be to prove the superiority of their model in the market place, do the american thing. --ravi
******* What kind of world are we living in? ********
*** What kind of world are we living in? Daily News 3/5/01 Poverty-stricken man digs his own grave By Eric Ndiyane Unemployment and poverty have forced a man from southern KwaZulu-Natal to think ahead and start digging his own grave in preparation of his death - whenever it may happen. Dembese Doncabe, 58, of Baphumile, near Port Shepstone, shocked his two wives and the rest of the community when he began digging his own grave two months ago. Doncabe is unemployed and his family relies on growing vegetables for survival. He said the idea of digging his own grave came after he attended a funeral of a local couple a few years ago and he noticed how high the funeral costs were. Recently someone told me that the actual cost of a funeral had multiplied and could even be more than R5 000 for a cheap service. I thought to myself my family could never afford anything like that amount, he said. Doncabe said that one day he woke up and told his wife about his 10-hour-long decision to start digging his own grave to save money. I went to the local Induna and to the police to inform them of my decision. The reality is that I cannot afford all the fancy things that go with modern-day funerals, he said. He said that a week after he had dug the hole, there was widespread condemnation by his fellow villagers, who even asked him to stop bringing a curse on the village. In his village it is believed that if one digs a grave, death will reign. I am the most poor person who ever lived in this community and I told them that they were the ones who knew my situation better. When I die, people will just have to put me in a coffin, which I will be making in the coming months, he said. Doncabe said people continued to visit his home because they wanted to see the grave for themselves. I have learned that poverty can make someone think. One thing I know is that at my funeral there will be no jelly, meat or drink. People will only eat plain samp and it will be one of the shortest funeral services, said the humble man. Doncabe now plans to charge people a small amount of money when they come to view the grave. One of his wives, Fikile Gladys Doncabe, said she could not wait for her husband to finish the grave so he could start digging hers. I was shocked when he first told me about his decision and it did not go down well with me at the time, but after he explained to me I understood. My friends in the community criticised me for allowing him to continue with this grave, she said. She said the idea arose from their desperate poverty. We have to accept that it is expensive to bury a family member in these days and those who are poor like us will always be subjects of gossip for failing to feed those at the funerals, she said. A local resident, Victor Shozi, said the village had accepted Doncabe's reasons for digging the grave. http://www.iol.co.za/general/newsview.php?click_id=124art_id=ct200105010925 /Redirect/www.iol.co.za/general/newsview.php?click_id=124art_id=ct20010501 092522993G610330set_id=1
Large-scale, Global Anti-capitalism Protests Putting Smaller, Local,Anti-capitalism Protests Out Of Business
Large-scale, Global Anti-capitalism Protests Putting Smaller, Local, Anti-capitalism Protests Out Of Business There were calls today for multinational pro-anarchy pressure groups to be investigated for monopolistic practices after the NW3 branch of the London Radical Left Movement For Socialist Revolution was disbanded due to lack of interest. The group's spokesperson, leader, treasurer, secretary and only member, Nigel Wilkinson, believes that global anarchy movements such as the ones responsible for the G7 riots in Seattle and the disturbances expected in London on May Day are to blame for forcing out smaller, independent operations like his. These large American anti-capitalist movements have effectively taken over the militant scene in this country, he said from his bedsit in Highgate. There used to be lots of small, independent groups all with their own unique character. Now it's the same old anarchy all over the world. Wilkinson has seen his group's membership dwindle by almost 70 percent over the last year from a peak of three members to just one - himself. We used to stand outside shopping centres and try to sell Socialist Worker to students. Now its all balaclavas and spray paint and massive crowds of people. I dunno. The character of these protests has totally changed. However, Kyle Redmond, spokesperson for WorldProtest, which has thousands of members in 20 countries and co-ordinates protests all over the world, defended his organisation's approach: We give anarchists what they want. It's a supply and demand situation. We offer a basic menu of building defacement, vandalism of a McDonalds outlet and general looting, ending with a confrontation with the local police. All our research shows that this is what the average anarchist on the street wants. (c) urbanreflex.com 2001
Re: Re: Re: The contradictions of methodological individual ism
Why should the libs quail at selling nominations? They're in favor of selling everything else. --jks Libertarians don't like to talk about how David Koch came to be their party's vice-presidential nominee, and you can't blame them. To be blunt about it, Koch bought the nomination; it cost him a half-million dollars. There is no law against selling a slot on the national ticket to the highest bidder, and in the Libertarians' case , it made a good deal of financial sense. Still, it's not the kind of thing they like to talk about. I was disturbed by it, admits Robert Poole, editor of Reason, a California magazine that is the voice of the Libertarian movement's right wind. Several weeks before the Libertarian party staged its national convention in Los Angeles last September, David Koch sent a letter to the delegates announcing that he would contribute several hundred thousand dollars to the 1890 campaign if he were nominated. In Los Angeles he upped the ante to a _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
