Waiting for Adam
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=923 Waiting for Adam by Brandon Dupont The parable of the modern-day economics Ph.D. student reminds one of Beckett's famous play, Waiting for Godot, but instead of Godot, I am waiting patiently for Adam. Adam Smith, that is. He is nowhere to be found. In years of searching through economics departments at two major research universities, I have found that he is quite the elusive figure. Not that one should actually expect to see Adam Smith in a department of economics in the year 2002--I was certainly not expecting it--but his absence is telling nonetheless and stands as a major weakness in the training of the next generation of economists. Typical Ph.D. economics students may be able to tell you lots about Kuhn-Tucker conditions, Hamiltonians, optimal control theory, undetermined coefficients, differential equations, and the like. They may speak fluently the language of mathematics and speak of sophisticated programs in GAUSS, SAS, and STATA. They may look at you with a curious bewilderment, however, upon the mention of Adam Smith. Perhaps they know of him. I doubt they know of the Physiocrats. I doubt they know much of even Mr. Ricardo, aside from a passing mention of Ricardian equivalence buried under mountains of pseudo math-department proofs. Then theres http://www.mises.org/mengerbio.asp Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School. He was a pioneering intellectual who explained the origins of money and explained value in terms of marginal utility, but who is now shunned or forgotten. I do not intend here to impugn the teaching of mathematical economics, econometrics, and the like. Not at all. In fact, I agree that they are indispensable tools for completing a Ph.D. and teaching in a university setting. They do help organize one's thoughts and communicate with the profession, and they are clearly important tools for graduate students. However, it seems that we often neglect building rigorous intuition in our emphasis on technique. Economics is an impressive body of work, but it is precisely in that point that I am troubled. It seems that we have lost sight of the folks who brought us here, and much remains to be learned from the masters themselves. It seems troubling to me that I (along with nearly ever other Ph.D. student in economics in the nation) can get a doctorate in economics without ever so much as glancing at what most consider to be one of the defining works in the development of economic thought: The Wealth of Nations. I can earn my Ph.D. by spending my days working on mathematical proofs and optimization theory without ever even laying a finger on Keynes's General Theory, Malthus's Essays on Population, or Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Austrian economists in particular would notice that, if Smith and Ricardo are largely brushed aside in the training of modern economists, Menger, http://www.mises.org/mises.asp Mises, and http://www.mises.org/mnr.asp Rothbard are also nowhere to be seen in the vast majority of programs. It bothers me that professors will extend glowing praise for proofs of the separating hyperplane theorem, but smile with a wink and a nod if I profess a troubling ignorance of the role of the Physiocrats in the development of Smith's economic philosophy. If I can solve systems of nonlinear differential equations in my sleep or know what upper hemi-continuous is, then I am deemed to be worthy of a Ph.D. in economics even if I do not know the name http://www.mises.org/hayekbio.asp Hayek, a Nobel prize-winner in the field. I wonder whether the same things bother my professors?\xa0Some, perhaps, but a dwindling minority I'm sure. Nearly all of them were trained, after all, in the same mathematical rigor. What we are doing by focusing ever more intently on technical methodology is building economists who think that the economy functions like a blackboard mathematical model. We are gaining technical expertise that might rival that seen in the engineering department, but we are rapidly losing fundamental economic intuition, and we are being ever more removed from Smith's Moral Philosophy. I am not arguing that all Ph.D. students need to be experts in the history of economic thought; that is a field with its own experts. I do strongly believe, however, that we should at least expose graduate students to the field. Is one class in history of thought in a typical five-year Ph.D. program too much to ask of our universities? Few require it anymore. It is often even difficult for a graduate student who wants to take such a class as an elective to do so, since course offerings, even at large well-funded departments, are heavily skewed to the quantitative courses. I am afraid the rush to push economists into the so-called hard sciences with never-ending emphasis on quantitative skills and nearly complete ignorance of the social side of the Queen of the Social Sciences will lead us to a
South Korea Auto Sales Accelerate On Domestic Demand
The Financial Express April 02, 2002 South Korea Auto Sales Accelerate On Domestic Demand Seoul, April 1: South Korean automakers posted improved January-March sales on Monday led by luxury sedans and sports utility vehicles which companies and analysts attributed to a tax break that would last until the end of the second quarter. Consumer sentiment in Asias third largest economy is at a two-year high, helping carmakers boost sales despite slowing export orders. They are in full operation with backlogs of more than two months as domestic demand is pretty strong, said an auto analyst of Good Morning Securities Co, Sohn Jong-won. The bullish domestic sales will continue to the second quarter as excise tax cuts remain effective. Analysts said the tax break due to last until the end of June would offset the negative consumer impact of higher petrol prices, which are rising on the back of higher imported crude oil prices. Exports were the one weak spot for Korean automakers in the first quarter, part of a 13-month year-on-year slide in Seouls overall exports. It (the export fall) is not worrisome. The lower-than-expected won/dollar rate will support auto exports later this year, said Mr Sohn at Good Morning Securities. The won has lost five per cent of its value against the dollar in the past four months, traded at 1,324 won to the US unit on Monday. Top maker Hyundai Motor Co reported record domestic sales of 189,831 units for the quarter, up 22.7 per cent year-on-year. Its exports slipped 1.8 per cent. Analysts expect Hyundai and others to surpass their 2002 earnings targets, helped in part by government moves to spur consumption seen key to economic growth until exports recover. Hyundais total first quarter sales grew 8.4 per cent year on year to 402,766 units led by sales of its EF Sonata mid-sized Sedan and New Grandeur XG luxury Sedan. Sales in medium and large-sized sedans and leisure vehicles were outstanding as consumer sentiment improved on low interest rates and economic recovery, as well as lower consumption taxes, Hyundai said in a statement Domestic sales at number two automaker Kia Motors Corp climbed 9.7 per cent year-on-year to 93,522 units in the first quarter, led by robust sales of its Carnival minivan. The performance helped offset a 11.4 per cent drop in Kias exports. Third-ranked Daewoo Motor posted a 2.4 per cent rise in first quarter sales of 109,698 vehicles, including a 4.9 per cent rise in domestic sales. Hyundai led gains by automakers and while bankrupt Daewoo Motor was among them, Daewoos slower growth meant a further loss of market share in the first quarter. Fourth-ranked Ssangyong Motor Co said first quarter sales rose 14.5 per cent to 36,544 vehicles led by strong domestic demand for its Chairman luxury Sedan. Reuters © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world.
Nader, a FellowTraveler
Nader, a FellowTraveler by Sabri Oncu 02 April 2002 01:15 UTC Charles: Howabout the Left includes Communists, Socialists and Left Liberals. Charles, Why are you excluding the anarchists? They are an important part of the Left in my view. Apart from that, as Jim said and I agree, political definitions are not only hard to make but are political footballs. I don't think even on this list we can come up with a definition of the Left on which we all agree. Just think about the rest of the world's population. Anyway, my point is, let us not forget the anarchists, especially within the context of the anti-globalization movement. Without their heroic efforts, the so-called anti-globalization movement wouldn't have been where it is now, although it still has a long way to go and it is possible that it may fail. I guess I have spent too much time among them and, believe me, liked it a lot. Sabri Yes, Sabri, You make a good point to relate Nader to today's anarchists. I would classify anarchists similarly to liberals. They are left to the extent that they are for socialism as an ultimate target. There is rightwing anarchism in the form of libertarianism. However, as you say in the here and now, left anarchists are resisting globalized imperialism through protests in the imperial center. This defining was specifically related to Ralph Nader political career, so it was not entirely abstract definition mongering. Nader is an actual mass politician in the U.S. outside the Dems and Reps. His relationship to socialist politics is a concrete issue. As I said, you make a good point to relate Nader to today's anarchists. Charles
Speaking of What's Left
Feel the excitement. SEATS ARE FILLING UP QUICKLY! REGISTER FOR CONFERENCE AND DINNER ONLINE AT http://www.ourfuture.org. Campaign for America's Future and Institute for America's Future invite you to join us for RECLAIMING AMERICA A Conference on Progressive Strategies for the New Era April 10, 11, 12 Washington, DC ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT! Go to http://www.ourfuture.org and register online today! *** Wednesday, April 10th *** 7:00 pm GALA AWARDS DINNER Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW MC Molly Ivins- Columnist, Author Rep. Nancy Pelosi- House Minority Whip Warren Beatty*- Actor, Political Activist Gerald McEntee- President, AFSCME Sen. Jon Corzine- D-NJ *** Thursday, April 11 *** 8:00 am-5:00 pm POLICY CONFERENCE National Press Club 529 14th Street, NW 9:00 am UNITING AMERICA--Rejecting the Enron Future: Press Conference Robert Borosage- Campaign for America's Future Stan Greenberg- Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research John Sweeney- President, AFL-CIO Rep. Maxine Waters*- D-CA Rep. Jan Schakowsky- D-IL 10:00 am GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN - Vermont 10:20 am A PROGRAM FOR A STRONG HOMELAND Robert Kuttner- founder and co-editor, American Prospect Marian Wright Edelman*- Children's Defense Fund Rep. Rosa DeLauro- D-CN Chellie Pingree- Candidate for US Senate in Maine John Podesta*- former White House Chief of Staff, environmentalist 11:45 am HOUSE MINORITY LEADER RICHARD GEPHARDT- D-MO 1:00 pm Lunch Session Sen. John Edwards- D-NC 2:00 pm Breakout Workshops CONFRONTING ENRONOMICS RETIREMENT SECURITY HEALTH CARE GLOBAL CRISIS POVERTY AND FAMILY SUPPORT EXPANDING DEMOCRACY 3:30 pm BUILDING A COALITION THAT CAN WIN IN 2002 Rev. Jesse Jackson- President, Rainbow-Push Coalition Kim Gandy- President, National Organization for Women Eliseo Medina*- Executive Vice President, SEIU Deb Callahan- President, League of Conservation Voters Sen. Paul Wellstone- D-MN *** Friday, April 12 *** 8:00 am-3:00 pM TRAINING AND STRATEGY SESSIONS National Education Association 1201 16th Street, NW 9:00 am PANEL OF POLLSTERS Celinda Lake- President, Lake Snell Perry and Associates Rodolfo de la Garza- Professor, Columbia University Ron Lester- President, Lester and Associates Gloria Totten- Executive Director, Progressive Majority PAC 10:15 am Workshop Strategy Sessions SOCIAL SECURITY HEALTH CARE ENRON NATIOANL CAMPAIGN FOR JOBS AND INCOME SUPPORT LIVING WAGE STATE PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISM CONFRONTS STATE FISCAL CRISIS NATIONAL HOUSING TRUST FUND CAMPAIGN MOBILIZING YOUNG VOTERS INTERNET ACTIVISM 11:45 am PAUL BEGALA: Political activist; co-host, CNN Crossfire; Author, with James Carville of the new book, Buck Up, Suck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up. 12:45 Lunch Session Ben Cohen*- founder, Ben and Jerry's and organizer of Contract With the Planet, a project of the Priorities Campaign Jim Hightower- populist political agistator, media commentator, organizer for Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour *=invited FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER ONLINE, GO TO http://www.ourfuture.org.
Let 100 apologists bloom
Let 100 apologists bloom Charles: Ah yes, imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism. Ken Hanly wrote: Struggling to get a handle on U.S. foreign policy? For starters, try dusting off your Livy and boning up on the Second Punic War. Or dip into a good history of 19th-century Britain, paying close attention to those dazzling military campaigns in the Middle East - the Battle of Omdurman, say, or the Second Afghan War. . Today, America is no mere superpower or hegemon but a full-blown empire in the Roman and British sense. That, at any rate, is the consensus of some of the most notable U.S. commentators and scholars. . People are now coming out of the closet on the word 'empire,' said the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer. The fact is no country has been as dominant culturally, economically, technologically and militarily in the history of the world since the Roman Empire. . Americans are used to being told - typically by resentful foreigners - that they are imperialists. But lately some of the nation's own eminent thinkers are embracing the idea. More astonishing, they are using the term with approval. From the isolationist right to the imperialist-bashing left, a growing number of experts are issuing stirring paeans to American empire. . -clip-
Re: Let 100 apologists bloom
Struggling to get a handle on U.S. foreign policy? For starters, try dusting off your Livy and boning up on the Second Punic War. Or dip into a good history of 19th-century Britain, paying close attention to those dazzling military campaigns in the Middle East - the Battle of Omdurman, say, or the Second Afghan War. In grad school in Ann Arbor,, this must have been around 1986-87, I was waiting for Michael Lowy, the French-Brazilian Marx scholar (author books on Che, Lukacs, liberation theology, etc.), whom I was meeting for lunch, and he was late, as usual. So I pulled out my Tacitus, I was reading the Annals, carrying it around with me, starting reading about Tiberus, and how the more vaguely he doubletalked, the more enthusiatically the Senators would applaud. Michael came up, saw what I was reading, said, why are you reading that? Got to keep up with news, I said. (This was during the reign of the Great Communicator . . . .) jks _ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
Re: Speaking of What's Left
- Original Message - From: Max Sawicky [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 7:18 AM Subject: [PEN-L:24570] Speaking of What's Left Feel the excitement. SEATS ARE FILLING UP QUICKLY! REGISTER FOR CONFERENCE AND DINNER ONLINE AT http://www.ourfuture.org. Campaign for America's Future and === Please count the young people for us Max: Today, the left is really a professional apparatus of leaders, a fundraising machine, and mailing lists that no one bothers to mobilize. Instead of establishing a human relationship, a phone call or a door-knock or a letter from a progressive group is almost always just a way to raise money. As a result, more and more young people are refusing to even answer their doors or phones when political groups call -- which isn't often, because young people can't make large contributions of cash that attract contact by progressive organizations. ... Market leftism gives young activists and the rest of the left the same kind of choices that the free market offers us for getting where we want to go. We can choose between several brands of (used) cars; we just can't choose to build a better system of mass transit. The only people who really get to choose the direction the left takes are the big money foundations and governments. A few years ago, Michael Albert at Z Magazine estimated that progressive organizations have raised an impressive $1 billion in the last 25 years. But because the left is so fragmented, progressives don't really control this capital. Instead, many progressive organizations are dependent on foundation and government money. In a sense, the foundations and governments are the venture capitalists of the left -- and that venture capital can dry up when foundation or government elite fads change or when groups get too radical. So what should our generation of young activists make of this undemocratic disaster? We could just blame it on the power-hungry, graying activists who find it more comfortable to run their own small bureaucracy than participate in a broader movement. But that's too easy an answer. The present mess is a result of the efforts of another generation of young activists who fought for democracy and youth participation. We need to understand their struggles to understand what we need to go today. The Sixties youth rejected the centralized, bureaucratic democratic decision-making of the unions, parties, and the established civil rights organizations (the legacy of another generation of young activists). Instead, organizations like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) believed in the ideal of engaged participatory democracy. They believed this was more likely to occur in smaller, more decentralized organizations where everyone could do their own thing. These smaller groups would also allow young people to overcome the racism, sexism, imperialism, and other shortcomings of the older, top-down organizations who refused to respond to growing demands from the grassroots. In the 1970s, the attitudes of SDS/SNCC, the women's movement, and the new environmental ethic of small is beautiful converged with the lawyer/lobbyist-driven Naderite activism and the community organizing gospel of Saul Alinsky. These ideas would spawn an explosion of organizations, by some estimates leading to a total of as many as two million citizen groups encompassing 15 million people by the 1980s. Since many organizations were too small to support themselves through their members, they relied on assistance from the government and foundations. They gradually became professionalized, and the goal of democratic participation went by the wayside. In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected -- in no small part because decentralized progressive groups could not unite to effectively oppose him. Under Reagan and Bush, the federal government defunded the left and many foundations followed suit. As a result, the 1980s would demonstrate the limits of participation without mass democracy. With little ability to coordinate comprehensive campaigns, each group had to retreat more and more to single issues to maintain its funding ability. Vibrant democratic community organizations might continue to exist at the local level, but the dreams of a national upswell of participatory democracy had given way to an alphabet soup of competing non-profits and an alientated membership. TOWARD GRASSROOTS MOBILIZATION So what are we to do? Our generation needs to bring together the ideals of two previous generations: the 1930s ideals of solidarity in one movement -- the One Big Union -- and the Sixties ideal of full participation by everyone in the movement. We live in a world where police brutality, the lack of jobs, the collapse of the
Krugman...Nader
Krugman...Nader by Sabri Oncu 31 March 2002 02:47 UTC Sabri, You asked whether Nader is a leftist. Is he ? ( Despite defining left 's being a political football :) ) Charles Doug is right. There is an anti-globalization left ...Here is a question to our American friends: Is Ralph Nader is a leftist? Best, Sabri
RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left
But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are thus erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire. People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies.
RE: The Collapse of Argentina, part one
I can sympathize with Louis Proyect's lament concerning the lack of good available work on the Argentinian situation from a radical or Marxian perspective in English. But one good recent work at least should be mentioned: Stunted Lives, Stagnant Economies: Poverty, Disease, and Underdevelopment, by Eileen Stillwaggon (342 pp, with illus, $50, ISBN 0-8135-2493-8, paper, $23, ISBN 0-8135-2494-6, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1998.) Despite the title, the book is about Argentina. Despite the fact that it focuses on health and health care issues, it does a good job of dealing with the problems caused by structural adjustment policies generally, a main thesis of the book being that socioeconomic factors are at the root of the health crisis. And despite the lack of an explicitly Marxist approach, I think it is fair to say that the book is coming from a radical perspective. There are a number of on-line reviews for those wanting a summary and outline. But I'd be interested in Louis dedicating one of his 'columns' to this book. mat
RE: Speaking of What's Left
speaking of excitement, Max has an article in the issue of CHALLENGE that came today, something about fighting recession, even though all Those Who Know are sure that the recession is dead and gone. (I have to check to see whether this is the CHALLENGE that is published by M.E. Sharpe or it's the one published by the Larouchite U.S. Labor Party. I'll be back to you on this.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 7:19 AM To: PEN-L Subject: [PEN-L:24570] Speaking of What's Left Feel the excitement. SEATS ARE FILLING UP QUICKLY! REGISTER FOR CONFERENCE AND DINNER ONLINE AT http://www.ourfuture.org. Campaign for America's Future and Institute for America's Future invite you to join us for RECLAIMING AMERICA A Conference on Progressive Strategies for the New Era April 10, 11, 12 Washington, DC ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT! Go to http://www.ourfuture.org and register online today! *** Wednesday, April 10th *** 7:00 pm GALA AWARDS DINNER Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW MC Molly Ivins- Columnist, Author Rep. Nancy Pelosi- House Minority Whip Warren Beatty*- Actor, Political Activist Gerald McEntee- President, AFSCME Sen. Jon Corzine- D-NJ *** Thursday, April 11 *** 8:00 am-5:00 pm POLICY CONFERENCE National Press Club 529 14th Street, NW 9:00 am UNITING AMERICA--Rejecting the Enron Future: Press Conference Robert Borosage- Campaign for America's Future Stan Greenberg- Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research John Sweeney- President, AFL-CIO Rep. Maxine Waters*- D-CA Rep. Jan Schakowsky- D-IL 10:00 am GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN - Vermont 10:20 am A PROGRAM FOR A STRONG HOMELAND Robert Kuttner- founder and co-editor, American Prospect Marian Wright Edelman*- Children's Defense Fund Rep. Rosa DeLauro- D-CN Chellie Pingree- Candidate for US Senate in Maine John Podesta*- former White House Chief of Staff, environmentalist 11:45 am HOUSE MINORITY LEADER RICHARD GEPHARDT- D-MO 1:00 pm Lunch Session Sen. John Edwards- D-NC 2:00 pm Breakout Workshops CONFRONTING ENRONOMICS RETIREMENT SECURITY HEALTH CARE GLOBAL CRISIS POVERTY AND FAMILY SUPPORT EXPANDING DEMOCRACY 3:30 pm BUILDING A COALITION THAT CAN WIN IN 2002 Rev. Jesse Jackson- President, Rainbow-Push Coalition Kim Gandy- President, National Organization for Women Eliseo Medina*- Executive Vice President, SEIU Deb Callahan- President, League of Conservation Voters Sen. Paul Wellstone- D-MN *** Friday, April 12 *** 8:00 am-3:00 pM TRAINING AND STRATEGY SESSIONS National Education Association 1201 16th Street, NW 9:00 am PANEL OF POLLSTERS Celinda Lake- President, Lake Snell Perry and Associates Rodolfo de la Garza- Professor, Columbia University Ron Lester- President, Lester and Associates Gloria Totten- Executive Director, Progressive Majority PAC 10:15 am Workshop Strategy Sessions SOCIAL SECURITY HEALTH CARE ENRON NATIOANL CAMPAIGN FOR JOBS AND INCOME SUPPORT LIVING WAGE STATE PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISM CONFRONTS STATE FISCAL CRISIS NATIONAL HOUSING TRUST FUND CAMPAIGN MOBILIZING YOUNG VOTERS INTERNET ACTIVISM 11:45 am PAUL BEGALA: Political activist; co-host, CNN Crossfire; Author, with James Carville of the new book, Buck Up, Suck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up. 12:45 Lunch Session Ben Cohen*- founder, Ben and Jerry's and organizer of Contract With the Planet, a project of the Priorities Campaign Jim Hightower- populist political agistator, media commentator, organizer for Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour *=invited FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER ONLINE, GO TO http://www.ourfuture.org.
Re: The Collapse of Argentina, part one
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/01/02 07:51PM As the Argentine economic collapse began to deepen, I decided to search for radical or Marxist literature on the country written in English to help me understand the situation better. This proved futile (although I continue to be open to recommendations) i, admittedly, do not read in this area as i once did so below references are not current... michael hoover Juan Eugenio Corradi's chapter on Argentina in _Latin America: The Struggle With Dependency and Beyond_, Chilcote Edelstein, eds., Sheldon Liss' chapter on Argentina in _Marxist Thought in Latin America_ Donald Hodges, _Argentina, 1943-1976: The National Revolution and Resistance_ Richard Walter, _The Socialist Party of Argentina: 1890-1930_ (not marxist but worth a look) back issues of _Latin American Perspectives_
RE: Re: Speaking of What's Left
Anonymous wrote:... organizations like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)believed in the ideal of engaged participatory democracy. They believed this was more likely to occur in smaller, more decentralized organizations where everyone could do their own thing. These smaller groups would also allow young people to overcome the racism, sexism, imperialism, and other shortcomings of the older, top-down organizations who refused to respond to growing demands from the grassroots. of course, such decentralized groups as the SDS did their own thing one time [1969] in the form of the days of rage, in which a bunch of well-fed white suburbanites went crazy in the streets of Chicago, in hopes that the Black Youth would Rise Up and join them, overthrowing the System. I like this statement's emphasis on from-the-bottom organizing, but decentralization isn't always what it's advertised to be. JD
RE: Re: Speaking of What's Left
REGISTER FOR CONFERENCE AND DINNER ONLINE AT http://www.ourfuture.org. Please count the young people for us Max: . . . grassroots empowerment. Ultimately, it is up to our generation to restore one person, one vote and get the movement back on the track of true democracy. [Guess the author...] I agree with the first sentence of that essay. I don't know the author, but whoever it is, he or she is confused. The smorgasbord of groups and the implied atomization of program and politics is the fruit of democracy. People vote with their feet. Participation is nice, and so is unity, but one doesn't necessarily promote the other. The description of SDS/SNCC is all wet, but there isn't much point in unpacking all that. Instead of counting young people, I should probably count the Palm Pilots. mbs
RE: RE: Speaking of What's Left
N.B. You are sectually confused. Challenge is Progressive Labor Party. mbs speaking of excitement, Max has an article in the issue of CHALLENGE that came today, something about fighting recession, even though all Those Who Know are sure that the recession is dead and gone. (I have to check to see whether this is the CHALLENGE that is published by M.E. Sharpe or it's the one published by the Larouchite U.S. Labor Party. I'll be back to you on this.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: RE: RE: Speaking of What's Left
Horrors! how could I confuse the Larouchites with the PLP? suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Max Sawicky [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 8:21 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:24581] RE: RE: Speaking of What's Left N.B. You are sectually confused. Challenge is Progressive Labor Party. mbs speaking of excitement, Max has an article in the issue of CHALLENGE that came today, something about fighting recession, even though all Those Who Know are sure that the recession is dead and gone. (I have to check to see whether this is the CHALLENGE that is published by M.E. Sharpe or it's the one published by the Larouchite U.S. Labor Party. I'll be back to you on this.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Re: Speaking of What's Left
Ian Murray wrote: The Sixties youth rejected the centralized, bureaucratic democratic decision-making of the unions, parties, and the established civil rights organizations (the legacy of another generation of young activists). Instead, organizations like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) And the result was (for the most part) that the political structure of SDS both at the local and national level was that of an ensemble of high-school social cliques. The difference from a bureaucratic organization was that it is easier to hold a bureaucracy responsible than it is to hold a (partly invisible) clique responsible. Almost all real decisions in SDS (nationally and locally) were made behind closed doors in informal conversation among non-responsible leaders -- most but not all of whom did not even themselves know that that was what they were doing. Open Bureaucracy vs Bureacracy behind a Screen of Participatory democracy. Carrol
RE: RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left
Unfortunatetly, quoting of the butcher and baker passage out of context is exactly what the 1980s Adam Smith tie-wearing Reaganite Gordon Greed is Good Gekko types did to promote the idea of Smith as an unabashed promoter of self-interest. A. L. Macfie's The Individual in Society (and his and other's work in the modern school of Scottish Political Economy, such as D. D. Raphael, Andrew Skinner, Ronald Meek) and also Heilbroner's papers The Paradox of Progress and especially The Socialization of the Individual in Adam Smith are good antidotes for this. Of course, so is reading The Wealth of Nations with Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments and Lectures on Jurispridence! Now, there is no doubt that in the TMS, Smith explicitly criticized those who view self-interest as the source of all 'affections and sentiments' as suffering from 'some confused misapprehension of the system of sympathy.' And that, for Smith, 'sympathy' (what we today call empathy) is the effective cement of society. So, if one argues that self-interest is the prime motivator for Smith in the WN, then they must be arguing for the old 'Das Adam Smith problem'--that the two works are inconsistent. There is now widespread general agreement that the view that Smith changed his mind between the two works and the two works are inconsistent has little evidence to support it. Macfie, argues that when Smith's notion of empathy is combined with the reason of the 'impartial spectator' (something like 'conscience'), the result is a rational sympathy (or sympathetic reason), from which arise the social codes and rules of behavior necessary if *proper* self regard is to benefit the community. The analysis goes on... The upshot is that self-interested behavior *may* result in socially desirable outcomes *if* it is moderated by self-control and socially responsible adherence to other social rules and codes of behavior (Smith's 'self-command' and 'sense of duty'). Thus, the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_ lays out the institutional framework necessary for a 'society of perfect liberty' (not to be confused with perfect competition) and the _Wealth of Nations_ assumes that framework in its discussion of the 'self-interested' economic actor. In Heilbroner's terms, TMS is about the 'socialization of the individual' and WN is about the consequences of socialized individual action within the institutional framework of a 'society of perfect liberty'. Excessive greed is socially undesirable. As a NY Times piece put it a couple years ago, Adam Smith ain't no Gordon Gekko. -Original Message- From: Max Sawicky [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 9:51 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:24575] RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are thus erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire. People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies.
Re: RE: Re: Speaking of What's Left
- Original Message - From: Max Sawicky [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Guess the author...] I agree with the first sentence of that essay. I don't know the author, but whoever it is, he or she is confused. The smorgasbord of groups and the implied atomization of program and politics is the fruit of democracy. People vote with their feet. Participation is nice, and so is unity, but one doesn't necessarily promote the other. The description of SDS/SNCC is all wet, but there isn't much point in unpacking all that. Instead of counting young people, I should probably count the Palm Pilots. mbs * - Original Message - From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] of course, such decentralized groups as the SDS did their own thing one time [1969] in the form of the days of rage, in which a bunch of well-fed white suburbanites went crazy in the streets of Chicago, in hopes that the Black Youth would Rise Up and join them, overthrowing the System. I like this statement's emphasis on from-the-bottom organizing, but decentralization isn't always what it's advertised to be. JD == And the writer is.Nathan Newman!
RE: RE: RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left
I appreciate the elaboration on Smith's moral philosophy, but the context of this discussion was whether Nader and populists were more like Smith than not. My clipped summary of Smith emphasized the contrast. No embroidery of Smith's moral thought can find any contact with the basic thrust of political populism, either 19th century style or Naderite. Restoring or creating fair market competition is not the most pressing theme in Nader's repertory, though it is not absent either. We should be at least as interested in accurately gauging current political trends as we are in rehabilitating dead economists. mbs Unfortunatetly, quoting of the butcher and baker passage out of context is exactly what the 1980s Adam Smith tie-wearing Reaganite Gordon Greed is Good Gekko types did to promote the idea of Smith as an unabashed promoter of self-interest. . . .
The Myth of the Superhuman Professor
From: Gary Klass [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: The Myth of the Superhuman Professor For your consideration: The title is The Myth of the Superhuman Professor and it is by Professor Richard Felder who writes about teaching in Chemical Education. He is at North Carolina State University. The article discusses the, perhaps, conflicting knowledge/skills/aptitudes/talents of being an excellent researcher and an excellent teacher; one person may have both sets, but often that is not the case. Felder offers some interesting ideas to consider for those at research intensive universities and at liberal arts/undergraduate schools. http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Mythpap.html
Re: RE: RE: RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left
I would say, Max, that while Smith may not approve of the populists, the populists saw themselves as in line with a Smithian interpretation of the world. On Tue, Apr 02, 2002 at 02:30:26PM -0500, Max Sawicky wrote: I appreciate the elaboration on Smith's moral philosophy, but the context of this discussion was whether Nader and populists were more like Smith than not. My clipped summary of Smith emphasized the contrast. No embroidery of Smith's moral thought can find any contact with the basic thrust of political populism, either 19th century style or Naderite. Restoring or creating fair market competition is not the most pressing theme in Nader's repertory, though it is not absent either. We should be at least as interested in accurately gauging current political trends as we are in rehabilitating dead economists. mbs Unfortunatetly, quoting of the butcher and baker passage out of context is exactly what the 1980s Adam Smith tie-wearing Reaganite Gordon Greed is Good Gekko types did to promote the idea of Smith as an unabashed promoter of self-interest. . . . -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Re: RE: RE: RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left
Michael Perelman writes:I would say, Max, that while Smith may not approve of the populists, the populists saw themselves as in line with a Smithian interpretation of the world. the above makes sense to me: in the U.S., at least, the late 19th century Populist movement was one of the little guys against the power of the elites (Eastern bankers, etc.) The cry was that the Big Corporations were rigging the market against the little guys. This suggests that the markets needed to be unrigged rather replaced by something different and better. That fits with the general Smithian viewpoint (though not necessarily with the _laissez-faire_ interpretation of his ideas). (Populism generally means a conflict between the mass of little guys against the elite, rather than a battle between classes or to end class domination.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: RE: Re: RE: RE: RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left
The observation about the populist theme of the many and the few, in contrast to class, is accurate. So much the worse for hackneyed class analysis. (Workers and peasants of the Bronx!) The way the Pops chose to 'unrig' the market included a) nationalizing the railroads; b) co-ops allowing farmers to band together in buying supplies and selling their output; and c) a new monetary system to replace the extant chaos of private banks. Laying this to Adam Smith is quite a stretch, sort of like looking for crucifixion symbolism in Hemingway. -- mbs the above makes sense to me: in the U.S., at least, the late 19th century Populist movement was one of the little guys against the power of the elites (Eastern bankers, etc.) The cry was that the Big Corporations were rigging the market against the little guys. This suggests that the markets needed to be unrigged rather replaced by something different and better. That fits with the general Smithian viewpoint (though not necessarily with the _laissez-faire_ interpretation of his ideas).
RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left
I agree that characterization of Smith as populist seems peculiar to me. That said, I think many other characterizations of Smith are also wrong. Advocating markets in the 18th c., when the fetters of euro-feudal life were still in force strongly, and advocating markets in the late 20th c., are two very different things. But I understand that Max is interested in characterizations of Nader and not Smith, though his crack about 'dead economists' misses the point that many of us are interested in the writers of the past because we believe the issues they raised, and even debates about how we are to understand them, are relevant to the current political economy. I'm not interested in history of thought like admiring antique furniture or whatever--I'm interested in the ideas, and unlike most economists today I don't assume that whatever is more recent is better. Mat -Original Message- From: Max Sawicky [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 1:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:24586] RE: RE: RE: Re: Re: RE: Re: We are what's left I appreciate the elaboration on Smith's moral philosophy, but the context of this discussion was whether Nader and populists were more like Smith than not. My clipped summary of Smith emphasized the contrast. No embroidery of Smith's moral thought can find any contact with the basic thrust of political populism, either 19th century style or Naderite. Restoring or creating fair market competition is not the most pressing theme in Nader's repertory, though it is not absent either. We should be at least as interested in accurately gauging current political trends as we are in rehabilitating dead economists. mbs Unfortunatetly, quoting of the butcher and baker passage out of context is exactly what the 1980s Adam Smith tie-wearing Reaganite Gordon Greed is Good Gekko types did to promote the idea of Smith as an unabashed promoter of self-interest. . . .
May 10-12 Globalization Social Justice Conference at Loyola Water Tower Campus
May 10-12 Globalization Social Justice Conference at Loyola Water Tower Campus This spring Loyola University will host an international conference on Globalization and Social Justice. This will be a progressive conference embracing a variety of critical, and radical perspectives on globalization. Participants will explore such topics as the effects of neoliberal capitalism in its globalized form on inequality, injustice and environmental despoliation, how globalization has impacted race, gender and identity, and will also examine new forms of domination in relation to the growing role of computers and the internet in fostering greater inequality as well as social mobilization. Join a number of leading scholars from all over the world in exploring the many effects of globalization as well as alternative visions. There will be a number of plenary sessions and workshops. Loyola University of Chicago Water Tower Campus Rubloff Auditorium 25 East Pearson St Chicago IL 60611 Keynote Speakers at the Opening Plenary, Friday, May 10 at 6:30 pm: Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago and an expert on the place of cities in the global economy Richard Longworth, Senior Writer at the Chicago Tribune, Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Northwestern University and author of Global Squeeze Leslie Sklair, Reader in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, author of The Transnationalist Capitalist Class and Sociology of the Global System Additional speakers and presenters (partial list): Abdul Alkalimat, Carl Davidson, Nick Dyer-Witherford, Jerry Harris, Bukart Holzner, Doug Kellner, Lauren Langman, Tim Luke, Peter Marcuse, Robert McChesney, Kate O'Neill, Mark Poster, Dave Ranney, María Cristina Reigadas, William Robinson, Mel Rothenberg, Kim Scipes, Dan Swinney, Harry Targ, Iris Young. Sponsors: Department of Sociology, Loyola University Global Studies Association UK Networking for Democracy USA Registration fee: $50 Register in advance by mailing your check or money order (made out to Networking for Democracy) to: NFD / May Global 3411 W Diversey Ave Suite 1 Chicago IL 60647-1281 You may also pay at the door. We cannot accept credit cards, but checks and money orders are OK. We still encourage you to notify us in advance by sending an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Registration begins at 12:00 Noon on Friday, May 10 at Rubloff Auditorium, 25 East Pearson St, Loyola's Water Tower Campus. For more information, call Networking for Democracy at 773-384-8827, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit www.net4dem.org/mayglobal
Re: Re: Let 100 apologists bloom
I obtained it from the International Herald Tribune but it is an article from the NEw York Times by Eakin: http://www.iht.com/articles/53141.html Cheers, Ken Hanly - Original Message - From: Bill Rosenberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 1:34 AM Subject: [PEN-L:24566] Re: Let 100 apologists bloom Where does this come from Ken? Bill Ken Hanly wrote: Struggling to get a handle on U.S. foreign policy? For starters, try dusting off your Livy and boning up on the Second Punic War. Or dip into a good history of 19th-century Britain, paying close attention to those dazzling military campaigns in the Middle East - the Battle of Omdurman, say, or the Second Afghan War. .
Re: Speaking of What's Left
Wow, Howard Dean! And Jon Corzine! We're on our way to Reclaiming America --- AND building a coalition that can win. Yes, I feel the excitement. OK, some of the names are tired re-treads, but give me Howard Dean and I'm excited. Gene Coyle Max Sawicky wrote: Feel the excitement. SEATS ARE FILLING UP QUICKLY! REGISTER FOR CONFERENCE AND DINNER ONLINE AT http://www.ourfuture.org. Campaign for America's Future and Institute for America's Future invite you to join us for RECLAIMING AMERICA A Conference on Progressive Strategies for the New Era April 10, 11, 12 Washington, DC ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT! Go to http://www.ourfuture.org and register online today! *** Wednesday, April 10th *** 7:00 pm GALA AWARDS DINNER Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW MC Molly Ivins- Columnist, Author Rep. Nancy Pelosi- House Minority Whip Warren Beatty*- Actor, Political Activist Gerald McEntee- President, AFSCME Sen. Jon Corzine- D-NJ *** Thursday, April 11 *** 8:00 am-5:00 pm POLICY CONFERENCE National Press Club 529 14th Street, NW 9:00 am UNITING AMERICA--Rejecting the Enron Future: Press Conference Robert Borosage- Campaign for America's Future Stan Greenberg- Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research John Sweeney- President, AFL-CIO Rep. Maxine Waters*- D-CA Rep. Jan Schakowsky- D-IL 10:00 am GOVERNOR HOWARD DEAN - Vermont 10:20 am A PROGRAM FOR A STRONG HOMELAND Robert Kuttner- founder and co-editor, American Prospect Marian Wright Edelman*- Children's Defense Fund Rep. Rosa DeLauro- D-CN Chellie Pingree- Candidate for US Senate in Maine John Podesta*- former White House Chief of Staff, environmentalist 11:45 am HOUSE MINORITY LEADER RICHARD GEPHARDT- D-MO 1:00 pm Lunch Session Sen. John Edwards- D-NC 2:00 pm Breakout Workshops CONFRONTING ENRONOMICS RETIREMENT SECURITY HEALTH CARE GLOBAL CRISIS POVERTY AND FAMILY SUPPORT EXPANDING DEMOCRACY 3:30 pm BUILDING A COALITION THAT CAN WIN IN 2002 Rev. Jesse Jackson- President, Rainbow-Push Coalition Kim Gandy- President, National Organization for Women Eliseo Medina*- Executive Vice President, SEIU Deb Callahan- President, League of Conservation Voters Sen. Paul Wellstone- D-MN *** Friday, April 12 *** 8:00 am-3:00 pM TRAINING AND STRATEGY SESSIONS National Education Association 1201 16th Street, NW 9:00 am PANEL OF POLLSTERS Celinda Lake- President, Lake Snell Perry and Associates Rodolfo de la Garza- Professor, Columbia University Ron Lester- President, Lester and Associates Gloria Totten- Executive Director, Progressive Majority PAC 10:15 am Workshop Strategy Sessions SOCIAL SECURITY HEALTH CARE ENRON NATIOANL CAMPAIGN FOR JOBS AND INCOME SUPPORT LIVING WAGE STATE PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISM CONFRONTS STATE FISCAL CRISIS NATIONAL HOUSING TRUST FUND CAMPAIGN MOBILIZING YOUNG VOTERS INTERNET ACTIVISM 11:45 am PAUL BEGALA: Political activist; co-host, CNN Crossfire; Author, with James Carville of the new book, Buck Up, Suck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up. 12:45 Lunch Session Ben Cohen*- founder, Ben and Jerry's and organizer of Contract With the Planet, a project of the Priorities Campaign Jim Hightower- populist political agistator, media commentator, organizer for Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour *=invited FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER ONLINE, GO TO http://www.ourfuture.org.
Fw: ISRAEL'S NEW ECONOMY AND THE INTIFADA
Received: 4/2/02 1:03:53 PM From: nd [EMAIL PROTECTED] Add to People Section To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: Subject: A MUST READ: ISRAEL'S NEW ECONOMY AND THE INTIFADA MIME Ver: 1.0 Attachments: ISRAEL'S NEW ECONOMY AND THE INTIFADA: A note on the boycott campaign. by Naxos This article is Copyleft [see below] December 2001. At one end of London's Oxford Street the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has mounted a picket on Selfridge's department store, to persuade the management to stop selling produce from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. A similar campaign has been organised [March 2002] by Ya Basta in Italy (http://www.yabasta.it). In this article I take these actions as the starting point for a discussion of the radical transformations that have taken place in the Israeli economy during the past decade, and Israel's very specific location within the global knowledge economy. To Summarise: I would argue that Israeli capitalism of today offers a precious microcosmic possibility for the study of immaterial labour in action. It is also crucial that we understand this economy, because in a real world war sense our futures depend on what is happening here. In recent years the Israeli economy has undergone fundamental changes. An entirely new class composition was created by the ex-Soviet migrations of the 1990s. Markets for traditional Israeli produce became more restricted. The Internet created the conditions for transnational exports of high-value immaterial labour (knowledge) products to replace previous low-value products with high transit costs. And the nature of the new knowledge economies opened new interstitial possibilities for insertion. A new and technically skilled workforce proves capable of creating the flows of innovation that are the precondition for the survival of the large capitalist firms of this and the preceding era (head-hunting of promising new start-ups). Among other things, Israeli companies are particularly well-suited to meet the new demand for biomedical products. They also have a powerhouse of RD represented by the Israeli Defence Force's high-tech academies. And they have a guaranteed point of entry into the US military-industrial complex by virtue of lines of communication between Silicon Valley and the Silicon Wadi of Northern Israel. More than this, Israel also exports models of behaviour ñ biopower ñ in the form of knowledges of how to limit, constrain and eventually crush dissident behaviours. This is marketed as methods for defeating terrorism, but is in fact a set of methods for the creation and freezing of an adversarial other. I shall deal with each of these aspects in turn. In passing I would say that this conjunctural shift in the Israeli economy, this radical change in the composition of both class and capital in Israel, have been the necessary precondition for ñ and partial explanation of ñ the Israelis' radical break with the Palestinian labour-power which had served previous phases of production (notable in agriculture and construction). Put briefly, the inflow of Soviet (Russian) Jews made possible the break with Palestinian labour power. And simultaneously the Soviet Jews have turned out to be the electoral bedrock of the Israeli government's final solution for the Palestinians. Thus the political and economic precondition for Israelís radical break with Palestinian labour-power was the shift from traditional forms of agriculture and manufacture into the arena of immaterial labour which took place in the 1990s. But more than that, I would argue that the Israelis' war with the Palestinians operates as a factory of immaterial labour export possibilities. This war is, in a real sense, productive for the Israeli economy. Calls for boycotts of Israeli produce are symbolically significant and completely worthwhile. A necessary element of ethical hygiene. They should be supported. But the way in which the campaign is framed is simple-minded to the point of naivety. We are not talking a few packets of pretzels, a crate of Jaffa oranges and a face-pack of cosmetics. Two things need to be said. First, Israel's new immaterial economy and its immaterial-labour products are organically integrated into the very highest levels of the globalised high-tech communications, military and security economy. Second, and perhaps more importantly it appears that the trade-mark Israeli model of suppression of opponents has been exported and projected onto the world stage, to become the dominant paradigm of US foreign policy. The characteristics of this model are (a) radical negation of the Other (for several decades, in Israeli discourse the Palestinians have always and only been the terrorists; (b) Preventive security strikes, extending increasingly to assassination; (c) micro-level capillary monitoring of populations at
Krueger backs off
IMF Scales Down 'Bankruptcy' Plan By Paul Blustein Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, April 2, 2002; Page E01 The International Monetary Fund, which is trying to forge a new approach to handling financial crises, yesterday agreed to limit its role in a proposed bankruptcy procedure for countries overburdened with debt. Anne O. Krueger, the IMF's deputy managing director, backed away from some of the most controversial elements of a proposal she made in November that would effectively give the IMF the power to grant financially strapped countries protection from creditors. Krueger maintained that the modifications did not fundamentally change the plan, but some analysts said that at first glance the original proposal appeared to have been watered down in important ways. And even after modifying the initial plan, the IMF must still overcome misgivings by the Bush administration, Krueger acknowledged. Krueger's comments, in a speech and a conference call with reporters, underscored both the IMF's determination to establish new international rules aimed at quelling crises and lowering the obstacles it faces in doing so. The fund has been stung by criticism over the way it addressed crises in Asia, Russia and Latin America, where it granted huge loans that often failed to halt turmoil while bailing out some wealthy banks and investors. The idea behind Krueger's November proposal was to create a procedure for giving crisis-stricken countries a means of halting panics and keeping investors from pulling their money out of the nation, which would give political leaders time to work out debts in an orderly fashion -- much the same as people and companies get in U.S. bankruptcy courts. The proposal marked a radical shift for the IMF, which has tended to frown on measures that restrict the flow of capital across international borders, especially when they keep debtors from paying their obligations. Under the proposal, when a country had clearly reached the stage of being unable to pay its debts, the IMF could approve its request to declare a standstill -- a temporary suspension of payments -- on condition that the country was taking steps to put its economy on a sound footing. The IMF's approval would prevent creditors from attempting to collect their debts by going to court. The version Krueger outlined yesterday retained much of the basic thrust of the original plan, but she bowed to complaints from international investors and the U.S. Treasury that the IMF should not assume too much control over how the standstill would work or how debts would be restructured. A lot of people reacted uneasily to having the fund too much in the driver's seat, Krueger told reporters. Under the new plan, a country in financial distress could ask the IMF to validate a stay on its debt payments for a short period -- say, 90 days -- while creditors organize themselves. After that, a supermajority of creditors -- Krueger said the figure might be 60 percent to 75 percent -- would have the right to decide whether to allow the stay to continue and whether to accept a restructuring. As with the original plan, one of the main purposes of the revised proposal is to make it possible for a country to reach a debt-restructuring agreement with its creditors without obtaining consent from all the creditors, which is required in many bond contracts. In her speech, which was delivered at the Institute for International Economics, Krueger suggested that the IMF's articles of agreement be amended -- which has the same legal force as an international treaty on the fund's 183 member countries. That way, the laws governing creditors' rights would be effectively changed. Asked about the reaction of the U.S. government -- the IMF's dominant shareholder nation -- Krueger acknowledged that John Taylor, the undersecretary of Treasury for international affairs, will maintain his preference for an alternative approach in a speech he is scheduled to deliver to the same audience today. Taylor has said he favors broader use of collective action clauses in bonds issued by sovereign governments -- provisions that allow a supermajority of bondholders to approve a restructuring. One major problem with that idea is that it wouldn't cover bonds that have already been issued without such clauses. Krueger disputed assertions that the new approach is weaker than her November proposal. But Jeffrey Sachs, a Harvard professor who has long favored a bankruptcy system for sovereign governments, said that while he has not had a chance to review Krueger's speech, he was concerned about the idea of limiting IMF-backed standstills to 90 days. Under U.S. bankruptcy law, creditors don't get to vote after 90 days on whether to continue a standstill on their claims, Sachs noted, and giving them such rights might throw too much power to them, he said.
MF on RN
MILTON FRIEDMAN Interview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/press_site/people/friedman_intv.html#1 On Richard Nixon MILTON FRIEDMAN: Nixon was the most socialist of the presidents of the United States in the 20th century. INTERVIEWER: I've heard Nixon accused of many things, but never [of being] a socialist before. MILTON FRIEDMAN: Well, his ideas were not socialist -- quite the opposite -- but if you look at what happened during his administration, first of all, the number of pages in the Federal Register, which is full of regulations about business, doubled during his regime. During his regime the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, was established and the OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the OECA [the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance] -- about a dozen, a half dozen alphabetic agencies were established, so that you had the biggest increase in government regulation and control of industry during the Nixon administration that you had in the whole postwar period.
South Korea: Solidarity General Strike
From: KCTU Int'l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 7:49 AM Subject: pga [kctupower] April 2 solidarity general strike on course KCTU website is updated with an uptodate information on the preparation of the second solidarity general strike set for April 2, 2002. Solidarity General Strike Ready and Set Midst Government Belligerence A total of 150,000 members are expected heed the KCTU's call for solidarity general strike. Metalworkers, public sector workers, teachers, and hospital workers have already resolved to join the strike. The number is expected to rise above 200,000 as more union unions are in the process of making the strike resolution. The tension is rising on the eve of the second solidarity general strike as the government is preparing to crackdown on the KCTU and the leaders of the striking power workers union. Riot police action against the leaders of the power workers strike at the Myongdong Cathedral and the KCTU national office is expected at any moment as the government declares the use of state force against the illegal KCTU general strike. For full article click here: http://kctu.org/action%20alert/strike2002-10-publicutilities.htm Please write to the Korean government to negotiate with the KCTU and the power workers union and to stop repression. Mr. Kim Dae-Jung The President of Republic of Korea 1 Sejong-no Jongno-ku Seoul 110-820 Republic of Korea E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: +82-2-770-0347 Visit http://kctu.org/solidarity/dan-prison.htm for a documentation of protest and solidarity letters.
Florida Community College Fires Professor/Union Organizer
[from the Gainesville Iguana, March 2002] Professor, union organizer, fired by Florida Community College at Jacksonville After 15 years as a professor of English as a Second Language at Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ), community activist Russell Pelle has been told he will not be offered another teaching contract. The issues of free speech and the right to organize a union are front and center in the college's actions. According to Pelle, the firing is not due to his performance on the job: I would never claim 'perfection' on the job, but I have been 'satisfactory' for 15 years, but rather, the real reason is political. Pelle has been actively involved in efforts to organize and achieve recognition for a union of teachers there, American Federation of Teachers Local 2397. The vote on union recognition is expected in April. In the incident that led to his dismissal, Pelle was chair of the FCCJ Downtown Campus Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Committee. I invited Jacksonville NAACP President Isaiah Rumlin to be our featured speaker, never suspecting that this would be a problem, he recalled. Pelle said a higher-up at the school told him to tell Mr. Rumlin that when he spoke at FCCJ for the event honoring Dr. King, he must not say anything too political or too controversial. I told the person who instructed me to deliver the message that I strongly disagreed with the message, asked that they deliver the message themselves, and stated that I did not want to be associated with the message. I am not that kind of a white person. Pelle said that he felt trapped. He applied for tenure in June 1998 and has been fighting for it for four years. I believed that the order for me to deliver the message emanated not from the person who imposed upon me to do so, but from the highest levels of the FCCJ administration. I believed that if I refused to deliver the message, I would be fired for 'insubordination,' but if I did deliver the message, under protest, I would, as a matter of principle, have to include my comments clearly disassociating myself from the message, and thus that I would be fired anyway. It was a lose-lose situation for me. When I delivered the message, by e-mail, I clearly disassociated myself from the contents, and stated that I had argued against sending the message, and was embarrassed to have to relay the message. Pelle says that Mr. Rumlin understood that Pelle was not at fault, but also wanted to make sure the school could not get away with this sort of violation of free speech. So Rumlin suggested a press conference to expose the school. Pelle recalls, Out of concern for me being fired, Brother Rumlin agreed not to call a press conference until after I could arrange for him to speak with FCCJ administration. Even though I saved FCCJ from a very embarrassing press conference (out of fear of being fired because my wife is pregnant and my son is sick), FCCJ administration 'stabbed me in the back' by firing me anyway. Since Pelle does not yet have tenure, and since his union is just now seeking recognition to collectively bargain to represent FCCJ faculty, the union can do little to defend him. An active trade unionist, Pelle has been his union's delegate to the North Florida Central Labor Council for several years. He said he suspects that the FCCJ administration hopes that some faculty will be intimidated by his firing and not vote for union recognition. Perhaps the opposite will be the case, though. Now I am 'free' to openly advocate for the union-and defend the honor of Dr. King. What are they going to do? Fire me? His students are shocked at his firing, and have expressed their support, and Pelle has received support from his colleagues as well as trade unionists around the city. The firing takes place in the midst of massive attacks on free speech and the freezing out of dissent. And in Florida, those who continue to question the legitimacy of the elections, whether they be NAACP leaders or members of the faculty of Florida's public schools, have come in for scrutiny and punishment under the Jeb Bush administration. Many charge that Bush's attacks on public employees through [his] Service First [plan] were direct retaliation for the protests by unions against his anti-affirmative action plans and against the race-based rigging of the 2000 elections. Pelle was one of those who worked to get support for and attended the March 2000 March On Tallahassee to protest Jeb Bush's anti-affirmative action One Florida plan although he says he was directly blocked by the FCCJ administration from building support for the march on campus. Pelle has been active in civil and human rights issues since high school. He has also become involved in human rights issues of concern to his students, who are mostly refugees. Pelle concludes, In fighting for my job, I feel I am not only fighting for myself. Our democracy and rights are
Lots of 'goodwill' lost over those accounting changes
I wonder how many more companies will have to be more honest. Will the SEC have to take them on one by one? http://news.com.com/2100-1033-873388.html?tag=dd.ne.dht.nl-hed.0 Qwest under fire from SEC By Reuters April 2, 2002, 4:20 AM PT Qwest Communications International warned Monday that it may take a charge of up to $30 billion because of accounting changes on goodwill, and said the Securities and Exchange Commission staff recommended action against the telephone company for excluding certain information from a January 2001 earnings report. The massive charge, which has been widely expected by Wall Street, relates to the goodwill Qwest amassed through its $36 billion merger with local-telephone company US West in 2000. Goodwill reflects the value of intangible assets, such as the value of a brand name. Qwest, the No. 4 U.S. local-telephone company, said a required change in accounting practices would reduce its goodwill by about $20 billion to $30 billion, which was in line with Wall Street forecasts of about $25 billion. Qwest expects to record the charge in the second quarter. The company also said it expects to make another "substantial" write-down in the value of its 47.5 percent stake in international joint venture KPNQwest, whose stock has fallen 56 percent in the past three months. Qwest took a $3 billion charge last year. Qwest Chairman Joseph Nacchio, who also serves as chairman of the KPNQwest board, said he would not stand for re-election on that board in order to better focus on Qwest's core business. Adjustments in finalizing Qwest's 2001 results will increase its net loss by about 1 cent a share, the company said, adding that its 2001 net loss totaled $4 billion, or $2.41 a share. Shares of Qwest fell 22 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close at $8 on the Nasdaq Monday. The stock has plunged 44 percent so far this year as the company struggled to relieve a cash crunch, revive investor confidence and boost revenue growth. Possible action by SEC Qwest, already under SEC scrutiny for transactions in which it swapped capacity on its fiber-optics network with other carriers, said the SEC was studying its financial disclosures related to its acquisition of US West. The release at issue, which covered the fourth quarter and full year of 2000, excluded certain nonrecurring expense and income items related to the deal with US West. So-called pro forma results often exclude costs related to mergers, unusual events or other items, and skate over accounting conventions codified in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, also known as GAAP. The SEC "staff has decided to recommend that the SEC authorize an action against Qwest that would allege (that) Qwest should also have included in the earnings release a statement of Qwest's GAAP earnings," Qwest said in its annual report filed with the SEC. The securities regulators are also probing directory publication revenue and sales of equipment. The company has said it would cooperate with the probe but denied wrongdoing. Qwest said that the SEC had been looking at the use of pro forma results by several companies and that any action against it would be "without merit." For 2000, the company reported that pro forma profits excluding one-time items rose to $270 million, or 16 cents a diluted share, compared with $188 million, or 11 cents a share, in 1999. The SEC has a pending informal investigation into Qwest's accounting practices of contemporaneous network capacity sales, as well as its purchase of assets from Global Crossing, now in bankruptcy protection. Deals on asset sales Qwest said it continued to weigh the sale of assets such as local-telephone lines, its directory publishing business and wireless assets, but it did not expect any imminent deals. The company also said it would close its Qwest Digital Media operations, which produced, stored and transmitted digital video content. Separately, the company warned that the recession has led to a rise in customers disconnecting service and a rise in accounts receivable and bad debt. "The company anticipates that the economic downturn in its local-service area will be deeper and last longer than it had previously expected," Qwest said in the annual report. Qwest is the primary local-telephone service provider in the Western United States, and it also offers long-distance voice and data service in other parts of the country.
Re: Lots of 'goodwill' lost over those accounting changes
Well, and this company wants to become the next Enron (and the markets agree, sending the stock up over a dollar yesterday!). They just started up an online 'services' entity and they have 'clarified' their accounting, so who knows, maybe they'll be worth hundreds of billions before long. http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,39298,FF.html?ref=cnet THE BOTTOM LINE More Trouble in Houston Seitel is the latest Texas company to get into an accounting mess. By Adam Lashinsky, April 01, 2002 PALO ALTO - Could there be something in the water in Houston? First, of course, there was Enron. Then, Hanover Compressor (HC), featured in this column in February, had to restate revenue. The latest: Seitel (SEI), the energy company that's also a software purveyor and librarian of seismic data used by other energy concerns searching for oil. Little Seitel (market capitalization of $228 million at Monday's close) made a doozy of an announcement Monday, its deadline for filing its 10-K annual report. Here are the highlights. It'll re-state a total of $68 million in revenue over two years because it has chosen to adopt a series of more conservative accounting policies. Its chairman and CEO is in discussion with his board about amending his compensation agreement so his bonus is tied to earnings instead of revenues. It is in violation of some of its banking agreements. Oh, and Seitel SEI isn't saying a peep about its future performance other than that it will be profitable in 2002. Other than that, everything is hunky dory. In fact, Seitel's conference call Monday with investors was a model of confusion. Chairman and CEO Paul Frame said the re-statement -- a reduction of revenues by 22 percent -- would clear up a number of issues. Instead, analyst after analyst struggled to figure out what was going on. Seitel made two significant changes in how it recognizes revenue. It will recognize them more slowly, effectively waiting until customers choose which of Seitel's information it will use. And it will change how it recognizes revenue from contracts to buy and sell data for its seismic-data library. Those may be steps in the right direction, but there's still a lot to wonder about. For example, Seitel brags that its non-cash revenues -- which some of you refer to as barter transactions, said Frame -- accounted for only 13.4 percent of overall revenues in 2001 and that a third-party firm has verified the value of those revenues. That reported 13.4 percent, however, is up from 5.3 percent and 7 percent in the previous two years, according to Seitel's 10-K. And non-cash revenues account for nearly half of Seitel's deferred revenues, the balance-sheet item that suggests what future-year results will be. Of course, given the -- shall we say -- dynamic nature of Seitel's historical results, who knows what the new numbers really say about the future? Humoring Jack An angry reader named Jack didn't like the article here last week suggesting that investors remain too enamored with technology stocks. Disagreement is good. That's how our convictions get solidified, by rigorously debating them. But Jack took things a step further by accusing me of dealing with readers in bad faith, a not uncommon charge from the foam-at-the-mouth crowd. Could it be that you or somebody you know has interest in 'shorting' the stock? he wonders. It has become apparent, especially since the Enron mess, that conflict of interest is alive and well in the investment community. Humor me, tell me why you felt compelled to write your article today, and why we should give you the benefit of the doubt. Okay Jack, I'll humor you. I wrote that article that day because it was the best idea I had. Other than shares of my own employer (AOL Time Warner) or the employer of one of my family members, I don't own any individual stocks. And if one day I do, I'll disclose that in my column. Does that mean I'll never be wrong? No way. It does mean I've got no agenda other than that of journalism. Period. - Posted by Charles Jannuzi
Re: Lots of 'goodwill' lost over those accounting changes
I don't know how many of you might have come across the SEC news release on the Waste Management fraud but I was flabbergasted by the purple prose. I've never seen the phrase ill-gotten gain used so many times in a single document. See for yourselves: Waste Management Founder, Five Other Former Top Officers Sued for Massive Fraud Defendants Inflated Profits by $1.7 Billion To Meet Earnings Targets; Defendants Reap Millions in Ill-Gotten Gains While Defrauded Investors Lose More Than $6 Billion FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2002-44 Washington, D.C., March 26, 2002 - The Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit today against the founder and five other former top officers of Waste Management Inc., charging them with perpetrating a massive financial fraud lasting more than five years. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, charges that defendants engaged in a systematic scheme to falsify and misrepresent Waste Management's financial results between 1992 and 1997. The complaint names Waste Management's former most senior officers: Dean L. Buntrock, Waste Management's founder, chairman of the board of directors, and chief executive officer during most of the relevant period; Phillip B. Rooney, president and chief operating officer, director, and CEO for a portion of the relevant period; James E. Koenig, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Thomas C. Hau, vice president, corporate controller, and chief accounting officer; Herbert Getz, senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary; and Bruce D. Tobecksen, vice president of finance. Our complaint describes one of the most egregious accounting frauds we have seen, said Thomas C. Newkirk, associate director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. For years, these defendants cooked the books, enriched themselves, preserved their jobs, and duped unsuspecting shareholders. According to the complaint, the defendants violated, and aided and abetted violations of, antifraud, reporting, and record-keeping provisions of the federal securities laws. The Commission is seeking injunctions prohibiting future violations, disgorgement of defendants' ill-gotten gains, civil money penalties, and officer and director bars against all defendants. Defendants' fraudulent conduct was driven by greed and a desire to retain their corporate positions and status in the business and social communities, Newkirk said. Our goal is to take the profit out of securities fraud and to prevent fraudsters from serving as officers or directors of public companies. The complaint alleges that the defendants played the following roles in the scheme: Buntrock - the driving force behind the fraud. He set earnings targets, fostered a culture of fraudulent accounting, personally directed certain of the accounting changes to make the targeted earnings, and was the spokesperson who announced the company's phony numbers. At the same time, Buntrock posed as a successful entrepreneur. With charitable contributions made with fruits of his ill-gotten gains or money taken from the company, Buntrock presented himself as a pillar of the community. For example, just 10 days before certain of the accounting irregularities first became public, he enriched himself with a tax benefit by donating inflated company stock to his college alma mater to fund a building in his name. He was the primary beneficiary of the fraud and reaped more than $16.9 million in ill-gotten gains from, among other things, performance-based bonuses, retirement benefits, charitable giving, and selling company stock while the fraud was ongoing. Rooney - in charge of building the profitability of the company's core solid waste operations and at all times exercised overall control over the company's largest subsidiary. He ensured that required write-offs were not recorded and, in some instances, overruled accounting decisions that would have a negative impact on operations. He reaped more than $9.2 million in ill-gotten gains from, among other things, performance-based bonuses, retirement benefits, and selling company stock while the fraud was ongoing. Koenig - primarily responsible for executing the scheme. He also ordered the destruction of damaging evidence, misled the company's audit committee and internal accountants, and withheld information from the outside auditors. He profited by more than $900,000 from his fraudulent acts. Hau - principal technician for the fraudulent accounting. Among other things, he devised many one-off accounting manipulations to deliver the targeted earnings and carefully crafted the deceptive disclosures. He profited by more than $600,000 from his fraudulent acts. Tobecksen - another accounting expert who was Koenig's right-hand man. In 1994, he was enlisted to handle Hau's overflow. He profited by more than $400,000 from his fraudulent acts Getz - the company's general counsel. Getz blessed the company's fraudulent disclosures and profited by more than $450,000 from
(Fwd) PEF: More on Argentina
This might be interesting to Pen-l-ers. This came from our Progressive Economics Forum. Paul Phillips From: Progressive Economics Forum [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:PEF: More on Argentina Dear PEF Members and Friends; Somehow an article based on the research of two left-wing American economists -- Mark Weisbrot and Doug Henwood -- found itself into a mainstream U.S. newspaper. Miracles are still possible. It's worth reading! Social Security privatization cost the Argentine government 1 percent *of GDP* in lost revenues. The Miami Herald March 24, 2002 Sunday HEADLINE: The debt did it: Argentina's economic crisis is a result of huge interest payments, not runaway spending, a study says. BYLINE: JANE BUSSEY [EMAIL PROTECTED] As the Bush administration presses Argentina for more economic sacrifices, a new study shows that the beleaguered South American country ran into financial troubles more from insurmountable debt than from profligate government spending. The study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank in Washington, showed that from 1993 to 2000, Argentina's primary government spending -- funding for salaries, government programs and operations -- was essentially flat, but interest payments on the government debt rose threefold. Interest-rate hikes in the United States starting in 1994, and the continual shocks from devaluations in Mexico in 1994, in Asia in 1997, in Russia in 1998 and Brazil in 1999, drove Argentina's debt service from $2.9 billion in 1993 to $9.7 billion in 2000. People are still trying to blame Argentina for everything. They are still trying to say they were profligate, said economist Mark Weisbrot, who did the study along with economist Dean Baker. Argentina's spending increases were all on interest payments, Weisbrot said. It is this debt trap -- not overspending by the government -- that caused the crisis. The center's report is part of a growing number of studies and hearings trying to explain how a country with Latin America's highest per capita income, which was continuously applauded for its economic management by Washington and Wall Street, ended up a basket case. Rioting and looting in late December drove former President Fernando de la Rua to resign and led to a default on the government debt, the devaluation of the Argentine currency and now a string of private-sector defaults and government probes. Much of the blame has fallen on the government, as the media has cited cases of provincial legislators earning $14,000 a month or having two dozen aides. Domingo Cavallo -- the former high-profile economics minister who is now rarely seen in public -- lashed out at provincial governments. The loss of credit in Argentina was caused by excessive spending in the provinces, he said before he resigned. Everyone is also pointing the finger at corruption. Bishop Ramon Artemia Staffolani told reporters that when a Catholic Church delegation met with International Monetary Fund officials, they treated us like we were lazy, charlatans, corrupt and thieves. Added Artemia Staffolani: We had to lower our heads because it was true. But President Eduardo Duhalde returned the fire to the IMF and other critics in Washington. They are looking for scapegoats, saying that it is the [provincial] governors, that it is corruption. Duhalde said. But Duhalde pointed out that the IMF fully supported Argentina to the end, praising its economic management and its currency program, the convertibility plan, that led the peso to become seriously overvalued. The [IMF] deified convertibility, Duhalde complained. FALLING CURRENCY Renewed jitters last week sent the currency to a new low of 3.10 to $1, after a 10-year peg of one peso to $1. If there was any excessive spending in the federal government, it is simply not borne out by budget numbers. Nor did it figure in criticism from the IMF until late 2000. Weisbrot said that overspending by the provinces, some of which have defaulted on provincial bonds, does not affect the federal budget, any more than a financial crisis in Miami affects spending in Washington. During the budget period he studied, the revenue sharing from the central government to the 23 provincial governments was essentially flat, he said. Ironically, one of the programs pushed most by the IMF and the World Bank -- privatization of the social security system -- cost the federal government more than 1 percent of its budget each year, according to Weisbrot and other economists. This is because when the contributions of workers in a pay-as-you-go system are channeled into private pension plans instead of going to retirees, the government has to find new sources of funding for pensions. One of the contributing factors to public outrage in Argentina, where government salaries were cut by 13 percent last year, was that retirees saw their pensions
Re: More on Argentina
I wouldn't emphasize the dependence on canned meat and weetabix exports as very explanatory. Of course it might have helped had Brazil also not been such an agricultural producer. Even if Argentina hadn't kept pace with Australia, it offered a fairly high standard of living as of the 1960s. Argentina, btw, is a significant exporter of agricultural commodities to Japan, but Japan's shifting more business its way to benefit it would upset the rickety, politicized trade cart policy vis-a-vis that food superpower, the USA (the USA is over 120% self-sufficient in food production, clearly an overproducer). Next, consider what was written in the late 80s about Argentina (Multinational Monitor is an excellent publication, with many articles archived online, though I have to seriously consider a subscription): http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1988/01/mm0188_06.html Argentina's Embattled Economy [Note well, this is a 1988 article) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina--According to economist Javier de Villanueva, If there isn't a way to grow out of the debt, then there's a problem. In Argentina, where per capita income has been eroded to 1960- era levels, there is a problem. In 1987 people showed their growing discontent with the government of President Raul Alfonsin in the September elections. Alfonsin's party, the UCR (Radical Civic Union), which started out with a broad base of support, suffered a grave setback in the elections when Peronist candidates gained enough congressional seats to end the UCR's control of Congress. Critics of the government, pointing to monthly inflation rates above 10 percent, assert that the government's Austral plan to control hyperinflation by controlling prices and wages has failed. Each week there are strikes and rumors of strikes as disgruntled employees in all segments of the economy express their dissatisfaction with the state of the economy. Argentina, with its well-developed economy, infrastructure and social service system, is not a stereotypical impoverished, Third World debtor nation struggling to provide essential services for its citizens. Indeed, a visitor to Argentina could be forgiven for thinking that Buenos Aires was a West European city. But no West European city has a black market for dollars where one can receive 50 percent more for a dollar than the official exchange rate. The economy's hunger for dollars, along with the strikes and the demonstrations in the streets, reveal that Argentina, despite its relatively mature economy and society, struggles with the debt problem as much as any other debtor nation. What makes the economic problems of Argentina even worse is the fear that the military will seize power once more if the democratically-elected government cannot take the political and economic measures necessary to ease Argentina's woes. Experts in academia, government and finance all agree that there is a problem with Argentina's economy. They are, however, baffled when it comes to proposing a solution. The essence of Argentina's economic woes lies in the sluggish economy's inability to generate sufficient activity and surpluses to produce growth and hard cash. The country wants to pay its debt, said Villanueva, who works at the Instituto Torcuato DiTella. It always has. But there is a growing preoccupation about our ability to do so. Our democracy has to cut the deficit and reduce spending, but that means cutting wages, and that's what produces strikes. Some critics argue that Argentina's problem stems from excessive government involvement in the economy (45 percent of the GNP comes from government-owned companies). They point to the fact that the government bureaucracy has produced an underground economy that is so large that the official economic statistics account for only 60 percent of the country's actual GNP. These critics argue that privatization, the sale of government assets, is the only way to get the country growing once again. The central issue in this controversy, according to Villanueva, is the restructuring of the state in a form that will be acceptable to the unions. At this point, however, the unions appear opposed to restructuring. Carlos Rodriguez, an economist at an economic consulting group, CEMA, is one such critic. He blamed the government for not taking stronger measures to increase the economy's surplus. The government uses the debt as a whipping boy. They blame all of the country's problems on the debt, but the situation is not as bad as they say. The real burden is the trade surplus: our $70 billion economy is generating a $1 billion surplus. The economy, if privatized, could generate a $4 billion surplus, but that is a political impossibility. The deterioration in the balance of payments, plus the public debt and tensions created by the Austral plan will, Rodriguez predicted, result in a rollover of Argentina's debt by mid-1988. By then, Argentina must get fixed interest rates and a cut in the principal to get in line
Re: More on Argentina
Next, consider the policies that were worked out as a solution. Actually, the list reads like the Koizumi concept of restructuring and reform for the Japanese economy, except the provincial banks would be the postal savings and JA credit cooperatives. http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01september/sep01toc.html Downsizing, Privatization, Labor Flexibility, Wage Cuts: Selected Summaries of IMF/World Bank Country Policies Argentina ·World Bank sector support for a massive and ambitiousprivatization program of local water systems ·Nearly half of provincial government-owned enterprises have been privatized, including a majority of provincial banks ·In 1994 the pay-as-you-go pension system was replaced by a mixed public/private pensions system ·In 1999 new laws were passed to enhance labor flexibility ·for small and medium sized enterprises, lengthen the probation period for new workers, employer contributions to social security have been reduced
Re: More on Argentina
Then consider this analysis, which is spot on in its analysis of the merchant bank mentality that pervades the WB and IMF. Really, more and more, I think Argentina is supposed to be the Enron of IMF/WB economics. We are supposed to take it as an isolated case rather than indicative of the systemic problems. (Sorry for character set problems, the web pages read fine at the multinational monitor site, but my Japanese language MS OS has made a mess of things.) CJ http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01september/sep01corp1.html Against the Workers How IMF and World Bank Policies Undermine Labor Power and Rights By Vincent Lloyd and Robert Weissman After a decade of economic reform・along lines advised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, Argentina has plunged into a desperate economic crisis. The economy has been contracting for three years, unemployment is shooting up, and the country is on the brink of defaulting on its foreign debt payments. To avoid default, Argentina has negotiated for a new infusion of foreign funds to pay off the interest on old loans and obligations, and to forestall a pullout by foreign investors. Traveling down that road took Argentina to the gatekeeper for such loans: the IMF. In August, the IMF agreed to provide a new $8 billion loan for Argentina, intended to forestall default. That followed a nearly $40 billion January bailout package with a $14 billion IMF loan as its centerpiece. But like the loans Argentina has negotiated with the IMF and World Bank over the last decade ・and like all other such loans from the IMF and Bank ・the new monies came with conditions. Among them are requirements that Argentina: promote labor flexibility removing legal protections that inhibit employers from firing workers; revamp its pension system to generate new savings・by cutting back on benefits for retired workers; slash government worker salaries; privatize financial and energy operations of the government. These requirements, and others, infuriated the Argentine labor movement, which responded in March with general strikes that stopped economic activity in the country. In August, with the latest loan package, tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in protest. That the IMF would demand such terms is no surprise. A Multinational Monitor investigation shows that the IMF and World Bank have imposed nearly identical mandates on dozens of countries. Based on reviews of hundreds of loan and project documents from the IMF and World Bank, the Multinational Monitor investigation provides detailed evidentiary support for critics of the international financial institutions who have long claimed they require Third World countries to adopt cookie-cutter policies that harm the interests of working people. Multinational Monitor reviewed loan documents between the IMF and World Bank and 26 countries. The review shows that the institutions・loan conditionalities include a variety of provisions that directly undermine labor rights, labor power and tens of millions of workers・standard of living. These include: ・Civil service downsizing; ・Privatization of government-owned enterprises, with layoffs required in advance of privatization and frequently following privatization; ・Promotion of labor flexibility ・ regulatory changes to remove restrictions on the ability of government and private employers to fire or lay off workers; ・Mandated wage rate reductions, minimum wage reductions or containment, and spreading the wage gap between government employees and managers; and ・Pension reforms, including privatization, that cut social security benefits for workers. The IMF and Bank say these policies may inflict some short-term pain, but are necessary to create the conditions for long-term growth and job creation. Critics respond that the measures inflict needless suffering, worsen poverty and actually undermine prospects for economic growth. The policies reflect, they say, a bias against labor, and in favor of corporate interests. They note as well that these labor-related policies take place in the context of the broader IMF and World Bank structural adjustment packages, which emphasize trade liberalization, orienting economies to exports and recessionary cuts in government spending ・macroeconomic policies which further work to advance corporate interests at the expense of labor. The Incredibly Shrinking Government Workforce Perhaps the most consistent theme in the IMF/World Bank structural adjustment loans is that the size of government should be reduced. Typically, this means that the government should spin off certain functions to the private sector (by privatizing operations), and that it should cut back on spending and staffing in the areas of responsibility it does maintain. The IMF/Bank support for government downsizing is premised, first, on the notion that the private sector generally performs more efficiently than government. In this view, government duties
Fri., April 5: Demonstration in Support of Palestinians (OH)
DEMONSTRATION IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIANS PROTEST THE ISRAELI CRIMES AGAINST THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE WHAT: On Friday April 5, 2002, the Central Ohio-area Coalition for Palestine calls on all people of conscience to participate in a DEMONSTRATION to protest the latest Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. You participation is important to show support for those who are being murdered in cold blood under the Israeli occupation. In the past week, scores of Palestinian men, women, and children have been killed and hundreds have been wounded. The continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian land -- accompanied by its unbearable policy of killing, destruction, and humiliation -- ordered by Israeli right-wing extremist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon must stop. Sharon has been blamed for a 1953 massacre in the West Bank and for allowing Lebanese militiamen to kill more than 2,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in refugee camps near Beirut, Lebanon, in 1982. Regrettably, American taxpayer dollars are being used to finance this mass murder. WHEN: FRIDAY April 5, 2002, at 3:00 p.m. WHERE: Federal Building, 200 N. High Street, Columbus, Ohio (Intersection of Spring and High Streets, Downtown Columbus) Parking: City Center parking garage or any parking nearby CONTACT: Jad Humeidan, CAIR-Ohio, (614) 395-3583 Hazem Gheith, ISGC, (614) 806-4472 The Program will include an update on the situation in Palestine and brief talks by local religious leaders and community activists. Bring Your Families and Friends. SPONSORS: Arab Americans of Central Ohio, Arab Student Association, Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio, Committee for Justice in Palestine, Community Organizing Center, Columbus Campaign for Arms Control, Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, Muslim Student Association, Student International Forum -- Yoshie * Calendar of Events in Columbus: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html * Anti-War Activist Resources: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html * Student International Forum: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/
