Re: RE: RE: Re: Sharon quote

[ALI KADRI]

I do not recall where I read this, but somewhere along
the line Oz moved to the right according to some
journalist and began to change the story. memory fails
me again.
--- "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > > The other was his [Sharon's] as well. Oz is
> lying to cover up so
> > > he pinned it on the dead man.
> > 
> > 
> > how do you know?
> > 
> > don't you think there is enough to indict Sharon
> with,
> > even without the quote?
> > 
> > mbs
> 
> also, it's hard to imagine that Sharon would be
> self-conscious enough to say
> what he was quoted as saying by Oz. He's a "think
> with one's blood" type.
> JD
> 


__
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more
http://games.yahoo.com/

Re: Koehler smarms

[Chris Burford]

At 19/04/02 18:40 -0700, you wrote:
>Doesn't Koehler have this backwards?  If Europe's production  is growing 
>faster, Europe needs more opportunities to sell its goods in 
>Argentina.  That means more loans from the IMF, doesn't it?
>
>Gene

No. This is the argument that to those that have, more shall be given.

When there is a recession the wise servants and theoreticians of capitalism 
look around for an engine of growth. This is usually assumed to be the USA. 
The Argentinan market has become peripheral. Economic activity within the 
big advanced capitalist areas is much more important than exchange between 
these areas and less developed areas.

There have been other parts of the world during the recent recession where 
economic activity has been sustained and who could have been engines of 
growth to build on, such as China, Russia and India, but that possibility 
is censored out of the thinking of the dominant ideologues of western 
led-finance capital. They get sacked if they think too differently.

Koehler is using a wordly wise opportunist argument usually applied to USA, 
to come close to intervening in European politics. As a former German 
politician his words were crafted to give support to right wing forces 
trying to break down restrictive conventions protecting employment 
conditions, and impeding takeovers. What I was highlighting was the 
tempting argument he gave to justify it - look it you swallow this change, 
it won't be bitter medicine for you, it will lead you to be an area of 
economic strength which will, very magnanimously, also kindly provide jobs 
for the less favourably advantaged areas of the world, like Argentina, for 
whom bitter medicine is the only solution.

There is a subtext of carefully concealed rivalry with the USA. It is a 
controversial question how the USA and Europe carve up the top jjobs at the 
IMF and the World Bank. Koehler is obviously thinking that if Europe, 
including Germany embraces vigorous market liberalisation it can become 
much more competitive, like the USA, and grow rather than stagnate relative 
to the USA. Under cover of a patronising formula about kindly providing 
markets for lesser struggling areas of the world, he is signalling that if 
Europe does what he thinks, it can rival the USA and become and engine of 
growth. The art of international financial politics is to say subtle things 
that advance your interests without giving a target to your enemies. It 
would be hard for the USA to object to the idea of Europe making economic 
"progress" and thereby giving jobs to the deserving poor of the world, 
provided they are really deserving. And Koehler has sounded tough on 
Argentina, which makes him a sound head of the club. But Koehler had better 
not give any evidence of consistent bias towards Europe rather than the 
USA, otherwise he will have to enjoy a generous early retirement.

And as if to illustrate the point about why Europe does not need Argentina 
but Argentina nees Europe, I see this morning that Argentina has just 
frozen all bank and foreign exchange transactions. There is absolutely no 
anxiety that this is going to trigger a collapse of the world financial 
system. And if there is more rioting and more windows get broken, who 
cares? Argentina can have ten presidents a year, until they learn the 
lesson, like the people of the West Bank, that their role is to submit 
peacefully to the cruel inequalities in the world.

Chris Burford

To Gene and Charles J.

[Sabri Oncu]

I don't know if you realized that, but I set my home page to
Bloomberg some years ago. Note the words "interest", "taxes",
"depreciation" and "amortization" down below. You progressive
economists must be on to something.

See you next week.

Best from your mathematician friend,

Sabri



Top Financial News


04/19 18:52
WorldCom Cuts Sales, Spending Forecast; Shares Tumble (Update3)
By Don Stancavish


Clinton, Mississippi, April 19 (Bloomberg) -- WorldCom Inc., the
second-largest U.S. long-distance telephone company, reduced its
2002 sales forecast as companies spend less for data and Internet
services. The shares fell as much as 20 percent.

Sales will be $21 billion to $21.5 billion, less than an earlier
forecast of $22.2 billion to $22.6 billion, WorldCom spokesman
Brad Burns said. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation
and amortization will be $7 billion to $7.5 billion compared with
a previous range of $8.4 billion to $8.5 billion, Burns said.

WorldCom joins Qwest Communications International Inc. and
BellSouth Corp. in lowering 2002 sales forecasts this week. Sales
at WorldCom and its rivals have slowed as corporations reduce
spending for phone and data services and competition drives down
prices.

``It just shows that we don't have a recovery into the telecom
sector,'' said John Maxwell, an analyst at Waddell & Reed
Financial Inc., owner of 3.17 million WorldCom shares. ``Until
you see some real concrete signs of recovery, you can't assume
that this is the bottom.''

Less Capital Spending

WorldCom said capital spending will be about $4.5 billion this
year, compared with an earlier forecast of $5 billion to $5.5
billion.

WorldCom consists of the MCI Group consumer operation and the
WorldCom Group corporate data business. Chief Executive Bernie
Ebbers in June created MCI Group shares to track the slower-
growing consumer long-distance, paging and Internet-access
operations.

WorldCom said its forecasts for MCI Group are unchanged. The
company plans to release first-quarter results on April 25.

Shares of WorldCom fell as much as $1.22 to $4.76 after the
announcement was made following the close of regular U.S.
trading. They fell 35 cents to $5.98 on the Nasdaq Stock Market
and have declined 69 percent in the past year.

BellSouth, the third-biggest U.S. local-telephone company, said
sales will grow about 1 percent this year, compared with an
earlier forecast of 4 percent growth. Qwest, the fourth-largest
U.S. phone company, expects sales as low as $18 billion this year
after earlier estimating sales as high as $19.8 billion.

AT&T Corp., the biggest U.S. long-distance operator, has forecast
that its sales will decline this year.

Re: Economics as religion

[phillp2]

From:   Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: m <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, pen-l 
Date sent:  Fri, 19 Apr 2002 18:16:51 -0400
Subject:[PEN-L:25197] Economics as religion
Send reply to:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

>At times Nelson seems to deny the prospect of a value-free 
analysis. Here,
I think he goes too far. Positive economics is alive and well in 
academia,
and the economic paradigm of choice within constraints is being 
pushed
steadily forward to new frontiers of explanation (including religion).
There are no hidden values here; there is no sub-text. There is a 
simple
desire to explain the world as it is in a more understandable way. 
The
relevant question to these scholars is not how but why? Most of 
the work
that Nelson discusses in the modern Chicago approach and in the 
New
Institutional Economics is this type of analysis. And while 
understanding
the world per se may actually lead to social change, I do not think 
this
correlation is thought about or stressed very much by these 
analysts.
Their focus is on understanding, not changing, the world.

Positive economics is alive and well and living in Austria?  What a 
crock.  Show me any orthodox micro analysis that isn't rife with 
normative assumptions and I will genuflect with humiliation.  I have 
no worries that I will be so obliged.

Paul Phillips,
Economics,
University of Manitoba

Argentina

[Sabri Oncu]

Top Financial News


04/19 19:44
Argentina Closes Banks Indefinitely to Block Deposits (Update4)
By David Plumb


Buenos Aires, April 19 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina closed banks
indefinitely in an effort to block a rising outflow of deposits.

Central Bank Vice President Aldo Pignanelli told the Argentine
Banks Association that banks would remain shut until Congress
approved legislation halting withdrawals, according to a copy of
an internal association memo obtained by Bloomberg News. A
central bank spokeswoman declined to comment beyond confirming
that banks had been closed.

Argentines have withdrawn as much as 350 million pesos ($111
million) a day this week, in part by obtaining court injunctions
against the government's freeze on accounts, economists estimate.
The withdrawals threaten to bring down the financial system, the
government has said.

``Banks have melted down from lack of confidence among the
population,'' said Andrew Cummins, chief investment officer of
Explorador Capital Group, with $45 million under management in
Latin America. ``President Eduardo Duhalde doesn't seem to be
able to articulate a plan that can generate confidence.''

Argentina froze deposits in December in an effort to prevent a
collapse of the banking system as savers rushed to pull funds,
anticipating the government's $95 billion debt default and
currency devaluation.

Several banks have already run out of cash needed to repay
deposits, including Scotiabank Quilmes SA, a unit of Canada's
Bank of Nova Scotia. The central bank late last night closed
Scotiabank Quilmes for 30 days a week after it shut down another
bank.

Total Deposits

Total deposits have dropped 11 percent to 71 billion pesos this
year even as the government imposed withdrawal restrictions, said
Standard & Poor's analyst Gabriel Caracciolo. Financial
institutions have obtained central bank loans to fund a portion
of the withdrawals and overcome the cash shortfall.

``No rational person would entrust his money to the banking
system at this point, just as no-one trusts the peso,'' said
Scott Grannis, chief economist at Western Asset Management Co.,
with helps manage $1.5 billion in emerging market debt at Western
Asset Management Co., with $1.1 billion in emerging market debt.

The bank holiday follows two shut downs earlier this year to
implement a currency devaluation.

Congress expects to receive a bill from Duhalde on Monday that
would convert blocked deposits into government bonds and halt
further withdrawals, said Jorge Matzkin, president of the lower
house's budget committee. Legislators may approve the proposal by
as early as Wednesday, he said.

Great Depression

Franklin D. Roosevelt took a similar step in the U.S. to halt a
banking panic during the Great Depression.

On March 4, 1933, the day after taking the oath of office, he
declared an indefinite banking ``holiday'' until Congress passed
legislation giving him emergency powers over financial
institutions. The bill was passed and the following week the
healthiest banks were allowed to reopen while weaker banks were
shuttered.

The deposit drain has increased pressure on the peso as
Argentines buy dollars with local currency. The peso weakened 3.9
percent to 3.12 per dollar and has lost over two-thirds of its
value this year.

Argentine officials have said they are concerned that printing
more pesos to help banks meet withdrawal demands will lead to a
deeper devaluation and inflation. Argentina has already issued
3.3 billion pesos this year, 94 percent of its yearly target.

Economy Minister Jorge Remes Lenicov and Central Bank President
Mario Blejer arrived in Washington D.C. today for the
International Monetary Fund's spring meeting, where they hope to
convince the fund and U.S. officials the country can meet
conditions for new loans.

Remes Lenicov has scheduled some 19 meetings over three days,
including with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and National
Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice today. Remes declined to make
comments to reporters after his meeting with O'Neill.

Re: profit rates

[Sabri Oncu]

> Didn't Merrill-Lynch financial advisors
> recently get in trouble for selling
> info that was inaccurate -- but helped
> the investment-banking side of the
> business?
> JD

Well Jim, don't get me started. What is going on there is very
sad, to say the least, very sad. I used to like the number 5 a
lot because it is "sufficiently" close to the Lehman Aggregate
Bond Index duration. If all the bonds had 5 years duration, I
would have had no problems whatsoever in those days.

May God let the duration of all US bonds be 5 years for the
benefit of those I left behind.

Best,
Sabri

Re: Koehler smarms

[Eugene Coyle]

Doesn't Koehler have this backwards?  If Europe's production 
is growing faster, Europe needs more opportunities to sell its goods in
Argentina.  That means more loans from the IMF, doesn't it?
Gene
Chris Burford wrote:
 
How is this for an argument designed to ingratiate with the existing
dominant powers, and perpetuate, and intensify such inequality.
 
Koehler said Europe's leaders should stop being
content with growth rates of 2 percent to 2.5 percent and raise the potential
to 2.5 percent to 3 percent, which would create more jobs and more opportunities
for poorer countries to sell their goods in Europe.

Now that Argentina's economy is going to shrink by 10 to 15% this year,
it is obvious that it should swallow the bitter medicine and become poor
handmaidens producing commodities for expanding countries like those in
Europe.
In due course Koehler might pat Argentina on the head, but he knows
to whom he has to ingratiate himself, to be "productive".
Chris Burford
London
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Vietnam: Cash & Carry

[Ulhas Joglekar]

Far Eastern Economic Review

Issue cover-dated April 25, 2002

VIETNAM

Cash & Carry
An international wholesale chain is welcomed to Ho Chi Minh City. But will
it thrive?

By Margot Cohen/HO CHI MINH CITY
Issue cover-dated April 25, 2002

FOREIGN INVESTMENTS OF $120 million don't come bouncing into Vietnam every
day of the week. So when German-owned Metro AG announced plans to open eight
giant Metro Cash & Carry wholesale outlets--launching the first one on March
28 in Ho Chi Minh City--Vietnamese officials rolled out the red carpet.
Apart from granting tax breaks, they made sure that Metro's massive freezers
and other heavy equipment cleared customs in just four days.
Vietnam's friendly welcome contrasts sharply with attitudes in Malaysia and
elsewhere in the region, where hypermarkets have raised protectionist
hackles. While other countries fret over the prospect of local enterprises
getting crushed, Vietnam seems to be buying Metro's argument that its
presence will benefit local companies.
The biggest lure: Metro's global chain of 337 wholesale outlets could
provide a window on the world for many Vietnamese products that currently
lack distribution channels. "Metro will help Vietnamese entrepreneurs keep
pace with those in other countries, " says Pham Xuan Ai, vice-director of
the state-run Institute for Economic Research in Ho Chi Minh City.
Piggybacking on Metro's connections is a lot easier than starting from
scratch. Last year, a Hong Kong-based Metro affiliate purchased and exported
some $75 million worth of Vietnamese goods, including textiles, shoes and
furniture.
That number could swell this year, depending on the firm's continuing
evaluations of Vietnamese seafood and various agricultural products.
Starting in May, Metro executives promise that they will team up with a
German development group to help Vietnamese farmers introduce new crop
varieties and ensure the supply of quality vegetables.
And for some Vietnamese retailers, Metro is already providing a useful model
for brighter, more hygienic displays of fresh meat, fish and produce. At the
Saigon Union of Trading Cooperatives, known as Saigon Co.Op, executives are
considering importing new equipment to improve cooling at its string of
supermarkets. "We have to try harder," says Nguyen Thi Nghia, president of
Saigon Co.Op.
WAIT AND SEE
But not everyone is rushing to embrace Metro. As the name suggests, Cash &
Carry rules out both credit and delivery--perks that buyers at Ho Chi Minh
City's major hotels and restaurants have long enjoyed in centrally located,
traditional markets like Ben Thanh. Delivery is a big issue because Metro
launched its first store in the southwest corner of the city, a 40-minute
ride from the centre. "Prices [at Metro] are only 10% lower than they are
outside. If you add transportation costs, the price is almost the same as in
Ben Thanh," says Pham Vu Hiep, acting food-and-beverage manager at the Rex
Hotel. For now, he's sticking with his traditional suppliers, who can
deliver goods within 15 minutes and extend daily credit of up to 20 million
dong ($1,315).
While opening day was jammed with an estimated 10,000 shoppers and gawkers,
subsequent visits on a Sunday afternoon and Friday morning found trade more
subdued, with short lines at checkout counters and a half-empty parking lot.
One factor is Metro's worldwide insistence that it's a wholesale outlet
rather than a discount-retail chain. Potential customers must produce a
business-registration number to obtain a plastic entry card emblazoned with
a photograph to avoid transferable use. And since few can afford cars in Ho
Chi Minh City, they're limited to what they can cart away on their
motorbikes.
Another damper is the barring of children under the age of 14. While Metro
aims to protect youngsters from getting hurt by the heavy machinery that
lifts items onto top shelves, the policy undercuts one of the main functions
of shopping in Vietnam--cheap family entertainment. Witness the hordes
shuffling through the halls of Trang Tien Plaza, Hanoi's first major mall,
which made its debut earlier this year. It's a natural trend, given the lack
of recreational alternatives and the novelty of seeing a wide variety of
foreign goods in Vietnam.
Rather than draw window shoppers, Metro is counting on cajoling more
customers like 30-year-old Le Hong Diem, who hawks home-care products such
as shampoo and toothpaste from a modest market stall. Although Diem didn't
buy anything on her first two trips to Metro, on her third foray she wheeled
two crammed shopping carts to the cash register and peeled off a fat wad of
dong. Even though she estimates that shopping at Metro won't save her more
than 100,000 dong, she says she doesn't mind paying the total bill of
4,525,100 dong in cash--and piling the massive load onto her motorbike to
take back to her stall.
For Vietnam, the broader question is whether Metro's presence will encourage
other foreign investors to jump in. "When a group li

Re: Economics as religion

[Michael Perelman]

Tollison has written extensively about the Catholic church as a monopoly
in the market for salvation.  He is very conservative (of the Austrian
variety) and so would not be sympathetic to the book.  That he was as
positive as he was suggests that the book might be good.

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

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

Koehler smarms

[Chris Burford]

How is this for an argument designed to ingratiate with the existing
dominant powers, and perpetuate, and intensify such inequality.

Koehler said Europe's leaders should stop
being content with growth rates of 2 percent to 2.5 percent and raise the
potential to 2.5 percent to 3 percent, which would create more jobs
and more opportunities for poorer countries to sell their goods in
Europe.

Now that Argentina's economy is going to shrink by 10 to 15% this year,
it is obvious that it should swallow the bitter medicine and become poor
handmaidens producing commodities for expanding countries like those in
Europe. 

In due course Koehler might pat Argentina on the head, but he knows to
whom he has to ingratiate himself, to be "productive".

Chris Burford

London

Koehler bullies

[Chris Burford]

Cowards are often bullies


>Speaking before the start Saturday of the semiannual meetings of the IMF 
>and World Bank, where economic turmoil in Argentina is expected to be a 
>major issue, Koehler said he was "deeply concerned about the developments 
>in Argentina" and, in particular, the social hardship for a large part of 
>the population.
>
>Koehler made clear that the Fund "cannot promise a comfortable process" 
>for getting the moribund economy turned around. Argentina, he said, would 
>have to swallow "bitter medicine."



>The IMF predicted Thursday that Argentina's economy would shrink by 10 to 
>15 percent this year, with inflation running as high as 30 percent.

Koehler grovels

[Chris Burford]

With the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change falling to 
White House atack yesterday, and the Chair of the International Inspection 
Agency on Chemical Weapons about to fall, the IMF Managing Director, Horst 
Koehler, knew how to sing for his supper this week.

According to an interview with the IHT published Friday

>Koehler also responded to recent criticism from the Bush administration of 
>the Fund's plans to create an international bankruptcy court for sovereign 
>debtors that default on their loans. He said there was "a gap in the 
>current approach to crisis resolution" and indicated that he was still 
>looking at an IMF-based blueprint for a default mechanism for countries.
>
>But he said he was open to listening to input from the United States and 
>from banks in the private sector to come up with a compromise, and he 
>welcomed recent U.S. criticism of the outline as part of a "constructive 
>discussion" to hammer out an international bankruptcy law.
>
>Warning that there was "no kind of quick fix," he stressed that a solution 
>should be found in the coming months.

With tax credits, now almost 1/3 of UK on benefits

[Chris Burford]

Hostile article in the Telegraph shows the extent to which New Labour's 
Gordon Brown has been extending "tax credits" so that almost 1/3 of the UK 
population are on some sort of benefit.

Among the advantages to him of tax credits are

1) the burden of administration falls on the employer and the recipient

2) it avoids a poverty trap for people who need some benefits, so that they 
are also encouraged to be productive

3) it can massage the figures so he can choose not to call them benefits.

The disadvantage from a more radical point of view is that they do not 
amount to a full citizens income: people living solely on benefits are 
still caught in a benefits trap.

article below --

Chris Burford





Brown puts millions of Britons on benefit By George Trefgarne  (Filed: 
19/04/2002)

GORDON BROWN'S tax credits are turning Britain into a nation of benefit 
claimants, with nearly one in three adults soon to receive state handouts 
of one kind or another.


Budget tax credits are likely to fuel a huge rise in social security claims


He has almost tripled the number of families receiving benefits to nearly 
6.5m, according to research from the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

He had also nearly tripled the number of pensioners receiving special help. 
About 5m will be paid the new pensioners' tax credit, compared with 1.7m 
claiming income support, which it replaces.

Preliminary estimates are that somewhere near 13m adults will soon receive 
benefits, including the new tax credits invented by Mr Brown. The total 
adult population is 47m. Another 11m claim the state pension.

The explosion in numbers means Mr Brown is presiding over a massive 
increase in the social security budget.

It will top £138 billion in three years time, or a quarter of government 
spending.

Despite proclaiming that the National Health Service was the focus of his 
Budget, Mr Brown has also been generously uprating benefits and rebranding 
many of them as `tax credits', which are paid direct into salaries through 
the tax system. In 1997, the last year of the Conservative government, 
benefit spending was £80 billion.

This year, social security spending is expected to be £109 billion, but Mr 
Brown has artificially held down the total by classing tax credits as 
"negative taxation". They are worth £4 billion, so the true amount of 
social security spending is £113 billion.

Yesterday, Andrew Dinot, the Institute of Fiscal Studies director, 
highlighted the surge in benefits. "Mr Brown wants to classify tax credits 
as negative taxation. But we haven't," he said.

NHS spending will be £53.5 billion this year and Mr Brown wants to increase 
it to £87.2 billion, only £9 billion more than the £25 billion increase in 
benefit spending over that period.

His biggest new benefit is the child tax credit for 6m families. Even those 
on combined incomes of up to £66,000 a year will be eligible. They will 
receive £543.40 a year if they have children under one year old. There has 
also been a 26pc increase in child benefit to £15.75 a week for the first 
child and £10.55 for any subsequent ones.

The child tax credit replaces the old working families tax credit, which 
was claimed by 1.3m people, and income support, claimed by 1.3m. The old 
family credit was only claimed by 450,000 people.

Mr Brown has also invented a working tax credit, which will be paid to 
400,000 people who used to receive no benefits of any kind.

Mike Brewer, senior research economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies, 
said: "It's very hard to get an exact number for the total of those on 
benefit as some people claim more than one.

"What we can say is that the first two years of Mr Brown's chancellorship 
saw cyclical benefits, such as jobseekers' allowance, fall as the economy 
improved and we all got richer. But since then there has been an increase 
and it will now increase further."

Tax credits are essentially means-tested benefits. "There will be forms to 
fill in," said Mr Brewer, "that is certainly true." The old working 
families tax credit requires a 16-page form to be filled in annually 
assessing the households' income. It therefore ends separate taxation for 
husbands and wives.

Re: Exchange value of currencies

[Chris Burford]

At 19/04/02 11:02 +0200, RK wrote:

>This is not a theorem from Marx nor from Engels, but of mine. I have
>demonstrated it in a paper that is published on irép's website, the title of
>which is "Asymmetry and Accumulation, or World System's Entropy". The rates
>of change are not exclusively linked to the differential turnovers of
>capital, but this is the main cause and the only explanation of a
>structurally strictly distributed trend of relative rates since 1971 (dollar
>disconnection from gold, and flexibles changes).
>
> >  (...)  Also I have to say that I do not see the speed of
> > capital turnover within a country, being an intermediate variable between
> > its increased productivity and the relative exchange rate with another
> > currency.
>
>It is not matter of the absolute speed of turnover, but of the relative one.
>As a higher speed (i.e. higher productivity) determines a higher flow of
>imputs (imports), and as the flow of export outputs depends on outside
>demand, that is on outside imputs, the country that has the higher speed of
>turnover gets a structurally trending negative balance of trade.

I am sure there are some technical questions in your paper which are 
important and which I do not know. However even at a general level I can 
believe there is an association between increased productivity and an 
increased speed of capital turnover. My doubt was that the latter is a 
necessary intermediate variable with the relative exchange rate of the 
currency. It could be another dependent variable, rather than an 
intermediate variable.

In the passage above you almost simply equate higher speed of turnover with 
higher productivity.

I would have thought the link is that in a more productive society with a 
higher organic composition of capital, there are more commodities, a more 
complex market, more exchanges taking place and more sophisticated 
mechanisms of exchange.

Perhaps these details are not important however. The thread I want to hold 
on to is the link between the great disparity in the world in the organic 
composition of capital, and the relative exchange value of currencies.

Or do I mean the relative value of labour power in different countries? - 
perhaps that is the link with the massive relentless exploitation of the 
poor world by the rich world.

Chiris Burford

London

Re: Re: Re: RE: RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Eugene Coyle]

Doug,  Gee, Solow and Samuelson never thought of it either, when defending the
idea of the production function.  Luckily they had Joan Robinson to call it to
their attention.

But you and I are talking about different profit rates, as Daniel Davies has just
pointed out.

Gene Coyle

Doug Henwood wrote:

> Eugene Coyle wrote:
>
> >How do you adjust for the change in "capital" in telecom companies, before and
> >after the melt-down?  What's the denominator?
>
> Gee, better contact the folks at the Bureau of Economic Analysis. I
> bet they never thought of this!
>
> In fact, I'm sure they've never thought of many of the objections
> brought up on PEN-L over the last several days. They are, after all,
> just a bunch of third-rate public sector bean counters. A handy
> reference list of people who need an education can be found at
> . The person who handles the
> capital stock estimates is Leonard Loebach, at 202-606-9764. If he's
> like most of them, he'll probably answer his own phone and be happy
> to talk to any knowledgeable, friendly caller.
>
> Doug

Re: RE: RE: RE: Re: re: profit rates

[christian11]

The WSJ has pretty much dropped the ball on the MS investigation. The most they've 
done is dribble stuff like below out a little at a time. I actually am surprised at 
this--they are generally more conscientious and interesting about stuff like this.

AG's Probe Against Merrill Muddies Waters For Wall Street

By CHERYL WINOKUR MUNK and LYNN COWAN

   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -- An action by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Monday makes 
the future even muddier for securities firms' research and investment banking 
practices.

A court order, obtained by Spitzer, against Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) requires the 
country's largest brokerage firm to make immediate reforms such as better disclosure 
about its investment banking relationships and more context for its stock ratings.

Spitzer is also considering bringing criminal charges against the firm, which denies 
the allegations.

Since the analyst objectivity issue gained momentum after the dot-com bubble burst, 
firms have been scrambling to make sure their policies are in compliance with the best 
practices adopted last summer by the industry's main trade group. Merrill itself 
revamped its research policies over the summer, to prohibit stock analysts from owning 
stocks they cover. Merrill also began disclosing, on the front page of all research 
reports, a statement that it has or may have business relationships, including 
investment banking ones, with companies mentioned. The firm is also planning to revamp 
its research this quarter to focus more on GAAP accounting.

The Attorney General, however, claims its order Monday requires Merrill, for the first 
time, to disclose the relationship between its research and investment banking arms.

The press release said Spitzer has issued subpoenas to other securities firms, though 
it did not say which ones. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 
(JPM) both said they had not received subpoenas. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH), 
Credit Suisse First Boston, Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC), Morgan Stanley (MWD), the Salomon 
Smith Barney unit of Citigroup Inc. (C) and UBS Warburg wouldn't comment.

The immediate impact of Spitzer's action is unclear, but his order includes an 
application to the State Supreme Court for approval to gather more evidence about 
Merrill's research practices. If he prevails, it could be very embarrassing for 
Merrill and other firms, based on the sampling of information Spitzer has obtained so 
far.

According to his investigation , at the same time that Merrill was contemplating a 
neutral rating on selected stocks, such as Excite@Home Corp. (ATHM), analysts were 
telling one another that the stock was "such a piece of crap," among other things. 
Many of the allegations involved former Merrill internet analyst Henry Blodget.

In a statement Monday afternoon, Merrill said the "allegations reveal a fundamental 
lack of understanding of how securities research works within the overall capital 
raising process. They cite a limited number of employee emails, taken out of context, 
as 'proof' that investment banking had undue influence in determining research 
ratings. In fact, these emails prove nothing of the sort."

The attorney general's investigation has been underway since June 2001 and is yet 
another example of the pressure facing the industry in the wake of the dot-com bust. 
Spitzer said he hoped his action would prompt regulators, including the Securities and 
Exchange Commission, to weigh in with proposed changes for the industry. Ultimately, 
regulators and other may seek to have the firm split its equity research and 
investment banking businesses, similar to Arthur Andersen's plan to break apart its 
auditing and consulting businesses, according to Spitzer. It was unclear whether he 
was referring to just Merrill or the overall industry.

Congress is currently studying the thorny issue of analyst objectivity. In addition, 
The New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc. 
have proposed new rules for investment banks. The comment period ends next week.

These rules would require additional disclosures of potential conflicts in analysts' 
research notes. They would require investment banks to clearly state whether they own 
of 1% or more of the company they are writing about; whether there are any investment 
banking conflicts of interest at the time a report is issued; and whether any 
compensation has been paid by a subject company to the investment bank within the last 
12 months or is expected within the next three months.

--

Christian

Re: RE: RE: RE: Re: re: profit rates

[ravi]

a la michael pugliese ;-):

-

http://www.usatoday.com/money/finance/2002-04-19-merrill.htm

No quick deal likely in Merrill Lynch case
By Thor Valdmanis, USA TODAY

NEW YORK -- The dark cloud hanging over the securities industry just got
darker.

Hopes of quickly achieving a final settlement between Merrill Lynch and
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer over alleged conflicts of
interest among Merrill research analysts have been dashed because of
arguments about culpability and money, people close to the negotiations say.

-

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/107/economy/SEC_considering_whether_to_joi%3A.shtml

SEC considering whether to join probe of conflict of interest
By Michael Gormley, Associated Press, 4/17/2002 13:39

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Federal regulators met with New York Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday to determine whether they should join his
investigation into Wall Street analysts accused of giving positive stock
ratings to companies they were criticizing among themselves.

Securities and Exchange Commission officials were also being briefed by
Spitzer's fraud prosecutors on the status of his investigation into
analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co. and some of its rivals, said a source
familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

-

http://www.mips1.net/mukfn.nsf/Current/852569CF00506AC142256A87002E1E93?OpenDocument

Merrill Lynch acts to end conflicts of interest
By: Tim Wood

Posted: 2001/07/11 Wed 10:00 ZE2  | © MoneywebUK 1997-2002
NEW YORK - In what amounts to a tacit admission of guilt, global
investment firm Merrill Lynch is to prohibit its analysts from owning
stocks they cover.

The move might be interpreted cynically as a belated response to public
outrage over analysts' inability or unwillingness to deliver accurate
recommendations. Few conflict of interest allegations have been
substantiated, but it is common cause that the Chinese wall between
firms' investment bankers and analysts was demolished during the
listings boom from 1996 to 2000.

--

--ravi

Economics as religion

[Louis Proyect]

H-NET BOOK REVIEW 
Published by H-Business and [EMAIL PROTECTED] (April, 2002)

Robert H. Nelson. _Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago 
and Beyond_. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 
2001. xxvi + 378 pp. Index. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-271-02095-4.

Reviewed for H-Business and EH.NET by Robert D. Tollison 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Department of Economics, University of 
Mississippi

Nelson's basic thesis is that economics is more like a religion than 
a science. In fact, he argues that economics in the twentieth century 
has virtually supplanted organized religion with a creed of material 
progress.  Within economics Nelson analogizes Samuelson and company 
as being more like Roman Catholics who adhere to natural law 
doctrine, such as the efficacy of market institutions with a strong 
overlay of government regulation. Chicago economists are more like 
Calvinists in that they are radical revolutionaries in the pursuit of 
a more libertarian approach to economic life in general.

The half of me that wants to like the book reflects an admiration for 
Nelson's scholarship. His thesis is new and novel; he has written a 
strong brief for it, and to say the least, he has interesting ideas.  
Stylistically, he wins me over.

The other half resists the extremity of the argument. There is no 
doubt that modern economics is full of value judgments, both implicit 
and explicit, and that one must use care in separating positive from 
normative arguments. Where the argument is normative, one must be as 
explicit as possible about what the value judgments are and whether 
individuals are in general agreement with respect to these judgments. 
In most cases, the normative aspects of economic analysis are benign 
and easily accepted--for example, more wealth or utility is better 
than less, material progress is a good thing, market institutions 
stimulate economic growth (this is also a positive prediction), and 
so on. Of course, there will be dissenters; we do not live in a 
Pareto-optimal world. But for the most part, the normative 
assumptions of modern economics are not controversial. So while 
Nelson is right that there is a "religious" sub-text to economics, I 
do not think it is such a big deal. Most of these value judgments are 
just common sense writ large.

At times Nelson seems to deny the prospect of a value-free analysis. 
Here, I think he goes too far. Positive economics is alive and well 
in academia, and the economic paradigm of choice within constraints 
is being pushed steadily forward to new frontiers of explanation 
(including religion). There are no hidden values here; there is no 
sub-text. There is a simple desire to explain the world as it is in a 
more understandable way. The relevant question to these scholars is 
not how but why? Most of the work that Nelson discusses in the modern 
Chicago approach and in the New Institutional Economics is this type 
of analysis. And while understanding the world per se may actually 
lead to social change, I do not think this correlation is thought 
about or stressed very much by these analysts. Their focus is on 
understanding, not changing, the world.

Still, on net, I give Nelson high marks for making an interesting and 
useful argument. It is always good to take stock of what we are about 
as professional economists.

One final note is that Nelson may be right about the demise of 
economics in universities. One way to look at the issue is to note 
that the great economic debate is over. Capitalism won, so that the 
demand for the "religious" services of economists is on the wane.

Copyright (c) 2002 by EH.NET and H-Business. All rights reserved. 
This work may be copied for non-profit educational uses if proper 
credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission, 
please contact the EH.NET administrator ([EMAIL PROTECTED]; 
Telephone: 513-529-2850; Fax: 513-529-3308). Published by EH.NET 
(April, 2002). All EH.NET reviews are archived at 
http://www.eh.net/BookReview.

 

-- 
Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 04/19/2002

Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org

RE: RE: RE: Re: re: profit rates

[Eric Nilsson]

Jim wrote,
> Didn't Merrill-Lynch financial advisors recently get in trouble
> for selling
> info that was inaccurate -- but helped the investment-banking side of the
> business?

I know the LA Times has covered this at least twice a week or so ago, but I
haven't see much in the WSJ about it.

Eric
.

RE: RE: Re: re: profit rates

[Devine, James]

Didn't Merrill-Lynch financial advisors recently get in trouble for selling
info that was inaccurate -- but helped the investment-banking side of the
business?
JD

Eric writes:
> In my experience private sector data producers--particularly 
> those in the financial sector--sometimes produce a product that is very 
> bad. Not all do, but many do.
> 
> They often want to sell their data--or use their data to sell 
> something else (pieces of paper!)--and this effects how the data is
produced 
> and what it "says." Most government data producers do not have to "sell" 
> their data to survive and, so, the market factor that might corrupt their 
> data generation process is missing.

Re: re: profit rates

[Sabri Oncu]

> But, there are those who are dishonest liars.
> I know it. I have worked with them.
>
> Sabri

Here is one more thing:

I don't think Max can become the President of the US, nor can
you, nor Jim Devine, nor Michael Perelman, nor Louis Proyect.
Because you are too honest, my friends, too honest!..

Sabri

RE: Re: re: profit rates

[Eric Nilsson]

Sabri wrote,
> And I worked at money management
> firms and other firms that provide "analytics" to them.
> ... But, there are those who are dishonest liars. I know it.
> I have worked with them.

In my experience private sector data producers--particularly those in the
financial sector--sometimes produce a product that is very bad. Not all do,
but many do.

They often want to sell their data--or use their data to sell something else
(pieces of paper!)--and this effects how the data is produced and what it
"says." Most government data producers do not have to "sell" their data to
survive and, so, the market factor that might corrupt their data generation
process is missing.

Of course there are honest and dishonest people in any data producing
operation. But when data is produced as a commodity (or  to help sell
another commodity) this tends to increase the role of dishonesty.

Eric.

RE: RE: Re: Sharon quote

[Devine, James]

> > The other was his [Sharon's] as well. Oz is lying to cover up so
> > he pinned it on the dead man.
> 
> 
> how do you know?
> 
> don't you think there is enough to indict Sharon with,
> even without the quote?
> 
> mbs

also, it's hard to imagine that Sharon would be self-conscious enough to say
what he was quoted as saying by Oz. He's a "think with one's blood" type.
JD

RE: Re: Sharon quote

[Max Sawicky]

> The other was his as well. Oz is lying to cover up so
> he pinned it on the dead man.


how do you know?

don't you think there is enough to indict Sharon with,
even without the quote?

mbs

Re: re: profit rates

[Sabri Oncu]

> But they've always struck me as serious, honest
> people who are completely aware of the strengths
> and limits of their work, and are very open about
> it. They deserve more respect than they get from
> lots of lefties.
>
> Doug

Doug,

I don't think anyone on this list would think that I am an
unserious, dishonest person. And I worked at money management
firms and other firms that provide "analytics" to them. That I
worked at those intitutions doesn't make me an ***hole, does it?
So, as a leftist, and as someone who had experiences similar to
theirs, why should I disrespect those who work at such
institutions? Of course, most of them are serious, honest people.
I have no doubts about Max's honesty and seriousness, for
example. But, there are those who are dishonest liars. I know it.
I have worked with them.

Sabri

Re: Sharon quote

[ALI KADRI]

The other was his as well. Oz is lying to cover up so
he pinned it on the dead man.
--- "Forstater, Mathew" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> This one I'm pretty sure about:
>  
> " Everybody has to move, run and grab as many
> (Palestinian) hilltops as
> they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because
> everything we take
> now will stay ours...Everything we don't grab will
> go to them."
>  
> - Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing
> a meeting of the
> Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.
>  
> 


__
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/

Re: RE: Re: Re: RE: RE: Profit Rates -- FromMichael Ya tes

[Doug Henwood]

Davies, Daniel wrote:

>To be fair, although there are known serious problems with depreciation, the
>WorldCom and Global Crossing affaires aren't really relevant to the
>statistics Doug quoted.  The assets of WorldCom and Global Crossing are
>worth exactly what they were worth before the meltdown, as stock market
>movements don't mean much to cables in the ground.

And if they're part of the capital stock yet generate no profits, 
isn't that a relevant and interesting fact?

Doug

Re: Re: re: profit rates

[Doug Henwood]

Max Sawicky wrote:

>I've worked with BEA people in the past.  A friend of mine in
>Gov refers to them as "righteous technicians."  They are
>resolutely without political bias in their work.  All of their
>procedures are vetted by panels of outside experts.

I've talked with scores of BEA and other USG stat types over the 
years. They're not Nobel material, for sure - which may be a good 
thing, considering some of the wackos and flacks who've won that 
prize over the years. But they've always struck me as serious, honest 
people who are completely aware of the strengths and limits of their 
work, and are very open about it. They deserve more respect than they 
get from lots of lefties.

Doug

RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Sabri Oncu]

First of all, except from a few occasions, I have not dealt with
government agencies producing statistical information here in the
US. On the other hand, I have some friends who worked at The
State Planning Agency of Turkey, The Turkish State Statistics
Organization (my translations) and the like, and I know that they
are honest, smart and well educated people. This does not mean
however that all of those who worked there were honest, smart and
well educated people and I heard many horror stories from my
friends about many others.

One thing I suspect (and Eric and Jim verify) is that it should
be true also here in the US that these institutions are not
ideologically neutral institutions, whatever neutrality means in
this context. Further, since these institutions are bureaucratic
in the Weberian sense, as Rob reminds us, they are not conducting
independent scientific research. If my boss tells me that I
cannot not use a particular model or technique that would allow
me to arrive at a better way of doing my work, then I cannot do
it.

Here is another problem I know from my experience. Suppose you
are a scientist whose work relies on the work of others who are
performing (boring) tasks according to your specifications.
Suppose there are many of them working in parallel so you have no
hope of monitoring each of them individually. Unless the results
they produce look "unreasonable" according to your subjective
criteria, how would you know how reliable what you got from them
are?

Here is one more problem: there are too many data to deal with,
far too many!...

Sabri

- Original Message --
Eric wrote:
>> Max wrote,
>>
>>Without doubt, you can spot all sorts of
>>problems in their work.  But I would be
>>willing to bet that you would not be able
>>to arrive at a better way of doing it, given
>>the same resources and data that are available
>>to them.
>
>I generally agree with this claim.
>
>One of the main problems with government statistics
>is that the users of these statistics don't look at
>all the documentation generated by the government to
>explain/justify what they do. This documentation often
>reveals the great amount of thought that has gone into
>the most minor details of many government-produced
>sets of data. This documentation goes FAR beyond
>the quick-and-dirty justifications appearing in the
>official methodology publications they issue (or
>instance, the BLS's Handbook of Methods gives
>just a surface indication of the reason the BLS does
>what it does).
>
>This documentation is often filled with explicit or
>implicit statements of the weakness of the data.
>It is often not easy reading, but it is essential
>reading for those who want to avoid misusing/misinterpreting
>the data.
>
>Further, all data agencies continually reconsider how
>they do they generate data. A paper trail of this rethinking
>exists in a vast number of published and unpublished papers
>on the minute details of data creation.
>
>At the same time, most government data implicitly or
>explicitly accepts uncritically neoclassical economics.
>But having done this, the government data producers take
>everything amazingly seriously. As a result, much
>government data has some silly ideas embedded within it.
>

Taubman gets VIP allies in bid for leniency

[Charles Brown]

Taubman gets VIP allies in bid for leniency
U.S. Probation Office joins Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger in opposing prison term

By Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News
http://www.detroitnews.com/2002/business/0204/19/a01-469409.htm
 
Taubman sentence
Citing his age and declining health, the U.S. Probation Office has recommended 
probation for A. Alfred Taubman, 74, who was convicted of price-fixing at Sotheby's. 
Prosecutors are urging a three-year prison sentence, saying allowing Taubman to avoid 
prison time would send the wrong message to other would-be white-collar criminals. 
What's your opinion? 
 Probation 
Prison 


  NEW YORK -- The U.S. Probation Office has recommended probation rather than a prison 
sentence for Bloomfield Hills mall pioneer A. Alfred Taubman, who was convicted last 
year of price-fixing at Sotheby's Holdings Inc. 

Taubman  
   A federal probation official cited Taubman's advanced age, 78, his declining health 
and his lifetime of generous charitable contributions. Taubman is controlling 
shareholder of Sotheby's, the prominent art auction house. 
   Taubman is to be sentenced Monday in Manhattan by U.S. District Judge George 
Daniels, who presided over the three-week trial last year. He could send Taubman to 
prison for as long as three years. Taubman was convicted of colluding with Sotheby's 
chief rival, Christie's International Plc. 
   To back its argument in favor of the more lenient sentence, Taubman's defense 
submitted a 2-inch thick volume of supportive letters from 89 high-powered friends, 
including former President Gerald Ford, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and 
television newswoman Barbara Walters. 
   "If there were ever a case where a departure (from sentencing guidelines) on the 
grounds of age and infirm health were warranted, this is it," defense attorneys wrote 
in a brief. 
   Prosecutors are urging a three-year prison sentence, which would match sentencing 
guidelines. They said Taubman is still healthy enough to travel frequently around the 
world and that his charity wasn't extraordinary given his net worth of $640 million. 
   The prosecution argued in its brief that allowing Taubman to avoid prison time 
would send the wrong message to other would-be white-collar criminals. 
   "Only a sentence imposing substantial imprisonment and a punitive fine will be 
sufficient to reflect the seriousness of the offense," prosecutors argued. 

Fortune on Pakistan

[F G]

"Pakistan: Kidnapped Nation"
http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=207350


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

Re: Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada

[Bill Burgess]

Grant wrote:

> > country inward FDI stock/GDPoutward FDI stock/GDP
> > Canada   23.9% 26.9%
> > Australia   28.117.1
> > UK   23.335.9
> > France   11.715.9
> > Singapore  85.856.1
> > Malaysia67.022.7
> > Indonesia   73.32.4
> > Argentina   13.95.4
> > Brazil 17.11.4
>
>Interesting figures. I haven't had time to look at the comparable figures
>for other countries. In any case they don't prove a permanent/structural
>exclusion from "imperial" activity. For example, what about Hong Kong
>(pre-1997, not that it is yet a homogenous part of China)? The last I heard
>there was hardly any manufacturing left in Hong Kong because proprietors had
>shifted operations to the mainland. South Africa? Saudi Arabia?

Hong Kong   65.772
Saudi Arabia22.71.3
s. Korea6.1 6.5
Taiwan  7.8 14.7
New Zealand 66.211
Israel  11.16.8
Spain   21.512.5
Austria 11.38.2
Sweden  22.541.3
Belgium 61.750.2
Switzerland 26.569.1

I cited the FDI/GDP ratios against the suggestion that FDI from the likes 
of Malaysia and Indonesia is dissolving the cardinal difference between 
imperialist and imperialized countries. I don't see any real shift in the 
last 75 years or so in this division. Hong Kong has 'moved up' a couple of 
rungs on the product ladder, and a large part of the 'outward' FDI above is 
the labour-intensive factories that were opened nearby in the (rest of) PR 
China. But it lacks other characteristics, e.g. trade/GDP in Hong Kong is 
135% - as Bill R. noted, emphasized, HK and Singapore are entrepots, and 
they are city-economies, which indicates the need to qualify the 
significance of their numbers (Malaysia has the third highest trade/GDP; 
these three are the only countries with annual trade greater than GDP). The 
best recent candidate for the 'imperial' club is probably s. Korea, but, 
hello, this country is divided in half, occupied by US nukes, and could do 
_nothing_ if Japan, Europe and the US stopped imports from s. Korea with a 
stroke of a pen.

The balance of inward-outward FDI in Saudi Arabia tells the same story as 
we know about other realities of foreign-dominated oil producers.

I'd be interested in more rounded characterizations of South Africa, but 
the FDI data is consistent with the 'white'-settler state-now-lesser 
imperialist status of New Zealand, Israel, etc. Bill R. and I have 
discussed the NZ FDI stats before; I still have a hard time accepting the 
66.2% inward rate in NZ as one that provides a realistic comparison to that 
in other countries, but in any case, I think the difference between 
presenting a NZ passport and a Malaysian passport helps clarify the social 
relationships in world imperialism.

>Every bourgeoisie has to start somewhere. For example --- and I'm not going
>to revisit the complexities and vitriol of the "Kenya Debate" --- but I just
>came across this on the web:
Don't know what you mean with the Kenya stats, but there is _zero_  danger 
of Kenya going imperialist in any serious use of the term.

  >Singapore's inward and outward rates are both high, but note that inward 
FDI is still well above outward FDI in this city-state where annual trade 
is also 160%  !!! of GDP.
>That trend is not unusual for countries with small populations and highly 
>developed economies. What are the comparative figures for Belgium and 
>Switzerland?

As you can see, Belgium and Switzerland show high rates of outward FDI, and 
most FDI is to and from Europe - and almost nothing is _from_ the likes of 
Argentina, Malaysia or Saudi Arabia.

Trade/GDP in Austria is 44% and 38% in Switzerland, again, most trade is 
with fellow imperialist countries, not semi-colonial countries. They enjoy 
'free' trade, not the imperialist protectionism and unequal exchange faced 
by Malaysia or Indonesia. The price index for their manufactured goods 
_rose_ from 72 in 1980 to 108 in 1997, while logs from Malaysia dropped 
from 272 to 221, Indonesia's coffee producers faced a coffee index decline 
from  450.4 to 161.2  !!! The index for cotton fell from 284.3 to 162.2 
and for rubber from 197.9 to 94.5 (indexes from World Bank, World 
Development Indicators).

C. Jannuzi wrote:
 >I guess my point was that exploiter can easily become the exploited when 
the US involved. As any US citizen should know.

If we can't distinguish between a big thief taking from a smaller thief and 
theft from non-thieves we will never stop thievery.

Bill Burgess

BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D]

RELEASED TODAY: Regional and state unemployment rates were generally stable
in March, but were higher than a year earlier. All four regions reported
little or no change form February, and 43 states recorded shifts of 0.3
percentage point or less, the Bureau of Labor statistics reported today. The
national jobless rate was little changed at 5.7 percent. Nonfarm employment
decreased in 25 states and the District of Columbia.

About 29 million full-time wage and salary workers had flexible work
schedules in May 2001, a 1.2 percentage point increase from May 1997, the
last time the data were collected, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
BLS said the proportion of workers using flexible schedules increased to
28.8 percent in 2001, nearly double the proportion of 10 years earlier
(Daily Labor Report, page D-5).

The all-settlements average first-year wage increase in agreements reported
in the first quarter of 2002 was 4.4 percent, compared with 3.8 percent in
the first quarter of 2001, according to data compiled by BNA. The second-and
third-year average increases in agreements reported in the first quarter
were 3.7 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, compared with second-and
third-year increases of 3.5 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, reported
in the first quarter of 2001 (Daily Labor Report, page D-13).

New claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed during the week ending
April 13 totaled 445,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's
revised figure of 444,000, according to the Labor Department's Employment
and Training Administration (Daily Labor Report, page D-2).

Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao defended her plan for reducing
repetitive-stress injuries in the workplace with voluntary guidelines for
employers, saying the program would produce results faster than government
regulationsIn a prepared statement, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
called the Chao proposal "an insult" because a recent Bureau of Labor
Statistics report found that almost 600,000 workers last year suffered
injuries that required them to take at lease one day off work. "Work is
increasingly a dangerous place to be," Sweeney said (The Washington Post,
pages E1 and E5).

Senate Democrats were sharply critical of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao's
ergonomics plan at a Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee hearing
April 18, during which Chao announced that the department will develop
"effective, workable guidelines" for nursing homes. The announced ergonomics
plan includes a "four-pronged" approach to reducing workplace
musculoskeletal disorders: industry-specific and task-specific guidelines,
strong and effective enforcement, extensive outreach and assistance, and
research. Sen. Paul Wellstone D-Minn.) said that OSHA has no definition for
musculoskeletal disorders for record keeping. OSHA Administrator Henshaw
told reporters outside the hearing that OSHA will use the definition for
MSDs that is used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics "for now." BLS defines a
musculoskeletal disorder as an injury or disorder of the muscles, nerves,
tendons, joints, cartilage, and spinal discs. MSDs do not include disorders
caused by slips, trips, falls, motor vehicle accidents, or similar accidents
(Daily Labor Report, page AA-1).


<>

tapes from 2002 Socialist Scholars Conference

[Michael Pugliese]

( eCLEANER got rid of the >>)
tapes from 2002 Socialist Scholars Conference

From: Mark Pavlick ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Date: Fri Apr 19 2002 - 11:33:30 EDT

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The 2002 Socialist Scholars Conference was the greatest. 
Very optimistic and uplifting. From a raucous debate on 
intervention vs. non-intervention with lots of booing, cheering and 
audience comments to a savvy panel on Enron/corporate corruption.

The following is a listing of audio and video tapes recorded 
at the 2002 SSC available for purchase from Radio Free Maine. More 
listings will be forthcoming.

Opening Plenary 

After 9/11: New Politics for Social Movements and the Left

Available on extended audio for $15.00 and video for $20.00

Fri. 7:00 pm Great Hall - Foundation

Sponsor: Socialist Scholars Conference

Chair: Bogdan Denitch Transition to Democracy

Elaine Bernard Harvard Trade Union Program

Bernard Cassen ATTAC-France

Manning Marable Black Radical Congress

Dot Keet Alternative Information and Development Center, S. Africa

Tariq Ali New Left Review

Panel 2

Sat. 10:00 am Great Hall - Foundation

Clash of Fundamentalisms

Available on audio for $11.00 & video for $20.00

Sponsor: Socialist Scholars Conference

Chair: Wadood Hamad Campaign Against Sanctions and Dictatorship in Iraq

Nawal El-Saadawi novelist and author of Woman at Point Zero

Tariq Ali New Left Review

Panel 17

Sat. 1:30 pm Great Hall - Foundation

Just War? - A Debate

Available on audio for $11.00 & video for $20.00

Sponsor: The Nation Institute, Dissent

Chair: Maxine Phillips Dissent

Ian Williams The Nation

Tariq Ali New Left Review

Michael Walzer Dissent

Stephen R. Shalom William Paterson University of New Jersey



Panel 26

Sat. 3:30 pm Great Hall - Foundation

ENRON - Unnatural Disaster

Available on audio for $11.00 & video for $20.00

Sponsor: Union for Radical Political Economics, The Nation, Dollars and Sense

Chair: Elizabeth Santucci New School University

Ellen Frank Dollars and Sense, Emmanuel College

Nomi Prins former investment banker

Tyson Slocum Public Citizen

Doug Henwood The Nation, Left Business Observer, WBAI

Panel 75

Sun. 3:30 pm Great Hall - Foundation

Security: Politics, Technology, Environment

Available on audio for $11.00 & video for $20.00

Sponsor: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation

Jonathan Schell The Nation Institute

Nancy Holmstrom Rutgers University

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Claudia Haydt Militarization Information Center, Germany

Panel 87

Sun. 5:30 pm Great Hall - Foundation

Final Plenary: Bush's America What Future for Democracy?

Available on video for $20.00 or extended video (includes 
the Opening Plenary) for $25.00

Sponsor: Socialist Scholars Conference

Chair: Bogdan Denitch Honorary Chair, Democratic Socialists of America

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Barbara Epstein University of California, Santa Cruz

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BLS Daily Report

[Richardson_D]

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2002:

RELEASED TODAY:  In May 2001, about 29 million full-time wage and salary
workers had flexible work schedules that allowed them to vary the time they
began or ended work, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.  The proportion
of workers with such schedules was 28.8 percent, slightly higher than the
figure of 27.6 percent recorded when the data were last collected in May
1997 and nearly double the proportion 10 years earlier.

The median weekly earnings of full-time workers in the first quarter of 2002
increased 3.7 percent over the previous year, according to Bureau of Labor
Statistics figures.  BLS said median weekly wages, measured in current
dollars without adjustment for inflation, climbed to $614 in the first
quarter of 2002 from $605 a week in the fourth quarter of 2001(Daily Labor
Report, page D-8).

Data from newly negotiated contract agreements compiled by the Bureau of
National Affairs through April 15 show a first-year average wage increase of
4.2 percent, compared with 4 percent in the same period of 2001.  The median
first-year increase for the same settlements was 3.7 percent, and the
weighted average increase was 2.1 percent.  Among nonmanufacturing
(excluding construction) settlements, the average increase is 5.1 percent,
while manufacturing contracts post an average increase of 2.5 percent (Daily
Labor Report, page D-14).

New claims for unemployment insurance inched up even as a key gauge of
economic activity suggested the country is recovering from recession.  For
the work week ending April 13, new claims for jobless benefits edged up by a
seasonally adjusted 1,000 to 445,000, the Labor Department reports today.
Meanwhile, the New York-based Conference Board said its Index of Leading
Economic Indicators nudged up 0.1 percent in March to 112.3 after holding
steady in February.  "The recovery in the leading index suggests that
economy is poised for growth through late summer," said Conference Board
economist Ken Goldstein. One of the reasons why layoffs and unemployment
have been rising even though the economy is improving is because businesses,
which had shed workers during the slump, want to make sure the rebound is
here to stay before hiring them back.  That's why employment is considered a
lagging economic indicator (Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press,
http://www.nypost.com/apstories/business/V7004.htm).

Employers are bracing for their third year in a row of double-digit
increases in health care costs, according to industry consultants and
analysts.  The sharply higher costs could lead many employers to offer fewer
health plans, reduce what they cover, or shift more costs to employees.
Companies will probably face average increases of 12 to 15 percent in 2003,
compared with a projected increase of 12.7 percent this year, according to
Mercer Human Resources Consulting (The New York Times, page C1). 

Temporary managers are in demand.  "One of the sure signs of a beginning
(economic) recovery is the growing use of temporary workers," says John A.
Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an
international outplacement firm based in Chicago.  More companies are
putting feelers out for managers available for temporary assignments,
indicating that the "post September 11 slump" may be coming to an end, added
Darlene Lepore, New England vice president of Adecco Employment Services,
Inc., a Swiss company that has its U.S. headquarters in Melville, N.Y. And
once the economy picks up speed, some of the managers now working on a
contractual basis will be in line for full-time slots, Lepore and other
employment specialists say (Boston Globe).

Gasoline prices, which have soared 27 percent in the past 3 months, are
headed upward in coming weeks to perhaps the third highest level ever,
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said yesterday. U.S. gas prices may hit a
summer-long average of $1.46 for a gallon of unleaded regular, with a
one-week peak of $1.55 sometime in May or June, as families take to the
roads in warmer weather and later head off on summer vacations, Abraham said
(The Washington Post, page A1).

A jump in imports spurred by the economic rebound widened the U.S. trade
deficit by 11.6 percent to $31.5 billion in February, according to figures
released April 17 by the Commerce Department (Daily Labor Report, page D-1).

DUE OUT TOMORROW:  Regional and State Employment and Unemployment: March
2002


<>

RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Sabri Oncu]

Max wrote:

> I think you missed Doug's sarcasm, or
> I have missed his seriousness.
>
> the public sector people are quite well educated.
> sometimes they are given things to do that are
> impossible to do well. but they still have to do them.
> they are not paid as well as some in the private sector,
> but you would be foolish to take this as a sign of
> their worth.

I don't think I missed his sarcasm but there was some truth in
what he said, excluding this part: "They are, after all, just a
bunch of third-rate public sector bean counters". Further, I know
nothing about the Bureau of Economic Analysis people so how can I
agree with them being third-rate bean counters?  I agree with you
that whether in public sector or not, most of the time you are
given things to do that are impossible to do well. I was given
such tasks myself and I plead guilty of producing garbage.

Sabri

RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Eric Nilsson]

Max wrote,

>Without doubt, you can spot all sorts of problems in
>their work.  But I would be willing to bet that you would
>not be able to arrive at a better way of doing it, given
>the same resources and data that are available to them.

I generally agree with this claim.

One of the main problems with government statistics is that the users of
these statistics don't look at all the documentation generated by the
government to explain/justify what they do. This documentation often reveals
the great amount of thought that has gone into the most minor details of
many government-produced sets of data. This documentation goes FAR beyond
the quick-and-dirty justifications appearing in the official methodology
publications they issue (or instance, the BLS's Handbook of Methods gives
just a surface indication of the reason the BLS does what it does).

This documentation is often filled with explicit or implicit statements of
the weakness of the data. It is often not easy reading, but it is essential
reading for those who want to avoid misusing/misinterpreting the data.

Further, all data agencies continually reconsider how they do they generate
data. A paper trail of this rethinking exists in a vast number of published
and unpublished papers on the minute details of data creation.

At the same time, most government data implicitly or explicitly accepts
uncritically neoclassical economics. But having done this, the government
data producers take everything amazingly seriously. As a result, much
government data has some silly ideas embedded within it.

Eric
.

RE: RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Max Sawicky]

I think you missed Doug's sarcasm, or I have missed
his seriousness.

the public sector people are quite well educated.  sometimes
they are given things to do that are impossible to do well.
but they still have to do them.  they are not paid as well as
some in the private sector, but you would be foolish to
take this as a sign of their worth.

mbs

> 
> I think what Doug mentioned is important. By the way, it is not
> just the public sector, where those who are in charge of
> producing such statistics are in desparate need of education. A
> similar problem exists also in the private sector, even at
> Investments Banks, where they are willing to pay good salaries
> for well educated people. One way to look at this is that it is
> an adverse selection problem. Of course, there is also a problem
> of moral hazard:  when you have deadlines, the accuracy of your
> "estimates" becomes a very minor concern.
> 
> Sabri
> 

The Gulf press viewpoint!

[Ken Hanly]

Gulf press blasts US
Dubai
April 19 2002


Gulf and Iraqi newspapers lashed out at the United States yesterday
following Secretary of State Colin Powell's failure to force Israel to pull
out of Palestinian territories it has reoccupied, charging that Washington
was in cahoots with the Jewish state.

Saudi papers led the chorus of condemnation, with one daily accusing Powell
of having acted "like a Jewish rabbi" during his justconcluded Middle East
trip.

"Since he set off from Washington to the region over a week ago, the
secretary appeared to be ... carrying instructions, not proposals," to the
Palestinians, Al-Watan said in an editorial.

"He acted more like a Jewish rabbi, or the head of a Zionist organisation,
than like an American diplomat trying to find a solution" to the crisis
between Israel and the Palestinians, it added.

The English-language Arab News charged that the White House was more
interested in domestic elections than in brokering an end to Mideast
violence.



   advertisement

   advertisement

"White House involvement is driven simply by the domestic political need to
keep Zionist opinion sweet back home in the face of this year's midterm
elections. Therefore, any American voting for the Republican ticket is
effectively marking his voting slip with Palestinian blood," the daily said.

Al-Madina said all that Powell managed to do was give Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon more time to carry on his "crimes" against the Palestinians.

"Let's not fool ourselves. Powell came to the region to give Sharon's plan
additional time," the paper wrote.

Powell flew back home empty-handed from his Middle East mission yesterday
after failing to secure an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire to end 18 months of
bloodshed.

In the United Arab Emirates, Al-Khaleej said US officials were merely
parroting the Israeli line.

"All US administration officials parrot the terrorist Sharon and his
generals, who are sowing death and destruction all over Palestine," the
Sharjah-based daily said.

During his tour, Powell "wielded Sharon's stick in an attempt to force the
Palestinian leadership to toe the (Israeli) line," Al-Khaleej said.

Abu Dhabi-based Al-Ittihad charged that Powell had spent "half his trip
enthusiastically watching the brutal massacres perpetrated by the war
criminal Sharon" against the Palestinians.

And at the end of it all, "Powell gave us the good news that there would be
no (Israeli) withdrawal (from West Bank cities) simply because the massacre
is not over yet and the Palestinians and their besieged president Yasser
Arafat have still not gone down on their knees," the paper wrote.

Qatar's Al-Raya said it was an open secret that Washington had been Israel's
"partner in aggression" since the start of the Israeli military campaign in
the West Bank on March 29.

"That Powell's mission should end in failure is not surprising given that
the US administration gives in to Sharon's arrogance and readily meets his
unreasonable demands," said Al-Watan, another Doha-based daily.

In Iraq, Ath-Thawra accused Powell of "legitimising the massacres"
perpetrated by Israel by describing them as "self-defence."

The secretary of state came to the region "to throw the United States'
weight behind Sharon and the Zionists who are defying the whole world with
their actions in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem," said the mouthpiece
of Iraq's ruling Baath Party.

"The plain truth is that Powell himself is an accomplice in the aggression,"
the paper added.

- AFP

This story was found at:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/04/18/1019020685326.html

RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Sabri Oncu]

Doug writes:

> Gee, better contact the folks at the Bureau of Economic
> Analysis. I bet they never thought of this!
>
> In fact, I'm sure they've never thought of many of
> the objections brought up on PEN-L over the last several
> days. They are, after all, just a bunch of third-rate
> public sector bean counters.

I think what Doug mentioned is important. By the way, it is not
just the public sector, where those who are in charge of
producing such statistics are in desparate need of education. A
similar problem exists also in the private sector, even at
Investments Banks, where they are willing to pay good salaries
for well educated people. One way to look at this is that it is
an adverse selection problem. Of course, there is also a problem
of moral hazard:  when you have deadlines, the accuracy of your
"estimates" becomes a very minor concern.

Sabri

Sharon quote

[Forstater, Mathew]

This one I’m pretty sure about:

 

"
Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can
to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay
ours...Everything we don't grab will go to them."

 

-
Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.

 

RE: Re: re: profit rates

[Devine, James]

> I've worked with BEA people in the past.  A friend of mine in
> Gov refers to them as "righteous technicians."  They are
> resolutely without political bias in their work.  All of their
> procedures are vetted by panels of outside experts.

one problem is that these "outside experts" are often ideological in their
outlook (people like Boskin).

One thing I noticed was that the BEA's estimates of the rate of return on
capital investment in domestic US nonfinancial corporations used to appear
in the flagship ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT. It seems to have gotten
some bad publicity, so now it's only in the BUSINESS CONDITIONS DIGEST. Is
there something politicaly incorrect (from a mainstream perspective) about
calculating the profit rate? Of course, the whole concept of the rate of
profit doesn't fit with orthodox neoclassical economics very well. It's
often mushed up with the rate of interest. In the view that the world is
simply one big competitive market, it should equal zero. Etc. 

JD

Re: ads

[Michael Pugliese]

   www.sfgate.com   Return to regular view

BEYOND THE BANNER
New online ads float, flash and can't be clicked off 
Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 2, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/02/ BU98776.DTL

Web surfers have learned to ignore banner ads and click past pop-up ads. But 
they can't ignore the animated lizard that skitters across the Lycos.com home 
page with a Saturn sport utility vehicle in pursuit. The cartoon blocks the Web 
page from full view for 20 seconds.

That Saturn pitch, which has also run on ComedyCentral.com, ESPN.com, 
Weather.com and EOnline.com, exemplifies the latest generation in the 
increasingly intrusive evolution of online advertising. Visitors have no 
choice: They have to watch the advertisement until it disappears.

These new advertisements take three forms, all of which obscure the page the 
reader wants to view: floating ads like the Saturn lizard spot, which feature 
cartoon-style animation; so-called in-line interstitials that are essentially 
flashing full-page billboards; and full-page commercials.

Advertisers are willing to shell out as much as four times more for the 
floaters and commercials than they do for banners. They say the new ads give 
greater opportunity for creativity. And their virtual inescapability is a major 
plus. But while surfers may not like the more aggressive salesmanship, they'd 
better get used to it, analysts said.

"People are learning by watching all these online services go out of business 
that, well, somebody has got to pay for this stuff," said Jonathan Gaw, an 
analyst for IDC, a market research firm. "The more intrusive the ad the better, 
from the advertiser's perspective."

So it would seem, judging by the dozens of examples now on the Web. At 
Playboy.com, viewers have to watch a 25-second Jack Daniel's whiskey ad before 
entering the site. Enlarged images of microscopic cells partially veil the 
online encyclopedia Britannica.com in an ad for Norton antivirus software. And 
on SportingNews.com, two basketball players and a runner holding a flag sprint 
across the home page for 12 seconds in a pitch for Planters peanuts.

ANNOYING FOR WEB USERS

Not surprisingly, consumers are starting to complain.

"These ads are an in-your-face annoyance that you can't miss," said Gary 
Ruskin, executive director for Commercial Alert, a group co-founded by Ralph 
Nadar that opposes the proliferation of all kinds of advertising. "One wonders 
whether Internet users are going to be bombarded with so many ads that they use 
the Internet less."

These new ads, which began showing up within the past year, make up less than 5 
percent of all online advertising, analysts said. But they agreed that the new 
sales pitches are picking up steam.

"They're obviously starting to become a force," said Tamara Gaffney, an analyst 
for Nielsen/NetRatings, an online audience measurement firm.

Making consumers sit through advertising is nothing new in the media world. 
Television and radio shows are regularly interrupted by commercials, yet keep 
their audiences.

Online advertising has tended to have been subtler, however. Banner ads, which 
run across the top of a screen, and tower ads, which run down the side, have 
gotten bigger lately, but they don't usually interfere with viewing.

Pop-up ads, which spring up on computer screens in separate browser windows and 
sometimes block the site's pages, ushered in an era of intrusion around two 
years ago. However, pop-ups can usually be dispatched within a few seconds.

WAYS TO AVOID ADS

The new ads are harder to get rid of. Some of them carry delete buttons, but 
they're small and hard to find. In many cases, the ads lack a delete button 
altogether, leaving no alternative for consumers but to wait for them to play 
out and then vanish.

One way to get rid of these ads is to install ad-blocking software. But even 
that is no guarantee that every floating ad will be eliminated.

For example, AdSubtract, blocking software manufactured by Intermute, was 
initially useless against the pitch for Jack Daniel's whiskey on Playboy.com. 
However, the company adjusted the software after a reporter's telephone call, 
and the ad no longer appeared.

"We started seeing these new kinds of ads about nine months ago and immediately 
got to work adjusting our software," said Ed English, chief executive for 
Intermute. "We always have to work to keep up with the latest technology they 
use."

Gerry Eramo, assistant general manager for interactive media services for 
Panasonic, said the electronics manufacturer is pleased with the floating ads 
it has run on Rivals.com, a sports Web site. One of the advertisements featured 
a cartoon athlete catching a football thrown to him and then crashing into a 
high definition television.

"It really does break through the clutter as long as you're careful in who you 
are showing 

Argentina, Australia and Canada (and US foreign investment)

[Charles Brown]

 Argentina, Australia and Canada (and US foreign investment)
by Bill Rosenberg

-clip-

Nice synthesis of these threads, Bill.


Profits aside, two features of FDI which seem to clearly differentiate developed
and developing countries (in the context of the US foreign investment thread,
imperial vs neo-colonies) appear to be the balance between inward and outward
investment stock (biased towards outward for developed countries; overwhelmingly
inward for developing



CB: Might this be termed "export of capital "  ?

Re: ads

[Michael Perelman]

A cheap program, Adsubtract, eliminates all the adds.  Very efficient.

On Fri, Apr 19, 2002 at 08:41:14AM -0700, Devine, James wrote:
> gadalmightee, the on-line ads are getting obnoxious. Today, looking at the
> on-line version of BUSINESS WEEK, I see this damn animation showing acrobats
> doing tricks -- between my eyes and the text I wanted to read. 
> 
> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
> 

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

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

FW: Spielberg to direct feature based on Palestinian Uprising

[Forstater, Mathew]

Title: FW: Spielberg to direct feature based on Palestinian Uprising






Bogus, as far as I know.  So…for entertainment only.



Spielberg to direct feature based on Palestinian Uprising

 April 16 2002 at 12:47 AM 

 The Hollywood Reporter (no login)

 Spielberg to direct feature based on Palestinian Uprising

 Fri Apr 12, 2:25 AM ET

 By Scott Tom Smittey

 LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- In an announcement from

 Dream Works, Director Steven Spielberg announced that his latest

 project documents the current uprising of Palestinians in the

 Occupied West Bank and Gaza (Intifada).

 Spielberg, who has previously documented the horrors of the Holocaust

 in Shindler's List and World World II in the HBO series

 Band of Brothers , hopes that his new project would break the

 silence on a subject that until now has been taboo.

 In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter Spielberg said:"As an

 American Director who also happens to be Jewish, I can no longer stay

 silent about what the Israelis and the Zionist movement have been

 doing in the name of Judaism and with our tax money." He added

 "For years, the Hollywood community know to embrace progressive

 issues has been reluctant to tackle the issue of Palestine for fear

 of reprisal by what is perceived as a blind Jewish support to Israel

 in Hollywood. This needs to change; the sad history of the holocaust

 is being repeated again in Palestine at the hands of those who claim

 to do it in the name of Judaism. We should not remain silent."

 The project is sure to create a huge controversy in an industry that

 has been known to shun any pro-Palestinian activities. Actress

 Vanessa Redgrave was all but blacklisted from the Hollywood system

 after speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights in the seventies.

 A Dream Works spokesman declined to comment, saying he had not seen

 a copy of the project brief.

Re: re: profit rates

[Max Sawicky]

I've worked with BEA people in the past.  A friend of mine in
Gov refers to them as "righteous technicians."  They are
resolutely without political bias in their work.  All of their
procedures are vetted by panels of outside experts.

Without doubt, you can spot all sorts of problems in
their work.  But I would be willing to bet that you would
not be able to arrive at a better way of doing it, given
the same resources and data that are available to them.
This is probably the best sausage you can get, given
the ingredients.

One of my own truisms about the Gov, based on my own
admittedly limited experience in it, is that however crazy
something may seem from the outside (with reference
to bureaucratic procedures), there is always a good
underlying reason for it, and equally good reasons for
not doing it some other way.  There is rationality at
the micro level, more often than not.  Irrationality
emerges at the macro level, or it is injected by
elected officials or their appointees.

mbs


> I would like to expand on what Daniel said.  The problem with the 
> BEA accounting
> is that it presumes that depreciation follows a preset, regular pattern
> regardless of changing economic conditions.  In addition, the 
> depreciation rates
> apply to broad ranges of capital goods.

Swedish Labor Market Question -- Dennis Collentine are you there

[Michael Perelman]

I asked Doug Henwood a week or so ago if the Swedish system of
retraining workers still existed?  He thought that it did.  This article
seems to suggest that it might not.

"Temporary Work in Turbulent Times: The Swedish Experience"

   BY:  BERTIL HOLMLUND
   Uppsala University
   Department of Economics
   CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo
   Institute for Economic Research)
DONALD STORRIE
   Gothenburg University (Goteborg Universitet)
   Department of Economics

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=298096

Other Electronic Document Delivery:
http://www.CESifo.de
SSRN only offers technical support for papers
downloaded from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection
location. When URLs wrap, you must copy and paste
them into your browser eliminating all spaces.

Paper ID:  CESifo Working Paper Series No. 671; Uppsala
University, Dept. of Economics Working Paper 2002:1
 Date:  February 2002

  Contact:  BERTIL HOLMLUND
Email:  Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
   Postal:  Uppsala University
Department of Economics
P.O. Box 513
SE-75120 Uppsala,SWEDEN
Phone:  +46 18 471 1122
  Fax:  +46 18 471 1478
  Co-Auth:  DONALD STORRIE
Email:  Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
   Postal:  Gothenburg University (Goteborg Universitet)
Department of Economics
Box 640
SE 405 30 Gothenborg,SWEDEN

ABSTRACT:
  Sweden has experienced a substantial increase in temporary work
  over the 1990s, with most of the rise occurring during a severe
  macroeconomic recession with mass unemployment. By the early
  1990s, workers on fixed-term contracts accounted for 10 percent
  of the number of employees; by the end of the decade they
  accounted for 16 percent. The paper presents the Swedish
  institutional setting, documents basic stylised facts about
  fixed-term contracts, and discusses the causes of their
  increased prevalence. Our analysis reveals that open-ended and
  temporary employment exhibit strikingly different cyclical
  behaviour with temporary employment being more volatile. A
  recession is associated with an initial decline in temporary
  employment followed by a sharp rise from the trough to the end
  of the recession. We argue that the severe recession of the
  1990s is a major factor behind the rise in temporary work in
  Sweden. Adverse macroeconomic conditions make firms more prone
  to offer fixed-term contracts and workers more willing to accept
  them.

  Keywords: Temporary Jobs, Labor Market Dynamics, Unemployment




--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901

ads

[Devine, James]

gadalmightee, the on-line ads are getting obnoxious. Today, looking at the
on-line version of BUSINESS WEEK, I see this damn animation showing acrobats
doing tricks -- between my eyes and the text I wanted to read. 

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

RE: Re: FW: Quote of the day

[Forstater, Mathew]

Apologies for sending the quote before seeing the correction, and thanks
to Louis for pointing it out.  At least I didn't send the one about
Spielberg making a movie on the Intifadah!

Re: re: profit rates

[Michael Perelman]

I would like to expand on what Daniel said.  The problem with the BEA accounting
is that it presumes that depreciation follows a preset, regular pattern
regardless of changing economic conditions.  In addition, the depreciation rates
apply to broad ranges of capital goods.

I do not doubt for a moment what Doug said about the BEA people being courteous
and intelligent.  The problem is that their task is impossible.  According to
economic theory, the value of the capital goods reflect their future earning
potential, which is unknown.  So the BEA reverts to past depreciation rates and
assumes them to follow a predetermined pattern.

I am always struck by the way economists pay close attention to analyzing
residuals in their econometrics, but rarely pay much attention to their data
sources, except when they need to make "adjustments" to improve their
statistical results.


> Daniel Davies writes:> The assets of WorldCom and Global Crossing are
> worth exactly what they were worth before the meltdown, as stock market
> movements don't mean much to cables in the ground.  The fact that the
> stock market's assessment of the future excess returns to be earned from
> renting out those cables no longer provide a viable basis for making
> interest payments don't change the capital employed for the purpose of the
> BEA numbers.<

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901

BATA SHOES (stems from Argentina, Australia and Canada)

[Charles Jannuzi]

Louis P. pointed out that shoe production in SE Asia for western companies
is often done through subcontractors. Bata Shoes has production and retail
worldwide and it tries to sell shoes locally based on the income of the avg.
worker so as to keep the shoes affordable. Everytime I go to Malaysia I pick
up a pair of Bata sandals for use back in Japan (where no one sells Bata).
Interestingly Bata is consistently rated a better company than Nike or
Reebok or Adidas, but it becomes most exploitative when it is producing for
such companies as those.

---
http://www.nikeworkers.org/reebok/compare.html

How does Reebok add up?

1. How does Reebok compare with other MNCs or footwear companies?

Since Reebok "contracts out" all shoe-making operations, the treatment of
the workers by the contractors is pretty much the same, whether it is Nike,
Reebok, adidas or Fila. It is a model based on the "lowest wage/least
rights" formula that concentrated almost all shoe production in Indonesia,
China and (later) Vietnam.

Another model -- NOT contracting out -- offers a different result. Bata
(based in Toronto) runs its own factories which produce cheap sneakers for
local markets. Ten years ago, the Bata factory in Jakarta had already had a
union contract for eighteen years and was paying triple the minimum wage.
Ironically, when Bata started to produce expensive shoes for export (for
Reebok and others) around 1993, a two-tier system developed and workers
making expensive shoes for export were treated as "contract" (temporary)
workers with far inferior conditions and lower wages. Still, a 1999 survey
done with the Urban Community Mission showed that there was less abusive
treatment in the 2 Bata factories, compared to the factories producing
exclusively for export. See full report of interviews with 4,000 Indonesian
workers:

Click here to find out more

There is another "mixed" model, represented by companies such as U.S.-based
New Balance and Saucony (Hyde Athletic). While both companies produce mostly
in China, a significant amount of production takes place in the U.S. This
means that some sports shoe workers earn more in two hours than Indonesians
can earn in a forty-hour week! (Converse also continued to make some sport
shoes in the U.S., until mid-2001.)

2. How does the cost/profit of a pair of Reeboks break down? Relation labour
costs/publicity?

Though the sports shoe business is highly competitive, profits are quite
good. It must be remembered that profits are taken by the contractor that
makes the shoes, by Reebok and by the retailer. The contractors that produce
for Reebok (mostly Taiwanese and Korean companies) have been very successful
for the past twenty to twenty-five years -- especially since the production
moved to China and Indonesia around 1987. Several years ago, the investment
giant Goldman Sachs bought a huge stake in Yue Yuen (one of these
contractors), giving an indication of profitability. These profits are
derived from a selling cost of around eight dollars (the labor cost being
just about one dollar). Last year, a Wall Street Journal article quoted a
Yue Yuen manager asking NOT to be quoted saying that Yue Yuen's profits were
better than the buyers' (Reebok or Nike) profits.

Next, profits are taken by Reebok. Gross margin before taxes is pretty
standard at 9%. The spending aimed at increasing sales -- the marketing
costs of shoe companies -- has been estimated at about ten percent of final
sales price, by Professor Robert J. Ross at Clark University. This is more
than TEN times what companies such as Wal-Mart spend on marketing and
promotion, Prof. Ross says. In addition, Reebok was severely criticized by
the pension fund managers for California's public employees ("Calpers") for
the ridiculously high salary paid to CEO, Paul Fireman during most of the
90s.

The standard practice of retailers such as FootLocker is to mark up the
shoes 100% over what it pays to Reebok. That is, a $50 pair of shoes will
sell for $100. If it does not sell for "full retail", it is discounted, of
course. During the sneaker industry's "boom" years (1992- 97), FootLocker
expanded rapidly, going from 2,000 shops to something like 7,000.

3. Who buys Reeboks, where and why? What alternatives are there to buying
Reeboks?

Currently, Reebok sells about 15% of the sports shoes sold in the world ・
about the same as adidas. Nike has well over 40% of the world-wide market.

Reebok had its greatest success with an "aerobics shoe" for women in the
late 1980s ・for a short time, the company was ahead of Nike. Since that
time, performance has been pretty dismal. Last year, a Boston Globe
columnist called Fireman "the worst CEO in America", in a column which
reviewed the company's performance over the past decade.

Reebok sales are strong in the U.S. and W. Europe; the demographic skews
slightly older than Nike痴. Alternatives for running shoes: the U.S.
magazine, "Consumer Reports" rated some New Balance and Saucony shoe

US foreign investment

[Charles Brown]

 US foreign investment
by Doug Henwood
18 April 2002 19:43 UTC 


Doug:
It's widely believed that foreign investment is largely about chasing 
low wages. But most FDI is targeted at high-income countries. It's 
also widely believed that imperial investment is the source of 
superprofits that power the whole system; that doesn't seem to be 
borne out by the data either.

^^^

CB: Some uses of the term "superprofits" do not confine it to those derived from 
foreign investment. It may also refer to extra profits derived from racist 
discrimination within the U.S. , as well as monopoly profits of all types , whether 
foreignly or domestically derived.

However, I agree that superprofits from superexploitation of lower waged workers is 
also alleged. 

 I am not clear on whether the fact is only that the great bulk of foreign direct 
investment is in relatively high wage countries or whether the rate of profit is 
higher from domestic investments than investments in lower income countries as well.  

re: profit rates

[Devine, James]

Daniel Davies writes:> The assets of WorldCom and Global Crossing are
worth exactly what they were worth before the meltdown, as stock market
movements don't mean much to cables in the ground.  The fact that the
stock market's assessment of the future excess returns to be earned from
renting out those cables no longer provide a viable basis for making
interest payments don't change the capital employed for the purpose of the
BEA numbers.<

yes. It's important to remember that how one calculates the "rate of return"
depends on what one's purposes are; not all measures of the rate of return
are good for all purposes.

The forward-looking rate of return would be the _internal_ rate of return,
the interest rate that sets the present discounted value of net profits
equal to zero. To some extent, this is the rate of return based on
stock-market valuation, since the stock market prices are based on guesses
of future net profits (not very good ones, of course). A firm will have a
different estimate, based on its projected costs, revenues, etc.

The other rates of return that people have been discussing have other
purposes. I find that the BEA estimates of the profit rate, for example, to
be pretty well correlated with other estimates (such as those of Dumenil and
Levy), while having something to say about the validity of theories such as
that falling profit rates lead to stagnation and/or inflation (or both).
That is, the data work in practice, though of course we can't put too much
faith in them. 

One of the basic rules of empirical data is that they're never very good. If
you examine the calculation of the "real wage," for example, there are lots
of caveats. People like Boskin take these caveats and run with them, trying
to figure out ways to revise the data to make them look better (either
empirically or in terms of the orthodox economics ideology or both). But
that doesn't say we should give up on statistics. Rather, it says we have to
be humble in using them and to be very conscious of the econometrics of
"errors in variables." 

A non-statistical or anti-statistical approach unfortunately eschews any
sense of context. Everything is a special case, with no connection or
comparison with other special cases. Everything ends up being a bunch of
anecdotes. And we know how bad anecdotal evidence is: my wife lost (and is
keeping off) 40 pounds by going to a hypnotist, but that doesn't mean I can
do so. 

There are other ways of putting things in context, such as saying "all
countries in Africa have a similar social relationship to the rich countries
of the capitalist core" (the imperialist nations). But unless there's some
sort of statistical meaning to that relationship, it ends up being too
abstract.

Statistics shouldn't be rejected, but should instead be treated carefully,
and as complementary to other knds of evidence. 
JD

Re: Re: Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada

[Michael Pugliese]

   April 5, 1998

THE SWISS, THE GOLD, AND THE DEAD
By Jean Ziegler.
Translated by John Brownjohn.
322 pp. New York:
Harcourt Brace & Company. $27.

(Review)

Gnomes and Nazis
An account of Switzerland's role in financing Germany's war machine.
By PETER GROSE

(Peter Grose, a research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is 
the biographer of Allen Dulles. He is completing a book on covert action in 
East Europe during the cold war.)


The day of reckoning for mighty Switzerland has been long in coming. In the 
manner of a post-modern Zola, an angry man of letters, Jean Ziegler, has thrown 
down his "J'accuse" with "The Swiss, the Gold, and the Dead," and brigades of 
auditors, financiers, factors, historians, lawyers and publicists are trying to 
cope with it.

During the cold war, successive Swiss generations wrote off the ambiguities of 
the World War II era as the time-honored way of neutrality. The enormous self-
enrichment that grew from the financing of Hitler's war machine came, it was 
always said, through Switzerland's normal banking acumen. The disappearance 
into Swiss public and private coffers of assets seized by the Nazis from Jews 
and other victims was beneath polite discussion. For half a century, 
Switzerland lived as a nation in denial.

But the country has been set aflame by this modest volume, published last year 
by a petulant professor of sociology at Geneva University, a longtime Member of 
Parliament and a socialist, too left wing for the bankers' tastes yet Swiss 
through and through. Readers of English can now savor his polemic for 
themselves (in a fine translation from the German by John Brownjohn).

"The awesome, world-encompassing financial power wielded today by the major 
Swiss banks is founded on wartime profits," Ziegler writes. And, he says, the 
Swiss public, those who benefited directly or indirectly from these profits, 
accept this outcome with pride and an absolutely clear conscience.

Ziegler's fundamental aim is one that no board of auditors would presume to 
undertake: "to analyze sociological factors and human behavior, complicities 
and constraints." His is a book about the Swiss people, his own countrymen, a 
"nation of guilty innocents and innocent guilty," consumed in a "mania for 
self-righteousness, guiltlessness and perpetual purity."

"What never fails to fascinate me about Swiss business tycoons, industrial 
magnates and bankers is their combination of great professional ability and 
infinite political naivete," Ziegler declares. "We Swiss are 'available,' as 
Bernese political jargon still calls it. We have no political opinions, we 
merely offer our services."

Ziegler is no stranger to the Swiss banking community. His scholarly works over 
three decades have dwelt on capitalist exploitation in the third world. More 
than 20 years ago, he turned his acerbic scrutiny inward, to lift the story of 
his own society "out from under the stifling and alienating blanket of fog 
which is produced by the ruling discourse and produces the silence and 
uniformity of consent." This first tentative foray was published in 1976, but 
attracted little notice in or out of Switzerland; an English edition entitled 
"Switzerland Exposed" found no American publisher.

But in the changed mood of 1997 Ziegler's latest broadside has provoked anguish 
among the Swiss. At best they are astonished; more often they are outraged. 
Geneva television held a three-hour town meeting on the issues raised by 
Ziegler's book; the studio audience jeered its author and applauded his 
critics. "The Foreign Minister instructed all our embassies to persuade 
'friendly' journalists to denigrate the book in the foreign press," Ziegler 
writes in an afterword for this American edition.

He also reports on a long-scheduled parliamentary debate about "dormant Jewish 
bank accounts" that was canceled in September 1996, a few moments before it was 
to start. The presiding officer "seems puzzled by my indignation," says 
Ziegler, one of those listed to speak in the debate.

"His rosy face registers profound surprise, his response strikes a reproachful 
note: 'You surely don't want us to make an exhibition of ourselves in front of 
all these foreigners?'" The press galleries were indeed crowded with American, 
French, British and German correspondents; the Ambassadors from Israel and the 
United States were settled in the diplomatic gallery. They were incredulous as 
word spread of the cancellation.

The issues that have to be aired have mounted far beyond the capacity of any 
single debate or author. Even as Ziegler was writing his book, the British 
Foreign Office put out a hastily assembled review of evidence from its official 
archives. In May 1997 the United States weighed in with a more thorough 
investigation led by Stuart Eizenstat, then an Under Secretary of Commerce; 
disputing Eizenstat's conclusions (which largely coincided with Ziegler's), the 
Swiss Government nonetheless d

Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada

[Charles Jannuzi]

LP:
>
> Perhaps we have a different definition of imperialism. I don't regard
> US bullying and imperialism as the same thing. Switzerland and Sweden
> have never bullied anybody in recent years, but they are imperialist
> powers. US imperialism rules the roost, but it has junior partners
> including Australia and New Zealand. One of the unfortunate
> consequences of the "humanitarian intervention" in East Timor is that
> it has legitimized the imperial ambitions of the Oceania powers.
>
> --
> Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on

I guess my point was that exploiter can easily become the exploited when the
US involved. As any US citizen should know.

C. Jannuzi

RE: Re: Re: RE: RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Davies, Daniel]

To be fair, although there are known serious problems with depreciation, the
WorldCom and Global Crossing affaires aren't really relevant to the
statistics Doug quoted.  The assets of WorldCom and Global Crossing are
worth exactly what they were worth before the meltdown, as stock market
movements don't mean much to cables in the ground.  The fact that the stock
market's assessment of the future excess returns to be earned from renting
out those cables no longer provide a viable basis for making interest
payments don't change the capital employed for the purpose of the BEA
numbers.

dd


>Gene, this is one of the great secrets of economics.  Of course, everyone
knows,
>as Jim mentioned, that we have no theory of depreciation, but we go on
pretending
>that out data is of good quality.

>Eugene Coyle wrote:

>> How do you adjust for the change in "capital" in telecom companies,
before and
>> after the melt-down?  What's the denominator?
>>
>> World Com
>> Global Crossing
>

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

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



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Re: Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada

[Michael Pugliese]

The CIA in Australia, Part 1
... and individuals in Australia. Today, in part 1 ... operations against the 
Whitlam government
through the ... for covert actions. Covert Action often means the ...
http://www.serendipity.magnet.ch/cia/cia_oz/cia_oz1.htm - 24k - Cached - 
Similar pages

The CIA in Australia, Part 2
... was involved in covert activities against the ... industrial upheaval in 
Australia leading
virtually to ... centre of the action was Whitlam Cabinet Minister Clyde ...
http://www.serendipity.magnet.ch/cia/cia_oz/cia_oz2.htm

http://www.pir.org/main2/Gough_Whitlam.html
WHITLAM GOUGH
Australia 1972-1984

Agee,P. On the Run. 1987 (197)
Blum,W. The CIA: A Forgotten History. 1986 (278-83)
Canadian Covert Activity Analyst 1984-W (9)
Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1988-03-25 (36-8)
Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 (303-7)
CounterSpy 1982-01 (54)
CounterSpy 1982-08 (4)
CounterSpy 1984-02 (46-8)
Covert Action Information Bulletin 1982-#16 (53)
Covert Action Information Bulletin 1987-#28 (7)
Freney,D. Get Gough! 1985 (54-62)
Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (4-6)
Jeffreys-Jones,R. The CIA and American Democracy. 1989 (206-7)
Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (16, 127-42)
Leigh,D. The Wilson Plot. 1988 (xii, 230, 232-3)
Lernoux,P. In Banks We Trust. 1984 (72)
Mother Jones 1984-03 (14-20, 44-5, 52)
Parapolitics/USA 1982-03-31 (14)
Seagrave,S. The Marcos Dynasty. 1988 (370-1)
Stich,R. Russell,T.C. Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal. 1995 (93-4)
Texas Observer 1991-09-20 (11-4)
Thomas,K. Keith,J. The Octopus. 1996 (42, 90-1)
Wall Street Journal 1982-08-24 (22)
Washington Post 1985-01-01 (A20)

pages cited this search: 83

Order hard copy of these pages

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The names below are mentioned on the listed pages with the name





WHITLAM GOUGH
Click on a name for a new proximity search:

ANGLETON JAMES JESUS

Blum,W. The CIA: A Forgotten History. 1986 (279)
Freney,D. Get Gough! 1985 (55-57)
Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (6)
Jeffreys-Jones,R. The CIA and American Democracy. 1989 (207)
Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (132-133)
Mother Jones 1984-03 (14 16 19)
Parapolitics/USA 1982-03-31 (14)

ANTHONY J DOUGLAS

Blum,W. The CIA: A Forgotten History. 1986 (280)
Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1988-03-25 (37)
Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 (303)
CounterSpy 1982-01 (54)
Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (4 6)
Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (135)
Mother Jones 1984-03 (20)
Texas Observer 1991-09-20 (13)

API DISTRIBUTORS INC

Stich,R. Russell,T.C. Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal. 1995 (94)

ASIA FOUNDATION

Blum,W. The CIA: A Forgotten History. 1986 (283)
Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (4)

ASKIN ROBERT

Parapolitics/USA 1982-03-31 (14)

ASTON JOHN

Wall Street Journal 1982-08-24 (22)

AUSTRALIAN SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 (303-304)
Leigh,D. The Wilson Plot. 1988 (232-233)

AUSTRALIA CIA IN

Blum,W. The CIA: A Forgotten History. 1986 (278-283)
Canadian Covert Activity Analyst 1984-W (9)
CounterSpy 1982-01 (54)
CounterSpy 1982-08 (4)
CounterSpy 1984-02 (46-48)
Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (4-6)
Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (127-142)
Mother Jones 1984-03 (20 44-45 52)
Parapolitics/USA 1982-03-31 (14)

BARBOUR PETER

Freney,D. Get Gough! 1985 (55)
Leigh,D. The Wilson Plot. 1988 (232)
Mother Jones 1984-03 (15-16)

BARNETT HARVEY

CounterSpy 1984-02 (48)

BEAZLEY DONALD E

Stich,R. Russell,T.C. Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal. 1995 (94)

BLACK EDWIN F (GEN)

Thomas,K. Keith,J. The Octopus. 1996 (91)
Wall Street Journal 1982-08-24 (22)

BOYCE CHRISTOPHER JOHN

Blum,W. The CIA: A Forgotten History. 1986 (283)
Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 (305-307)
Covert Action Information Bulletin 1982-#16 (53)
Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (4)
Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (130-131)

BRANDT WILLY

Leigh,D. The Wilson Plot. 1988 (230 232)

BROWN COLIN (ASIO)

Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (129)

BRUNN HERBERT THEODORE

Texas Observer 1991-09-20 (14)

BUSH GEORGE W

Texas Observer 1991-09-20 (11)

BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL

CounterSpy 1984-02 (46)

CAIRNS JIM

Intelligence/Parapolitics (Paris) 1984-06 (6)
Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (134)

CAMERON CLYDE

Leigh,D. The Wilson Plot. 1988 (232)

CANADA CIA IN

Canadian Covert Activity Analyst 1984-W (9)

CARROLL ALAN

CounterSpy 1984-02 (46)

CARTER LEO

Wall Street Journal 1982-08-24 (22)

CHAVEZ RICARDO

Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1988-03-25 (38)

CITY NATIONAL BANK (MIAMI)

Stich,R. Russell,T.C. Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal. 1995 (94)

CLINE RAY STEINER

Corn,D. Blond Ghost. 1994 (306-307)
Covert Action Information Bulletin 1982-#16 (53)
Kwitny,J. The Crimes of Patriots. 1987 (133-134)
Thomas,K. Keith,J. The Octopus. 1996 (90)

COCKE ERLE JR

Wall Street Journal 1982-08-24 (22)

COLBY WILLIAM EGAN

Covert Action Information Bulletin 1982-#16 (53)
Freney,D. Get Gough! 1985 (56-57)
Texas Observ

Prison monopoly threatens Michigan jobs

[Charles Brown]

Prison monopoly threatens Michigan jobs

http://detnews.com/2002/editorial/0204/16/a13-466062.htm

Tuesday, April 16, 2002
By Lawrence W. Reed / Special to The Detroit News

Imagine a company that pays its workers as little as 25 cents an hour and
often charges more for its goods than any of its competitors, even though it
pays no taxes or dividends. The marketplace would put it out of business
before it got off the ground, probably before government regulators even
found out about it.

Yet such a firm does exist. It's not a private one operating in a free
market. It's a half-billion-dollar government enterprise that wants to get
bigger, at the expense of taxpayers and the jobs of workers in the private
sector. Welcome to the world of Federal Prison Industries Inc., or FPI -- a
unit of the U.S. Justice Department.

More than 22,000 inmates in more than 100 of the nation's correctional
facilities make up the captive work force of FPI. They make clothing,
electronic and vehicle components, industrial items and dozens of other
products including one of crucial significance to the economy of west
Michigan -- office furniture.

The idea of convicts working at something while serving their time is a
laudable one. States often employ them to maintain and refurbish the very
facilities that house them, or to produce goods and services for sale to
each other, or to keep road sides free of litter.

But FPI is controversial because there's much more to it than prisoners
keeping busy and out of trouble.

FPI enjoys preferential treatment in government contracts. Indeed, the
status it enjoys would more aptly be called a "monopoly."

Federal law since 1934 designates FPI as a mandatory supplier to the
federal government, which means that federal agencies must purchase from
FPI, and private firms that sell the same or similar products are cut out,
unless FPI itself grants a waiver.

This monopoly status puts FPI in an extraordinary position. It determines
whether its products for sale and its own delivery schedule actually meet
the needs of the purchasing agency. If a federal agency wants something, and
FPI makes it, FPI sets the terms. Agencies are even prevented from
conducting market research to find out if private industry can supply them
with a better and cheaper product.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., points out that "many federal agencies
have been forced to purchase products that cost more, and perform less well,
than products that are available to the rest of us in the commercial
marketplace." He cites the General Accounting Office (GAO), which compared
FPI prices for 20 representative products with prices for identical or
comparable products in the catalogues of private vendors.

The GAO found that for almost half of the products reviewed, FPI charged
a higher price than most or all of the private vendors -- which, unlike FPI,
must pay taxes to governments, dividends to shareholders and market wages to
employees. When federal agencies made those costly purchases, they did so
with taxpayer dollars.

Such poor policies and practices do harm even to the federal government's
core responsibility -- providing efficient and effective national defense.
The U.S. Navy testified that what it buys from FPI is "inferior, costs more
and takes longer to procure" than comparable goods produced by the private
sector. When the armed services have to spend more than necessary for desks
or electronic components for weapons systems, they have less to spend for
planes or bullets.

FPI's heavy-handedness has hurt companies and workers who sell goods to
the government. For example: An Alabama company supplying military field
jackets to the armed services was forced to close a plant and fire 300
employees when FPI decided to dramatically increase its share of that
market.

Without congressional intervention, FPI is poised for significant
expansion. It now claims, without citing any statutory authority, that it
can offer its goods in the private marketplace to firms that do business
with the government. FPI also claims it can sell services (like packaging or
data entry) in the private marketplace without limitation.

West Michigan furniture makers, already reeling from a soft economy, are
rightfully up in arms about Federal Prison Industries. More than a third of
what prisoners make is furniture, and the agency's policies and plans
represent an unjustifiable threat to the health of the industry and
thousands of west Michigan jobs.

Legislation offered by Congressman Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland, would
address the problem by requiring FPI to compete for federal contracts and
prohibiting the agency from selling in the private marketplace. His bill, HR
1577, would also enhance public oversight of (and tighten the standards for)
any future FPI expansion plans. It is set for a vote in the House Judiciary
Committee later this month.

Unfair competition from privileged agencies of g

Re: Re: RE: RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Doug Henwood]

Eugene Coyle wrote:

>How do you adjust for the change in "capital" in telecom companies, before and
>after the melt-down?  What's the denominator?

Gee, better contact the folks at the Bureau of Economic Analysis. I 
bet they never thought of this!

In fact, I'm sure they've never thought of many of the objections 
brought up on PEN-L over the last several days. They are, after all, 
just a bunch of third-rate public sector bean counters. A handy 
reference list of people who need an education can be found at 
. The person who handles the 
capital stock estimates is Leonard Loebach, at 202-606-9764. If he's 
like most of them, he'll probably answer his own phone and be happy 
to talk to any knowledgeable, friendly caller.

Doug

Re: Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada

[Louis Proyect]

On Fri, 19 Apr 2002 22:46:00 +0900, Charles Jannuzi wrote:
>US policies toward New Zealand came damn close
>when NZ objected to US ships not confirming
>whether or not they carried nukes in NZ waters
>and harbors.
>In the case of Australia, the US has taken the
>place of GB as key 'military ally' and you could
>argue the post-war US-
>Australia relationship has become neo-imperial.

Perhaps we have a different definition of imperialism. I don't regard 
US bullying and imperialism as the same thing. Switzerland and Sweden 
have never bullied anybody in recent years, but they are imperialist 
powers. US imperialism rules the roost, but it has junior partners 
including Australia and New Zealand. One of the unfortunate 
consequences of the "humanitarian intervention" in East Timor is that 
it has legitimized the imperial ambitions of the Oceania powers.

-- 
Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 04/19/2002

Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org

Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada

[Charles Jannuzi]

LP:

>>But I wouldn't compare what happened in Australia to what happened to
Nicaragua, however. The USA could have lived with a Labor government in
Australia. It was on the other hand ready to break laws and risk a
constitutional crisis to topple a government that it feared would become
another Cuba.<<

US policies toward New Zealand came damn close when NZ objected to US ships
not confirming whether or not they carried nukes in NZ waters and harbors.
In the case of Australia, the US has taken the place of GB as key 'military
ally' and you could argue the post-war US-Australia relationship has become
neo-imperial.
I found it interesting that a US firm so closely linked to the US imperium
should be operating the immigrant prisoner camps in Australia. But then
again, it was also interesting that this security firm got sold to a Danish
company (which I know nothing about, though).

Charles Jannuzi

Re: Re: Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada (and US foreign investment)

[Louis Proyect]

On Sat, 20 Apr 2002 00:37:28 +1200, Bill Rosenberg wrote:
>
>It's difficult to say what profit figures would
>show. The ability of TNCs to transfer their
>profits from one country another for tax,
>political or internal reasons must make the
>profit attributed to their operations in any one
>country arbitrary to a degree.

It is absolutely necessary to dispense with the idea that imperialism 
is identical to multinationals seeking out countries where labor is 
cheap and profits are high. Imperialism is operative even when there 
is not a single US corporation or subsidiary on foreign soil.

Take the petroleum industry, for example, an essential piece in the 
jigsaw puzzle of imperialism. Saudi Arabian and Venezuelan oil wells 
are owned by the government, but are forced to deal with 
Anglo-American corporations that market the finished product. With 
pliant governments, the US can continue to bleed these countries dry 
even if it is not operating on foreign soil.

This is also true of agro-export. For example, Colombia capitalists 
own all of the plantations but are forced to deal with much bigger 
and more powerful US marketing operations that buy and process the 
raw beans. In general, third world cartels for products like coffee 
beans, etc. are at a much bigger disadvantage than oil exporters, who 
can at least cause shocks to the world system if they cut back on 
production. Higher coffee prices might cause grumbling at Starbucks, 
but they won't bring the advanced countries' economy crashing down.

Finally, many maquilas are typically not owned directly by US 
corporations or subsidiaries. Nike would prefer to line up local 
subcontractors who it can then blame for abuses to the work-force.

This, of course, is not to say that North American auto production in 
places like Mexico is driven by the need to compete with Korea and 
Japan. There is a drive to the bottom. However, to fully understand 
the operations of imperialism, you have to look at the full 
constellation of class relations not just multinational behavior.


-- 
Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 04/19/2002

Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org

Re: RE: Re: RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Louis Proyect]

On Fri, 19 Apr 2002 10:48:16 +0100, Davies, Daniel wrote:
>I take your point here (that is, if I understand
>you correctly as saying that we' re talking
>about imperialism rather than poverty per se
>here).  But would you have said the same thing
>about Spain twenty years ago?

No. Spain had a rather powerful economy that developed under Franco's 
protectionist brand of fascism in the 1950s, with auto manufacturing, 
etc. 

>But this indicator is also unreliable over time;
>it has certainly flipped in Ireland which is now
>full of Italian fund managers.

I have no idea what Italian fund managers in Ireland have to do with 
my point. It is not working overseas that I am calling attention to, 
but the need to leave one's country in order to survive. This is a 
south to north, periphery to core dynamic.

-- 
Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 04/19/2002

Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org

Re: Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada

[Louis Proyect]

On Fri, 19 Apr 2002 11:45:40 +0800, Grant Lee wrote:
>We have quite different understandings of what
>constitutes a "powerful revolution". In short, I
>think Marx was right in the first place: a
>_proletarian_ revolution has a much greater
>chance of success and longevity if it takes
>place (or begins) in a society with an
>"advanced" economy.

Unfortunately, there hasn't been much support for the idea of 
revolution in advanced countries since the end of WWII. For the 
foreseeable future, places like Argentina and Venezuela are on the 
front lines. In places such as these, anti-imperialist consciousness 
will fuel the proletarian revolution just as it did in Vietnam, Cuba, 
China and many other countries where victory was not achived.

>Well you might be interested to know that
>Australia probably has among the highest numbers
>of US diplomats per capita, at four US govt
>missions (Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth) in
>a country of 19 million. There is some evidence
>to support allegations of CIA involvement in the
>dismissal of Gough Whitlam as PM in 1975.

Yes, you can find out about this in the excellent "Iceman and the 
Falconer", a narrative about two US youths who spied for the Soviets. 
One of them worked at a top secret division of TRW where he learned 
about the anti-Whitlam conspiracy. But I wouldn't compare what 
happened in Australia to what happened to Nicaragua, however. The USA 
could have lived with a Labor government in Australia. It was on the 
other hand ready to break laws and risk a constitutional crisis to 
topple a government that it feared would become another Cuba.

>There are large companies owned by "third world"
>(however you want to define that) proprietors in
>both Australia and Canada.

It also rains in the desert occasionally.

>If it hasn't been clear yet, I don't think that
>the oppression of one _whole_ society by another
>_whole_ society exists. There is no real
>"universal" in this case. To me imperialism is
>(1) a question of degree and (2) only meaningful
>when it refers to a particular class or classes
>from one national society exploiting labour in
>another national society. (In fact Marx _never_
>used the word "imperialism" and did not
>distinguish between the logic of capital in
>metropolitan countries and in their empires,
>which is not to say the activities of capital in
>both were identical. cf Charles Barone, 1985,

In a letter to Marx, dated October 7, 1858, Engels wrote: "...The 
English proletariat is actually becoming more and more bourgeois, so 
that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming 
ultimately at the possession of a bourgeois aristocracy and a 
bourgeois proletariat alongside the bourgeoisie. For a nation which 
exploits the whole world this is of course to a certain extent 
justifiable." 

In a letter to Kautsky, dated September 12, 1882, Engels wrote: "You 
ask me what the English workers think about colonial policy. Well, 
exactly the same as they think about politics in general. There is no 
workers' party here, there are only Conservatives and 
Liberal-Radicals. and the workers gaily share the feast of England's 
monopoly of the world market and the colonies." 

From: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/oct/x01.htm

-- 
Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 04/19/2002

Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org

Re: Re: Argentina, Australia and Canada (and US foreign investment)

[Bill Rosenberg]

Ratios of inward and outward FDI stock to GDP, and FDI flows to gross fixed
capital formation are tabulated for most countries in the various World
Investment Reports of UNCTAD. They also calculate a "transnationality index" of
FDI host countries, which averages the four shares: FDI flows (as a percentage
of GFCF), FDI inward stocks as a percentage of GDP, value added of foreign
affiliates as a percentage of GDP, and employment of foreign affiliates as a
precentage of total employment. The developed countries which the 2000 report
tabulates (with New Zealand at the top!) average around 13%, and the tabulated
developing countries 14%.

Unfortunately they don't seem interested in tabulating profits!

It's difficult to say what profit figures would show. The ability of TNCs to
transfer their profits from one country another for tax, political or internal
reasons must make the profit attributed to their operations in any one country
arbitrary to a degree.

Even without deliberate transfer pricing, it is conceivable that (say) Nike
would put up with lower rates of profit in Indonesia because the manufacture of
its shoes is such a small part of the cost. Most of the profits may well be made
elsewhere in the chain of distribution and sale. I'm not saying that it
necessarily happens like that, but it is quite conceivable.

To say TNCs chase cheap labour is to oversimplify. Certainly that is an
important part of their motivation, but since around 76% of FDI was to developed
countries (in 1999) - and 90% of mergers and acquisitions - it isn't the whole
story. Other motivations include domination of their selected markets,
increasing scale for competitive reasons, and security of investment.

Profits aside, two features of FDI which seem to clearly differentiate developed
and developing countries (in the context of the US foreign investment thread,
imperial vs neo-colonies) appear to be the balance between inward and outward
investment stock (biased towards outward for developed countries; overwhelmingly
inward for developing); and greenfield vs mergers/acquisition investment (over
80% of FDI was M&As for all countries in 1999; but about one third of FDI to
developing countries).

Grant Lee remarks below that Singapore's "inward FDI is still  well above
outward FDI in this city-state where annual trade is also 160%  !!!  of GDP".
Singapore has unusually high FDI, but its high level of trade is no mystery.
Like Hong Kong, it has a huge entrepot function, with high levels of
"re-exports" - importing for the purpose of re-exporting with little or no work
done on the goods on the way through. In 1999 Hong Kong (popn about 6 million)
had the world's 10th largest international trading volume (mainland China was
9th). In 2000 88.5% of its exports were re-exports, a third of these to mainland
China. Its foreign investment is even more remarkable (and
statistics-distorting!): with the exceptions of China and its former colonial
master, the U.K., the top-ranked sources and destinations of Hong Kong
investment are the tax havens of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands,
and Bermuda (1998 figures). The ownership of this investment is certainly
elsewhere, including the U.S., Europe, Hong Kong itself, and China.

Bill


Grant Lee wrote:
> 
> Bill Burgess <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > country inward FDI stock/GDPoutward FDI stock/GDP
> > Canada  23.9%   26.9%
> > Australia   28.117.1
> > UK  23.335.9
> > France  11.715.9
> > Singapore   85.856.1
> > Malaysia67.022.7
> > Indonesia   73.32.4
> > Argentina   13.95.4
> > Brazil  17.11.4
> 
> Interesting figures. I haven't had time to look at the comparable figures
> for other countries. In any case they don't prove a permanent/structural
> exclusion from "imperial" activity. For example, what about Hong Kong
> (pre-1997, not that it is yet a homogenous part of China)? The last I heard
> there was hardly any manufacturing left in Hong Kong because proprietors had
> shifted operations to the mainland. South Africa? Saudi Arabia?
> 
> > Note the
> > obvious difference in rates of outward FDI, plus the fact that most FDI by
> > Canada, France, etc. is in other imperialist countries while most FDI by
> > Indonesia, Argentina, etc. is in fellow semi-colonies.
> 
> Every bourgeoisie has to start somewhere. For example --- and I'm not going
> to revisit the complexities and vitriol of the "Kenya Debate" --- but I just
> came across this on the web:
> 
> Andrea Goldstein and Njuguna S. Ndung'u, OECD Development Centre Technical
> Paper No. 171: "New Forms Of Co-Operation And Integration In Emerging Africa
> Regional Integration Experience, March 2001.
> 
> quote: (p. 16) Table 5. Import Sources (1997)*
> 
> (From)Kenya Tanzan

"What The Fuck Are You Saying" How The Left Has Failed..."

[Michael Pugliese]

http://www.clamormagazine.org/issue13.3_feature.html
   Mentioned in the Chron. of Higher Ed.
Michael Puggliese

RE: Re: RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates

[Davies, Daniel]

-Original Message-
From: Louis Proyect [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 18 April 2002 19:45
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:25116] Re: RE: Profit Rates -- From Michael Yates



>What do you meant that poor countries accrue interest liabilities that they
>don't pay? I was under the impression that the need to pay off debts to
>imperialist funding agencies is convulsing the 3rd world right now. 

These statements aren't inconsistent if one takes into account the
difference between cash and accruals.  The Highly Indebted Poor Countries
have massive foreign debts that they can't pay.  Because of this, every
year, the IMF, World Bank and similar extend new loans to them which cover
the interest payments due on their old loans.  This is a cruel and stupid
game which keeps them in poverty forever, but its net effect is that, when
you factor aid and trade into the equation, the cash flow to most HIPCs from
the G7 is positive.  It's rather similar to the dot com business model where
operational losses were supported by positive cash flows from equity issues,
although the analogy is not so strong that I want to pursue it.


>Also
>(although I wouldn't dream of putting words in Michael's mouth) isn't the
>problem we are dealing with in the Argentina thread is exactly the need to
>get past surface impressions when discussing societies like Mexico? Of
>course, Mexico is not Tanzania but what sense does it make to categorize it
>(or Poland and Turkey) as a non-poor country just because it shares
>membership in the OECD? Mexico and Turkey are peripheral nations that will
>never join the front ranks of other OECD nations such as Norway or Austria.

I take your point here (that is, if I understand you correctly as saying
that we' re talking about imperialism rather than poverty per se here).  But
would you have said the same thing about Spain twenty years ago?

>One of the indicators that we need to take into account is yearly
>emigration because of unemployment. There are Turkish (and Polish)
>streetsweepers, prostitutes, newspaper vendors and non-unionized
>construction workers in Norway and Austria but few Norwegian or Austrian
>guest workers in Turkey or Poland.

But this indicator is also unreliable over time; it has certainly flipped in
Ireland which is now full of Italian fund managers.

dd


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Re: Re: Exchange value of currencies

[Romain Kroes]

> Although I think politically we share a dislike of US dollar hegemony, I
do
> not quite find the reference you imply. Could you please quote the
> sentence? Am I looking in the wrong part of Section 2 - the first part
only -?

The quotes I used are from Dietz's German edition. As for the one above, you
gave any further the English edition one:
 "The barometer for the international movement of the money of metals is of
 course the rate of exchange."
What Engels does not explicitely mention, but he could not ignore it, is the
fact that this course was not variously spread, but universally determined
on the metal market of London, as it is still today.

> I am not sure that it is to do directly with the speed of capital
turnover.

This is not a theorem from Marx nor from Engels, but of mine. I have
demonstrated it in a paper that is published on irép's website, the title of
which is "Asymmetry and Accumulation, or World System's Entropy". The rates
of change are not exclusively linked to the differential turnovers of
capital, but this is the main cause and the only explanation of a
structurally strictly distributed trend of relative rates since 1971 (dollar
disconnection from gold, and flexibles changes).

>  (...)  Also I have to say that I do not see the speed of
> capital turnover within a country, being an intermediate variable between
> its increased productivity and the relative exchange rate with another
> currency.

It is not matter of the absolute speed of turnover, but of te relative one.
As a higher speed (i.e. higher productivity) determines a higher flow of
imputs (imports), and as the flow of export outputs depends on outside
demand, that is on outside imputs, the country that has the higher speed of
turnover gets a structurally trending negative balance of trade. This is
attested for the whole known history.
In gold standard, as the gold production does not follows the general
productivity rate, a negative balance of  trade must be balanced, so that
the higher productivity country cannot get its "relative surplus value". If
it has not a precious metal source at its disposal, like Ancient Athens, it
must resort to pillage the stocks of gold around, as Rome, or impose its own
currency in its foreign trade, as Victorian England and today's USA.

> Could you check that reference?  In my English edition that chapter is
> Absolute Ground Rent.

The title of the 45th chapter is indeed Absolute Ground Rate. The
consequences of the differential org. comp. distribution is developed in
pp.767-768 of the German edition. But it is more explicitely mentioned at
the begining of 9th ch., third paragraph.

Salute

RK

Re: Exchange value of currencies

[Charles Jannuzi]

If I might muck this discussion up a bit (please read it and then go back to
what you were doing if it has no use).

A lot of money is made and lost trading money, so I got curious just what
theoretical assumptions the people speculating on exchange rates operate
under (goodness the things you find out hanging out at FT bulletin boards).

One group at the BB sticks with the idea that an exchange rate should stick
close to what PPP says it should be. Problems include arriving at PPP and
then deciding whether or not a given exchange rate is that much out of line
with it.

Another group goes by the idea that 'markets' rationally read the state an
economy is in and then buy or sell a currency based on that understanding.
If this held, why would 'markets' consistently advance the yen against the
dollar from the late 80s to the late 90s?

Another school says, that a currency should go to its trade weighted value.
These guys are the ones who keep saying the yen is UNDERVALUED against the
dollar since Japan has a huge trade surplus with the US (never mind the fact
that even if the yen is pretty much limited to Japan, the dollar sure
isn't). The idea is that the yen should continue to appreciate until
Japan-US trade is balanced (like wow, this assuming there is a solid
relationship between the two and nothing else matters).

Finally, the Jannuzi theory, at least as to what actually works with the
dollar-yen value. No one trading currency long term bets on the yen losing
value against the dollar because for the past 15 years the US has
consistently either worked to cheapen the dollar against the yen or
refrained from propping up the dollar when the markets were buying and
appreciating yen. Anyone who bets against this without hedging is asking to
lose. It's interesting everytime the yen does lose some value against the
dollar (like 10-15%) and stays that way for more than 6 months, a bank
discovers a 'rogue trader' to blame currency trade (or currency linked)
losses on.

Charles Jannuzi