Re: Further study.
In a message dated 6/9/02 1:36:49 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Melvin P Thank you your reply The Commmodyfing capital seems to be difficult to understand. So I am now studying "radical problem of credit"(By YAMAMOY0) In it he argue new credit system analysis . You should be confidence in yourself. Your long. painful experience of trade union are important and I did not join trade union. Its distance is not easily to overcome I respect your leftist experience and its importance, let us discuss further. Best regards, MIYACHI TATSUO Psychiatric Department Komaki municipal hospital 1-20.JOHBUHSHI KOMAKI CITY AICHI PREF. 486-0044 TEL:0568-76-4131 FAX 0568-76-4145 [EMAIL PROTECTED] I have theoretical questions that will not go away. In reply to “On Association” a theoretical argument was advanced that states that capital – as a historically evolved social relations have internal and external limits. The following was stated: “Capital has both internal limits -- surplus value and profits come from unpaid living labor; and labor-replacing technology drives the amount of living labor towards zero; and external limits -- we live on a planet with finite resources and a geographically finite market. The general crisis of capital -- capital colliding with its internal and external limits -- has been and will continue to be the inescapable theme of the world economy today.” You reply: “Capital has no limit to produce surplus value and profit. It is not itself contradiction. Certainly capitals destroy huge ecological resource but it is drive of capital, so we cannot stop it unless capitalist society is abolished as follows: You then quote Marx. “This result of the ultimate development of capitalist production is a necessary transitional phase towards the reconversion of capital into the property of producers, although no longer as the private property of the individual producers, but rather as the property of associated producers, as outright social property. On the other hand, the stock company is a transition toward the conversion of all functions in the reproduction process which still remain linked with capitalist property, into mere functions of associated producers, into social functions.” (end of quote) My theoretical conception is: 1. There exists internal and external limits to capitalism or rather commodity production on the basis of capitalist production relations: 2. As an abstraction this is described as using up all the space within this mode of production: 3. The social relations of production embodied in productive forces, “moves” in a direction that prevents the “widening” of capitalist relations of production and this is observable. What is observable is the impact of qualitatively new methods of production, which renders ever-greater sections of labor superfluous to the production of a previous mass of commodities. This contradictions form is historically expressed as the unlimited improvement and expansion of productive forces and the limitations of the mode of exchange as capital. 4. At the point that “widening” is not longer possible; another stage in the evolution of the production process unfolds: 5. This new stage demands new social relations of production or altering or reforming to insure a “widening”of the production forces on a widening basis – that is extensive and intensive expansion and development on a world market scale. “Widening”is defined as the stages of a process that constitute its completion and transition or the occupying of all the space in a qualitatively distinct phase of a process and the emergence of a new qualitative configuration that allows the process to leap forward on a new basis. Specifically, the space that capital occupies evolved within the framework of feudal economic and social relations. Its “widening” begins and expresses all the stages of development it must past through to dominate, annihilate feudal economic and social relations, and then evolved on its own basis. Each phase of this evolution contains its qualitatively distinct limitation or rather, the limitations peculiar to each phase is dependent upon the technical state of developed of productive forces and its corresponding mode of exchange. Having conquered and annihilated the old social intercourse – economy, capital further evolves on the basis of a law system unique to it. The creation of the world capitalist market or rather the unifying of local markets throughout the world and their conversion on a capitalist basis defines the external limits to its widening. At a certain stage in the development of the material factors of production and its corresponding mode of exchange, or rather at a certain point, extensive development of capitalist property relations is not possible because all commerce on earth has been converted into market relations, or reconfigured on the basis of the law system unique to capitalism. Intensive development of
Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
Where? On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 06:47:00AM -0700, Devine, James wrote: --- Schumpeter remarked that protectionism was the [U.S.] Republican's main domestic policy tool during the so-called laissez-faire era. So is there a return to form? JD -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
Title: RE: [PEN-L:26704] Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) Tariffs were, as Schumpeter put it, 'the household remedy' of the Republican Party. -- Charles P. Kindleberger, THE WORLD IN DEPRESSION, 1929-39, University of California Press (1973), p. 133. the footnote is to a book by E.E. Schattschneider, POLITICS, PRESSURES, AND TARIFFS, Prentice-Hall, 1935, pp. 283-4. The point is that in the earlier long period of U.S. rule by the GOPsters (1861-1932, with short periods of DP rule, under Cleveland and Wilson), they regularly raised tariffs. For example, any pro-competitive impact that the anti-trust laws had was undermined by higher import taxes. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Michael Perelman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 7:27 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:26704] Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) Where? On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 06:47:00AM -0700, Devine, James wrote: --- Schumpeter remarked that protectionism was the [U.S.] Republican's main domestic policy tool during the so-called laissez-faire era. So is there a return to form? JD -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Noam Chomsky in the Ivory Tower
Title: RE: [PEN-L:26640] Noam Chomsky in the Ivory Tower LP writes: Despite the fact that Robert Barsky's biography (http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-books/chomsky/) is written from the point of view of an unabashed admirer, there is troubling evidence in it that [Noam] Chomsky is far from perfect. There is also troubling evidence that the sun came up this morning and that some people think sectarianism is a good thing. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Re: Invitation to NAFTA for Poland (July'92) - request forhelp
From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:26696] Re: Invitation to NAFTA for Poland (July'92) - request for help Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 16:02:27 -0700 I am sorry that nobody has responded to your reqest. Probably, the reason is that we know little about Poland. Maybe you can educate us over time. Apologies. Zbigniew Baniewski wrote: Hallo, I would to ask someone of you for help in obtaining of closer informations about invitation for Poland to join NAFTA, made by pres. Bush(father) during his visit in Poland at 5th of July in 1992? Didn't found anything at bushlibrary. Could be possible for someone of you to get the whole text of the invitation (or of the speech, which supposingly contained it) - or of the other materials describing the accident (some press comments from that time)? pozdrawiam / regards Zbigniew Baniewski -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 A brief search at www.firstgov.gov with NAFTA Poland seemed to turn up nothing. Probably if the speech is old enough it wouldn't be archived anyway (I'm not pretending to be thorough here). You might want to check www.doc.gov (U.S dept. of commerce) and http://www.doc.gov/International_Trade/ or the library of congress at www.loc.gov but otherwise I have no ideas. BTW I'd be interested in hearing more about Poland's political economy. I heard that the left parties wish to return to industrial policy and hence abandon neoliberalism. -Frank G. _ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
Title: RE: [PEN-L:26704] Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) - Original Message - From: Devine, James To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 9:02 AM Subject: [PEN-L:26705] RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) "Tariffs were, as Schumpeter put it, 'the household remedy' of the Republican Party." -- Charles P. Kindleberger, THE WORLD IN DEPRESSION, 1929-39, University of California Press (1973), p. 133. the footnote is to a book by E.E. Schattschneider, POLITICS, PRESSURES, AND TARIFFS, Prentice-Hall, 1935, pp. 283-4. The point is that in the earlier long period of U.S. rule by the GOPsters (1861-1932, with short periods of DP rule, under Cleveland and Wilson), they regularly raised tariffs. For example, any pro-competitive impact that the anti-trust laws had was undermined by higher import taxes. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine To the extent there is a Schumpeterian wing of Repug. thinkers on PE [dashed with a sprinkle of Mancur Olson] they have problems with the idea of a 'national interest.' All politics is special interest politics to them. See David Held's "Models of Democracy" chapter 5, which goes into Schumpeter's view of democracy--it ain't pretty. Ian
bad economics and the dot.com meltdown
Liebowitz has been a strong opponent of the lock-in thesis; also a recipient of microsoft support for obvious reasons. Network Meltdown: A Legacy of Bad Economics BY: STAN J. LIEBOWITZ University of Texas at Dallas School of Management Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=309879 Date: April 19, 2002 Contact: STAN J. LIEBOWITZ Email: Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Postal: University of Texas at Dallas School of Management Mail Station JO51 P.O. Box 830688 Richardson, TX 75083-0688 UNITED STATES Phone: 972-883-2807 Fax: 972-883-2818 ABSTRACT: Why did the dot.coms burn and die? The answer is that they followed the advice given to them by a set of economists preaching that being first to market was the key to success thanks to lock-in effects. I explore these events and this thinking in this paper. Keywords: network effects, lock-in, dot.coms, ecommerce, internet -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: Re: Re: Invitation to NAFTA for Poland (July'92)- request for help
On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, F G wrote: A brief search at www.firstgov.gov with NAFTA Poland seemed to turn up nothing. Probably if the speech is old enough it wouldn't be archived anyway (I'm not pretending to be thorough here). I'm not quite sure, whether it was speech, or another form of document. You might want to check www.doc.gov (U.S dept. of commerce) and http://www.doc.gov/International_Trade/ or the library of congress at www.loc.gov but otherwise I have no ideas. Thanks, I'll take a look. BTW I'd be interested in hearing more about Poland's political economy. I heard that the left parties wish to return to industrial policy and hence abandon neoliberalism. S.c. neoliberalism is gone. The most liberal regulations were made - surprisingly - by communists, when they left government (for a while) in 1989. Since that time the economic freedom, which visited our country very shortly (1989-92), is still more and more restricted. In previous communists times (before 1989) the people were arguing for bureaucracy. Can you imagine, that today we have in our country almost 5x (yes - FIVE TIMES) more clerks (mainly at tax offices)? It's tied to our direction - to the EU... unfortunately. Can you imagine, that the total amount of the taxes in our country is more than two times higher, than in Poland 1939-45, under nazi occupation - at the time, when the german government was draining our country for their war-related needs? I'm afraid, you can't believe it - but (if you're or someone are interested), I can show it on the numbers. We've just one truly right party in our country - it's Unia Polityki Realnej (Union of Real Politics - http://www.upr.org.pl/). All the other parties, which are declaring themselves as right, you can just take as centre-oriented (something like american Democrats) or Christian Democrats-like (usually with socialist economic programm). And today's government are the people well-known from the good-old times... just the communists, which are now socialdemocrats. Names, which are easy to recognize from the past. The history has made a circle. pozdrawiam / regards Zbigniew Baniewski
RE: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
Tariffs were an important source of Federal revenue in the olden days. mbs \ Tariffs were, as Schumpeter put it, 'the household remedy' of the Republican Party. -- Charles P. Kindleberger, THE WORLD IN DEPRESSION, 1929-39, University of California Press (1973), p. 133. the footnote is to a book by E.E. Schattschneider, POLITICS, PRESSURES, AND TARIFFS, Prentice-Hall, 1935, pp. 283-4. The point is that in the earlier long period of U.S. rule by the GOPsters (1861-1932, with short periods of DP rule, under Cleveland and Wilson), they regularly raised tariffs. For example, any pro-competitive impact that the anti-trust laws had was undermined by higher import taxes. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
the national interest
Title: the national interest [was: RE: [PEN-L:26708] Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)] Ian writes: To the extent there is a Schumpeterian wing of Repug. thinkers on PE [dashed with a sprinkle of Mancur Olson] they have problems with the idea of a 'national interest.' All politics is special interest politics to them. See David Held's Models of Democracy chapter 5, which goes into Schumpeter's view of democracy--it ain't pretty. This is in line with the Schumpeterian critique of the GOP that I cited before, so I guess some GOPsters have learned their lesson. But mostly, they're laissez-faire in rhetoric while pro-business (especially big influential ones) in practice. I'm not impressed by the concept of a national interest either. (It's no accident that the journal titled THE NATIONAL INTEREST is so conservative.) Usually, it's a cover for class politics -- or for cross-class coalitions within a nation against foreigners and/or minority ethnicities. It makes more sense if the nation we're talking about is an oppressed one. Instead of the national interest, we have to start thinking globally. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: RE: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
Which is why business supported the income tax. On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 01:17:43PM -0400, Max Sawicky wrote: Tariffs were an important source of Federal revenue in the olden days. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: bad economics and the dot.com meltdown
Very interesting that he writes a whole big paper on the subject of lock-in and the dot com era without once mentioning branding as a source of competitive advantage for first movers, despite that fact that this is surely where most of those dot com dollars went, and is surely the big difference between the success of Amazon and the failure of the wannabes. I've always thought that the fact that neoclassical microeconomics doesn't have anything even approaching a decent theory of advertising ought to be a far bigger embarrassment for the profession than it actually is. We're talking about a pretty massive industry here, after all, which by NC standards ought not to exist. dd -Original Message- From: Michael Perelman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 11 June 2002 18:11 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:26709] bad economics and the dot.com meltdown Liebowitz has been a strong opponent of the lock-in thesis; also a recipient of microsoft support for obvious reasons. Network Meltdown: A Legacy of Bad Economics BY: STAN J. LIEBOWITZ University of Texas at Dallas School of Management Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=309879 Date: April 19, 2002 Contact: STAN J. LIEBOWITZ Email: Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Postal: University of Texas at Dallas School of Management Mail Station JO51 P.O. Box 830688 Richardson, TX 75083-0688 UNITED STATES Phone: 972-883-2807 Fax: 972-883-2818 ABSTRACT: Why did the dot.coms burn and die? The answer is that they followed the advice given to them by a set of economists preaching that being first to market was the key to success thanks to lock-in effects. I explore these events and this thinking in this paper. Keywords: network effects, lock-in, dot.coms, ecommerce, internet -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 ___ Email Disclaimer This communication is for the attention of the named recipient only and should not be passed on to any other person. Information relating to any company or security, is for information purposes only and should not be interpreted as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security. The information on which this communication is based has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable, but we do not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice. All e-mail messages, and associated attachments, are subject to interception and monitoring for lawful business purposes. ___
Re: the national interest
Title: the national interest - Original Message - From: Devine, James To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:12 AM Subject: [PEN-L:26712] the national interest [was: RE: [PEN-L:26708] Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)] Ian writes: To the extent there is a Schumpeterian wing of Repug. thinkers on PE [dashed with a sprinkle of Mancur Olson] they have problems with the idea of a 'national interest.' All politics is special interest politics to them. See David Held's "Models of Democracy" chapter 5, which goes into Schumpeter's view of democracy--it ain't pretty. This is in line with the Schumpeterian critique of the GOP that I cited before, so I guess some GOPsters have learned their lesson. But mostly, they're "laissez-faire" in rhetoric while pro-business (especially big influential ones) in practice. I'm not impressed by the concept of a "national interest" either. (It's no accident that the journal titled THE NATIONAL INTEREST is so conservative.) Usually, it's a cover for class politics -- or for cross-class coalitions within a nation against foreigners and/or minority ethnicities. It makes more sense if the nation we're talking about is an oppressed one. Instead of the "national interest," we have to start thinking globally. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine === "...it might seem meaningless, anachronistic or hopelessly idealistic to speak of the common good and the public interest. The point is, however, not only that these terms are deeply ingrained in various democratic traditions concerned with political justice. They are, I will argue, inherent in the very political structure of Western democracies, where political authorities are assigned the task of making and implementing collectively binding decisions in the name of popular sovereignty. It is this fact of 'speaking in the name of society', to borrow Easton's phrase, that renders a term like the 'public interest', or similar metaphors, inescapable in politics. Hence their prescriptive or normative role is not exhausted by simply branding them manipulative devices in hegemonic power struggles. No doubt they are such devices, but they are also a means whereby a horizon of possibilities opens up - a horizon which cannot be controlled by any hegemonic strategy since it conditions strategic orientation in the first place. It is here that we discover a difference between hegemony and democracy. Whereas hegemony is always a reshuffling of dominations, democracy stands as a critical principle, or rather an ontology of potentials pointing towards a politics of non-hierarchy and inclusion. From a democratic perspective this is exactly what the common good and public interest ought to signify: the mutual acceptance of differences in the political community." [Torben Dyrberg, "The Circular Structure of Power" Verso, p. 184] Ian
Re: Re: RE: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
they no longer feared populist tax revolts. - Original Message - From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 10:40 AM Subject: [PEN-L:26713] Re: RE: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) Which is why business supported the income tax. On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 01:17:43PM -0400, Max Sawicky wrote: Tariffs were an important source of Federal revenue in the olden days. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Salon.com Technology | Venture capitalists suffer huge losses
http://salon.com/tech/wire/2002/06/10/venture/index.html Venture capitalists suffer huge losses - - - - - - - - - - - - By Michael Liedtke June 10, 2002 | SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- After escaping serious damage in the early stages of the high-tech wreck, venture capitalists suffered even deeper financial wounds than stock market investors last year, according to industry figures released Monday. Venture capital funds plunged by an average of 27.8 percent in 2001, a gruesome about-face from the prior year when the average fund gained 28.6 percent, according to statistics complied by Thomson Financial/Venture Economics for the National Venture Capital Association, an industry trade group. It marked the industry's first calendar-year loss since the trade group began tracking fund returns in 1980. Before 2001, venture capitalists' worst single-year performance came in 1984 when the average fund inched up by 1.3 percent. The venture capital community's setback was even more severe than the Nasdaq composite index, the most popular benchmark for measuring the performance of publicly held tech stocks. The Nasdaq index fell by 21 percent during 2001, coming off a 39 percent loss in 2000. The Nasdaq's prolonged funk has contributed to the dramatic deterioration in venture capital portfolios. With the stock market discounting the shares of technology industry giants such as Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems, venture capitalists are being forced to face up to the grim conditions and mark down the value of their holdings in industry start-ups. Some venture capitalists say they already have made most, if not all, of the painful adjustments to their portfolios. Many other venture capitalists, though, still haven't fully recognized their losses on their books, something they likely will have to do soon unless the industry stages a surprising turnaround. That means venture capitalists likely will be showing losses through at least the end of next year and maybe even beyond, according to industry analysts and professionals. The next two to four years are going to be tough sledding, said San Francisco venture capitalist Chip Adams, a principal at Rosewood Capital. Last year ended with the industry's fifth consecutive quarterly loss, dating back to late 2000. The average decline of 3.9 percent during the final three months of 2001 marked an improvement from a third quarter loss of 10 percent, but that should not be seen as a sign of recovery, warned Jeanne Metzger, a spokeswoman for the industry trade group. We are not out of the woods yet. The recent losses represent a sobering comedown for venture capitalists after registering a mind-boggling 166 percent gain in 1999, near the height of the dot-com boom. By comparison, the Nasdaq index surged by 86 percent in 1999. With the losses from the dot-com bust now piling up, some institutional investors want to cash out of struggling venture capital funds. But most venture capitalists say their investors are sitting tight and betting that the funds will deliver better long-term returns than the stock or bond markets. Despite the deep losses of 2001, venture capital funds posted an average gain of 49.3 percent over the past three years and an average increase of 35.9 percent over the past five years, according to Venture Economics. Most institutional investors are used to weathering a storm like this, said Philip Sanderson, general partner of WaldenVC. If you think in terms of 'buy low, sell high,' there has never been a better time to be investing venture capital.
RE: Re: the national interest
Title: RE: [PEN-L:26715] Re: the national interest Ian, please don't send HTML files. Use plain text. Despite the common abuse of the concept of the national interest (cf. Dubya and his ilk), it does make sense in the limited context of democracy at the nation-state level. However, it should be remembered that democracy does not entail just majority rule but also minority rights -- and that global democracy is needed. The current European fashion of preaching the national interest against immigrants and minorities should be shunned. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Ian Murray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:36 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:26715] Re: the national interest - Original Message - From: Devine, James To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:12 AM Subject: [PEN-L:26712] the national interest [was: RE: [PEN-L:26708] Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)] Ian writes: To the extent there is a Schumpeterian wing of Repug. thinkers on PE [dashed with a sprinkle of Mancur Olson] they have problems with the idea of a 'national interest.' All politics is special interest politics to them. See David Held's Models of Democracy chapter 5, which goes into Schumpeter's view of democracy--it ain't pretty. This is in line with the Schumpeterian critique of the GOP that I cited before, so I guess some GOPsters have learned their lesson. But mostly, they're laissez-faire in rhetoric while pro-business (especially big influential ones) in practice. I'm not impressed by the concept of a national interest either. (It's no accident that the journal titled THE NATIONAL INTEREST is so conservative.) Usually, it's a cover for class politics -- or for cross-class coalitions within a nation against foreigners and/or minority ethnicities. It makes more sense if the nation we're talking about is an oppressed one. Instead of the national interest, we have to start thinking globally. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine === ...it might seem meaningless, anachronistic or hopelessly idealistic to speak of the common good and the public interest. The point is, however, not only that these terms are deeply ingrained in various democratic traditions concerned with political justice. They are, I will argue, inherent in the very political structure of Western democracies, where political authorities are assigned the task of making and implementing collectively binding decisions in the name of popular sovereignty. It is this fact of 'speaking in the name of society', to borrow Easton's phrase, that renders a term like the 'public interest', or similar metaphors, inescapable in politics. Hence their prescriptive or normative role is not exhausted by simply branding them manipulative devices in hegemonic power struggles. No doubt they are such devices, but they are also a means whereby a horizon of possibilities opens up - a horizon which cannot be controlled by any hegemonic strategy since it conditions strategic orientation in the first place. It is here that we discover a difference between hegemony and democracy. Whereas hegemony is always a reshuffling of dominations, democracy stands as a critical principle, or rather an ontology of potentials pointing towards a politics of non-hierarchy and inclusion. From a democratic perspective this is exactly what the common good and public interest ought to signify: the mutual acceptance of differences in the political community. [Torben Dyrberg, The Circular Structure of Power Verso, p. 184] Ian
Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a differentone)
Devine, James wrote: Tariffs were, as Schumpeter put it, 'the household remedy' of the Republican Party. -- Charles P. Kindleberger, THE WORLD IN DEPRESSION, 1929-39, University of California Press (1973), p. 133. the footnote is to a book by E.E. Schattschneider, POLITICS, PRESSURES, AND TARIFFS, Prentice-Hall, 1935, pp. 283-4. The point is that in the earlier long period of U.S. rule by the GOPsters (1861-1932, with short periods of DP rule, under Cleveland and Wilson), they regularly raised tariffs. For example, any pro-competitive impact that the anti-trust laws had was undermined by higher import taxes. And organized labor was anti-tariff at the time, right? Doug
RE: Re: the national interest
Ian, please don't send HTML files. Use plain text. Despite the common abuse of the concept of the national interest (cf. Dubya and his ilk), it does make sense in the limited context of democracy at the nation-state level. However, it should be remembered that democracy does not entail just majority rule but also minority rights -- and that global democracy is needed. The current European fashion of preaching the national interest against immigrants and minorities should be shunned. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine == Jim, everything I've gotten from you for the past week is html. I was merely hitting the reply key. Dyrberg goes into the contradictions of the Euro immigration issue quite intensely. Ian
the wages of sin
Title: the wages of sin from SLATE's on-line news summary:The NY [TIMES's] fine obit on [mobster John] Gotti runs over 3,000 words. (By comparison, the recent obit for scientist Stephen Jay Gould was about half that long.) Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
Title: RE: [PEN-L:26719] Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) I wrote: The point is that in the earlier long period of U.S. rule by the GOPsters (1861-1932, with short periods of DP rule, under Cleveland and Wilson), they regularly raised tariffs. For example, any pro-competitive impact that the anti-trust laws had was undermined by higher import taxes. Doug writes: And organized labor was anti-tariff at the time, right? In general, the CIO was anti-tariff until the 1970s. I don't know about the AFL, which was relevant back in the period I mentioned. My impression is that the AFL was more involved in another kind of protectionism, that of being anti-immigrant and anti-Black (and anti-woman-in-the paid workforce). The Knights of Labor, the IWW, and the CP-oriented unions (e.g., the TUUL) were of course better on (some of, all of?) these issues. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Free José Padilla! or at least put him under civilian law rules! JD
Re: RE: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
From: Max Sawicky [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:26711] RE: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 13:17:43 -0400 Tariffs were an important source of Federal revenue in the olden days. mbs \ They still are an important source of govt income in some LDCs. I wonder if this fact escapes most proponents of free trade for the periphery. -Frank G _ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
EU enlargement
New dispute on subsidies threatens EU enlargement Ian Black in Luxembourg Tuesday June 11, 2002 The Guardian Plans to enlarge the EU suffered a setback yesterday when governments failed to agree on the hyper-sensitive issue of making direct payments to farmers in candidate countries. Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and Sweden led opposition to payments worth billions of euros to the 10 candidates hoping to join the union in its biggest ever wave of expansion in 2004. France and Ireland - both big beneficiaries of existing farm subsidies - were accused of digging in their heels on a procedural point in an attempt to ensure only minimal reform of the costly common agricultural policy (CAP). Foreign ministers were thus unable to agree even on postponing the direct payments question as the negotiating deadline looms. It would improve the chances of getting an agreement as well as enabling us to stick to the enlargement timetable, Peter Hain, Britain's Europe minister, said. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, the three Baltic states, Malta and Cyprus, have been offered 25% of the payments made to the current 15 members rising to 100% over 10 years. The candidates have rejected this proposal, which also envisages generous funds for rural development, as unfair and pledged to fight for a shorter phase-in period for direct payments. But the issue of reforming the CAP, which consumes almost half the EU's total ?90bn budget, has complicated the question as member states seek to influence the outcome of a long-awaited review being conducted by the European Commission in the summer. Germany, facing general elections in September, is fiercely opposed to accepting automatically that such payments are made. We do not want to delay the enlargement process, but it is right to question the financial consequences we will face in the future, the German secretary of state, Günter Pleuger, said. Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden support Germany. EU governments had hoped to settle the issue by October and not leave it for a nail-biting endgame at the Copenhagen summit in December, when the lucky candidates should be named. Spain, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, insisted last night that it was still possible to forge a common negotiating position with the candidates on the farm issue before next week's summit in Seville. Failure to do so, warned Gunter Verheugen, the commissioner for enlargement, would send a very damaging signal. It would create problems for the candidate countries. Denmark, which takes over the presidency in July, predicted it would be able to wind up the negotiations as planned with up to 10 candidates. We don't think there will be delays to enlargement, the Danish foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller, said. You can have one week delay here, one week there, but the enlargement will take place in December in Copenhagen. France's position is crucial. Enlargement is more unpopular there than in any other EU member states, but diplomats believe that in the end President Jacques Chirac will bow to peer pressure. On every occasion in the past few years when there has been a big enlargement decision, Chirac has voted for it, a senior official said. The price has risen for those countries that want to delay enlargement. Its not inevitable that we will reach agreement by December. But for those who make that impossible the political price is getting higher.
RE: RE: Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one)
My impression is the AFL-CIO was pro free trade until the early 1980's, when Bluestone/Harrison and others began writing about the vanishing 'middle class.' mbs -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Devine, James Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 3:35 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: [PEN-L:26722] RE: Re: RE: Re: PK on race to the bottom (a different one) I wrote: The point is that in the earlier long period of U.S. rule by the GOPsters (1861-1932, with short periods of DP rule, under Cleveland and Wilson), they regularly raised tariffs. For example, any pro-competitive impact that the anti-trust laws had was undermined by higher import taxes. Doug writes: And organized labor was anti-tariff at the time, right? In general, the CIO was anti-tariff until the 1970s. I don't know about the AFL, which was relevant back in the period I mentioned. My impression is that the AFL was more involved in another kind of protectionism, that of being anti-immigrant and anti-Black (and anti-woman-in-the paid workforce). The Knights of Labor, the IWW, and the CP-oriented unions (e.g., the TUUL) were of course better on (some of, all of?) these issues. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Free José Padilla! or at least put him under civilian law rules! JD
Judi Bari Wins!
OAKLAND,CA - The jury in the Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney federal civil rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers awarded plaintiffs $4.4 million for violation of the activists' Constitutional rights and returned a verdict largely in favor of Earth First! activists Cherney and the late Judi Bari. In a legal victory of historic proportions against the FBI, the jury found that six of the seven defendants violated the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution by arresting the activists, conducting searches of their homes, and carrying out a smear campaign in the press, calling Earth First! a terrorist organization and calling the activists bombers, in the aftermath of the explosion of a bomb that was planted in Judi Bari's car in 1990. This verdict finds unlawful the actions of those in charge of the bombing investigation, and vindicates Bari and Cherney. FBI agents Frank Doyle, John Reikes, Philip Sena and OPD officer Mike Sims were found to have violated Bari and Cherney's First Amendment rights. In addition, OPD officer Sitterud was found to have violated Cherney's First Amendment rights. Doyle was found to have violated Bari's Fourth Amendment rights related to the search of her home, and Doyle and OPD officer Chenault were found to have violated Cherney's Fourth Amendment rights. FBI agent Doyle and OPD officer Sims were found to have violated Bari's Fourth Amendment rights in relation to her arrest. The jury returned an undecided verdict with respect to violations of Cherney's Fourth Amendment rights for his arrest. Frank Doyle was the agent in charge of the 1990 bomb scene, and taught an FBI bomb school at a Louisiana Pacific clearcut a month prior to the bombing. Doyle was also the Squad 13 relief supervisor. Squad 13 was the joint terrorism squad made up of FBI and Oakland officers and collected extensive files on political groups in the Bay Area. Reikes was the head of the FBI's terrorist squad who came to OPD headquarters the day of the bombing to give the inflammatory briefing on Earth First! Sena was already engaged in a secret investigation of Earth First! and concocted a fake informant tip. Sims was an OPD homicide lieutenant in charge of other officers investigating the bombing and the decision-maker for the unjust arrests of the activists. Sitterud ignored evidence at the scene and concocted information that would implicate the activists. Chenault wrote the first fraudulent search warrant affidavit. This verdict is a referendum against the FBI's gross interference with people's right to dissent at a time when Attorney General Ashcroft, FBI Director Mueller and the Bush administration are arrogating huge power to themselves and the FBI to spy on legitimate groups and organizers and infringe the Constitutional rights of the public. The filled-out 21-page verdict form is available for viewing and printing at http://www.judibari.org/third_verdict_form_final.pdf -- During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell END OF THE TRAIL SALOON Live music, comedy, call-in radio-oke Alternate Sundays, 6am GMT (10pm PDT) http://www.kvmr.org Visit Cool Hand Uke's Lava Tube http://www.oro.net/~dscanlan I uke, therefore I am. -- Cool Hand Uke I log on, therefore I seem to be. -- Rodd Gnawkin
World Day Against Child Labour
Press Release: Index Note to Correspondents ILO launches first World Day Against Child Labour 12 June 2002 Wednesday 5 June 2002 ( ILO/02/27 ) GENEVA (ILO News) - The first World Day Against Child Labour will be observed worldwide on 12 June 2002. The International Labour Organization (ILO) will formally launch this global day with an event at its Geneva offices on 11 June, the eve of the first World Day. Around the world, the World Day Against Child Labour is expected to see an array of activities, ranging from gatherings of child workers and their supporters to school events, children's art shows and drama performances, child-adult information workshops, activities organized by worker and employer representatives, media events and other public activities. This first World Day Against Child Labour is intended to help spread the message that child labour remains a serious problem and that we must do more to combat it, said International Labour Office (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia in a statement for the day. We are asking everyone to join together in working towards a world where no children will be deprived of a normal, healthy childhood, where parents can find decent jobs and children can go to school. Our goal is a world free from child labour. The World Day will be held annually to intensify support for the global campaign against child labour. The World Day will also serve as a catalyst for enhancing the growing worldwide movement against child labour, as reflected in the steadily mounting ratifications of ILO Conventions Nos. 182 (on its worst forms) and 138 (on minimum age), as well as the work of the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). According to the recently released report A Future Without Child Labour *, 246 million children - one in every six children aged 5 to 17 - are involved in child labour. Among its startling findings, the report also revealed for the first time that some 179 million children aged 5-17 - one in every eight children in the world - is still exposed to the worst forms of child labour which endanger the child's physical, mental or moral well-being. Significantly, the recent UN General Assembly Special Session on Children decided to devote an entire section of its final report to combatting child labour, illustrating how far we have come in raising the visibility of this critical issue since the last global gathering of this type, the Children's Summit of 1990. Geneva event The ILO event in Geneva will feature celebrities active in the campaign against child labour, testimonies from former child labourers, performances by drama students and activities for children. It takes place from 6-10 p.m. on 11 June on the R-2 level of the main ILO building. The event will be attended by delegates to the International Labour Conference (ILC), the general public, staff of Geneva-based UN organizations, non-governmental organizations and schools. The media are cordially invited to attend. Following introductory remarks by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, the formal programme will include appearances by Christie Clark, a U.S. film and televison actress who is featured in the ILO's TV public service announcement on child labour, and Abrar-ul-Haq, a popular Pakistani singer who is active in the worldwide campaign to combat the problem. His foundation, Sahara for Life, works to improve maternal and child healthcare in Pakistan and he has written and recorded a song about working children. Also participating will be two former child labourers, Alice (a 16-year-old former child worker) from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and Sergei (a 13-year-old former child labourer) from St. Petersburg, Russia. The event will also feature the launch of SCREAM (Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media) a community-based educational and social mobilization project aimed at drawing children and their teachers into the campaign against child labour. SCREAM participants, drama students from the International School of Geneva, will present a mime performance developed around the issue of child labour. Delegations to the 175-nation International Labour Conference are scheduled to spend 12 June, the World Day Against Child Labour, discussing the new ILO Global Report on child labour. For more information, contact the ILO Department of Communication at +4122/799-7912/7527, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * * * A Future Without Child Labour, Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, International Labour Conference, 90th Session, 2002, Report I (B). International Labour Office, Geneva. ISBN 92-2-112416-9. Price: 20 Swiss Francs. The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was adopted by the International Labour Conference in 1998. It reaffirms the commitment of all ILO member States to respect, promote and realize the rights of workers and employers to
Re: Invitation to NAFTA for Poland (July'92)- request for help
Is that not wonderful to see an exchange between a Polish and an El Salvadoran on this list? I wish we have more of this. It is nice to learn about how things are going elsewhere. Hey, non-Americans, please keep in mind that this world does not belong to these bloody Americans only. We live there too. Best, Sabri
An English revival
Business Standard Friday, June 7, 2002 ASIA FILE An English revival The demand for conversational English teachers had never been greater and English teaching as an industry had never been more profitable, says Barun Roy When the founding fathers of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) chose to locate its headquarters in Manila, one thing mattered above all others: Filipinos' acquaintance with English. Almost everyone knows English in the Philippines, from janitors and maids to drivers, shop girls, and secretaries, which, in the sixties and seventies, and even early into the eighties, made that country the world's first love in Asia. Whenever international organisations had conferences to hold in Asia, they came to Manila. No other place in the region had such a ready abundance of English-speaking secretaries and support staff. If foreign banks and companies in Hong Kong or Singapore needed managers and CEOs to run them, they looked for Filipinos. When merchant navies plying the world's trade routes needed seamen for their ships, they fished the Philippines. At hotels and nightclubs in Tokyo or Taipei, nobody sang the blues and souls like the Filipinos did. And here's the irony. Filipinos, on a nationalist high since the government' s refusal ten years ago to renew the leases of the US military bases in the country, are easing up on English lately. Pilipino is the boasted medium of instruction. The fall in English standards has been so apparent that one newspaper columnist has warned that, unless corrected, it would begin to hurt Filipinos badly in their dealings with the world. But the rest of Asia, where English had long been on the sidelines, is suddenly in a hurry to catch up on the language. As globalisation opens up markets and expands international contacts, Asians realise that they must speak, write, and understand English to communicate with the world and stay in business. The demand for conversational English teachers had never been greater and English teaching as an industry had never been more profitable. In Japan alone, more than 10 million students of all ages are currently enrolled in conversational English classes, taught by no fewer than 7,000 foreign teachers. In South Korea, the demand is so high that even casual English-speaking tourists can find highly paid work. Taiwan's 6,000 or so private kindergartens have asked the government to let them hire foreign nationals as English teachers; the government is said to be sympathetic. After all, 80 per cent of them hire foreigners illegally anyway. Two countries are particularly desperate to raise their people's awareness of and competence in English: Malaysia and China. Malaysia had downplayed English for long and China had largely ignored it. Now both see English as crucial for their economic future. We must be ready for the world if we want the world to come to us is the official Mala-ysian line. The government is willing to reintroduce English-medium schools it had abolished in 1970s to strengthen Bahasa Malaysia as an instrument of national integration. They have also proposed to introduce English from the very first year of primary schooling. Teachers in rural schools will soon be recruited to train in English to teach mathematics and science. Beginning with the new academic year, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak will teach 50 per cent of its courses in English. The Selangor state government has come up with a bright idea. It intends to invite British pensioners to come and teach its rural folk Queen's English. It will be like vacation for them, the state government says. They come and enjoy themselves and teach some English on the side and we take care of their accommodation. China is equally serious about taking English to the masses and, ahead of the 2008 summer Olympics, an English-learning wave seems to be sweeping Beijing. English road signs are going up near all major scenic spots in the city and commercial and transport workers are being sent to English language courses. The emphasis is on teaching colloquial English. They call it leisure English, where grammar isn't the primary concern but the ability to express and understand is. Four times a day, Beijing People's Broadcasting Station broadcasts a programme called 100 English Sentences on three of its channels to help people get acquainted with the language. To supplement what people hear on the radio, the Foreign Languages Press publishes a magazine called English Corner. Several cities in China have introduced special police numbers that foreigners can call to get replies in English. Farmers of Shicheng, a coastal fishing village in east China's Fujian province that supplies seamen to foreign shipping companies, run an English school themselves to improve their marketability. Officials from a Singaporean ocean shipping company conduct oral tests. English is now taught at the primary level in China, but there are no exams until later. The whole idea is to give children a feel for
DARPA and more Star Wars
Aviation Week Space Technology, 4/8/2002, Vol. 156 Issue 14, p36 Section: WORLD NEWS ANALYSIS DARPA EYES MATERIALS FOR 'MORPHING' AIRCRAFT The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is investigating the use of smart materials to create shape-changing, multi-mission aircraft and bring about a leap in low-observable design. The long-term vision is ambitious. Can we take a 40-ft.-wingspan reconnaissance vehicle and actually physically change its shape to act more like a small delta wing to go and be able to do some attacks? posed Darpa's program manager Ephrahim Garcia. The focus will be on technologies for unmanned aircraft. While the Pentagon bills many of its aircraft as multi-mission, Garcia says those usually represent huge compromises since an aircraft's fixed shape dictates what role it is best suited for. The strongest attempts at reconfigurable aircraft were swing-wing designs such as the F-14, but those were hobbled by the large weight penalty associated with moving parts, Garcia notes. In the near-term, Darpa will concentrate on wing technology. If you can't morph a wing you really don't have a morphing aircraft, Garcia said. An initial 30-month phase aims to develop several wing designs for wind-tunnel testing. The focus is on a 20-40-ft. wing for an aircraft that would fly between Mach 0.5-0.9. Garcia wants the concepts to be flight traceable. The type of geometric adjustments Darpa wants include a 200% change in aspect ratio, 50% change in wing area, 50% change in wing twist, and a 20-deg. change in wing sweep. Wing weight should be no greater than a comparable structure using conventional flight-control technologies. Eventually, Darpa hopes to build a flight prototype that could include shape-changing structures beyond the wing. For instance, Garcia points out that engine inlets could be modified to optimize air flow at different speeds. Or the fuselage could contract as fuel reserves are depleted. The wing prototypes developed during this phase could be flight tested on existing aircraft or by using cheap prototypes that may feature other morphing capabilities. One of the attractions of using shape changes to control an aircraft inflight is that it could eliminate the need for traditional flight-control surfaces-a large source of radar reflections. The B-2, for instance, uses a split flap for control, which compromises the bomber's stealth characteristics when deployed. Garcia said a morphing airplane might be able to create a virtual rudder that can disappear again when it isn't needed. Smart-materials work has been confined largely to laboratories, but Darpa believes it is time to take the next step. Smart materials have been around-they have a lot of promise-but we have to start building things which are enabled by their characteristics, Garcia said. The effort is backed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA, which last year began the 21st Century Aerospace Vehicle project that includes morphing technology. Researchers in the past have tried to change wing shapes using more conventional, actuator-based approaches, but Darpa considers them less efficient than a smart materials-based solution. Different types of material are being eyed. Among them are shape memory alloys, which can be altered and then, through thermoelectric inputs, returned to their original form. Another material is piezoelectrics, which contract or expand based on the application of electric current. The success of the project will hinge on whether the wing designs are stiff enough to handle the aerodynamic forces and carry the loads such a structure typically has to withstand. I don't think it is a done deal that we can do this, Garcia acknowledges.
Turkey: Turbulence continues
By the way, below is old news from yesterday. Today, 1 US dolar is 1,510,550 Turkish liras and the stanbul Stock Exchange national 100 index is at 9721 points. Sabri +++ Ankara - Turkish Daily News June 11, 2002 Politics casts shadow on good economic news Despite an appearance on Sunday by Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in front of cameras, in response to the apparent conflict within the government, Turkish financial markets remain turbulent. The Istanbul Stock Exchange national 100 index dives 2.80 percent to end the day at 9,866 points below a psychological threshold of 10,000 points. The dollar exchange rate reaches TL 1,478,000 in the interbank market During the one month that has passed since the hospitalization of Ecevit, good news on the economic front have been overshadowed by scenarios over the prime minister's prospects to remain at the head of the government and what would happen in the case of a sudden resignation. Markets have kept their fingers crossed hoping to see the prime minister getting back to work --- By Elif Kelebek Political uncertainty will likely continue clouding the outlook for Turkish markets for sometime at least, as nervous investors keep an eye on the health of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and on intra-coalition differences over European Union reforms. During the one month that has passed since the hospitalization of Ecevit, good news on the economic front have been overshadowed by scenarios over the prime minister's prospects to remain at the head of the government and what would happen in the case of a sudden resignation. Markets have kept their fingers crossed hoping to see the prime minister getting back to work. But it is now clear that Ecevit will be absent at least until July, while the integrity of the coalition seems at risk after Deputy Prime Minister and Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli's announcements on Friday. There's little doubt that we have entered a much more uncertain political environment, specifically EU relations are at a difficult juncture, which is creating tensions within the government, Austrian investment bank CA-IB said in a recent research note, predicting that political uncertainty will continue to overshadow Turkish equities in the short term. The Istanbul Stock Exchange national-100 index has lost about 3 percent in U.S. dollar terms over the last three months with an average daily trading volume of around $317 million since the beginning of the year. Turkish financial markets were turbulent yesterday as well in response to the apparent conflict within the government, despite an appearance on Sunday by Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in front of cameras. The Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB) national 100 index dived 2.80 percent to end the day at 9,866 points below a psychological threshold of 10,000 points. Over the past 60 days, the IMKB national 100 index declined around 20 percent. The depreciation in the value of the TL against the American greenback was comparably moderate. The lira against the dollar over the past 60 days weakened from 1,298,000 to 1,478,000. Market outlook remains dull despite the improvement in economic fundamentals. A surprisingly low inflation reading for May, for instance, which confirmed expectations that the year-end 35 percent inflation target is within comfortable reach, has caused only limited joy due to Ecevit's ill-health. The 0.4 percent month-on-month rise in the wholesale prices index (WPI) and the 0.6 percent rise in the consumer prices index (CPI) were the lowest May figures since 1970. In fact, were it not for the rise in oil prices, the May WPI would have been flat, said economist Yarkin Cebeci of JP Morgan. Industrial production figures for April, which showed a rise for the second consecutive month, arrived just in time to provide further evidence for a turnaround in economic activity. Overall industrial production rose 14.1 percent, on top of an 18.7 percent rise in March, turning up significantly above a consensus market expectation of 7.8 percent. The four-month rise in industrial production amounted to 6.1 percent compared to the same period of last year. Industrial production declined 4 percent in Jan.-Apr. 2001. Both the economic management and analysts are now optimistic that a 3 percent economic growth target can be attained this year on the back of the strong data for industrial output which accounts for approximately 30 percent of gross domestic product. High interest rates would, however, put Turkey's recovery prospects at risk and the yield on Treasury's debt papers have climbed an average 15 percentage points to above 65 percent since Ecevit was hospitalized a month ago. Analysts say rising lira yields once more urged the Treasury to issue foreign currency-denominated debt. The Treasury plans to hold a public offer from June 12-14 to sell one-year euro-denominated papers carrying quarterly coupon payments of 1.6 percent, for a compound
Re: Judi Bari Wins!
This is excellent news, but just think what the trial would have been like if the judge had allowed the COINTELPRO story to be told. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cyber security
From Cyberia The President's Plan for a new Dept. of Homeland Security has a paragraph addressing cyber security. The full plan is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/book.pdf Our nation's information and telecommunications systems are directly connected to many other critical infrastructure sectors, including banking and finance, energy, and transportation. The consequences of an attack on our cyber infrastructure can cascade across many sectors, causing widespread disruption of essential services, damaging our economy, and imperiling public safety. The speed, virulence, and maliciousness of cyber attacks have increased dramatically in recent years. Accordingly, the Department of Homeland Security would place an especially high priority on protecting our cyber infrastructure from terrorist attack by unifying and focusing the key cyber security activities performed by the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (currently part of the Department of Commerce) and the National Infrastructure Protection Center (FBI). The Department would augment those capabilities with the response functions of the Federal Computer Incident Response Center (General Services Administration). Because our information and telecommunications sectors are increasingly interconnected, the Department would also assume the functions and assets of the National Communications System (Department of Defense), which coordinates emergency preparedness for the telecommunications sector.
Re: cyber security
The full plan is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/book.pdf Very interesting document. Apparently, another key component is Emergency Preparedness and Response, whose central component will be FEMA or Federal Emergency Management Agency, which also will become a central component of the Department of Homeland Security, as the above document indicates. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a friend on FEMA but since I did not know where the article he forwarded to me came from, I did not want to send it. I still don't know where it came from. But after reading the above document, I think it is appropriate to send it. Maybe there are people on this list who can tell us whether the claims below are verifiable. Best, Sabri ++ FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY Some people have referred to it as the secret government of the United States. It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in public disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of dollars. This government organization has more power than the President of the United States or the Congress, it has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution. Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States, but it was not even created under Constitutional law by the Congress. It was a product of a Presidential Executive Order. No, it is not the U.S. Military nor the Central Intelligence Agency, they are subject to Congress. The organization is called FEMA, which stands for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Originally conceived in the Richard Nixon administration, it was refined by President Jimmy Carter and given teeth in the Ronald Reagan and George Bush Administrations. FEMA had one original concept when it was created, to assure the survivability of the United States government in the event of a nuclear attack on this nation. It was also provided with the task of being a federal co-ordinating body during times of domestic disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. Its awesome powers grow under the tutelage of people like Lt. Col. Oliver North and General Richard Secord, the architects on the Iran-Contra scandal and the looting of America's savings and loan institutions. FEMA has even been given control of the State Defense Forces, a rag-tag, often considered neo-Nazi, civilian army that will substitute for the National Guard, if the Guard is called to duty overseas. THE MOST POWERFUL ORGANIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES Though it may be the most powerful organization in the United States, few people know it even exists. But it has crept into our private lives. Even mortgage papers contain FEMA's name in small print if the property in question is near a flood plain. FEMA was deeply involved in the Los Angeles riots and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of the black helicopter traffic reported throughout the United States, but mainly in the West, California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado, are flown by FEMA personnel. FEMA has been given responsibility for many new disasters including urban forest fires, home heating emergencies, refugee situations, urban riots, and emergency planning for nuclear and toxic incidents. In the West, it works in conjunction with the Sixth Army. FEMA was created in a series of Executive Orders. A Presidential Executive Order, whether Constitutional or not, becomes law simply by its publication in the Federal Registry. Congress is by-passed. Executive Order Number 12148 created the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding. An emergency czar was appointed. FEMA has only spent about 6 percent of its budget on national emergencies, the bulk of their funding has been used for the construction of secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic. Executive Order Number 12656 appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should consider emergency powers. This allows the government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement within the United States and grant the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians. The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control of U.S. air space and all ports of entry. Here are just a few Executive Orders associated with FEMA that would suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen: EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways
Re: Re: cyber security
My experience with FEMA came when I arrived early at the Federal Reserve for a lunch with George Stigler. The Fed pulled my name from a pool of people; the rest were his students and buddies. They sent me to the dining room before the earlier group had finished. The FEMA boys were explaining how check clearing would work after a nuclear attack. Needless to say, it was a mind-numbing experience. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Poland in the NY Times
The Times, following our discussion, found it necessary to jump in on the subject of Poland. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/12/international/europe/12POLA.html By the way, would anybody know why my account would be giving the wrong time on my messages to pen-l? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: An English revival
One world, one economy, one language, one culture, one security system, one body of armed men, one state. Chris Burford
