Re: Re: Re: autism and autistic economics
Title: Re: [PEN-L:30210] Re: Re: autism and autistic economics Gosh Ian, this is interesting. What are the principles of these two types of economics? HOw about: 4. the new emerges from the decomposing on 09/13/2002 2:57 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 9/12/02 11:17:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Recently, I was trying to convince my son, who has Asperger's Syndrome (borderline autism), that nothing can ever be perfect. This goes against his perfectionism, a common symptom of AS, which encourages him to give up too easily -- since perfection is unattainable. Then I continued, with a list: 1. Nothing is ever perfect. 2. Change is normal. 3. The future is uncertain. Then it struck me, that these represent major oppositions to the dominant form of autistic economics, i.e., neoclassical economics, which values perfect and static models of an imaginary world with no uncertainty. Can anyone think of what to add to the list? == Beings perish. Institutions become obsolete. Ian A fall in the pit a gain in your wit. Fight fail, fight again, fail again fight on to final victor. As you grow someone is at the next level waiting for you. The magic and beauty is in the discovery. Girls, who can understand them? Women, who can really know them? I looked in the mirror today and saw a different person and said "were did you come from and what are you doing in my pajamas?" The taxman has his foot on my neck and he don't even lived in our neighborhood. Lean on the bank for a minute and they learn on you for a life time. You are bigger than you think, smaller than you can imagine and twice as important. Don't leave a corner of milk in the container. Leave the big piece of chicken for Dad. He might not eat it but want to look at it before he goes to bed. The only thing perfect is life is Mom. If you don't believe me ask her. What lights up the dream you see is the sun of your imagination. Ask your mother. Divide the impossible by the probable and you might get close to the answer. Eyes only see. The mind produces vision. Paper money is an agreement between between me and the grocery and this agreement lets us eat. Living on easy street is hard. The dog house is not that bad. God is hard to understand. I'm still growing up with out getting any taller. God said we cannot ask questions after 8:00 pm, except to Moma. Moma knows where air comes from. Ask her. Dad had an accident when he was young and forgets the answer. Ask Mom, she has a real good memory. She has never had any accidents.
Re: Re: autism and autistic economics
In a message dated 9/12/02 11:17:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Recently, I was trying to convince my son, who has Asperger's Syndrome (borderline autism), that nothing can ever be perfect. This goes against his perfectionism, a common symptom of AS, which encourages him to give up too easily -- since perfection is unattainable. Then I continued, with a list: 1. Nothing is ever perfect. 2. Change is normal. 3. The future is uncertain. Then it struck me, that these represent major oppositions to the dominant form of autistic economics, i.e., neoclassical economics, which values perfect and static models of an imaginary world with no uncertainty. Can anyone think of what to add to the list? == Beings perish. Institutions become obsolete. Ian A fall in the pit a gain in your wit. Fight fail, fight again, fail again fight on to final victor. As you grow someone is at the next level waiting for you. The magic and beauty is in the discovery. Girls, who can understand them? Women, who can really know them? I looked in the mirror today and saw a different person and said "were did you come from and what are you doing in my pajamas?" The taxman has his foot on my neck and he don't even lived in our neighborhood. Lean on the bank for a minute and they learn on you for a life time. You are bigger than you think, smaller than you can imagine and twice as important. Don't leave a corner of milk in the container. Leave the big piece of chicken for Dad. He might not eat it but want to look at it before he goes to bed. The only thing perfect is life is Mom. If you don't believe me ask her. What lights up the dream you see is the sun of your imagination. Ask your mother. Divide the impossible by the probable and you might get close to the answer. Eyes only see. The mind produces vision. Paper money is an agreement between between me and the grocery and this agreement lets us eat. Living on easy street is hard. The dog house is not that bad. God is hard to understand. I'm still growing up with out getting any taller. God said we cannot ask questions after 8:00 pm, except to Moma. Moma knows where air comes from. Ask her. Dad had an accident when he was young and forgets the answer. Ask Mom, she has a real good memory. She has never had any accidents.
Re: the battle for history
In a message dated 9/12/02 12:44:06 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There is no major 20th-century political tradition without blood on its hands. But the battle over history is never really about the past - it's about the future. When Amis accuses the Bolsheviks of waging "war against human nature", he is making the classic conservative objection to radical social change. Those who write colonial barbarity out of 20th-century history want to legitimise the new liberal imperialism, just as those who demonise past attempts to build an alternative to capitalist society are determined to prove that there is none. The problem for the left now is not so much that it has failed to face up to its own history, but that it has become paralysed by the burden of it. [EMAIL PROTECTED] I drink to that. We are slowly entering a time frame where industrial society of two different property relations can be assessed without a certain animal passion. Interesting article. Melvin P
RE: RE: FW: RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30185] FW: RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy Jim Devine wrote: "I remember someone giving me a hard time on pen-l because I referred to Osama bin Laden and Taliban as "clerical fascists." It's not a perfect analogy, but few are." I don't think it is a mere analogy. I heard a talk by Reza Afshari, a historian and human-rights specialist (with whom I work), in which he pinpointed a direct genealogical link. Apparently, one of the main developers of Islamic fundamentalist ideology borrowed heavily from and credited the writings of a fascist physician (from France, who emigrated to the U.S). Unfortunately, I've forgotten both their names. In any case, it is an important point that fundamentalism is at least partly a modern, "Western" import, and not -- contrary to common portrayal -- the traditional, indigenous ideology of the people.
Re: Corporate Charters
Go to www.poclad.org. Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy. Don't know if they have what you want, but ask them. Gene Coyle Brian M Czech wrote: > Dear Pen-l, > > I really respect you folks for your knowledge of economics and corporate > operations. Do any of you have an example of (or know of a website that > includes or quotes) a typical corporate charter? Im especially > looking for charter language, explicit or implicit, to the effect of > maximizing returns to shareholders. This is for a talk Im giving on the > economic growth iron triangle at The Wildlife Society (in which I'm > active in advocating a steady state economy) conference in 2 weeks. > > Thanks, > > Brian Czech > Www.steadystate.org > > Brian Czech > Arlington, VA > USA
Re: Corporate Charters
- Original Message - From: "Brian M Czech" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 6:49 PM Subject: [PEN-L:30205] Corporate Charters Dear Pen-l, I really respect you folks for your knowledge of economics and corporate operations. Do any of you have an example of (or know of a website that includes or quotes) a 'typical' corporate charter? I'm especially looking for charter language, explicit or implicit, to the effect of maximizing returns to shareholders. This is for a talk I'm giving on the economic growth iron triangle at The Wildlife Society (in which I'm active in advocating a steady state economy) conference in 2 weeks. Thanks, Brian Czech Www.steadystate.org == Here's how they now do it in Ukraine, but it's pretty standard. http://www.ifc.org/ukraine/corpgov/eng/docs_en/model_company_charter.htm Ian
Corporate Charters
Dear Pen-l, I really respect you folks for your knowledge of economics and corporate operations. Do any of you have an example of (or know of a website that includes or quotes) a typical corporate charter? Im especially looking for charter language, explicit or implicit, to the effect of maximizing returns to shareholders. This is for a talk Im giving on the economic growth iron triangle at The Wildlife Society (in which I'm active in advocating a steady state economy) conference in 2 weeks. Thanks, Brian Czech Www.steadystate.org Brian Czech Arlington, VA USA
New to list, what's it about?
Hey Pen-L list: I signed up to this list because I am interested in alternative economy, is that what you guys mainly talk about? A few day I have been reading, and the topics seem to vary. I am down with collectives, cooperatives and local currency, etc. I generally feel that corporate capitalism can be neither reformed nor taken by force and that our only hope is to build an economic culture that ignores it until it goes away. I admit, this could take hundreds of years, but so did the demise of feudalism. Anybody on this list hear about how the Midwest's Blooming Prairie wholesale food distribution cooperative is about to sell out to United Natural Foods? This is quite distressing considering that BP touches about 30% of the cooperative market. I have heard mumbling about dirty tricks by Whole Foods but nothing that can be substantiated. Anybody know the history of the relationship between United Natural Foods Inc. and Whole Foods? Someone from Whole Foods, incidentally sits on the board of BP. Lisa, Pittsburgh
Re: Re: Poverty rates, racism/discrimination in N. Carolina
On Wednesday, September 11, 2002 at 13:20:19 (-0400) Joel Blau writes: >The best resource to answer your questions is the Center on Budget and >Policy Priorities. They do a state-by-state >breakdown of poverty rates. The new rate comes out 9/30, but that's a >national number,and it usually takes a while to >cross-section it. Do you have any specific references to a web page that might have this or link to it? I tried searching their site for about 20 minutes and found nothing. Maybe I'm just not searching correctly or I'm just not otherwise seeing it. Bill
a thorny little matter of law...
Reasons to be fearful Thursday September 12, 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] [snip] In terms of international law, an attack on Iraq would be illegal unless the US could convincingly show that it acted in self-defence or unless a new UN resolution were passed authorising specific action. Despite what US officials say, there is no authority for the overthrow of the Iraqi government contained in existing UN resolutions. Legally, and morally, an attack that lacked such authority by one sovereign state against another would set an alarming, potentially disastrous precedent. It would in fact inevitably be compared to another notorious act of unprovoked aggression - the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that set in train all the problems described above. full at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,790931,00.html
Re: Re: US policies partly to blame for 9/11 Canadian PM says
Indeed, a rare voice of sanity from Prime Minister Chretien. Paul Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba > Yes in thunder, Prime Minister Chrétien. What a rare voice of sanity among > world leaders. > > Carl >
RE: FW: RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30185] FW: RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy RAWA says: >These Western governments did not lose much sleep over the daily grind of abject misery our people were enduring under the domination of these terrorist bands. To them it did not matter so very much that human rights and democratic principles were being trampled on a daily basis in an inconceivable manner. What was important was to "work with" the religio-fascists to have Central Asian oil pipelines extended to accessible ports of shipment. < I remember someone giving me a hard time on pen-l because I referred to Osama bin Laden and Taliban as "clerical fascists." It's not a perfect analogy, but few are. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Drewk [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 8:30 AM To: Pen-L@Galaxy. Csuchico. Edu Subject: [PEN-L:30185] FW: RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy Fundamentalism is the Enemy of All Civilized Humanity RAWA joins with the rest of the civilized world in remembering the innocent lives lost on September 11th, as well as all those others lost to terrorism and oppression throughout the world. It is with great sadness that RAWA sees other people experiencing the pain that the women, children and men of Afghanistan have long suffered at the hands of fundamentalist terrorists. For ten long years the people of Afghanistan -Afghan women in particular- have been crushed and brutalized, first under the chains and atrocities of the "Northern Alliance" fundamentalists, then under those of the Taliban. During all this period, the governments of the Western powers were bent on finding ways to "work with" these criminals. These Western governments did not lose much sleep over the daily grind of abject misery our people were enduring under the domination of these terrorist bands. To them it did not matter so very much that human rights and democratic principles were being trampled on a daily basis in an inconceivable manner. What was important was to "work with" the religio-fascists to have Central Asian oil pipelines extended to accessible ports of shipment. Immediately after the September 11 tragedy American military might moved into action to punish its erstwhile hirelings. A captive, bleeding, devastated, hungry, pauperized, drought-stricken and ill-starred Afghanistan was bombed into oblivion by the most advanced and sophisticated weaponry ever created in human history. Innocent lives, many more than those who lost their lives in the September 11 atrocity, were taken. Even joyous wedding gatherings were not spared. The Taliban regime and its al-Qaeda support were toppled without any significant dent in their human combat resources. What was not done away with was the sinister shadow of terrorist threat over the whole world and its alter ego, fundamentalist terrorism. Neither opium cultivation nor warlordism have been eradicated in Afghanistan. There is neither peace nor stability in this tormented country, nor has there been any relief from the scourges of extreme pauperization, prostitution, and wanton plunder. Women feel much more insecure than in the past. The bitter fact that even the personal security of the President of the country cannot be maintained without recourse to foreign bodyguards and the recent terrorist acts in our country speak eloquent volumes about the chaotic and terrorist-ridden situation of the country. Why is it so? Why has the thunderous uproar in the aftermath of September 11 resulted in nothing? For the following reasons which RAWA has reiterated time and again: 1. For the people of Afghanistan, it is "out of the frying pan, into the fire". Instead of the Taliban terrorists, Jihadi terrorists of the "Northern Alliance" have been installed in power. The Jihadi and the Taliban fundamentalists share a common ideology; their differences are the usual differences between brethren-in-creed. 2. For the past more or less twenty years, Osama bin Laden has had Afghan fundamentalists on his payroll and has been paying their leaders considerable stipends. He and Mullah Omar, together with a band of followers equipped with the necessary communication resources, can live for many years under the protection of different fundamentalist bands in Afghanistan and Pakistan and continue to plot against the people of Afghanistan and the rest of humankind. 3. The Taliban and the al-Qaeda phenomena, as manifestations of an ideology and a political culture infesting an Islamic country, could only have been uprooted by a popular insurrection and the strengthening and coming to power of secular democratic forces. Such a purge cannot be effected solely with the physical elimination of the likes of Osama and Mullah Omar. The "Northern Alliance" can never sincerely want the t
the battle for history
Title: the battle for history The battle for history The now routine equation of Stalin and Hitler both distorts the past and limits the future Seumas Milne Thursday September 12, 2002 The Guardian [U.K.] It would be easy to dismiss the controversy over the latest Martin Amis offering as little more than a salon tiff among self-referential literati. His book, Koba the Dread, follows a well-trodden political path. An excoriation of Lenin, Stalin and communism in general (interlaced with long-simmering spats with his once communist father Kingsley and radical friend Christopher Hitchens), it is intended to be a savage indictment of the left for its supposed inability to acknowledge the crimes committed in its name. Strong on phrasemaking, the book is painfully short on sources or social and historical context. The temptation might be to see it as simply a sign that the one-time enfant terrible of the London literary scene was reliving his father's descent into middle-aged blimpishness. That would be a mistake. Amis's book is in reality only the latest contribution to the rewriting of history that began in the dying days of the Soviet Union and has intensified since its collapse. It has become almost received wisdom to bracket Stalin and Hitler as twin monsters of the past century - Mao and Pol Pot are sometimes thrown in as an afterthought - and commonplace to equate communism and fascism as the two greatest evils of an unprecedentedly sanguinary era. In some versions, communism is even held to be the more vile and bloodier wickedness. The impact of this cold war victors' version of the past has been to relativise the unique crimes of Nazism, bury those of colonialism and feed the idea that any attempt at radical social change will always lead to suffering, killing and failure. This profoundly ideological account has long since turned into a sort of gruesome numbers game. The bizarre distortions it produces were on show last week during a television interview with Amis, when the BBC presenter Gavin Esler remarked in passing that Stalin was "responsible for at least three times as many deaths" as Hitler - a truly breathtaking throwaway line. Esler was presumably comparing Amis's own figure of 20 million Stalin victims (borrowed from the cold war historian Robert Conquest) with the 6 million Jews murdered by Hitler in the Holocaust. But of course Hitler took a great many more lives than 6 million: over 11 million are estimated to have died in the Nazi camps alone and he might reasonably be held responsible for the vast majority of the 50 million killed in the second world war, including more than 20 million Soviet dead. But in the distorted prism of the new history, they are somehow lost from the equation. At the same time, the number of victims of Stalin's terror has been progressively inflated over recent years to the point where, in the wildest guesstimates, a third of the entire Soviet population is assumed to have been killed in the years leading up to the country's victory over Nazi Germany. The numbers remain a focus of huge academic controversy, partly because most of them are famine deaths which can only be extrapolated from unreliable demographic data. But the fact is that the opening of formerly secret Soviet archives has led many historians - such as the Americans J Arch Getty and Robert Thurston - to scale down sharply earlier cold war estimates of executions and gulag populations under Stalin. The figures are still horrific. For example, 799,455 people were recorded as having been executed between 1921 and 1953, and the labour camp population reached 2.5 million (most convicted for non-political offences) at its peak after the war. But these are a very long way from the kind of numbers relied on by Amis and his mentors. For all their insistence on moral equivalence, Amis and even Conquest say they nevertheless "feel" the Holocaust was worse than Soviet repression. But the differences aren't just a matter of feelings. Despite the cruelties of the Stalin terror, there was no Soviet Treblinka, no extermination camps built to murder people in their millions. Nor did the Soviet Union launch the most bloody and destructive war in human history - in fact, it played the decisive role in the defeat of the German war machine (something that eluded its tsarist predecessors). Part of the Soviet tragedy was that that victory was probably only possible because the country had undergone a forced industrial revolution in little more than a decade, in the very process of which the greatest crimes were committed. The achievements and failures of Soviet history cannot in any case be reduced to the Stalin period, any more than the role of communists - from the anti-fascist resistance to the campaigns for colonial freedom - can be defined simply by their relationship to the USSR. Perhaps most grotesque in this postmodern calculus of political repression is the moral blindness displayed towards t
[no subject]
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
re: autism and autistic economics
>Can anyone think of what to add to the list? "The way money grows is not the way plants, animals and humans grow." - Gene Logsdon Tom Walker 604 255 4812
RE: Re: autism and autistic economics
Title: RE: [PEN-L:30194] Re: autism and autistic economics nothing is inevitable but death, taxes, and ... lawyers. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > > 1. Nothing is ever perfect. > 2. Change is normal. > 3. The future is uncertain. > > Can anyone think of what to add to the list? > > == > > Beings perish. > > Institutions become obsolete. > > Ian
Re: autism and autistic economics
autism and autistic economics - Original Message - From: Devine, James To: Pen-l (E-mail) Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 10:40 AM Subject: [PEN-L:30192] autism and autistic economics Recently, I was trying to convince my son, who has Asperger's Syndrome (borderline autism), that nothing can ever be perfect. This goes against his perfectionism, a common symptom of AS, which encourages him to give up too easily -- since perfection is unattainable. Then I continued, with a list: 1. Nothing is ever perfect. 2. Change is normal. 3. The future is uncertain. Then it struck me, that these represent major oppositions to the dominant form of autistic economics, i.e., neoclassical economics, which values perfect and static models of an imaginary world with no uncertainty. Can anyone think of what to add to the list? == Beings perish. Institutions become obsolete. Ian
RE: autism and autistic economics
"Shit happens"? -- i.e., shocks, kinks, discontinuities [sounds like one of my dates] mbs Recently, I was trying to convince my son, who has Asperger's Syndrome (borderline autism), that nothing can ever be perfect. This goes against his perfectionism, a common symptom of AS, which encourages him to give up too easily -- since perfection is unattainable. Then I continued, with a list: 1. Nothing is ever perfect. 2. Change is normal. 3. The future is uncertain. Then it struck me, that these represent major oppositions to the dominant form of autistic economics, i.e., neoclassical economics, which values perfect and static models of an imaginary world with no uncertainty. Can anyone think of what to add to the list? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
autism and autistic economics
Title: autism and autistic economics Recently, I was trying to convince my son, who has Asperger's Syndrome (borderline autism), that nothing can ever be perfect. This goes against his perfectionism, a common symptom of AS, which encourages him to give up too easily -- since perfection is unattainable. Then I continued, with a list: 1. Nothing is ever perfect. 2. Change is normal. 3. The future is uncertain. Then it struck me, that these represent major oppositions to the dominant form of autistic economics, i.e., neoclassical economics, which values perfect and static models of an imaginary world with no uncertainty. Can anyone think of what to add to the list? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: US policies partly to blame for 9/11 Canadian PM says
>From: "ken hanly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >PM says U.S. attitude helped fuel Sept. 11 > >By SHAWN McCARTHY > >From Thursday's Globe and Mail ... > >In a CBC interview taped in July and aired last night, Mr. Chrétien >suggested the root causes of last year's Sept. 11 attacks were global >poverty and an over-bearing American foreign policy. > >"It's always the problem when you read history - everybody doesn't know >when >to stop. There's a moment when you have to stop, there's a moment when you >are very powerful," he said. > >Immediately following Sept. 11, Canadian politicians rejected the "root >causes" argument, saying the attacks were the work of irrational fanatics >that had nothing to do with legitimate grievances. > >But Mr. Chrétien told CBC, religious fanatics are using the anger and >resentment of the world's poor to fuel their terrorism. > >"I do think that the Western world is getting too rich in relations to the >poor world," he said. > >"And necessarily, we're looked upon as being arrogant, self-satisfied, >greedy and with no limits. And the 11th of September is an occasion for me >to realize it even more." Yes in thunder, Prime Minister Chrétien. What a rare voice of sanity among world leaders. Carl _ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
conference proposal
Dear Colleagues, Please pardon this generic invitation, but I'm writing to encourage each of you to participate in ICAPEâs conference on the future of heterodox economics next June at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. URPE is an important voice within ICAPE, and I hope that it will be a central part of this conference. Though initially formed (in 1993) in response to AEA cutbacks of heterodox sessions at its annual meetings, ICAPE's broader purpose is to promote pluralism in the analytical perspectives, methods, policy discourse, and education of professional economists. This conference will be the most visible expression of this mission to date. I hope that it also will provide opportunities for URPE members to present their work and to help set the agenda for the future of heterodox economics. The proposal deadline is November 1. I hope to hear from many of you between now and then. Sincerely, Rob Garnett The International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE) announces its first conference on THE FUTURE OF HETERODOX ECONOMICS 5 - 7 June 2003 University of Missouri at Kansas City, USA Founded in 1993, ICAPE is a consortium of 40 organizations working to foster pluralism in the analytical perspectives, methods, policy discourse, and education of professional economists. Now, ten years on, ICAPE is sponsoring its first conference: on the future of heterodox economics. The aim of this conference is to think anew about heterodox economics - about who we are, intellectually and institutionally - in the light of: · the passing of the Cold War and its rigid dichotomies (market/state, left/right) · the gradual dissolution of Cold War neoclassicism (centered on Walrasian GE theory) · the aging and declining membership of many heterodox organizations · the youth-driven push for greater pluralism in economics, sparked by the PAE movement · the increasingly vibrant pluralism displayed in heterodox journals, many of which formerly were devoted to a single school of thought Our aim is to encourage new dialogues among schools of thought and across generations, especially between our elders (senior scholars who have inspired the revival of heterodox economics over the past 20-30 years) and our youth. In this way we hope to create new resources - energy, ideas, debates, alliances, projects - for the future of heterodox economics, and indeed of economics itself, internationally. We seek proposals offering fresh perspectives on heterodox economic theory, policy, and pedagogy at the graduate and undergraduate levels. We especially welcome efforts to integrate - or to create new conversations among - heretofore separate strands of thought, including (but not limited to) Austrian Economics, Behavioral Economics, Black Political Economy, Ecological Economics, Evolutionary Economics, Feminist Economics, Georgist Economics, Historical Economics, Institutionalism, Marxism, Post Keynesian Economics, Postmodern Economics, Postcolonial Economics, Social Economics, and Sraffian Economics. Please send proposals (including 250-word abstract) to Rob Garnett, Department of Economics, Box 298510, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Proposal deadline: November 1, 2002 Notification date: December 15, 2002 The conference fee is $120 (including lunches, tea/coffee/juice, and a conference dinner) and is payable upon acceptance of your proposal. No fee is required to submit a proposal. Current ICAPE Associates Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE) Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE) Association for Institutional Thought (AFIT) Association for Social Economics (ASE) Association for Social and Political Economy (ASPE) Belgian-Dutch Association for Institutional and Political Economy (AIPE) Center for Full Employment and Price Stability (CFEPS) Conference on Problems of Economic Change (COPEC) Congress of Political Economists International (COPE) Eastern Economic Association (EEA) European Association for Bioeconomic Studies (EABS) European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) German Association for Political Economy (GAPE) Global Development and Environment Institute (G-DAE) The Gide Society (GIDE) History of Economics Society (HOES) Institute for Institutional and Social Economics (IISO) International Atlantic Economic Society (IAES) International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) International Economics and Philosophy Society (IEPS) International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society (ISS) International Network for Economic Method (INEM) International Papers in Political Economy (IPPE) International Review of Applied Economics (IRAE) International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) International Society for the Intercommunication of New Ideas (ISINI) International Society for New Institutional Economics
David Barkin on Mexico
I asked David if he would send us something on Mexico. Unfortunately, I had trouble with the footnotes. Maybe I can get him to engage in any discussion that follows. MEXICO: 25 YEARS LATER Towards a new understanding* David Barkin Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Xochimilco, Mexico City Mexico is the wunderkind of Latin America. After suffering the "lost decade" of the 1980s, alongside most of the other countries of the region, apparently, the country has been successfully "retooled" to meet the challenges of globalization. Not only did it reorganize its productive structure so as to take advantage of its accession to the GATT (now World Trade Organization, or WTO) and implement a thorough unraveling of trade barriers that led to an important increase in international trade, but it also has made the transition required by its integration into the North American Free Trade Agreement. In the midst of a litany of social and economic disasters in other parts of the hemisphere -from the profound crisis of Argentine society, the challenges facing Venezuela, the continuing toll of violence in Colombia, to the seemingly intractable problems of setting the Central American republics on a path towards economic development- why should I choose to focus on the problems facing Mexico in this period and in the coming years? Rather than attributing this nay saying to the whims of a "spoilsport," I would ask you to consider my analysis as a basis for reflection about the profound contradictions wreaking havoc on the country and about the dangers of continuing with the present strategy of unbridled international integration. Finally, I will end on a positive note, considering some possible alternatives that groups in Mexico are already attempting to implement. A brief economic history: Without going into details of methodology or the niceties of its social significance, I find that a brief exploration of the purchasing power of minimum wages in Mexico a convenient metaphor for following the country's economic history during much of the XX century (Figure 1). Suffice it to say, for present purposes that after a lengthy period of unprecedented prosperity from 1935 to 1970, popularly known as the Mexican miracle, a seemingly endless series of crises ushered in a period of declining real wages that brought the minimum wage index its lowest point, since it was instituted in 1934. Although its social significance is different today, than it was at its zenith in 1976, there is no question that real wages have been declining for a substantial part of the population for more than a quarter century, and that more than one-half of the population finds itself living in poverty; The deterioration in personal incomes was accompanied by a dramatic shift in the geographic distribution activity. With a new emphasis on the maquiladora as the source of dynamism for the integration of the economy into the global marketplace beginning in the mid-1980s, the northern border region acquired a new significance that it is still unprepared to manage. More than 3,000 firms were established, employing in excess of 1.3 million people at its highest point, in the semi-arid reaches of the Mexico's "semi-arid" north; concentrated in four enormous cities (Tijuana, Cd. Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, and Matamoros) and more than a dozen smaller border cities, local governments do not have the fiscal resources or administrative and human capacity to manage this unbridled growth. Internal migration became a powerful force, polarizing the country by reorienting population growth northward. A second source of economic growth, the automotive sector, has also been thoroughly transformed with integration. It went from being a highly protected industry producing high cost products for the local market, to an important part of a global industry assembling vehicles with parts produced in all three NAFTA countries, and boasting at least one of the most highly productive plants on a global scale. This industry was also relocated from its historical orientation to the concentrated local markets in the central part of the country to new installations in the deserts of northern Mexico to facilitate the importation of auto parts and the export of finished vehicles; this further heightened pressures on scarce water resources and desert ecosystems, and encouraged even more migration from the declining states in central and southern Mexico. Ironically, in spite of the dynamic growth of these two sectors, the Mexican foreign trade balance has been in deficit since the early 1990s.(Figure 2) Although somewhat reduced in the most recent period because of the sharp decline in real incomes, the "deconstruction" of the industrial sector and national policies facilitating imports has led to a very important increase in foreign trade, and most especially the import of inputs for the production of consumer goods. Unfortunately, this led to the massive import of bas
US policies partly to blame for 9/11 Canadian PM says
PM says U.S. attitude helped fuel Sept. 11 By SHAWN McCARTHY >From Thursday's Globe and Mail Ottawa - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien says the United States and the West must shoulder some of the responsibility for last year's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington because of their wealth and exercise of power in the world. In a CBC interview taped in July and aired last night, Mr. Chrétien suggested the root causes of last year's Sept. 11 attacks were global poverty and an over-bearing American foreign policy. "It's always the problem when you read history - everybody doesn't know when to stop. There's a moment when you have to stop, there's a moment when you are very powerful," he said. Immediately following Sept. 11, Canadian politicians rejected the "root causes" argument, saying the attacks were the work of irrational fanatics that had nothing to do with legitimate grievances. But Mr. Chrétien told CBC, religious fanatics are using the anger and resentment of the world's poor to fuel their terrorism. "I do think that the Western world is getting too rich in relations to the poor world," he said. "And necessarily, we're looked upon as being arrogant, self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits. And the 11th of September is an occasion for me to realize it even more." In the CBC documentary, the Prime Minister recalled being in New York prior to last year's terrorist attacks and hearing complaints from Wall Street capitalists about Canadian economic ties to Cuba and other disagreements over foreign policy. "I told them: When you are powerful like you are, you guys, it's the time to be nice," he said. "And it is one of the problems - you cannot exercise your powers to the point of humiliation of the others. And that is what the Western world - - not only the Americans but the Western world - has to realize." On Wednesday, Mr. Chrétien attended memorial services in New York City, saying he wanted to show solidarity with mourning Americans. The CBC interview marked the first time Mr. Chrétien has said the United States and its Western allies bear some responsibility for the events of Sept. 11, suggestions that have been angrily dismissed by American officials. Mr. Chrétien's comments echo the findings of a recent Ipsos-Reid poll, which suggested that 84 per cent of Canadians believe the United States bore at least some responsibility for the stunning attacks. The CBC documentary, which traced the actions of senior government officials that fateful day, revealed that the Prime Minister had essentially authorized U.S. fighter jets to shoot down a Korean airliner over Canadian skies if it diverted from a planned emergency landing in Whitehorse. While still over Alaska, the pilot of the Korean Airlines 747 had erroneously sent coded signals indicating the airliner had been hijacked. The pilot was ordered to land in Whitehorse, and was met by U.S. jet fighters while still over American territory. NORAD command in Winnipeg agreed the airliner could enter Canadian airspace accompanied by the U.S. fighters, but insisted the decision to shoot it down must reside with the Canadian government. On the afternoon of Sept. 11, Mr. Chrétien received a phone call and was told the airliner might have to be shot down. "I said, 'Yes, if you think they are terrorists, you call me again but be ready to shoot them down.' So I authorized it in principle," the Prime Minister said. "It's kind of scary that [there is] this plane with hundreds of people and you have to call a decision like that. But you prepare yourself for that. I thought about it - you know that you will have to make decisions at times that will [be] upsetting you for the rest of your life."
Re: Future Is Up To Us
Correction: The Future Is Up To Us http://www.lrna.org/speakers or call 800-691-6888 .
Re: Future Is Up To Us
FYI - there's a typo in the URL that was posted for the page for Nelson
Peery's book "The Future is Up to Us". The correct URL is:
http://www.lrna.org/speakers ("L" rna, not "I" rna)
jd
FW: RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy
Title: RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, Sep.11, 02 RAWA Statement on the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy Fundamentalism is the Enemy of All Civilized Humanity RAWA joins with the rest of the civilized world in remembering the innocent lives lost on September 11th, as well as all those others lost to terrorism and oppression throughout the world. It is with great sadness that RAWA sees other people experiencing the pain that the women, children and men of Afghanistan have long suffered at the hands of fundamentalist terrorists. For ten long years the people of Afghanistan -Afghan women in particular- have been crushed and brutalized, first under the chains and atrocities of the "Northern Alliance" fundamentalists, then under those of the Taliban. During all this period, the governments of the Western powers were bent on finding ways to "work with" these criminals. These Western governments did not lose much sleep over the daily grind of abject misery our people were enduring under the domination of these terrorist bands. To them it did not matter so very much that human rights and democratic principles were being trampled on a daily basis in an inconceivable manner. What was important was to "work with" the religio-fascists to have Central Asian oil pipelines extended to accessible ports of shipment. Immediately after the September 11 tragedy American military might moved into action to punish its erstwhile hirelings. A captive, bleeding, devastated, hungry, pauperized, drought-stricken and ill-starred Afghanistan was bombed into oblivion by the most advanced and sophisticated weaponry ever created in human history. Innocent lives, many more than those who lost their lives in the September 11 atrocity, were taken. Even joyous wedding gatherings were not spared. The Taliban regime and its al-Qaeda support were toppled without any significant dent in their human combat resources. What was not done away with was the sinister shadow of terrorist threat over the whole world and its alter ego, fundamentalist terrorism. Neither opium cultivation nor warlordism have been eradicated in Afghanistan. There is neither peace nor stability in this tormented country, nor has there been any relief from the scourges of extreme pauperization, prostitution, and wanton plunder. Women feel much more insecure than in the past. The bitter fact that even the personal security of the President of the country cannot be maintained without recourse to foreign bodyguards and the recent terrorist acts in our country speak eloquent volumes about the chaotic and terrorist-ridden situation of the country. Why is it so? Why has the thunderous uproar in the aftermath of September 11 resulted in nothing? For the following reasons which RAWA has reiterated time and again: 1. For the people of Afghanistan, it is "out of the frying pan, into the fire". Instead of the Taliban terrorists, Jihadi terrorists of the "Northern Alliance" have been installed in power. The Jihadi and the Taliban fundamentalists share a common ideology; their differences are the usual differences between brethren-in-creed. 2. For the past more or less twenty years, Osama bin Laden has had Afghan fundamentalists on his payroll and has been paying their leaders considerable stipends. He and Mullah Omar, together with a band of followers equipped with the necessary communication resources, can live for many years under the protection of different fundamentalist bands in Afghanistan and Pakistan and continue to plot against the people of Afghanistan and the rest of humankind. 3. The Taliban and the al-Qaeda phenomena, as manifestations of an ideology and a political culture infesting an Islamic country, could only have been uprooted by a popular insurrection and the strengthening and coming to power of secular democratic forces. Such a purge cannot be effected solely with the physical elimination of the likes of Osama and Mullah Omar. The "Northern Alliance" can never sincerely want the total elimination of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda, as such elimination would mean the end of the raison d'être of the backing and support extended to them by foreign forces presently dominant in the country. This was the rationale behind RAWA's slogan for the overthrow of the Taliban and al-Qaeda through popular insurrection. Unfortunately, before such popular insurrection could come about, the Taliban and al-Qaeda forfeited their positions to the "brethren of the 'Northern Alliance'" without suffering any crippling decimation. With their second occupation of Kabul, the "Northern Alliance" thwarted any hopes for a radical, meaningful change. They are themselves now the source and root of insecurity, the disgraceful police atmosphere of the Loya Jirga, rampant terrorism, gagging of democracy, atrocious violations of human rights, mounting pauperization, pr
the next bubble
Posted on Mon, Sep. 09, 2002 Bubble talk grows with debt BY ANDREW COUNTRYMAN Chicago Tribune First, there was the tech stock bubble. Then came fears about a real estate bubble, although the jury is still out on that one. Now, economists and stock market experts are floating the idea of a debt bubble, in which swelled levels of household and corporate borrowing force an already squishy economy into a longer-lasting, and more punishing, downturn. Burgeoning household debt is a familiar story, closely watched by economists because they fear it will dampen consumer spending, which has been a vital bulwark against a deeper recession. But as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and others point to revived business investment as a key to a sustained recovery, those growing corporate debt levels are receiving increased scrutiny: More money devoted to servicing debt means that much less for investment, and more debt overall means more skittish lenders. "I've been saying there was a debt bubble for about two years," said Jane D'Arista, director of programs at the Fed-watching Financial Markets Center think tank outside Washington. She said the Fed has made the situation worse by fixating on inflation as debt swelled to unprecedented heights. "The Fed has paid no attention to credit," she said. "This is as bad as having inflation, in terms of what it's doing to the economy." There's no disputing that, in sheer dollar terms, debt has ballooned. Household debt, including mortgages, has more than doubled since 1991, reaching nearly $7.9 trillion at the end of the first quarter, according to the most recent Fed data. Corporate debt has mushroomed almost as fast, topping $4.8 trillion. Add the debt from other businesses and nearly $10 trillion in debt from the financial sector, and the total exceeds $24 trillion. That, of course, is more than twice the annual gross domestic product of roughly $10.3 trillion, and dwarfs the ever-popular federal debt, which checked in at a paltry $3.4 trillion at the end of the first quarter. But debt is a double-edged sword. Companies, for example, have a tax incentive to fund expansion with debt - investments that, of course, can pay for themselves many times over and promote economic growth. The issue, then, is not necessarily the absolute size of the debt, but how much it strains the borrower. And by many of those measures, the situation is much less ominous, although hardly ideal. To assess overall debt levels, the Fed, for example, tracks the debt of nonfinancial companies as a percentage of their net worth. Although it has ticked up slightly since the mid-1990s, it has plateaued at roughly 75 percent over the last four quarters, and is well below the levels of the early `90s, when it topped 90 percent. A measure used by many economists to assess how well companies can handle their debt burdens - interest cost to cash flow ratio - shows a similar pattern. "Debt levels today are somewhat elevated, but not out of the range that has been experienced" over the years, said Richard DeKaser, chief economist at Cleveland-based National City Corp. "I don't think we're in that bad of shape." That, DeKaser said, helps explain why total business bankruptcies - even with the high-profile corporate failures of recent months - have fallen sharply in recent years, even as debt levels grew. The number of personal bankruptcies has soared, setting a record in the 12 months ended in June, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, but business filings have fallen by more than 25 percent from the 12 months ended in June 1997. Not coincidentally, household debt payments as a share of disposable income has crept ever higher in recent months, and at the end of last year approached its highest level in two decades. DeKaser, who has extensively studied factors associated with corporate bankruptcy, said the debt service ratio is "far and away" the most important factor, more so than leverage, liquidity and other measures of corporate health. But D'Arista is concerned about what the future holds. "The problem is, how are you going to repay that debt? It has to be rolled over, refunded or repaid," she said. She said there's no guarantee that companies can maintain their cash flow. Huge debt loads restrict money for new investment, which retards growth in jobs and personal income. Facing heavy debt loads themselves, consumers are less likely to increase their own spending, which further crimps corporate revenue and profit growth. "It is a self-fulfilling cycle," she said. Paradoxically, growing concern about corporate debt comes at the same time many economists are encouraging Greenspan and the Fed to cut interest rates even further to encourage more borrowing. The economic slowdown has done little to curb companies' debt accumulation - overall levels actually shrank during and after the last recession, the Fed data show, but have continued to swell this time around. T
Double standards
>From the Guardian Opponents of UN sanctions against Baghdad allege that Israel has been permitted to defy resolutions for the past 30 years ordering it to quit the West Bank and Gaza, while Iraq's non-compliance has been punished by repeated bombings and a rigorously enforced trade embargo. They "allege" that Israel has been permitted to defy resolutions? This is typical media spin. Surely Israel has defied these resolutions. I have even seen recently statements in supposedly reputable media that: i) the no-fly zones were created by a UN resolution ii)Kuwait supports a US attack on Iraq. Often British media are no better than US media on these matters.. Cheers, Ken Hanly
Religion in the servivce of war
While mourning is genuine (including for the 19,000 children who die of malnutrition and related diseases in a world of plenty every day) there were many indications yesterday that the commemorations of Sept 11th were being choreographed for a world wide audience to prepare for war on Iraq. Very clear on breakfast television in London The result of the internal battle is now clear: within the Bush administration, the multilaterialists have won, with the help of Tony Blair - the USA should not go it alone, or if it does, it should not be until after trying to appeal to the United Nations for support. Bush closing the ceremonies with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop. Stretching the vow to avenge terrorism to a vow to attack tyrants with weapons of mass destruction. The timing of the announcement yesterday of the move of an operational centre to Qataar (sp?). The timing today, of the Bush speech to the United nations. The British defence minister being at the Pentagon commemorations yesterday; the announcement yesterday by Blair that he will recall Parliament for a debate on Iraq; the announcement today after meeting the leaders of the other two main British parties, of which day that will be - thereby keeping the story in the papers two days running, and coinciding with Bush's speech to the UN. Sheer Alistair Campbell choreography. In which the religious and quasi religious images which are too sensitive to question, are all part of the politics of preparing for war. Very tricky for the left to counter this without in the first place analysing the steps, and secondly being prepared to divert the message, at some risk of violent counterattack. Is it a good thing that Blair and the multilateralists have won? I do not know. Would there be less likelihood of war if Blair had not beavered around and instead left Bush to contemplate paranoid unilateral action? I do not know. But there is a religious and a symbolic process going on here as well as news management. Iraq is being lined up to pay the "blood price" for September 11 even though there is no evidence that it was connected. The symbolic and mystical logic may be more powerful than any other logic. Besides, if we do not think about that, there would be nothing to distract us from the fact that the world is sliding towards a general recession. Chris Burford London
