e-bay & 'employee incorporation'

[Michael Hoover]

i recently saw figure of 40,000 people who derive livelihood from e-bay,
any listers know if this is
accurate...also, i seem to recall reading something
awhile ago about e-bay offering such folks health insurance, i assume
this would be opportunity to purchase group rather than individual
coverage...

friend of mine who lays tile for living has recently had to incorporate
himself under new florida statute
permitting employers to avoid worker comp/unemployment
comp by replacing their wage-labor employees with 'independent'
subcontractors who are one and same folks... michael hoover

National Attack on Labor Studies

[Michael Hoover]

Date:Sun, 28 Dec 2003 19:28:54 -0600
From:"Nelson N. Lichtenstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The national attack on labor studies

Colleagues:

   As many of you already know, the Schwarzenegger Administration
has
eliminated funding for the UC Institute for Labor and Employment. The
ILE,
founded just three years ago by an act of the California legislature -
and
with the full support of the California labor movement - quickly
established itself as a national leader in labor education, strategic
research, and scholarly investigation of topics of interest to active
unionists and concerned academics.

   Right-wing "think tanks," including the Manhattan Institute and
the
Pacific Research Institute, began a campaign against the ILE and other
labor studies programs last summer. When Schwarzenegger became governor
his
Bushite transition team immediately targeted the ILE for elimination,
using
the state fiscal crisis as the occasion and excuse for their action. An
excellent article on this subject, "Class Warfare" by David Bacon, can
be
found in the January 12, 2004 issue of The Nation. Go to
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhml?i=20040112&s=bacon

   We know that this right wing attack on labor studies and the new
working-class studies movement is hardly limited to California.
Right-wing
journalists have also targeted programs or individual researchers at the
University of Massachusetts - Amherst, at Cornell, and at the University
of
North Carolina. We would very much like to catalogue information about
other such attacks, successful or not, that have taken place during the
last few years. We are forming a national "Committee to Defend Labor
Studies Scholarship" and will shortly be asking for your support and
participation.

   So, if you have knowledge of such instances please send
particulars to
Nelson Lichtenstein at [EMAIL PROTECTED]

   In solidarity,


   Nelson Lichtenstein, History
   Richard Flacks, Sociology
   University of California, Santa Barbara

Nelson Lichtenstein
Professor of History
UC Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(0) 805-893-4822
(h) 805-966-5745
(fax) 805-893-8795


The Caucus on Class homepage:
http://terri1.home.mindspring.com

The SCMS homepage: http://www.cinemastudies.org

SCMSClass info and archive:
http://www.cinemastudies.org/mailman/listinfo/scmsclass

SCMSClass is supported by the Telecommunication and Film Department, the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu .  Opinions expressed here
do not necessarily represent those of SCMS, the TCF Department, or the
University of Alabama.

pen-l archives

[Michael Perelman]

I think that the csf computer might be gone.  It was supposed to go last
September.  Hans Ehrbar is hosting the archives now.  We all owe him a
great debt of thanks.
 --
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

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

Re: [political] industrial ecology

[Michael Perelman]

I am semi-retired -- at the economics meetings now for a few days.

What is remarkable is that the article says nothing about the EPA
sanctioned use of toxic waste is fertilizer.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

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

[political] industrial ecology

[Eubulides]

January 3, 2004
E.P.A. to Study Use of Waste From Sewage as Fertilizer
By JENNIFER 8. LEE

The Environmental Protection Agency will sponsor a series of scientific
and public health studies on the safety of using sewage sludge as
fertilizer, including nationwide chemical tests and building a human
health complaint database.

The studies, in combination with the agency's announcement on Wednesday
that it will more closely regulate 15 chemicals found in sewage sludge
fertilizer, are part of the agency's efforts to address public concerns
about an agricultural practice that has grown rapidly around the country
over the last decade.

The announcements also reflect the agency's shifting public stance toward
the practice. Currently, 54 percent of the six million tons of sewage
sludge generated every year is processed, rechristened as biosolids and
used as fertilizer - more sludge than is disposed of through incineration
and landfill combined.

The popularity of the practice is in part due to the environmental
agency's enthusiastic promotion, which started after Congress prohibited
the ocean dumping of sewage sludge in 1992. The agency spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign for recycling sludge
as fertilizer, which at that time accounted for less than a third of the
sewage waste disposal. The agency even created a brochure in 1994 that
said that processed sewage sludge may "protect child health." The brochure
cited a study showing animals that ingested "biosolid-treated soil and
dust may have a decreased absorption of lead into the bloodstream, thus
lessening the potential for lead-induced nerve and brain damage."

In May, the agency fired a 32-year veteran agency scientist, David Lewis,
who had raised questions about the safety of practice in a 1999 article
published in Nature.

But hundreds of complaints have been documented over the last decade,
including accusations that the toxic chemicals and pathogens have caused
sickness and death in animals and humans. Appomattox County, Va., banned
the use of biosolids, which a federal judge overturned in November for
conflicting with state law allowing the practice.

Industry officials say the complaints have to be taken in context. "Given
the large volume and multi-decade history of land application of
biosolids, the complaints of the large-scale health impacts are few and
far between," said James Slaughter, a lawyer who represents the biosolids
industry.

Environmental agency officials are publicly more ambivalent.

"I can't answer it's safe. I can't answer it's not safe," Paul Gilman, the
assistant administrator of agency's office of research and development,
said in an interview with CBS in October about the practice.

"We are not promoting one approach over another," Ben Grumbles, the acting
assistant administrator of the agency's office of water, said of the
various choices. "We are promoting local choice. We believe the current
sewage sludge regulations are adequately protective of human health in the
environment."

The scientific concerns have been enough such that the Honolulu City
Council voted last month to delay a contract with Synagro, a leading
sewage sludge disposal company, pending further study on the safety of the
practice.

The agency's scientific studies were prompted by a National Research
Council report, released in July 2002, criticizing the science around
sewage sludge as outdated.

In addition to regulating inorganic chemicals, the E.P.A. will also
identify pathogens and viruses that are present in the sewage sludge -
including staphylococcus aureus, a pathogen that tends to invade burned or
chemically damaged tissue. While industry-sponsored research at the
University of Arizona recently concluded that the pathogen is not present
in biosolids, Dr. Lewis said it was the chemicals in the sewage sludge
that leave residents more at risk from infection.

While critics of the sewage sludge policy are heartened by the research
plans, they also caution that the agency should try to ensure balanced
viewpoints.

"Historically, the activities sponsored by E.P.A. have tended to be
one-sided in terms of having scientists who have been involved in
developing the rule," said Ellen Harrison, director of the Cornell Waste
Management Institute, who has been critical of some E.P.A policies. "There
is a real need to change that and involve people who have been critical of
some of the work to date."

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[Eubulides]

[speaking of crony capitalism and Eurasianet..]


The new cold war

The long struggle between the US and Russia has found a new focus

Jonathan Steele
Saturday January 3, 2004
The Guardian

In the dying weeks of another war-filled year, one bit of good news was
the non-violent uprising which toppled Eduard Shevardnadze's regime in
Georgia. But as the Caucasian republic goes to the polls tomorrow to
choose a successor, the risk of bloodshed remains high and powerful
external forces are trying to determine how the new president behaves.

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that Georgia is the cockpit of a new
cold war. During the Soviet period the struggle between the US and Russia
was on a global scale. Massive arsenals were locked in stalemate in
Europe, but wars ravaged Africa and Asia as the superpowers found it
easier to compete there by interfering in local conflicts without the fear
of nuclear conflagration. These were the so-called proxy wars.

The USSR's collapse did not end the rivalry. It merely recast it on a more
complex stage which stressed deviousness rather than outright hostility.
Washington wooed post-communist Russia with offers of partnership while
expanding the old anti-Russian alliance, Nato, to take in former Soviet
allies as well as the three Baltic states.

Even as that task was being completed, the Clinton administration was
turning its attention to Russia's southern flanks in central Asia and the
Caucasus. With Russia's formal system of control dismantled, the aim was
to reduce as much of Moscow's political and economic influence as
possible.

Georgia was a good candidate to start the process because Shevardnadze, as
Soviet foreign minister, had shown great readiness to comply with western
demands. Aid money poured in, making Georgia the biggest per-capita
recipient of American government funding after Israel. Help also went to
develop a range of civil society organisations, from private media to
polling organisations and new political parties. While few would quarrel
with the need for "good governance" initiatives in authoritarian or failed
states, it would be better if they were run by less partisan bodies, like
international non-governmental organisations or the United Nations
agencies, than by states with an imperial agenda.

However, by 2003, after 10 years of Shevardnadze's rule, "reform" in
Georgia was unimpressive. The country had become an archetype of the worst
kind of post-communist state, where a corrupt rentier class of narrowly
selected officials and mafia businessmen enriched itself through
smuggling, crony privatisation, theft from the few remaining state
enterprises, and control of customs duties and port revenues.

They tolerated opposition newspapers and multiparty polls on the
assumption that state control of television would allow them to manipulate
the electoral contest, while loyal officials would announce fraudulent
results if voters went wrong. The last line of defence was always the army
and police who, it was thought, would put down protests by force in order
to save the regime because they were part of it.

Serbia broke the mould in September 2000. Popular frustration over
corruption and a failing economy, plus anger over too many lost wars,
produced Europe's first post-communist revolution. When the regime tried
to cheat on the election results, people took to the streets in huge
numbers and the army split. This was different from the revolutions of
1989, which were more political than economic. They also took place under
a single-party system in which large sections of the leadership had
themselves lost faith and wanted a soft landing.

Milosevic's downfall led to predictions that Georgia would be the next
post-communist state to have an uprising. There was similar anger over
crony capitalism. Shevardnadze had not sparked any wars, but nationalists
were upset that he had failed to regain two lost provinces, South Ossetia
and Abkhazia. Mikhail Saakashvili, who led the November street protests
and is expected to win tomorrow's election, is a nationalist who regularly
plays that card in his speeches.

Bush's people supported Clinton's strategy of diminishing Russia. In
power, they sharpened it. They exploited the terrorism scare of 9/11, plus
Putin's desire for US acquiescence to his failed war in Chechnya, as a way
to get Moscow's consent to the establishment of US bases in central Asia.
Geared as a temporary measure against the Taliban, they are determined to
keep them for possible use against Russia, China and the Middle East. They
accelerated the "pipeline wars" in the Caucasus by pressing western
companies to cut Russia out of the search for oil in the Caspian and make
sure that none was transported through Russia.

Why then did Washington decide to abandon Shevardnadze? It was not an
uncontested move. Before the November fraud, most US officials hoped to
see him remain in office until his term expired next year, provided he let
the opposition f

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[dmschanoes]

Wait a minute, are the rules of engagement here that there is to be no
engagement?

The Avocado Declaration

[Louis Proyect]

[The following statement was initiated by Peter Miguel Camejo. He is a
life-long fighter for social justice who was the Green candidate for
Governor in California in the 2002 general elections and in the 2003
recall election.]
THE AVOCADO DECLARATION

INTRODUCTION

The Green Party is at a crossroads. The 2004 elections place before us a
clear and unavoidable choice. On one side, we can continue on the path
of political independence, building a party of, by and for the people by
running our own campaign for President of the United States. The other
choice is the well-trodden path of lesser evil politics, sacrificing our
own voice and independence to support whoever the Democrats nominate in
order; we are told, to defeat Bush.
The difference is not over whether to "defeat Bush" - understanding by
that the program of corporate globalization and the wars and trampling
of the Constitution that come with it - but rather how to do it. We do
not believe it is possible to defeat the "greater" evil by supporting a
shamefaced version of the same evil. We believe it is precisely by
openly and sharply confronting the two major parties that the policies
of the corporate interests these parties represent can be set back and
defeated.
Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign exposed a crisis of confidence
in the two party system. His 2.7 million votes marked the first time in
modern history that millions voted for a more progressive and
independent alternative. Now, after three years of capitulation by the
Democratic Party to George Bush they are launching a pre-emptive strike
against a 2004 Ralph Nader campaign or any Green Party challenge. Were
the Greens right to run in 2000? Should we do the same in 2004? The
Avocado Declaration based on an analysis of our two party duopoly, and
its history declares we were right and we must run.
ORIGINS OF THE PRESENT TWO-PARTY SYSTEM

History shows that the Democrats and Republicans are not two
counterposed forces but rather complimentary halves of a single
two-party system: "one animal with two heads that feed from the same
trough," as Chicano leader Rodolfo "Corky" González explained.
Since the Civil War a peculiar two party political system has dominated
the United States. Prior to the Civil War a two-party system existed
reflecting opposing economic platforms. Since the Civil War a shift
occurred. A two-party system remained in place but no longer had
differing economic orientation. Since the Civil War the two parties show
differences in their image, role, social base and some policies but in
the last analysis they both support essentially similar economic
platforms.
This development can be clearly dated to the split in the Republican
Party of 1872 where one wing merged with the "New Departure" Democrats
that had already shifted towards the Republican platform of pro-finance
and industrial business. Prior to the Civil War the Democratic Party
controlled by the slaveocracy favored agriculture business interests,
developed an alliance with small farmers in conflict with industrial and
some commercial interests. That division ended with the Civil War. Both
parties supported financial and industrial business as the core of their
programmatic outlook.
For over 130 years the two major parties have been extremely effective
in preventing the emergence of any mass political formations that
challenge their political monopoly. Most attempts to build political
alternatives have been efforts to represent the interests of the average
person, the working people. These efforts have been unable to develop.
Both major parties have been dominated by moneyed interests and today
reflect the historic period of corporate rule.
In this sense United States history has been different from that of any
other advanced industrial nation. In all other countries multi party
systems have appeared and to one degree or other they have more
democratic electoral laws and more representation has existed. In almost
all other cases political parties ostensible based on or promoting the
interest of non-corporate sectors such as working people exist.
STRUGGLES FOR DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

In spite of this pro-corporate political monopoly, mass struggles for
social progress, struggles to expand democracy and civil rights have
periodically explodedd throughout United States history.
Every major gain in our history, even pre Civil War struggles --such as
the battles for the Bill of Rights, to end slavery, and to establish
free public education-- as well as those after the Civil War have been
the product of direct action by movements independent of the two major
parties and in opposition to them.
Since the Civil War, without exception, the Democratic Party has opposed
all mass struggles for democracy and social justice. These include the
struggle for ballot reform, for the right of African Americans to vote
and against American apartheid ("Jim Crow"), for the right to form
unions, for the right of women to vote,  again

the WSF and questions of strategy

[Eubulides]

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2101/stories/20040116002503900.htm

Re: productivity

[Mike Ballard]

--- joanna bujes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> In a recent SF Chron article on productivity, the
> author wrote:
>
> "Such fast-growing productivity is a tremendous boon
> for society,
> economists stress. While jobs might disappear in the
> short run, higher
> output per worker spurs growth that in the long run
> creates more
> opportunity.
>
> Higher productivity generates profit that is often
> reinvested in new
> job- creating activities, they note."
**

Was the author's name Supply Side Jesus?

Mike B)

=

Talent develops in tranquility, character
in the full current of human life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal

__
Do you Yahoo!?
Find out what made the Top Yahoo! Searches of 2003
http://search.yahoo.com/top2003

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[Louis Proyect]

So if Soros funds it, does that mean it's all untrue? Should I stop
reading the New York Times because advertisers fund it?
Doug
This project seems to be an outgrowth of another Soros venture, the
Caspian Revenue Watch,
which monitors the development of oil production in the Caspian basin. "The
goal is to promote transparency, accountability, and public oversight in
the management of oil and natural gas revenues." The advisory board on this
outfit is echt-Soros, a mixture of "human rights" figureheads and
military-industrial nabobs. You can find Mikhail Chachkhunashvili, a member
of Open Society in Georgia, where he and other hirelings organized a coup
after Shevernadze appeared to be tilting toward Putin. You also have Karin
Lissakers, whose on the board of the IMF, an outfit famous for its
transparency.
If Soros was in the business of dispensing information like the NY Times,
which you can sift the bad (Judith Miller) from the good (Chris Hedges), it
would be one thing. But basically he and the Open Society are a kind of
privatized CIA that meddles openly in the affairs of other governments. In
my opinion, one of the biggest tasks facing the left is dissociating itself
from this "social democrat". Next to coming to terms with the LBJ of our
time: Howard Dean.
(Michael Perelman, please forgive me for answering Doug Henwood but he was
obviously responding to something I wrote. If you want to punish me for
getting out of line, no problem.)


Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[dmschanoes]

Rhetorical question?

Come on, nobody suggested any such thing. Read it critically, like you would
or should read the NY Times, without illusion or
denying its specific allegiance to a specific class interest.

We read the WSJ, Financial Times, the WTO, IMF, WB, BIS, BEA, Statistics
Canada, ETC ETAL IBID and OPCIT don't we?  And Adam Smith, the
Physiocrats, Hobbes, Locke..

Hell, I've even read Proyect and Henwood.

Have to admit though, never read Ayn Rand or George Gilder

I find this sort of thing, the speculator as reformer, to be the
verification of the fact that thugs everywhere want to be regarded as
gentlemen, or as was said 35 or so years ago by the then fop singer now fop
MBE Jagger-- every cop is a criminal...

dms

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[Doug Henwood]

So if Soros funds it, does that mean it's all untrue? Should I stop
reading the New York Times because advertisers fund it?
Doug

k hanly wrote:

Thanks for the Info. I guess it is still better than Fox Moos Watch!

Cheers, Ken Hanly
- Original Message -
From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

 At 11:52 AM 1/2/2004, you wrote:
 >This is an interesting site for information on reconstruction finances
etc.
 In an effort to ensure that Iraqi oil revenues are managed in a
transparent
 manner, Open Society Institute Chairman George Soros has launched a new
 initiative called Iraq Revenue Watch.
 Iraq Revenue Watch will monitor Iraq's oil industry to ensure that it is
 managed with the highest standards of transparency and that the benefits
of
 national oil wealth flow to the people of Iraq. Iraq Revenue Watch
 complements existing Open Society Institute
 initiatives that monitor revenues produced by the extractive industries.
 Louis Proyect
 Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Customizing customer orders

[k hanly]

Customized Pizza Order
>
>Operator: "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut.
>How May I serve you..."
>
>Customer: "Hi, I'd like to order."
>
>Operator: "May I have your NIDN first, sir?"
>
>Customer: "My National ID Number, yeah, hold
>on, eh, it's 6102049998-45-54610."
>
>Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you
>live at 1742 Meadowland Drive, and the phone
>number's 494-2366. Your office number over at
>Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number's
>266-2566. Which number are you calling from, sir?"
>
>Customer: "Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get
>all this information?"
>
>Operator: "We're wired into the system, sir."
>
>Customer: (Sighs) "Oh, well, I'd like to order
>a couple of your All-Meat Special pizzas..."
>
>Operator: "I don't think that's a good idea,
>sir."
>
>Customer: "Whaddya mean?"
>
>Operator: "Sir, your medical records indicate
>that you've got very high blood pressure and
>extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health
>Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice."
>
>Customer: "Damn. What do you recommend, then?"
>
>Operator: "You might try our low-fat Soybean
>Yogurt Pizza. I'm sure you'll like it"
>
>Customer: "What makes you think I'd like
>something like that?"
>
>Operator: "Well, you checked out 'Gourmet
>Soybean Recipes' from your local library last week,
>sir. That's why I made the suggestion."
>
>Customer: "All right, all right. Give me two
>family-sized ones, then. What's the damage?"
>
>Operator: "That should be plenty for you, your
>wife and your four kids, sir. The 'damage,' as you
>put it, heh, heh, comes $49.99."
>
>Customer: "Lemme give you my credit cardOperator: "I'd advise watching your
language,
>sir. You've already got a July 2006 conviction for
>cussing out a cop."
>
>Customer: (Speechless)
>
>Operator: "Will there be anything else, sir?"
>
>Customer: "No, nothing. oh, yeah, don't forget
>the two free liters of Coke your ad says I get with
>the pizzas."
>
>Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but our advert's
>exclusionary clause prevents us from offering free
>soda to diabetics."
>

>number."
>
>Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid
>you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit card balance
>is over its limit."
>
>Customer: "I'll run over to the ATM and get
>some cash before your driver gets here."
>
>Operator: "That won't work either, sir. Your
>checking account's overdrawn."
>
>Customer: "Never mind. Just send the pizzas.
>I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take?"
>
>Operator: "We're running a little behind, sir.
>It'll be about 45 minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry
>you might want to pick 'em up while you're out
>getting the cash, but carrying pizzas on a
>motorcycle can be a little awkward."
>
>Customer: "How the hell do you know I'm riding
>a bike?"
>
>Operator: "It says here you're in arrears on
>your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. But your
>Harley's paid up, so I just assumed that you'd be
>using it."
>
>Customer: "@#%/$@&?#!"
>

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[k hanly]

Thanks for the Info. I guess it is still better than Fox Moos Watch!

Cheers, Ken Hanly
- Original Message -
From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: Iraq Revenue Watch


> At 11:52 AM 1/2/2004, you wrote:
> >This is an interesting site for information on reconstruction finances
etc.
>> In an effort to ensure that Iraqi oil revenues are managed in a
transparent
> manner, Open Society Institute Chairman George Soros has launched a new
> initiative called Iraq Revenue Watch.
>
> Iraq Revenue Watch will monitor Iraq's oil industry to ensure that it is
> managed with the highest standards of transparency and that the benefits
of
> national oil wealth flow to the people of Iraq. Iraq Revenue Watch
> complements existing Open Society Institute
> initiatives that monitor revenues produced by the extractive industries.
>
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
>

Nagging 911 questions

[Brian McKenna]

http://www.nypress.com/16/53/news&columns/feature.cfm

Re: productivity

[DMS]

There is plenty of data on this and except for that data collected by Dr.
Pangloss and his assistants at the Milton Friedman-Ayn Rand School of
the Dismal Science(Team Fight Song-- "First I Look At the Purse"),  the
last 30 years have proved just the opposite-- greater profits have been
accompanied by reductions in living standards, declining real wages, reduced
manufacturing employment, etc. etc.

Reduced profits trigger even greater reductions in living standards, wages,
employment etc.

Rates of growth, globally, have declined from the 1948-1973 period in output,
trade, and profits while the mass of profit has expanded.

Not too long ago, the chief economist for Alliance Capital, measured a
worldwide decline in manufacturing employment, including China, despite
the increased direct investment.

Overall, the trends are for reduced manufacturing employment levels, at both
absolute and relatively diminished wage levels, with growing service sectors where
wages are lower than in manufacturing and for work force increases basically
derived from the employment of women at lower rates than those paid to men.

But it's the best of all possible worlds, and when it gets worse, that will be the
best of all possible worlds, too.


dms

productivity

[joanna bujes]

In a recent SF Chron article on productivity, the author wrote:

"Such fast-growing productivity is a tremendous boon for society,
economists stress. While jobs might disappear in the short run, higher
output per worker spurs growth that in the long run creates more
opportunity.
Higher productivity generates profit that is often reinvested in new
job- creating activities, they note."
Full article at

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/28/BUGE03U34Q1.DTL

I think that the statement that profit is "often" reinvested in new
job-creating activities deserves closer scrutiny. First, it says nothing
about where these jobs are going to be. Second, I actually don't think
that's the trend. I read recently, I think it was in Barrons, that the
profits are not being reinvested but used largely for speculation.
Does anyone have data on this?

Joanna

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[DMS]

Soros?  Transparency?  Is this more hilarious than sad, or vice versa?--- currency
speculation I guess doesn't register as an extractive industry when there is
hardly anything more extractive and less transparent.

Soros making sure that the Iraqi oil wealth is used for the benfit of the Iraqi
people?

And John Major is going to make sure that the Cattlemen's Association lives up to
the most rigorous, transparent standards for BSE testing..

dms

Re: Iraq Revenue Watch

[Louis Proyect]

At 11:52 AM 1/2/2004, you wrote:
This is an interesting site for information on reconstruction finances etc.
It would seem crony capitalism at least is thriving in Iraq if nothing else.
http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/

Cheers, Ken Hanly
In an effort to ensure that Iraqi oil revenues are managed in a transparent
manner, Open Society Institute Chairman George Soros has launched a new
initiative called Iraq Revenue Watch.
Iraq Revenue Watch will monitor Iraq's oil industry to ensure that it is
managed with the highest standards of transparency and that the benefits of
national oil wealth flow to the people of Iraq. Iraq Revenue Watch
complements existing Open Society Institute
initiatives that monitor revenues produced by the extractive industries.
Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org

Iraq Revenue Watch

[k hanly]

This is an interesting site for information on reconstruction finances etc.
It would seem crony capitalism at least is thriving in Iraq if nothing else.

http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/

Cheers, Ken Hanly

Re: USA: overtime pay redux: correction

[DMS]

Excuse the error, please, 10 million not 20 million.

For more check:

http://www.epinet.org/newsroom/embargoed/bp-flsa-e.pdf

dms

Re: USA: overtime pay redux

[DMS]

Well, it's all about the cash.

The new regulations will exempt millions of workers from the premium pay
requirement for overtime work.  The definitions of "supervisor," "manager,"
etc. will be expaned to embrace perhaps another 20 million workers, exempting,
for example, copy editors, retail clerks from the overtime pay requirements.

dms

NAFTA

[Louis Proyect]

NAFTA 10 YEARS LATER
After Initial Boom, Mexico's Economy Goes Bust
 Supporters say the free-trade zone has been a success, but critics point 
to the loss of jobs, factories and investment.

By Chris Kraul, Times Staff Writer

MEXICALI, Mexico
The heady early years of the North American Free Trade Agreement brought 
Oscar Garcia opportunities he had scarcely dreamed of.

An electrical engineer raised in Mexicali, he became manager of the biggest 
factory the city had ever seen — a Mitsubishi plant the size of three 
football fields where workers assembled computer monitors. Garcia bought a 
new sport utility vehicle. He paid cash for a new home.

Then, it all came crashing down. Unable to compete with more sophisticated 
flat-screen monitors made in the Far East, Mitsubishi in August shut the 
$250-million plant it had opened in 1998, putting Garcia and 1,200 others 
out of work and leaving most of its machinery to rust in a junkyard. A 
cluster of high-tech companies that had come up around the factory also closed.

"I thought I would retire with Mitsubishi. It was such a good place to 
work," Garcia, 36, said. "But I don't see much chance of a new industry 
coming along to replace it."

full: www.latimes.com

Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org 

Re: USA: overtime pay redux

[Michael Perelman]

You might remember how Reagan improved nutrition in the school by defining
Ketchup as a vegetable.  By redefining overtime, maybe Bush can make
people feel les overworked.
 --
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

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

Re: the political economy of oil; minor historical footnote

[dmschanoes]

 Seems to me the question we need to be asking is *scarce for whom*? For the
poor, schools are scarce, medical care is scarce, violence free
communities are scarce, housing is scarce, nutritionally beneficial foods
are scarce, clean water is scarce, democratic participation is scarce,
 electricity is scarce etc. etc
 Let's make the polysemy of the concept work *for* our goals. For capital
only profits and passive people are scarce

 Ian
_---

Well, I think you just settled the debate.

dms

Re: pitfalls of economic journalism

[dsquared]

British Home Stores; it's a mid-market clothes
retailer.  The lower-casing of the last two letters of
the acronym was put in there by some bunch of branding
charlies in the 90s.  It's currently owned by Philip
Green, one of the "characters" of Brit business.

dd


On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 13:48:42 -0600, Carrol Cox wrote:

>
> What company is Bhs? What business is it in? I've
never
> heard of it, but
> then I've never heard of most companies.
>
> Carrol