Re:Re: RE: Re: Re: marx's proof regarding surplusvalue and profit
Drewk wrote: >The silence about this issue is deafening. > >What's the sound of one side suppressing Marx? You have only to >listen to the silence. Doug wrote: >Wow, heavy. You mean if this suppression hadn't occurred, we'd be >living under socialism by now? Dear Doug: By your reaction, you are proving Drewk right. And that is not funny. Manuel PS: In fact the important point in Drewk's message was that you can't define *a* physical surplus. How do you measure it? In tons? In litres? In a bundle of commodities so ingeniously arranged that it always corresponds to the weighing of each component in the product? No, definitely you can't add pears and apples. Drewk was not calling for revolution, was he?
Re: Douglas
more about paul douglas from: "New Perspectives in Monetary Macroeconomics -Explorations in the Tradition of Hyman P. Minsky", by Gary Dumski and R. Pollin (eds.), p. 354: "An incidental meeting with Lange on "a windswept elevated train platform" proved to be crucial to Minsky's career; coincidence and uncertainty were to remain crucial also in his economic theories. Lange apparently suggested that he should look into majoring in economics instead of mathematics and physics, which Minsky found unsatisfying. Lange was also instrumental in introducing Minsky to Abba Lerner, who became a life-long friend. This meeting took place in a political/social gathering organized by the Socialist Club at Professor Paul Douglas's apartment.[Note] Forty-six years later Minsky remembered this evening: "Lange introduced me to a friend of his, a British visitor who seemed equally ill at case. As a result, I spent most of the evening talking to Abba Lemer who had just come from Mexico, where he had apparently tried to convince Trotsky that Marxism needed to be revised in the light of the new insights due to Keynes." Trotsky, who was murdered a year later, did not revise Marxism in this light, but Lange and Lerner were struggling to redefine socialist thinking, trying to build a bridge between Marxian analysis and modern economic theory. Both rejected mainstream interpretations of Marx, including the then sacred labor theory of value and the Soviet-style command economy. But they also held to some of the basic Marxian messages, including class analysis and the dismal future of capitalism. Where did Minsky stand on these issues in later years? I will try to shed some new light on Minsky's relationship to Marx through examination of the two thinkers' views on several issues. First 1 will discuss their views on crises in a capitalist system, examining whether they thought this phenomenon to be unavoidable and, if not, what means they believed could prevent such waste. Considering this issue will then lead me to compare their positions on the government's role in a capitalist economy. A second, and related, topic will be their analyses of money and finance in developed capitalism. Here we will turn to their own arguments as well as their place in the history of monetary theory. I will argue that, concerning this heatedly debated topic, Marx and Minsky share some roots. They both held many of the conclusions of the anti-quantity theory of money tendency as Note: Paul Douglas is known for the famous Cobb-Douglas production function. However, when Douglas was a professor, Minsky remarks, "[he] was not an ordinary neoclassical theorist," and in "his various courses he often enthused about the Utopian visions of Robert Owen and he took bargaining theories of wage determination - such as the Webbs put forth - seriously," (Minsky 1985, p. 216). Douglas later became a liberal senator from Illinois. Manel
Re: "We" must try...
Penners: http://www.en.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/09/09islamicbanking manel
Re: WTC Bombing
Dear Penners: Some Shakespeare: Mes. Where's Caius Martius? Mar.Here; what's the matter? Mess. The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms. Mar. I am glad on't; then we shall ha' means to vent Our musty superfluity. Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act I, Sc. I I don't know if David Shemano is a steady member of this list, or wether he is/is not list-ening to all the reactions to his message. I don't know even if this is of any import. Anyway. He said marxists are trying to fit the reality into the small straitjacket of class analysis. Well, well, it is much more simple than that. You don't even need Marx to understand what is going on. Good ol' Shakespeare explained to us one important aspect of it. Where? First act of Corolianus. The people of Rome was rebelling against the patricians, when a war was declared. Coriolanus (Caius Martius) rejoiced himself and exclaimed it was a good opportunity to "vent our musty superfluity", the said mutineers. And Plutarch, where Shakespeare must have sought the inspiration for his tragedy, explained the old trick: "and by this meanes as well to take awaye this new sedition, and utterly to ryd it out of the citie, as also to cleare the same of many mutinous and seditious persones, being the superfluous ill humours that greavously fedde this disease and they leavied out of all the rest that remained in the cittie of Rome, a great number to goe against the Volsces, hoping by the meanes of forreine warre, to pacifie their sedition at home" [Coriolanus, The Arden Shakespeare, 1996, Annex, page 329]. Manel
EU and the WTC bombing
Dear penners, I don't intend to be the EU propagandist on this list, be assured. It is just that, being here, I can have some information on what they intend to do and is not reflected in the american press. Louis Michel, the Foreign Minister of Belgium and President of the EU Council of Ministers for General Affairs (ie, the foreign policy of EU) blurped something today. EU is "mobilised, but we are not in a state of war", he said. He went on to say that this tragedy "summons up very strong semantics but we should not be too reckless". (scuse mon inglish) Manel
Re:WTC Bombing
David Shemano wrote: >If you do not agree, you are my >enemy. I do not agree. Do you want my adress so that you can erradicate me? Please, if you do it, make it fast. No hard feelings ;) It is only fair. It is war. Manel
Re: Is a real war imminent?
Jim Devine: > I am not convinced that "imperial decline" is real. That kind of process is > reversible. Also, what specifically do you mean? The US industrial economy > may be in decline, but its military and financial might are undimmed. The > US/NATO as a whole is still pretty strong. The transnationals are running > the world economy. Etc. Re undimmed military power; that's the problem: a declining industry, a growing trade deficit and an undimmed military power. Can a service society survive by itself, without forcing other people to provide it with the goods it does not produce? Am I wrong? Re financial might. Well... To whom is it providing capital for? That's been a rather baroque poem lately, or a snake that bites its own tail. So, things are kind of uggly, as I view it. Manuel
Re:Re: the attack
Rob Schaap wrote: >Item: The European Union: "We will spare >no effort to help identify, bring to >justice and punish >those responsible," EU foreign ministers >said in a strongly worded statement >after an emergency meeting in Brussels. I hope this means that they are _not_ willing to wage a war, but instead use the _legal_ means to bring to court the _individuals_ that are responsible for the attack. In other words, that this is not an endorsment of hawkish hysteria. Manuel
Re: deconstruction & science
Steve Diamond wrote: >In any case, let's look at what Maurer himself says: since he thinks >finance "discourse" is not understandable on its own terms - >"Securitization, thus, is not obvious or self-evident" - he is here to tell >us what is really going on - and THAT is the fundamental conceit behind all >of deconstructionism, postmodernism, etc. That somehow there really is >something behind the wizard's curtain. Well, the sun _does not_ turn around the earth... Elemental particles can be represented in terms of a wave equation... The old Democrit said that our senses fool us. There is indeed something behind that curtain. (Disclaimer: I'm not engaging in the discussion about deconstructionism. You will see my point in the rest of this post.) And for us, laypersons, financial "discourse" is anything but self-evident. Some examples: They say "the market(s)" when they mean "financial markets" They say "technology" when they mean "IT hardware and sotfware" They say "investors" when they mean "speculators" They say '"risk management" when they mean "bet" They apply probabilistic theory and normal distributions to the ups and downs of "markets" that behave in a chaotic way (how do you say "espérance mathématique" in english?) And they say "hedge funds" for the new new craze for the speculating masses. For instance, what are those f... hedge funds trying to "hedge for" with convertible bonds arbitrage? (See below my signature) Manel Quote: Funds Are Spectators as Convertible Sales Soar: Mutual Funds By Elizabeth Stanton Spokane, Washington, Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Companies such as Lucent Technologies Inc. have sold a record $81 billion in convertible bonds this year, and mutual fund manager Ed Cassens still finds few worth buying. That's because Wall Street firms are structuring the bonds to convert into shares at prices that are too high relative to where the stock trades at the time of the sale, said Cassens, manager of the $520 million Nations Convertible Securities Fund. That structure appeals to hedge fund investors, who buy convertible bonds as part of an options strategy, while mutual funds look for income and a stock price gain, fund managers say. ``There has been such growth in the hedge community that underwriters are catering to their needs more than our needs,'' said Cassens. ``That makes it a little difficult.'' Convertible bonds are bonds that can be converted to the issuer's common stock at a specified price. They allow investors to capture a portion of the price gain of the underlying stock, while the coupon income from the bond limits their losses in the event the stock price falls. For example, convertible bonds issued Aug. 13 by Network Associates Inc. pay interest at the rate of 5.25 percent through 2006, and are convertible into the company's stock at a price of $18.07 -- 23 percent higher than today's closing price of $14.72. That means Network Associates shares have to gain at least 23 percent for the conversion feature to pay off. The Network Associates deal was one of the few this year that have been palatable to managers of convertible bond mutual funds. No Coupon More typical of this year's record convertible bond issuance are Household International Inc.'s $1.22 billion of bonds sold July 26, said Jason Voss, co-manager of the $208 million Davis Convertible Securities Fund. He said he hasn't bought a new convertible bond in the past year. The bonds, which do not pay a coupon, convert to Household International's common stock at a price of $110.84, 69 percent higher than today's closing price of $65.50. The higher conversion premium makes it less likely an investor will participate in share price gains -- precisely what mutual funds are trying to do. ``We're trying to add value as stock pickers,'' said Ed Perks, manager of the $235 million Franklin Convertible Securities Fund. Perks has bought fewer than 20 percent of this year's new issues, compared to nearly 40 percent of last year's. Hedge funds, on the other hand, practice convertible bond arbitrage. Rather than banking on a gain in the underlying shares, they sell them short. In a short sale, an investor sells borrowed shares, expecting to be able to buy them back later at a lower price. Selling short the underlying shares allows the hedge funds to profit if the stock drops. Hedge funds then attempt to profit by trading the shares. They hope for more volatility in the price of the shares than was implied by the price they paid for the conversion option embedded in the bond. ``You're looking for the ability to short the stock against the convert long and still capture a nice yield or cash flow,'' said Nick Calamos, managing director of Calamos Asset Management. At the same time, ``you want a volatile enough stock that you can take advantage of trading profits,'' Calamos said. Through a combination of coupon income, if any, and interest on short-sale proceeds, the strategy aims to earn cash flow at a rate of a
Hello world
Dear friends, I've just subscribed to this list and would like to present myself. Name: Manuel Resende, friends call me "Manel". Age: 53 I'm portuguese and work as a translator for the EU. I've published some books of poetry. I do not intend to post many messages, since i'm not an economist and would have to go through a lot of hardship to write in english. I'm just hoping to profit from your posts. And that's it. Manel
