Chavez question
Thank God he won! Still, I have a question. If 70% of the people are poor, how did the opposition get so many votes? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Economics and law
I would not like to see an extended Stalin debate. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Economics and law
Ken, this comes close to baiting. On Mon, Aug 16, 2004 at 01:38:03AM -0400, Kenneth Campbell wrote: > David Shemano writes: > > >The issue is not whether East Germany, or any other socialist > >economy, was less "able" [...] > > Yes it was -- the part you are responding to. It was about regions. > > I wanted to show that you probably didn't even know where Europe is... > let alone why Germany is not a unit. > > There is a stereotype about Americans-in-control: "They can't read > maps." (Canada knows this.) I assume the moderator gave you a thumbs up > for a reason. (Maybe you are not a Novak-Limbaugh sort.) > > Anyway, so you tried to switch topics... and now it is not about the > devaluation of life I mentioned in the original thread, now it is about > Volvos and good cars from that socialist country. > > Good legal strategy, btw... when losing, swing any shit at hand in forms > of motions... > > Ken. > > -- > The Bible is probably the most genocidal book in our entire canon. > -- Noam Chomsky -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
RE: [PEN-L] Chávez Loyalists Troll Barrios for Venezuela's Undecided
Yahoo News says that the turnout is heavy. If so, that is great news. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Re: KPFA and Sasha Lilley
Generally, it is a bad idea to challenge another member directly in the heading, since it sets off flames, but I cannot think of many people less inclined to intemperate behavior than Doyle and Sasha. If she wants to open a dialogue that could help matters at Pacifica, I would be glad to see the list help. If not, we can just hope that this dispute works out without too much damage. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Re: Shleifer update
I assume you mean that he will become the chair of Harvard's econ. department. After all, wasn't he close to Summers? Daniel wrote: shit, if that's the dude's defence he'll be lucky if he doesn't get the chair! dd Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Daniel Davies Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2004 3:34 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Shleifer update -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Perelman, Michael Sent: 15 August 2004 05:10 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Shleifer update Harvard and Shleifer say that the reforms they suggested worked well.
Shleifer update
I picked this up off the Economic Principles site. A conference on damages in the government's suit against Harvard University and one of its star economists, originally slated for July 19, has been rescheduled for September 9. US District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock presumably will ask all parties to file briefs on what they think they ought to be required to pay -- Harvard for breach of its $34 million contract; economics professor Andrei Shleifer and his then-assistant, lawyer Jonathan Hay, up to three times that much for the civil fraud Woodlock concluded they committed. The government has argued that the entire value of Harvard's mission to Moscow was lost when it turned out in the mid-1990s that Shleifer and Hay and their wives had been investing in Russian businesses and securities, in violation of the conflict of interest provisions of their contract. Harvard and Shleifer say that the reforms they suggested worked well. The US State Department fired Harvard when the transgressions came to light in 1996. The Russian government fired the State Department in turn, saying that the Harvard team had done nothing wrong while advising them. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
naming that system
< < < Date Index Re: Economics and law by andie nachgeborenen 14 August 2004 16:07 UTC < < < Thread Index > > > Well, I don't want to get into this distraction on the Russian question, but you could call the system bureaucratic collectivism (Schachtman's term) or the command-administrative system (the perestroichiki's term), or totalitarianism, or lots of things, but the fact is we don't really have a good name for it. How about the 'vanguard mode of production'? Cf. Lebowitz, 'Kornai and the Vanguard Mode of Production' in Cambridge Journal of Economics (May 2000). 8^) michael Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
Re: Economics and law
Obviously, someone who is very poor & needs transportation will be unlikely to purchase a Volvo & would be more likely to settle for a Yugo. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
stalin quote
Re: Economics and law by Carrol Cox 13 August 2004 17:38 UTC < < < Charles Brown wrote: > > > > CB: Why was there a need to develop the agrarian country ? People had been > surviving in agrarian societies for millenia. For one thing, the USSR existed in a capitalist sea, & as Stalin said in 1930, they had 10 years to catch up with the west industrially, culturally, etc or they would be overrun. (This speech by Stalin was quoted by Carl Oglesby in a book the title of which I now forget, and I have never been able to run down the text in any of Stalin's works that I possess.) Vaguely from memory, it may have been 'Speech to Business Executives' from 1931. michael Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
Re: economics, law and the old soviet economy
Economics and law by Charles Brown 13 August 2004 17:09 UTC by Chris Doss Mainly that was me writing off the cuff while trying to meet a deadline and working through a hangover. It wiould be better to say something like "the shape of Soviet society was determined first and foremost by the need to develop an agrarian country. It succeeded. The rest of teh stuff is fluff." ^^ CB: Why was there a need to develop the agrarian country ? People had been surviving in agrarian societies for millenia. I'm without notes but roughly, as comrade Stalin correctly stated in 1931, we have 10 years in which to catch up or we will be defeated again.In support of Chris' point, I don't recall this statement as having anything to do with building socialism as such. michael Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
paradox of texas republican party
according to texas a&m political scientist harvey tucker, there is strong positive relationship between voter turnout and democratic party vote for governor, since 1970 when republicans began running competitive elections for governor, dems have won all but one election when turnout was at least 30% and reps have won all but one elections when turnout was less than 30%... rep gubernatorial candidates when big when turnout is small, bush was elected in '94 with 53.5% of vote and he was re-elected in '98 with 68% of vote, however, in each election he was only supported by 18% of age-eligible voters in state, his large majority in latter instance was result of keeping turnout low rather... accordingly, greater number of votes texas rep gubernatorial candidate receives, greater the probability dem candidate will win... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Economics and law
David interprets the car as a capitalist commodity. I partially agree with him, but for different reasons since I don't like cars. But the question would be how the automobile industry depended heavily on the state -- to build roads, to dislodge street cars .... Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: [lbo-talk] KPFA Staff Open Letter to the Local Station Board
This is very sad. I have no idea what is at stake. The other letter that I saw also had endorsements from people that I respect. All that I know is that I hope that Sasha & the other people at KPFA continue their good work. I am very dependent on the information that I get off the station. I first heard Pacifica while spending a summer in LA in 1960. I was a senior in college, but I had never been exposed to anything like that -- both culturally & politically. When I went to grad school in Berkeley during the 60s, I learnt more from the station than from my classes. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Facing South - 8/12/04
F A C I N G S O U T H A progressive Southern news report August 12, 2004 * Issue 86 _ INSTITUTE INDEX * Who Is Watching? Number of government surveillance programs currently in operation: 14 Year that Congress voted to de-fund the "Total Information Awareness" surveillance program due to civil liberties concerns: 2003 Year that the Pentagon admitted it planned to continue "TIA-like activities ... outside public view": 2004 Number of Florida residents a test-run of the "MATRIX" database program flagged as "having a statistical likelihood of being terrorists": 120,000 Estimated value of contracts that will be given to companies for "anti-terror" projects each year until 2010, in billions: $150 Number of lobbyists hired by corporations to secure homeland security contracts: 569 Number of communities that have passed resolutions opposing the Patriot Act and other "unconstitutional" surveillance programs: 344 Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies. _ DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region ACLU DECRIES "SURVEILLANCE-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX" The government is rapidly increasing its ability to monitor average Americans by tapping into the growing amount of consumer data being collected by the private sector, according to a report released by the American Civil Liberties Union. "The government has always recruited informers to help convict criminals, but today that recruitment is being computerized, automated, and used against innocent individuals on a massive scale that is unprecedented in the history of our nation," the ACLU's director said. (Common Dreams, 8/9) http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0809-07.htm ARMY GIVES IRAQ CONTRACT TO VIRGINIA COMPANY INVOLVED IN JAIL SCANDAL The U.S. Army announced the award of a no-bid contract worth up to $23 million to Virginia-based CACI International Inc. for private interrogators to gather intelligence in Iraq. The contract came just as the Interior Department was preparing to cancel the existing contract with CACI, which came under scrutiny earlier this year after one of its interrogators was cited for involvement in the sexual humiliation of Iraqi captives at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. (Los Angeles Times, 8/5) www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-contract5aug05,1,3952058.story BEACH CLOSURES FROM POLLUTION INCREASE The number of days that beaches closed or posted warnings because of pollution rose sharply in 2003 due to more rainfall, increased monitoring and tougher standards. There were 18,284 days of beach closures and advisories nationwide in 2003, an increase of 51 percent ― or 6,206 days ― from 2002, according to the 14th annual beach report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. (Associated Press, 8/6) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=4&u=/ap/20040806/ap_on_sc/beach_quality_3 PRISON/AIDS LINK HITS AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITIES As health specialists continue to grapple with AIDS, the black community faces a complex social issue: the link between high rates of imprisonment among African-Americans and high rates of H.I.V. and AIDS. (New York Times, 8/6) http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040806/ZNYT04/408060357/1002/BUSINESS PENTAGON: HALLIBURTON FAILED TO ACCOUNT FOR $1.8 BILLION Pentagon auditors have concluded that Halliburton Co. failed to adequately account for more than $1.8 billion of work in Iraq and Kuwait. The amount represents 43 percent of the $4.18 billion that Houston-based Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit has billed the Pentagon to feed and house troops in the region, the newspaper said. (Reuters, 8/11) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5933577 BORDER PATROL GETS MORE POWER TO DEPORT The Department of Homeland Security said today it will speed up deportations of certain illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico to improve U.S. border security. In the past, these would have been sent to an immigration court where cases take an average of one year to be processed. Now, these immigrants will be immediately returned to their home nation. (Reuters, 8/10) http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2728818 DEMOCRATIC WOMEN GAIN GROUND IN THE SOUTH While the Democratic Party fights to regain ground in the South, a growing cadre of Democratic women are winning races here. Hailing from the right wing of the party, Democrats like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana meld charm with conservative politics and a killer political instinct. (The Atlantic, 9/04) http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200409/starr LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AIMS TO CREATE LARGEST CIVIL RIGHTS ARCHIVE With a goal of creating the world's largest archive of firsthand accounts of the civil rights movement, the Library of Congress is conducting a 35-city, 70-day bus tour to mark the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The Voices of Civil Rights bus tour traces the route of the
NJ gov.
Why would an affair make him resign? Is the Lt. Gov. a dem? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: One Iraq veteran
Gene, you probably know that the area surrounding Chico is perhaps the most conservative in the state. I wouldn't be disheartened by what you hear coming from our local stations. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: Paying the price for war
Seth may well be understating the cost of the war. The budget of Walter Read is probably left out of these estimates. The cost of caring for the next generation of homeless people who never found their way back from the horror. The extra costs associated with the anger generated abroad. Could we use the "priceless" tag-line? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: JEP & Schleiffer
Did he get fired? Just from the development institute? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: JEP & Schleiffer
Paul deserves criticism for his summary of Shleifer -- he is far too gentle. Shliefer insists that market-induced competition does not create undesirable consequences. It is non-market corruption that is bad. And he is considered one of the bright lights of economics. Paul wrote: 2) Latest AEA/AER publication (San Diego Proceedings) has a choice article: "Does Competition Destroy Ethical Behavior?" by Andrei Shleiffer. Opening sentence: "This paper shows that conduct described as unethical and blamed on 'greed' is sometimes a consequence of market competition." This builds on the author's article entitled "Corruption" in last year's QJE. I am sorry to kick someone when they are down, and also to criticize someone not on the list but... -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: ABK Comrades!
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/11/04 9:58 PM >>> >on other hand, nader's folks are pretty disingenuous re. reps who were >apparently working to help him get on ballot, You might want to verify your source. (as in Michigan where we do not need any signatures thanks to the Reform Party endorsement). <<<<<>>>>> above was news story for some days during time i was in michigan this summer, re. reform party endorsement, apparent problem with ballot line exists because there are apparently 2 reform parties in state, nader campaign was said to be filing suit about time i was leaving at end of july, has there been court ruling in matter, if so, was it decided in nader's favor, thereby, securing his place on reform line, if not, above statement by nader is not accurate... michigan reform party flap led nader campaign in michigan to go from saying that it wouldn't accept petition signatures generated by reps to saying that it was no longer sure that it would refuse to accept such signatures to eventually accepting said signatures (which were in excess of number needed)... my source is recollection of news coverage in michigan... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
on country comparisons
Paul, I've forwarded your earlier note commenting on my former colleague's reply to him; I'll post his answer if/when I get it. Paul wrote: 11 August 2004 17:56 UTC < < < On 8/7/2004 Mike Lebowitz wrote: I don't know anything myself about the way the PPP is constructed or the neoclassical assumptions that Paul proposed were used. Intuitively, though, it makes real sense to select the PPP measure (ie., something that takes into account prices) over one using market exchange rates. Eg., according to the dollar/cuban peso market exchange rate, we might conclude that Cubans live on the equivalent of $20 USD per month. Anyone think that tells us very much about the Cuban standard of living? michael [Yes this is where most people get drawn into the PPP : the per capita GNI (or GDP) numbers look so low. And they are low, if we think of measuring "living standards" which GNI or any of the national accounts do NOT, they only are a ticker to the market economy without double accounting. Comparing national accounts is only a 'market economy to market economy' basis.] Maybe I've introduced a new question--- I was taking a Cuban monthly wage (let's say 300 pesos) and the dollar/peso street exchange rate (say $25), which would lead one to conclude that Cubans live on $12USD per month. Ie., I wasn't raising national accounting questions as such. Now, a little casual empiricism tells me that living standard for Cubans is nothing like what $12 USD would be in the US. So, I ask, what would be a better measure of the Cuban standard? Intuitively, I am inclined to say--- we need to take into account the things that have zero or nominal prices in Cuba. Are you saying that doing that leads in the wrong direction because to price things completely we end up making neoclassical assumptions? (How sensitive are the conclusions to particular NC assumptions?) I.e., I'm prepared to accept your criticisms of the PPP measure but I'm not certain what exactly you are proposing as an alternative. Paul: [BTW: I don't know how Cuba's national accounts are calculated. The World Bank does not publish any figures at all. I imagine it is largely guesswork by whomever you are citing (UN?); as you know most planned economies used Net Material Product as their equivalent. There can't be a logical conversion factor for the same reasons PPP doesn't work (apples and oranges). In fact, that is how this international comparison business got started (for example Gerschenkron, Alexander A dollar index of Soviet machinery output, 1951). It was quickly grasped (a bit like PPP) as an ideological tool, ultimately with people like Wolfowitz and Pipes jumping in.] You raise here an interesting parallel. If I recall the Soviet growth question, it revolved around the fact that implicitly two different questions were being asked; (a) what is the growth rate using 1927/8 prices and weights (ie., before a significant transformation) and (b) what is the growth rate using later (eg., 1954) weighting and prices. Insofar as sectors with high initial prices grew quite rapidly (and their prices fell relatively), those choosing (b) could scoff at the Soviets who used (a). A first issue, then, is what question do we want to ask? A second consideration is whether we learn anything by asking both questions and establishing a range? In the matter on hand, what is the question we are asking? Taking the Kenya/ Manhattan comparison you raised before, do we ask what it would cost a Kenyan to consume the Kenyan basket in NYC and how that changes over time? Or do we ask what it would cost to consume a NYC basket in Kenya? Or do we say, all of this is going to be artificial--- let's just take the real wage in Kenya and the verifiable currency exchange rate? Is this basically the same question that you were exploring or have I gone off in a completely different direction? in solidarity, michael Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
lesser evil question
If Kerry keeps shifting right, maybe we will have to vote for Bush as the lesser evil? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
libertarian journal watch project
http://www.econjournalwatch.org/main/index.php This would be an excellent project to replicate from the left. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: ABK Comrades!
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/10/04 11:44 PM >>> Only Nader/Camejo represented a potential to threaten the Democratic Party's hegemony over the left side of the political spectrum by taking 2-7% of the votes, according to the polls <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/08/nader-2004-nader-2000.html> -- hence the Democrats' well-organized attacks on Nader/Camejo. Yoshie <<<<<>>>>> dems were going after nader irrespective of his standing polls, this was gonna be payback, baby, for what lots of dems (however misguided and cry-baby like) think happened in 2000... and hey, it's their party, they can be scummy, although i'd suggest that criticizing nade for considering another prez bid, trashing him when he decides to run, and then attempting to keep him off ballots and destroy his candidacy (at relatively little financial cost to dems and economic burden to nader) are quite different approaches, some 'lefties' (most, if not all, of whom should be able to offer persuaive account that nader did not cost gore 2000 election) might genuinely/sincerely consider first approach to be legitimate or at least something to debate, such folks should have nothing to do with nor be associated with people engaged in third approach... on other hand, nader's folks are pretty disingenuous re. reps who were apparently working to help him get on ballot, this is same ole' cynical establishment-like politics that ought to be shunned... allow me to play mainstram poli sci guy for a moment, potential electorate has been told countless times grave importance of 2004 election (for sake of discussion at least, assume this is true), historical data indicates that so-called 'important' elections are often close contests, role of minor parties tends to be reduced in such instances as competition tends toward 'big tents' of two major parties, tends to be spike in turnout in these types of elections as well, very largest percentage of which goes to one or other of two large party camps... above may help explain why nader fared less well than some had hoped in 2000, might also offer some predictive (so says mainstream poli sci guy) expectation of nader - and other minor candidates - doing rather poorly in 2004... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Kerry would have gone to war
Shane is also correct in interpreting my meaning. On Wed, Aug 11, 2004 at 04:18:25PM -0400, Shane Mage wrote: > Michael Perelman writes: > > >The foreign policy difference between Bush & Kerry would probably be > >that Kerry would be less likely to instigate crises, such as Haiti > >-- maybe Venezuela, but faced with public pressure might react like > >Bush, or even worse in order to prove that he is STRONG. > > > "public pressure"--this should be translated "an orchestrated > media campaign," n'est-ce-pas? > > Shane Mage > > "Thunderbolt steers all things...It consents and does not > consent to be called > Zeus." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Kerry would have gone to war
Exactly. On Wed, Aug 11, 2004 at 04:10:37PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > Michael Perelman wrote: > > >The foreign policy difference between Bush & Kerry would probably be > >that Kerry would > >be less likely to instigate crises, such as Haiti > > Clinton co-opted Aristide; Bush overthrew him. The first sucks but > the second is worse. > > Doug -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
KPFA had a debate between Cobb & Camejo regarding the charge of the rigged convention. It did not sound nearly as clear cut as it was presented here. I was once on a jury panel for Camejo, but was kicked off & left with a clenched fist salute. I liked what he did when I was at Berkeley, but in his run for Gov., much of his attack on Davis what almost identical to what the Republicans said. He would mention some progressive positions, but he devoted most of his time to fiscal responsibility. In the debate Cobb came off as a well-intentioned Green. Not strong, but nice & sincere, but he gave a reasonable explanation. Camejo had answers, but nobody seemed to have a clear cut case. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Kerry would have gone to war
The foreign policy difference between Bush & Kerry would probably be that Kerry would be less likely to instigate crises, such as Haiti -- maybe Venezuela, but faced would public pressure might react like Bush, or even worse in order to prove that he is STRONG. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Kerry would have gone to war
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/11/04 2:27 PM >>> Marvin Gandall wrote: > I don't attach much credibility to what opportunistic politicians say in > election campaigns -- particularly in Kerry's case, where he perceives his > electoral fortunes, rightly or wrongly, to be dependent on adaptation to a > segment of the voting population infected with a high degree of chauvinism. Huh??? A clear majority of Americans now thinks the war was a mistake. Beyond that, 90 percent of the delegates at the DP convention thought the same thing. I wouldn't call Kerry an adaptationist at all. I would say that he is swimming against the stream. <<<<<>>>>> kerry, of course, did go to war... guy i work with taught at school overseas with jfk's sister years ago and he says that she talked about how her brother wanted to be prez as teen (reminds of what used to be reported about clinton), he joined military because he thought that would be useful in later career, noticed wind was blowing in different direction after coming back from vietnam and jumped on anti-war bandwagon (some may recall flap a few months back over whether or not jfk was at v v a w meeting in which presidential assassination was raised, 'suggestion' was attributed to gainesville 8 defendant scott camil who feds would later try to kill), surely no one (even his loudest/strongest 'left' supporters) ever thought kerry was gonna rock the boat... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/11/04 8:32 AM >>> many technical/procedural/justice problems arise from 1787 constitutional language assigning each state authority to determine times, places, manner of holding elections... <> meant to note in above portion of earlier point that congress may at any time by law make or alter state regulations... query 1: what became of nader's announcement a few months ago that he was going to establish a 'populist' party... query 2: reform party 'endorsement' of nader preceded his selection of camejo as running mate, any listers know whether reform endorsement is for nader only or does it include candidate at bottom of ticket as well... can imagine some (many?) 'reformers' being less than pleased if party endorsed socialist, 2000 reform party squabbles that gave impression of turnips falling off vegetable cart still exist to some degree, evidenced by dual/duel parties in michigan, moreover, nader endorsement has apparently not gone over well with some (majority?) in whatever remains of whatever reform party endorsed him, sounds familiar... mh -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: ABK Comrades!
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/10/04 11:44 PM >>> At 9:20 PM -0400 8/10/04, Michael Hoover wrote: >maybe post header should have read: anybody but kerry and cobb, in >any event, no need to limit oneself to left petit-bourgeois >deviationism of nader, choose between several real-live socialists >(commies even) Only Nader/Camejo represented a potential to threaten the Democratic Party's hegemony over the left side of the political spectrum by taking 2-7% of the votes, according to the polls <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/08/nader-2004-nader-2000.html> -- hence the Democrats' well-organized attacks on Nader/Camejo. Among the parties that you listed, only the Libertarian Party, whose core supporters are well-to-do, will have its candidate on the ballots in all 50 states: Democratic strategists have long fretted that Ralph Nader could draw votes from their presidential candidate. But a new survey suggests that President Bush faces a potential threat of his own from a more obscure spoiler: Michael Badnarik. In the survey, conducted in three Midwest battleground states, some voters who said they would choose Bush over Sen. John F. Kerry in a two-candidate race also said they would pick Badnarik, the Libertarian Party nominee for president, if he were added to the ballot. The numbers for Badnarik were small: He drew 1% to 1.5% of the vote in a four-way race with Bush, Democratic candidate Kerry and Nader, an independent. But analysts said the results suggested that the small-government Libertarians could attract enough conservatives disaffected with Bush's leadership to swing a tight race, just as Nader attracted discontented liberals in 2000. <<<<<>>>>> you're not suggesting that one should only make vote choice among candidates/parties on ballot in all 50 states.. re. libertarian 'spoiler' for bush, i posted figures in aftermath of 2000 election indicating that this happened in several states where buchanan 'took votes' from bush 'allowing' gore to win those states, buchanan did this with national aggregate of 1%... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Fox to Be Tested for Rabies
Headline from the Wash. Post online. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/11/04 3:03 AM >>> At 1:03 AM -0400 8/11/04, Michael Hoover wrote: >of course, my point was that nader people have not - and will not - >raise equal protection matter (although they'll - no doubt, and >rightly so - complain about being exluded from prez debates)... Have you actually looked into all the lawsuits that the Nader campaigns have filed? Here are a couple of lawsuits (probably among many more) that the Nader campaigns this year and in the part have filed, singly or jointly with other parties: the 2004 Texas General Election and all subsequent General Elections in Texas, and the facts and circumstances relating thereto, are illegal and unconstitutional, in that they are violative of the rights of the Plaintiffs under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to 1. This is a civil action for declaratory and injunctive relief arising under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiffs challenge the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's requirement Ohio had authority to list the name of presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the November 2000 ballot without his Green Party affiliation, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. Ohio officials said the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling upholds the state's position that it has authority to impose reasonable requirements for ballot listings to ensure orderly, fair elections. The Green Party and Nader had argued that keeping the party's designation off the ballot violated their constitutional rights of free speech, free association and equal protection of law. As a matter of fact, in his writing, Nader indicted violations of the equal protection clause as early as in 1958 in the context of noting the court's turning a blind eye to them: The Illinois law was challenged by the Progressive Party just before the 1948 elections. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court where it was argued that the statute's disproportionate favoring of rural counties violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In a 6-3 decision, the court disagreed and upheld the law. Writing the dissent, Justice Douglas stated: "The notion that one group can be granted greater voting strength than another is hostile to our standards for popular representative government." He was referring to the fact that 25,000 signatures from 50 of the least populous counties could form a new party while the same number from 49 counties with 87 percent of the registered voters could not. . . . <<<<<>>>>> stand corrected re. reference to 14th amendment, although none of above addresses point i was making, they're all *within* states, not *among* them.. texas example is about differential filing deadlines between parties and independent candidates in texas, not differential deadlines throughout states... penn example is about absence of waiver for filing fee in penn (other states make allowance for such, thus, to not do so could be determined 'unreasonable' under 83 supreme court decision btw: 83 supreme court decision allows for differential definition of 'reasonableness'... ohio example is about differential number of petition signatures needed in ohio, party vs independent candidate... re. illinois example in 58 nader co-authored article, douglas dissent refers to differential number of signatures among state's counties, interestingly, this does begin to get at my point if douglass critique is applied *among* the states, similar to warren's 64 majority opinion in _reynolds v sims_ (case from alabama, if memory serves correctly) holding that one-person one-vote apportionment principle applied to state senates as well as to state lower-houses, if so, similar *principle* could also apply to u.s. senate irrespective of 1787 constitutional arrangement, same for douglass dissent if one considers differential numbers in various states (which could be addressed with use of percentage since states do have different size populations)... many technical/procedural/justice problems arise from 1787 constitutional language assigning each state authority to determine times, places, manner of holding elections... >Sorry, I meant to write the Liberty Party. "Although its vote never >exceeded 3% of the votes cast in a presidential election, the party >did further political abolitionism. In closely contested state and >local elections, the Liberty party often held the balance of power, >sometimes causing major party candidates to take advanced antislavery >positions in a bid for its support" (Kinley J. Brauer, "Liberty >Party," Encyclopedia Americana). More importantly, many Libertymen >eventually joined with anti-slavery factions of Whigs and Democrats >to form the Free Soil Party, many of whose former member
Re: nader goes southwest
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/10/04 10:01 PM >>> Nader Presidential Campaign Announces Southwest Airlines as its Unofficial Campaign Airline Nader had a good word for Southwest Airlines founder, Herb Kelleher. <<<<<>>>>> wonder what nader thinks of kelleher's $47,500 to rep national committee this year and $2000 to bush campaign... wonder what nader thinks of southwest helping ins detain 'illegal' immigrants at various airports... wonder why nader didn't mention that about 90% of southwest employees are unionized (seems that would be good reason for selection), of course, company began with no unions and implemented 'cooperative culture' environment (via esop) and 'cross-utilization' (allowing management to take workers from one area and use them temporarily elsewhere) of employees prior to collective bargaining, these features have remained prominent parts of southwest's management-labor relations, both of which serve to increase labor productivity and hold down labor costs... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/10/04 3:16 PM >>> At 1:07 PM -0400 8/9/04, Michael Hoover wrote: >nader people might be of greater help to polity in general (of >course, this is electoral campaign which, by definition, has narrow >focus) by highlighting unequal/unjust ballot access procedures, >state by state rules are clear violation of 14th admendment equal >protection... The best way to highlight unequal/unjust ballot access procedures is to actually run a campaign that runs afoul of them -- then, there is a practical struggle. Who cares if ballot access procedures are unequal and unjust if there is no candidate other than the Democratic and Republican ones to begin with? <<<<<>>>>> of course, my point was that nader people have not - and will not - raise equal protection matter (although they'll - no doubt, and rightly so - complain about being exluded from prez debates)... At 1:07 PM -0400 8/9/04, Michael Hoover wrote: >carcasses of 'minor' parties across u.s. political landscape Minor parties -- the Liberal Party, the Free Soil Party, etc. -- are destined to die, but they are among the important political arenas through which people network, gain experience, and accumulate knowledge, and I'm interested in what individuals who are trained in struggles that cannot immediately achieve their goals learn and what they will do with what they have learned. We need to keep learning from major failures and minor successes until we encounter objective conditions that may allow us to make use of our experience and knowledge. <<<<<>>>>> neither of parties cited above would seem to be good examples of your explanation (wonder how many folks are even familiar with either)... free soilers (1848-54) were northern elite splinters from dem party who had come to oppose slavery for economic reasons (in contrast to moral abolitionists), they desired 'free land' for homesteading (19th century economic elites often manipulated egalitarian rhetoric of homesteading for financial gain by paying people to occupy land for them) while southern slaver class needed more land to perpetuate slave-based planatation system... free soil platform was ambivalent document in which anti-slavery plank was followed by statement that congress did not have authority to interfere with slavery within state boundaries, but then party slogan 'free soil, free speech, free labor, free men' was contradictory... interestingly, some complained that martin van buren's (former u.s. prez, 1837-40) 1848 prez campaign played 'spoiler' in splitting dem votes - van buren received about 10% of 'popular vote') and allowing whig zachary taylor to be elected (taylor died in office under somewhat suspicious circumstances, his body was exhumed within last decade to look into possibility of arsenic poisoning, test results said no, but michael parenti (that cper/milosevic supporter/conspiracy theorist!) suggests otherwise in _new political science_ article a few years back)... 1850 compromise weakened cause, party got about 5% of vote in 1852 prez election, dissolved itself shortly after, members dirfted into newly formed rep party... re. liberal party, suppose you mean new york liberal party as it is only one of any significance (if one considers it as such) that i'm aware of, origins in american labor split at end of ww2 over whether or not commies should be allowed to play a role in alp, anti-commie labor leaders opponents of such a role founded liberal party, so party had organized labor (of a cold war sort) support early on which manifest itself in endorsement of truman in 48 made possible by new york's 'fusion' ballot status... ny liberal party went on to endorse/nominate dem party candidate in every prez election except 1980 when it supported john anderson, party also gave endorsements to dem candidates for u.s senate from ny except for its support of 'liberal' republican jacob javits, some suggest that party's support of javits - who lost to alphonse d'mato in rep primary - split dem/lib vote in 1980 between javits and dem elizabeth holtzman allowing d'mato to win... what are lessons... At 1:07 PM -0400 8/9/04, Michael Hoover wrote: >reform party line is absolutely irrevelevant in states where party >has ballot status save two - florida and michigan (drum roll please >- so-called 'battlegrounds') It would be ironic if Cobb/LaMarche are on the Green Party ballots in one-party states and Nader/Camejo are on the ballots in battleground states. Yoshie <<<<<>>>>> greens have prez ballot line in florida, parties have to hold national nominating convention to qualify, state went from most difficult access law in country to one more equitable a
ABK Comrades!
maybe post header should have read: anybody but kerry and cobb, in any event, no need to limit oneself to left petit-bourgeois deviationism of nader, choose between several real-live socialists (commies even), and yes folks, personal choice party vp candidate is *behind green door* marilyn chambers, myself, i'd vote for leonard peltier if p&f party were on florida ballot... michael hoover AMERICAN PARTY: Diane Templin (California) Presidential Nominee Al Moore (Virginia) Vice Presidential Nominee CONCERNS OF PEOPLE (PROHIBITION) PARTY: Gene Amondson (Alaska) Presidential Nominee Leroy Pletten (Michigan) Vice Presidential Nominee CONSTITUTION PARTY: Michael Peroutka (Maryland) Presidential Nominee Chuck Baldwin (Florida) Vice Presidential Nominee GREEN PARTY: David Cobb (California) Presidential Nominee Pat LaMarche (Maine) Vice Presidential Nominee LIBERTARIAN PARTY: Michael Badnarik (Texas) Presidential Nominee Richard Campagna (Iowa) Vice Presidential Nominee PEACE & FREEDOM PARTY: Leonard Peltier (Kansas) Presidential Nominee Janice Jordan (California) Vice Presidential Nominee PERSONAL CHOICE PARTY: Charles Jay (Indiana) Presidential Nominee Marilyn Chambers Taylor (California) Vice Presidential Nominee PROHIBITION PARTY: Earl F. Dodge (Colorado) Presidential Nominee Howard Lydick (Texas) Vice Presidential Nominee REFORM PARTY / INDEPENDENT: Ralph Nader (I-Connecticut) Presidential Nominee Peter M. Camejo (Green-California) Vice Presidential Nominee SOCIALIST PARTY USA: Walt Brown (Oregon) Presidential Nominee Mary Alice Herbert (Vermont) Vice Presidential Nominee SOCIALIST EQUALITY PARTY: Bill Van Auken (New York) Presidential Nominee Jim Lawrence (Ohio) Vice Presidential Nominee SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY: Róger Calero (New York) Presidential Nominee Arrin Hawkins (New York) Vice Presidential Nominee WORKERS WORLD PARTY: John Parker (California) Presidential Nominee Teresa Gutierrez (New York) Vice Presidential Nominee INDEPENDENTS & WRITE-INS: A.J. Albritton (American Republican Party-Mississippi) * Sterling Allan (Providential Party-Utah) * Stanford "Andy" Andress (I-Colorado) * Joe Bellis (America's Party-Kansas) * Kenneth M. Bonnell (I-Mississippi) * Harry Braun (I-Arizona) * Fred Cook (I-Georgia) * Eric J. Davis (Michigan) * Robert DiGiulio (Children's Party-Vermont) * Bob Dorn (Washington) * Lonnie D. Frank (I-California) * John Galt Jr. (I-Pensylvania) * Jack Grimes (United Fascist Union-Pennsylvania) * Michael Halpin (I-New York) * Larry D. Hines (I-Texas) * Georgia Hough (I-Georgia) * Keith Judd (I-Massachusetts) * Darren E. Karr (Party X-Oregon) * Samuel Keegan (I-Rhode Island) * Joseph Martyniuk Jr. (I-Illinois) * David Mevis (I-Mississippi) * Muadin (E-Democratic Party-Massachusetts) * Jeffrey Peters (We The People Party-New Hampshire) Andrew M. Rotramel (I-Texas) * Joseph "Average Joe" Schriner (I-Ohio) * Dennis P. Slatton (United America Party-North Carolina) * Dan Snow (I-Texas) * Brian B. Springfield (I-Virginia) * Lawrence Rey Topham (I-Utah) * Lemuel Tucker (I-Michigan) * Da Vid (Light Party-California) * Tom Wells (Family Values Party-Florida) * A.J. Wildman (I-Virginia) * -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Economics and law
David, the problem with the Pinto is that the government does not adequately regulate safety -- not even to the extent of making relevant information available -- so the regulation is left to the lawsuits -- a very inefficient way of doing things. A few bucks for a protective gasket would not have meant that much. In hindsight it was stupid, but very costly for a number of innocent people. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David B. Shemano Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 12:55 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Economics and law Regarding the Pinto, cost/benefit analysis, etc., what exactly is the issue? I mean, we know with certainty that a certain number of people are going to die each year from auto accidents. We also know that if we reduced the speed limit to 5 m.p.h. required all passengers to wear helmets, required safety designs used for race cars, etc., the deaths would all be eliminated. But we don't, because the costs of doing so would be astronomical, and most people seem prepared to assume certain risks in consideration for conveniences and benefits. So is the problem the concept of cost/benefit analysis, the improper implementation of cost/benefit analysis, or disagreement about what are costs and benefits? If you reject cost/benefit analysis, how could you ever decide whether any marginal rule should be accepted or rejected? Why does this issue have anything to do with capitalism/socialism -- would not these issues have to be addressed no matter how the society is organized? David Shemano
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
intense)... re. each state party nominating its own candidates, silliness of this for prez election should be obvious... re. nader/camejo ticket, how democratic is it for person at top of ticket to choose vp candidate (i realize that nader's candidacy is independent one but that actually serves to make my point), party conventions chose vp candidates until fdr in 1940s, today, prez nominees announce their choices and conventions accept them (btw: reform party endorsed nader, not nader/camaejo, as far i know)... re. prez debates, it is disingenuous to suggest that nader will be included, unfair prez debate commission rules requiring that candidate poll at last 15% in 4 of 5 nationa polls insures his exclusion... michael hoover
Re: Greens For Nader Update: Rigged Convention Divides Green Party (Sign and Forward This)
ually serves to make my point), party conventions chose vp candidates until fdr in 1940s, today, prez nominees announce their choices and conventions accept them (btw: reform party endorsed nader, not nader/camaejo, as far i know)... re. prez debates, it is disingenuous to suggest that nader will be included, unfair prez debate commission rules requiring that candidate poll at last 15% in 4 of 5 nationa polls insures his exclusion... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Bush Appointee to Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee
President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. The committee has not met for more than two years, during which time its charter lapsed. As a result, the Bush Administration is tasked with filling all eleven positions with new members. This position does not require Congressional approval. The FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee makes crucial decisions on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics, gynecology and related specialties, including hormone therapy, contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to surgical procedures for sterilization and pregnancy termination. Dr. Hager's views of reproductive health care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who describes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. Hager is the author of "As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now." The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing Women with case studies from Hager's practice. In the book Dr. Hager wrote with his wife, entitled "Stress and the Woman's Body," he suggests that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying. As an editor and contributing author of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality Reproductive Technologies and the Family," Dr. Hager appears to have endorsed the medically inaccurate assertion that the common birth control pill is an abortifacient. Hager's mission is religiously motivated. He has an ardent interest in revoking approval for mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486) as a safe and early form of medical abortion. Hagar recently assisted the Christian Medical Association in a "citizen's petition" which calls upon the FDA to revoke its approval of mifepristone in the name of women's health. Hager's desire to overturn mifepristone's approval on religious grounds rather than scientific merit would halt the development of mifepristone as a treatment for numerous medical conditions disproportionately affecting women, including breast cancer, uterine cancer, uterine fibroid tumors, psychotic depression, bipolar depression and Cushing's syndrome. Women rely on the FDA to ensure their access to safe and effective drugs for reproductive health care including products that prevent pregnancy. For some women, such as those with certain types of diabetes and those undergoing treatment for cancer, pregnancy can be a life-threatening condition. We are concerned that Dr. Hager's strong religious beliefs may color his assessment of technologies that are necessary to protect women's lives or to preserve and promote women's health. Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate candidate to serve as chair of this committee. Critical drug public policy and research must not be held hostage by antiabortion politics. Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion. American women deserve no less. -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Palast: Blacking Out Ballots Across America
[Palast wrote a version of this article for The Nation in May, but this one, published a month later, is much clearer, shorter and better written] One million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election It's not too hard to get your vote lost -- if some politicians want it to be lost! San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, June 20, 2004 by Greg Palast In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate. This year, it could get worse. These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round. How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost. While investigating the 2000 ballot count in Florida for BBC Television, I saw firsthand how the spoilage game was played -- with black voters the predetermined losers. Florida's Gadsden County has the highest percentage of black voters in the state -- and the highest spoilage rate. One in 8 votes cast there in 2000 was never counted. Many voters wrote in "Al Gore." Optical reading machines rejected these because "Al" is a "stray mark." By contrast, in neighboring Tallahassee, the capital, vote spoilage was nearly zip; every vote counted. The difference? In Tallahassee's white- majority county, voters placed their ballots directly into optical scanners. If they added a stray mark, they received another ballot with instructions to correct it. In other words, in the white county, make a mistake and get another ballot; in the black county, make a mistake, your ballot is tossed. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission looked into the smelly pile of spoiled ballots and concluded that, of the 179,855 ballots invalidated by Florida officials, 53 percent were cast by black voters. In Florida, a black citizen was 10 times as likely to have a vote rejected as a white voter. But let's not get smug about Florida's Jim Crow spoilage rate. Civil Rights Commissioner Christopher Edley, recently appointed dean of Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley, took the Florida study nationwide. His team discovered the uncomfortable fact that Florida is typical of the nation. Philip Klinkner, the statistician working on the Edley investigations, concluded, "It appears that about half of all ballots spoiled in the U.S.A. -- about 1 million votes -- were cast by nonwhite voters." This "no count," as the Civil Rights Commission calls it, is no accident. In Florida, for example, I discovered that technicians had warned Gov. Jeb Bush's office well in advance of November 2000 of the racial bend in the vote- count procedures. Herein lies the problem. An apartheid vote-counting system is far from politically neutral. Given that more than 90 percent of the black electorate votes Democratic, had all the "spoiled" votes been tallied, Gore would have taken Florida in a walk, not to mention fattening his popular vote total nationwide. It's not surprising that the First Brother's team, informed of impending rejection of black ballots, looked away and whistled. The ballot-box blackout is not the monopoly of one party. Cook County, Ill., has one of the nation's worst spoilage rates. That's not surprising. Boss Daley's Democratic machine, now his son's, survives by systematic disenfranchisement of Chicago's black vote. How can we fix it? First, let's shed the convenient excuses for vote spoilage, such as a lack of voter education. One television network stated as fact that Florida's black voters, newly registered and lacking education, had difficulty with their ballots. In other words, blacks are too dumb to vote. This convenient racist excuse is dead wrong. After that disaster in Gadsden, Fla., public outcry forced the government to change that black county's procedures to match that of white counties. The result: near zero spoilage in the 2002 election. Ballot design, machines and procedure, says statistician Klinkner, control spoilage. In other words, the vote counters, not the voters, are to blame. Politicians who choose the type of ballot and the method of counting have long fine-tuned the spoilage rate to their liking. It is about to get worse. The ill-named "Help America Vote Act," signed by President Bush in 2002, is pushing computerization of the ballot box. California decertified some of Diebold Corp.'s digital ballot boxes in response to fears that hackers could pick our next president. But the known danger of black-box voting is that computers, even with their software secure, ar
Re: [Marxism] Jonathan Schell on the DP's prowar stance
On Sun, 8 Aug 2004, Dan Scanlan wrote: Moveon began in protest of the Clinton impeachment. It began as a letter that took a life of its own. I'd like to know more about this. I've been asked to perform at a benefit for MoveOn and need to decide. There's an extensive profile of the MoveOn and their history in the current LA Weekly: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/37/features-bernhard.php Michael
Re: [Marxism] Jonathan Schell on the DP's prowar stance
A Berkeley couple just sent out an email during the impeachment, appealing for politics to moveon to more important stuff. The letter took on a life of its own & eventually began an to become an organization. Soros gave them some money. On Sun, Aug 08, 2004 at 11:32:37AM -0700, Dan Scanlan wrote: > >Moveon began in protest of the Clinton impeachment. It began as a > >letter that took a > >life of its own. > > Michael, > > I'd like to know more about this. I've been asked to perform at a > benefit for MoveOn and need to decide. (I don't want to help fund a > Kerry front.) > > Dan Scanlan -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
monetarism & paranoia
So the Jobs Report Is Dismal. The Fed Has No Place to Go but Up. By JONATHAN FUERBRINGER New York Times August 8, 2004 That will Fed policy makers do this week in the face of surprisingly weak job growth in the last two months? Raise interest rates, of course. Despite the awkward timing of the Fed meeting, so soon after Friday's report that only 32,000 new jobs were created in July, the Fed has little maneuvering room. "The Fed is going to raise rates," said Richard Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research. He said that one reason Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, would go ahead was that "he has got to raise rates so he can cut them again if there is a terrorist attack." -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
In the News today
The Sacramento Bee juxtaposed to stories today, perhaps accidentally, regarding hoaxes. In one case, a young man who wanted to publicize his run for supervisor in San Francisco faked his own beheading. I understand that the authorities want to punish him as severely as possible. In the other story, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger conspired to put off the retreat from Saigon until after the 1972 election. Countless people died from the delay, yet Richard Nixon was rewarded with his reelection and Kissinger remains an unindicted or criminal and successful pundit. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
on Venezuelan polls, etc
Re: Loath by the rich: Why Hugo Chavez is heading for a stunning victory by Perelman, Michael 08 August 2004 03:03 UTC < < < Thread Index > > > Right wing polls show Chavez loosing. Isn't that correct, Michael L? With the possibility of fraud, can we really expect a victory? --- Michael, All recent polls show Chavez being successful in beating off yet another attack by the Right. (The most recent has the 'No' vote at 63%, and no polls will be published after today.) Keeping in mind, though, the fact that in a highly polarised situation, people (especially in Chavist barrios) may not be revealing their real intentions (and remembering Nicaragua), it's best to stress the importance of pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. The latter is evidenced by the growing organisation of Chavists at the base (unevenly, to be sure) and the determination not to let this be stolen by fraud on 15A. A very strong statement from the April 13th movement that the workers of the informal sector will view a defeat at this point as fraud and a statement from the head of the steelworkers that there will be a general strike and a cutting off of oil shipments in the event of fraud point to likely developments if the 'Yes' vote comes out on top. And, now comrades, I will put on my red 'No' shirt and will join the demonstration that has begun to assemble (and which will probably continue to arrive for a few more hours) in the vicinity of my apartment. in solidarity, michael Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
Re: Venezuela rightists falter
With respect to this article, again, the polls here are supposed to be close. The Venezuela site says that they opposition polls show Chavez winning. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Re: Loath by the rich: Why Hugo Chavez is heading for a stunning victory
Right wing polls show Chavez loosing. Isn't that correct, Michael L? With the possibility of fraud, can we really expect a victory? Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Loath by the rich: Why Hugo Chavez is heading for a stunning victory
Loathed by the rich Why Hugo Chavez is heading for a stunning victory Richard Gott in Caracas Saturday August 07 2004 The Guardian To the dismay of opposition groups in Venezuela, and to the surprise of international observers gathering in Caracas, President Hugo Chavez is about to secure a stunning victory on August 15, in a referendum designed to lead to his overthrow. First elected in 1998 as a barely known colonel, armed with little more than revolutionary rhetoric and a moderate social-democratic programme, Chavez has become the leader of the emerging opposition in Latin America to the neo-liberal hegemony of the United States. Closely allied to Fidel Castro, he rivals the Cuban leader in his fierce denunciations of George Bush, a strategy that goes down well with the great majority of the population of Latin America, where only the elites welcome the economic and political recipes devised in Washington. While Chavez has retained his popularity after nearly six years as president, support for overtly pro-US leaders in Latin America, such as Vicente Fox in Mexico and Alejandro Toledo in Peru, has dwindled to nothing. Even the fence-sitting President Lula in Brazil is struggling in the polls. The news that Chavez will win this month's referendum will be bleakly received in Washington. Chavez came to power after the traditional political system in Venezuela had self-destructed during the 1990s. But the remnants of the ancien regime, notably those entrenched in the media, have kept up a steady fight against him, in a country where racist antipathies inherited from the colonial era are never far from the surface. Chavez, with his black and Indian features and an accent that betrays his provincial origins, goes down well in the shanty towns, but is loathed by those in the rich white suburbs who fear he has mobilised the impoverished majority against them. The expected Chavez victory will be the opposition's third defeat in as many years. The first two were dramatically counter-productive for his opponents, since they only served to entrench him in power. An attempted coup d'etat in April 2002, with fascist overtones reminiscent of the Pinochet era in Chile, was defeated by an alliance of loyal officers and civilian groups who mobilised spontaneously and successfully to demand the return of their president. The unexpected restoration of Chavez not only alerted the world to an unusual leftwing, not to say revolutionary, experiment taking place in Venezuela, but it also led the country's poor majority to understand that they had a government and a president worth defending. Chavez was able to dismiss senior officers opposed to his project of involving the armed forces in programmes to help the poor, and removed the threat of a further coup. The second attempt at his overthrow - the prolonged work stoppage in December 2002 which extended to a lockout at the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, nationalised since 1975 - also played into the hands of the president. When the walkout (with its echoes of the CIA-backed Chilean lorry owners' strike against Salvador Allende's government in the early 1970s) failed, Chavez was able to sack the most pampered sections of a privileged workforce. The company's huge surplus oil revenues were redirected into imaginative new social programmes. Innumerable projects, or "missions", were established throughout the country, recalling the atmosphere of the early years of the Cuban revolution. They combat illiteracy, provide further education for school dropouts, promote employment, supply cheap food, and extend a free medical service in the poor areas of the cities and the countryside, with the help of 10,000 Cuban doctors. Redundant oil company buildings have been commandeered to serve as the headquarters of a new university for the poor, and oil money has been diverted to set up Vive, an innovative cultural television channel that is already breaking the traditional US mould of the Latin American media. The opposition dismiss the new projects as "populist", a term customarily used with pejorative intent by social scientists in Latin America. Yet faced with the tragedy of extreme poverty and neglect in a country with oil revenues to rival those of Saudi Arabia, it is difficult to see why a democratically elected government should not embark on crash programmes to help the most disadvantaged. Their impact is about to be tested at the polls on August 15. Vote "Yes" to eject Chavez from the presidency. Vote "No" to keep him there until the next presidential election in 2006. The opposition, divided politically and with no charismatic figure to rival Chavez to front their campaign, continue to behave as though their victory is certain. They discuss plans for a post-Chavez government, and watch closely the ever-dubious and endlessly conflicting opinion polls, placing their evaporating hopes on the "don't knows". They still imagine fondly that they can achieve a victory
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/07/04 1:27 PM >>> Actually, Bush was a weak president until 9/11/01: a big inauguration protest, Enron, unimpressive ratings, etc. According to Fox, for instance, Bush's approval rating during 1/24-25/01 was a mere 46%! Yoshie <<<<<>>>>> pre-9/11: congress passed major bush tax cut, education, energy bills (latter 2 after jeffords became ind and dems gained control of senate), congress also passed bush's so-called 'bankruptcy reform', bush abandoned kyoto treaty, bush signed regressive executive orders re. abortion, labor, health care, among other things... while 9/11 'made' bush presidency, dems and conservative media had already allowed bush to get out from under stigma of being 'his fraudulency 2' (rutherford hayes was called 'his fraudulency' through term after winning 'corrupt bargain' election of 1876)... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Whither the Fed?
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/07/04 2:11 AM >>> >>... and make the next POTUS John Kerry a weak president without a >>big mandate at the same time.) > >Is there a subtle flaw here? If either Kerry or Bush is elected >they will have a big mandate. It just won't be from the people, but >the corporate purchasers. I fear the "people's mandate" can no >longer be given through the present electoral process. > >Dan Scanlan The larger the shares of popular votes for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, the bigger the next POTUS's mandate will be, though the mandate is more apparent than real, as you say. Yoshie <<<<<>>>>> notion (hesitate to call it theory) of presidential mandate is myth, of course, myths can have powerful influence... some occupants of white house start terms with more 'political capital' than others (i.e., lbj began first full term with deep reservoir following '64 landslide victory, gerald ford, on other hand, had little after becoming prez because of 2 resignations - as if to confirm latter's precarious position, reps loss of seats to dems in '74 congressional elections was large enough to result in smallest congressional minority for sitting prez in 20th century *and* ford had largest percentage of vetoes subjected to congressional override in country's history)... prez attempts to claim mandates are part of pseudo-democratization of office, reagan claimed mandate following '80 election even though he received just over 50% of 'popular' vote by pointing to number of states he won and - more importantly - number of electoral college votes he received (about 495 if memory serves), 'winner-take-all' distribution of ec votes in 48 states gives some prez winners opportunities to claim mandates by transforming small 'popular' majorities into 'super' ec majorities... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/07/04 1:25 AM >>> Before getting to the point of actually being able to split the Democratic and Republican Parties, we need an intermediate goal: do what we can to make the next POTUS a weak president, rather than a strong one. To do so, we need to decrease the shares of popular votes that go to the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Yoshie <<<<<>>>>> what poli sci people called 'political capital' is mixture of public approval & party seats in congress, kerry prez - almost by definition - would be weak, win will likely be close, dems unlikely to regain control of either congressional chamber (jfk campaign appears to have taken page from '96 clinton playbook in that regard)... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
in defence of Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali has been criticised for the following statement in an interview: DH: You've said that a defeat of Bush would be regarded globally as a victory. What did you mean? TA: As you know, I travel a great deal, and everywhere I go there is growing anger and if one can be totally blunt real hatred of this administration because of what it did in Iraq - the war it waged, the civilians it killed, the mess it's made, and its inability to understand the scale of what it's done. And from that point of view, if the American population were to vote Bush out of office, the impact globally would be tremendous. People would say this guy took his country to war, surrounded by neocons who developed bogus arguments and lies, he lied to his people, he misused intelilgence information, and the American people have voted him out. That in itself could have a tremendous impact on world public opinion A defeat for a warmonger regime in Washington would be seen as a step forward. I don't go beyond that, but it would have an impact globally. If I were living in the States, I would not organise or vote for Kerry--- for the same reasons that people on the list have given--- although I'm certain that I would prefer to be living under and organising against a Kerry government than a Bush one. Why? Because of all the illusions (about the good capitalist,etc party) that would be retained in the absence of the former and the greater possibility for revealing the nature of the system. But, I wonder if this might not be a bit of a self-indulgent perspective when I think about Tariq's statement. There's no question in my mind that in Cuba (which I visit often) Bush's defeat would be regarded as a victory. Similarly, in Venezuela (where I am) the end of a Bush government would be welcomed. I suspect the same would have been true in El Salvador recently among FMLN supporters (and in another time and setting in Nicaragua). Conversely, the victory of Bush would be viewed as a big defeat... and, indeed, as a mandate for new aggressive international adventures. (Certainly, in Cuba they worry about the implications of a new Bush mandate.) As I see the perspective of those outside the US (which is what Tariq was addressing), the defeat of the Bush government would be seen as providing a bit of space and a bit of hope. But, no illusions. Simply the breathing space that comes when the rulers are disrupted a bit. in solidarity, michael Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
re PPP comparisons
I don't know anything myself about the way the PPP is constructed or the neoclassical assumptions that Paul proposed were used. Intuitively, though, it makes real sense to select the PPP measure (ie., something that takes into account prices) over one using market exchange rates. Eg., according to the dollar/cuban peso market exchange rate, we might conclude that Cubans live on the equivalent of $20 USD per month. Anyone think that tells us very much about the Cuban standard of living? michael PPP comparisons by sam pawlett 05 August 2004 14:54 UTC < < < Thread Index > > > Take a simple example of Japan and the US. Say the market exchange rate is 110 Yens = One US$. Now take an equivalent basket--in quantity and quality--that contains a burger with fries and a drink. It costs 450 Yens in Tokyo and US$ 2.50 in New York. The PPP exchange rate is then 180 Yens = One US$ (450/2.50). There is nothing imaginary about the PPP exchange rate since it gives you the purchasing power of a country's currency vis-a-vis the US dollar. One thing I've never understood about PPP, is it an attempt to measure -what it is like living in a poor country- or is the idea more modest as the above paragraph suggests trying to demonstrate what the market equivalent amount of currency buys in a given country? For example the PPP GDP or GNP per capita of a country is $US 500. Does this mean that living in that country on that given amount of money is like living in the USA on the same amount of money? PPP (and the averaging and aggregating that goes on) can be misleading.A string sampling bias exists. There are no price differences between countries in goods and services that are offered by MNC's. The costs of Mcdonalds,Bechtel water, Enron nat. gas, or a Blockbuster video is the same across geographical space with very limited differential. The IMF and its coat-tailers always (and ,yes, still) say that the most important economic fundamental is getting prices right. The right price or international market price always seems to be what the good or service costs in the USA. How could it be otherwise, inflation always exists and the bulk of demand for the goods and services offered by MNC's is still in the North hemisphere. Ultimately, the WTO project gets more goods and services to cost what they cost in the USA and Europe. And as that happens, people's access to those goods and services becomes more limited, Bechtel water in South Africa for example. The products offered by local or import substituting businesses cost much less. The marlboro, pizza hut or coca-cola knockoff costs %25 as much. The more foreign based products it counts in its basket of goods, the bigger the PPP number will be. As the world becomes globalized and the stricter that gov'ts enforce WTO rules, the Atlas rather than ppp will come closer to the truth especially with imports and exports being priced in US dollars and the ongoing dollarization of world economies. I don't think this is an unimportant quibble, as it represents trends sometimes called combined and uneven development. Sam Pawlett Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
Good people disagree on the Nader/Kerry decision. I think that we all know the rationale for each choice. I don't think that either side comes out well, if you only look at what some of their supporters have done -- denying Nader his right to run through dirty tricks or cavorting with the right. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Tariq Ali on the US election
I don't see any more reason to demonize ABB people than to demonize Nader people. Both sides see themselves as promoting the left albeit by different routes. On Fri, Aug 06, 2004 at 09:05:05PM -0400, Louis Proyect wrote: > Despite my problems with State Capitalist ideology, I feel much more of > an affinity for Todd Chretien--the California petition coordinator for > Nader-Camejo and ISO member--than I do for Bob McChesney, the long time > MR figure. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass what McChesney thinks about > Cuba if he can't get this Kerry thing right. > > > -- > Marxism list: www.marxmail.org -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: China's migrant refuseniks
This is a very fascinating article, displaying the contradictions in Chinese development on a far deeper level than the loud discussion that followed the mention of the article by Marty & Paul. At first it did not make sense at all. How could China have great unemployment & a shortage of workers? Then we see that the public sector has fallen down on the job of educating the workforce. And to give a fair deal to farmers upsets the applecart. Some time ago, Johnathan posted an article about the 10 contradictions in Chinese development. I think that it might be time to look at the sort of contradictions that could have been avoided under socialism and how they might play out under capitalism. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
New way to escape the draft
NewsScan Daily, 6 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")
FINLAND DISMISSING 'NET-ADDICTED' CONSCRIPTS
A growing number of conscripts have to be dismissed from Finland's
armed forces every year due to an Internet addiction that makes them
unsuited for service. A Finnish official says: "It's an increasing
problem.
More and more young people are always on the Internet day and night.
They
get up around noon and have neither friends nor hobbies. When they get
into
the army, it's a shock to them." There are no specific figures and the
military has yet to give the condition a proper dismissal code in its
health
records. (The Age, 4 Aug 2004) Rec'd from J Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/04/1091557883381.html
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929
Call for Papers: New Working Class Studies
CALL FOR PAPERS NEW WORKING-CLASS STUDIES: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE The 10th Aniversary Conference of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University, May 18-21, 2005, Youngstown, Ohio In 2005, the Center for Working-Class Studies will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding. In honor of that occasion, we are planning a conference that will reflect the diversity, creativity, and energy of New Working-Class Studies. The conference will feature plenary sessions reflecting on the development of the field, taking stock of where we stand today, and looking ahead to new possibilities and challenges. Our conferences always include arts exhibits, film screenings, poetry readings, and other events. The 2005 conference, co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation, will also include a business meeting of the Working-Class Studies Association. We invite proposals from students, workers, faculty members, organizers, artists, and activists in all fields, from literature to geography, history to filmmaking, union organizing to neighborhood activism. Along with papers, we invite performances, film showings, roundtables, and presentations of all kinds. In addition, we invite proposals for three-hour interactive workshops and field trips, which will be scheduled for Saturday morning. We encourage proposals that explore literature by and about the working class; working-class and labor history; material and popular culture; current workplace issues; geography and landscape; journalism and media; sociology; economics; union organizing and practice; museum studies; the arts; multiculturalism; ethnography, biography, autobiography; pedagogy; and personal narratives of work. Presenters should describe the presentation they would like to give, including the suggested presentation format (panel, roundtable, reading, workshop, etc.) and length. Proposals should be no longer than one page and must be received by January 3, 2005. Address written correspondence to John Russo, Biennial Conference, Center for Working-Class Studies, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio 44555. Fax or e-mail inquiries shouldbe sent to Patty LaPresta, (330) 941-4622 and [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Center for Working-Class Studies's website is located at http:/www.as.ysu.edu/-cwcs/ and its discussion group at [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
PartyBuilder - August 2004
PARTYBUILDER - August 2004 IN THIS ISSUE: DC LABOR FILM FEST - AD DEADLINE AUGUST 10TH! CNA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ROSE ANN DEMORO SPEAKS OUT ON HEALTH CARE THE MEDICARE DRUG WAR DO FAT CATS PAY LOWER TAX RATES THAN WORKERS? FREE HIGHER ED CAMPAIGN NEWS DC LABOR FILM FEST - AD DEADLINE AUGUST 10TH! The 2004 DC Labor FilmFest is scheduled for September 10-12 at the American Film Institute's Silver Theater. The festival opens with a 15th anniversary screening of Michael Moore's first film, "Roger and Me" and closes with a new print of the classic 1969 Marlon Brando film "Burn!" In between are five brand new films chronicling coal miners in China (Blind Shaft), a "post-industrial, pre-apocalyptic, existential comedy" (Human Error) as well as the premiere of concert film "Tell Us the Truth." The November 2003 musical tour featuring Billy Bragg and Steve Earle called attention to issues of media consolidation and trade policy. We need your support! It's not too late to support the FilmFest with an ad from your union or organization in the Festival Guide. Ad space is available at the following rates: Friend of the Festival: $100 Quarter page: $250 Half page: $500 Full page: $1,000 Silver Screen Page: $2,500 Please call DJDI at 202 234-0040 x13 to reserve your ad. Many thanks to our Labor Party affiliates and supporters for ads already placed. For more information, click here: www.djdinstitute.org/f_index.html CNA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ROSE ANN DEMORO SPEAKS OUT ON HEALTH CARE In a recent guest commentary in the "Contra Costa Times," Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association (a Labor Party affiliate) charges that it is "time to get serious on health care." DeMoro argues that "Verbal commitments to universal health care are for some a charade, a cover for tinkering with the current system to avoid substantive change. Typical of such ideas is the notion that people without employer-provided benefits be required to purchase insurance, subsidized for the low income through tax credits, without any financial contribution by the HMOs and insurance giants that would reap gain." Read the full article at www.justhealthcare.org. Click here. THE MEDICARE DRUG WAR The pharmaceutical and managed care industries spent a record $141 million in 2003 to lobby Congress for last year's Medicare prescription drug legislation. According to "The Medicare Drug War," a new report by Public Citizen, the new law may increase those industries' revenues by as much as $531.5 billion. The army of 952 lobbyists (nearly 10 for each U.S. Senator) helped ensure that the new drug benefit will be administered by private companies. The new law expressly prohibits the government from using its bargaining clout to negotiate lower prices and effectively bans the "reimportation" of cheaper drugs from Canada. For more information and to download the report, visit www.citizen.org. Click here DO FAT CATS PAY LOWER TAX RATES THAN WORKERS? Thanks in part to George W. Bush's recent cut in the top tax rate on dividends and capital gains, the average tax rate workers pay on wages is more than DOUBLE the rate on investment income. According to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), federal personal taxes on investment income now average only 9.6 percent, while federal personal taxes on wages and other earnings average 23.4 percent. Before Ronald Reagan took office, the top income tax rate on most investment income was 70 percent. The top capital gains tax rate, now 15 percent, was more than 35 percent. ITEP's analysis estimates that "taxing investment income like earnings would raise $338 billion in 2004 enough to cut this year's budget deficit by two-thirds or more." Or enough to fund free higher education several times over or enough to fund a substantial part of a Just Health Care budget. For more information, www.ctj.org. Click here FREE HIGHER ED CAMPAIGN NEWS The July/August 2004 issue of "ACADEME" the bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) features the article "Free Higher Education" by campaign co-chair Adolph Reed Jr. and Sharon Syzmanski, an economist with the Labor Institute. The bulletin is distributed to every member of the AAUP nationwide. The AAUP's Collective Bargaining Congress has endorsed the Free Higher Ed campaign. AAUP also invited Reed to present a workshop on the campaign at its Summer Institute at the University of Scranton on July 31st. The workshop was well received by AAUP members from around the country and was an opportunity to introduce AAUP members outside the collective bargaining section to our campaign. Visit our website at www.freehighered.org ABOUT THE LABOR PARTY The Labor Party is a national organization made up of international unions and
Re: What is the total wealth ?
Of course, the current thinking is that it is human capital that is responsible for most of the productivity. Has anybody made a recent estimate of the aggregate human capital? On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 12:06:08PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > > Another approach. According to the BEA, the value of fixed > reproducible tangible wealth (including consumer durables) in the > U.S. was $32.8 trillion in 2002. (Note that the rate of return on > those assets implied by GDP is a lot higher than Julio's estimate - > around 30%.) That year, according to World Bank stats, the U.S. had > 32% of world GDP. So, scaling up based on that income share, we can > estimate that the global capital stock is worth $102.1 trillion - or > roughly $16,000 per capita. > > Doug -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: What is the total wealth ?
Right, they should teach that marginal productivity theory created economic justice because everybody got rewarded according to their marginal product. Sraffa proved that it was BS. Samuelson and others attempted to refute him, but were unsuccessful. Solow said that it was a tempest in a teapot. Now nobody cares, but they continue to teach the same BS. On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 12:07:17PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > > Yeah, but nobody cares about that anymore. It was an obsession of > some weirdos in England a generation ago, but we've moved beyond that > now. > > Doug -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Walmart costs California
The labor center was singled out by Arnold for extinction, although the Dems made him fund the certer. The construction industry is especially hostile to the center. On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 08:07:07PM -0700, Devine, James wrote: > >Wal-Mart questioned the validity of the report, saying the authors > undervalued the wages and benefits the chain's employees receive. > The UC report comes from the Berkeley Labor Center, an institute that is > openly supportive of union causes. Although its researchers have in the past > accepted funding from the grocery workers' union to conduct studies, this > report was not funded by labor, its authors said.< > > "_openly_ supportive of union causes"? do they ever say "openly > supportive of corporate causes"? is Labor is such bad shape that > it's a market of shame to support it? > > Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
The Women of Crawford Have a Secret
http://www.bushvchoice.com/trailer/crawford.swf Find out how these successful, driven women could swing the election and help bring the end of a woman's right to choose -- without saying a word. Produced by: NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc. www.ProChoiceAmerica.org -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: No Bounce for Kerry
When has a person in the debates been called a vanity candidate before. The singing schtick was stupid, though. On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 04:32:11PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > Michael Perelman wrote: > > >Kucinich had no money supporting him > > C'mon - he was in the debates, he was on the road a lot. He should > have done better than, what?, 2% of the primary vote. > > Doug -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: No Bounce for Kerry
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/03/04 3:52 PM >>> If there's a great untapped reservoir of leftish populism in the American masses, why did Kucinich do so badly in the primaries, and why is Nader now down around 2%? Doug uhhh, who said anything about 'untapped reservoir of leftish populism' (whatever that is)... come now doug, you know answers to above questions... however, 'conventional wisdom' holds that dem positions on civil rights/civil liberties issues began to alienate white working class in late 1960s, race ostensibly drove wedge between white and non-white working workers with resultant diminution of class voting, such analysis is mostly based upon assessments using self-identified class, this measure fails to address voter economic circumstances, analysis relying upon relative income situation of voters reflects relative level of resources folks have, results show increasing support among less affluent for dems, differences in voting by income position (social class) have been increasing, not decreasing... mainstream poli sci guy jeffrey stonecash uses nes data - see his _class and party in american politics_ - to show that *even in south* white working class voters remain more likely to vote dem than more affluent white voters, big problem is relative scarcity of white working class turnout in south (condition exacerbated nationally by similar scarcity at polls among all workin people)...michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: No Bounce for Kerry
Kucinich had no money supporting him; Kerry has an "organize" (well, well-funded) party. Gore's support picked up when he did populism, so would Kerry's. All he had to do was to take Edwards' 2-America's riff a bit further. On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 03:52:16PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > If there's a great untapped reservoir of leftish populism in the > American masses, why did Kucinich do so badly in the primaries, and > why is Nader now down around 2%? > > Doug -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: No Bounce for Kerry
The strategy guarentees that Kerry will have no coattails. On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 03:32:47PM -0400, Michael Hoover wrote: > > re. dem/kerry strategy, elections are mechanisms of social control, > narrow kerry win > will actually be narrow bush loss, kerry's people think this can happen > with existing likely electorate which, of course, means doing nothing to > get more folks to vote, result will be few 'progressive' expectations of > kerry administration...michael hoover > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: No Bounce for Kerry
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/03/04 12:28 AM >>> I was struck by the same thing as Michael H. I doubt that they will reciprocate for the Dems. On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 12:24:33AM -0400, Michael Hoover wrote: > > related point: tv media abandoned past convention coverage in giving > reps so many opportunities to sprinkle on dem parade...michael > hoover Also, I have never heard of any competitive contest where you aim to just get over the hump. Sounds like a stupid strategy. Michael Perelman <<<<<>>>>> meant to write in previous post that conservative media set up dems on bounce by giving rep talking heads pre-convention opportunities to talk about how kerry would probably get double digit post-convention bump... re. dem/kerry strategy, elections are mechanisms of social control, narrow kerry win will actually be narrow bush loss, kerry's people think this can happen with existing likely electorate which, of course, means doing nothing to get more folks to vote, result will be few 'progressive' expectations of kerry administration...michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: China and socialism
End of thread! Why can you just discuss things without getting nasty and bringing up material from other lists? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: No Bounce for Kerry
I was struck by the same thing as Michael H. I doubt that they will reciprocate for the Dems. On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 12:24:33AM -0400, Michael Hoover wrote: > > related point: tv media abandoned past convention coverage in giving > reps so many opportunities to sprinkle on dem parade... michael > hoover Also, I have never heard of any competitive contest where you aim to just get over the hump. Sounds like a stupid strategy. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: No Bounce for Kerry
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/02/04 6:22 PM >>> "No Bounce for Kerry": <<<<<>>>>> bounce thing is extremely overrated, has had little relation to electoral winner, if memory serves, with exception of clinton in 92, candidates with biggest bounces have lost (and carter almost lost), most have been dems... in any event, room for bounce this year was negligible if poll numbers can be believed, bush, kerry, nader numbers leave few undecideds... kerry people appear to believe that they can beat bush (just barely) on issues except for 'security', poll numbers going into convention indicated solid bush lead in that area, dems seem to think that if they simply say things about 'making 'america stronger', 'protecting homeland', and 'destroying terrorists' enough times they will whittle away at bush in this area (all the while blathering on about kerry's wartime mettle, blah, blah, blah)... strategy suggests that kerry people hope to barely make it over hump in november, strategy also conveys that kerry campaign is absent any other appeals, has attractiveness of flagpole sitting in drawing attention to drab man... related point: tv media abandoned past convention coverage in giving reps so many opportunities to sprinkle on dem parade...michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: The Soviet "empire" was a drain on Moscow
Schumpeter made that argument in his essay, Imperialism. On Mon, Aug 02, 2004 at 06:57:20AM -0700, Devine, James wrote: > > Some scholars (sorry, I don't have the reference here) argue that even the British > empire wasn't profitable for Britain as a whole. But it clearly benefited the upper > classes, who were more important in decision-making. > > Jim Devine -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: The Soviet "empire" was a drain on Moscow
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 8/2/2004 11:16:33 AM >>> Put another way, to label the U.S. and the USSR with the same label, "empire" -- and hence to suggest that there is some analogy between the relationship "USSR/Cuba" and "US/Puerto Rico" -- is just too violent an abstraction, it leaves too little material content to what we mean when we speak of empire. Carrol <<<<>>>> paraphrase of what i wrote in 'secolas annals' (journal of southeastern council on latin american studies) twenty years ago: much was made of cuba's 'dependency' on soviet union...[but]... cuban-soviet relations did not resemble typical dominance-dependence arrangements, soviet aid strengthened rather than weakened cuba's national control of its economy, further, soviets protected cuba from fluctuations in world market prices of sugar and nickel, insured cuba continual oil supplies, and generally stayed out of cuban political affairs... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
God supports communism
I found this on Risk Digest as well Cosmic ray hits Brussels election - really? <"Dirk Fieldhouse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> Thu, 29 Jul 2004 13:04:14 +0100 John Miller, Dow Jones Newswires (07/26/04); seen via ACM Tech News: http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/0728w.html#item1 "European citizens and governments generally prefer traditional paper-based voting because of unresolved reliability and security issues surrounding electronic voting. ... [DF comment: what a fair summary, and in the UK issues are also being raised by the extension of postal paper voting] ... Fueling the arguments of paper ballot supporters are incidents such as a 2003 Belgian election in which almost 4,100 extra votes for Maria Vindevoghel's Communist Party were recorded in a precinct of Brussels due to a malfunction triggered by a cosmic ray. ..." I found this jaw-dropping -- not the possibility of a cosmic ray causing a computer malfunction, which is an obvious threat for space-borne systems, but how such an apparently unrepeatable external event could be accepted as the cause of a terrestrial computer malfunction. The lack of any confirmation through Google seems to support my astonishment. Can the select RISKS readership confirm whether this actually occurred, or is it an urban legend? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
privacy
I just found this on Risks Digest. [http://www.odci.gov/cia/notices.html#priv] Privacy Notice The Central Intelligence Agency is committed to protecting your privacy and will collect no personal information about you unless you choose to provide that information to us. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: welcome to the banana republic
If the dollar fell the way suggested here, how would the E. Asian economies survive? Wouldn't it cause financial turmoil? If they sold their US assets to finance deficits, wouldn't that cause high interest rates in the US? We have a serious case of co-dependency. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
back to PPP comparisons
I have just received some comments from a former colleague on the questions posed about the use of PPP. They include his comments in a letter plus an attachment which I have copied into the text below. in solidarity, michael - He writes: I beg to disagree with the idea that the PPP method is "imaginary" and the Atlas method is "actual". As I explain in the attachment, the PPP exchange rate takes into account the price difference of goods and services between countries,or the purchasing power of a country's currency vis-a-vis the currencies of other countries (or the US dollar), whereas the market exchange rate does not take into account the price difference. Take a simple example of Japan and the US. Say the market exchange rate is 110 Yens = One US$. Now take an equivalent basket--in quantity and quality--that contains a burger with fries and a drink. It costs 450 Yens in Tokyo and US$ 2.50 in New York. The PPP exchange rate is then 180 Yens = One US$ (450/2.50). There is nothing imaginary about the PPP exchange rate since it gives you the purchasing power of a country's currency vis-a-vis the US dollar. The important point is that the market exchange rate seems to be a valid conversion factor for settling payments between countries on account of trade, debt, aid, etc. and the PPP exchange rate seems to be a valid conversion factor for comparing the "standard of living" of people in different countries. Now please turn to the data shown in my attachment Table. In the GNI differences between the high income and middle + low income economies for any year (1996, 1998, or 2002), our focus should be on the ratios of the GNI of high income countries to the GNI of middle + low income countries under the Atlas and PPP methods separately. I see little change in the ratios between 1996 and 2002: the GNI gap between the high income countries and the middle + low income countries does not change over time (compare the 1996 and 2002 data). GNI (Atlas Method): in 1996 the ratio is 4.41 to 1.00 and in 2002 the ratio is 4.18 to 1.00. GNI (PPP Method): in 1996 the ratio is 1.36 to 1.00 and in 2002 the ratio is 1.30 to 1.00. The fact that the ratios of GNI between the high income and middle + low income countries in each year differ so much under the two methods is simply because the Atlas Method does not take into account the price differences between countries and PPP Method does. There is no indication that the income gap between the rich and poor countries has narrowed. However, the income gap is larger with the market exchange rate compared to the income gap with the PPP exchange rate. The attachment: Gross National Income (GNI) of Countries, 1996, 1998, 2002 GNI (Atlas Method) GNI (PPP Method) Billion US Dollars Billion US Dollars Economy 1996 1998 2002 1996 1998 2002 High Income 23,772 22,592 25,596 20,574 20,745 27,516 Middle Income 4,141 4,401 5,056 8,305 8,834 15,884 Low Income 1,597 1,842 1,070 6,809 7,678 5,269 World 29,510 28,835 31,720 35,688 37,136 48,462 Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, 1998, 2000, 2004. Notes: 1. Definitions: · Gross National Income (GNI) = GDP plus net receipts of primary income (wages and salaries plus property income) from abroad. GNI is a new term used for the good old Gross National product (GNP): GNI and GNP have the same formula. · Gross Domestic Product (GDP) = Sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output. 2. Internationally Comparable Values of GNI and GDP:[1] The World Bank uses two methods for estimating internationally comparable values of GNI and GDP. · The Atlas Method: Each countrys GNI and GDP estimates (made in local currency) are converted by using the market exchange rate for its currency in US dollars. The market exchange rate between currencies is a product of several factors, including trade and capital flows. It is used for financial transactions between countries (trade, debt services, etc.). It should not be used to compare the GNI and GDP of countries in the context of differences in their standard of living because the market exchange rate does not take into account the price difference between countries for goods and services. · The Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Method: The PPP exchange rate is s
Re: Jeffrey Sachs, Accenture, Columbia University
I'm sure that for some work outsourcing does provide excellent quality, but my personal experience with outsourcing comes from contacting help desks. Not only is the line quality poor, impeding communication, but the help desks are not particularly helpful. My guess is that because these jobs are very desirable, the workers accept a very tight scripting. As a result, they are very unhelpful unless your question is fully anticipated. On the other hand, I have had very good experience asking questions of techies from domestic help desks, who seem to [have the freedom to] enjoy the challenge of a complex question. The artificial offshoring of moving a company to Bermuda is despicable on all counts. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Chechnya
Maybe we have played out this whole question of ethnic divisions. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: A Question for the Moderator- race, ideology and the right thing to do.
Melvyn's story about his dealings with the red necks at the workplace illustrate the degree of skill required to navigate the class divide. No easy answers in this regard. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Socialism of fools
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/31/04 7:59 PM >>> above is one of those quotes that floats around, that people cite and never indicate source, few folks probably have any idea its origins and many/most who reference it have probably never read it in english as i don't believe text has ever been translated from the german... phrase is from 10/27/1893 party congress speech that bebel made (think it appears in german as 'anti-semitism and social democracy'), what bebel termed 'socialism of fools' was specific reference to *anti-semitic populism*, bebel's speech is essentially about SPD having to make choice between urban working class and rural peasantry, he favored former and congress overwhelmingly voted that way, one consequence was that party would become increasingly detached from rural population, bebel's position is pretty conventional marxist interpretation of 'progressive tendency' of capitalist development... michael hoover <<<<<>>>>> oops, my source for above is nicholas stargardt's _the german idea of militarism : radical and socialist critics, 1866-1914_... mh -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Socialism of fools
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/31/04 12:10 PM >>> I recently quoted Fred Engels as referring to anti-semitism as the "socialism of fools." Pen-l alumnus Jurriaan Bendien writes me that: >From memory the "socialism of fools" remark was by August Bebel, circa 1873.< I guess I sit corrected, though I couldn't find the quote from Bebel's mouth. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <<<<<>>>>> above is one of those quotes that floats around, that people cite and never indicate source, few folks probably have any idea its origins and many/most who reference it have probably never read it in english as i don't believe text has ever been translated from the german... phrase is from 10/27/1893 party congress speech that bebel made (think it appears in german as 'anti-semitism and social democracy'), what bebel termed 'socialism of fools' was specific reference to *anti-semitic populism*, bebel's speech is essentially about SPD having to make choice between urban working class and rural peasantry, he favored former and congress overwhelmingly voted that way, one consequence was that party would become increasingly detached from rural population, bebel's position is pretty conventional marxist interpretation of 'progressive tendency' of capitalist development... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: A Question for the Moderator
Melvyn posed posed one of the truly difficult challenges that the left faces: learning how to learn from the masses at the same time as we supply them with information. Listening is a very difficult skill. I remember trying to speak with the boyfriend of my first wife's mother. He worked in a gas station. He was not stupid, but he was angry. He directed much of this anger at Blacks, but I think he was racist. He just had this anger and he did not know where to direct it. Fortunately, I just read a wonderful book -- The Hidden Injuries of Class -- which helped me to translate some of his words into what he was really thinking rather than to come down on him as a stupid racist. I do not pretend to be entirely successful. Usually the discussion would get to a degree of rationality, but then would return to the same ugly spot the next time we would meet. In a way, Melvyn is at a great advantage, coming from his experience as an auto worker, an environment that has a long history militancy, both intellectual and practical. But he is absolutely correct in realizing that Bush is much more effective than speaking to the working-class family on the left. I wish it were otherwise. On Sat, Jul 31, 2004 at 04:36:05PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Don't get me wrong. . . I love books . . . but a segment of the so-called > Marxist intellegincia have not asked people what they actually think and feel. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: A Question for the Moderator
This was the problem that I was referring to when I was trying to describe a progression of fragmentations. I first began to think about this sort of problem when Lebanon began to fall apart. At first, it seemed to be a religious division, but then I began to realize that there were divisions within each religion that were made each others throats. The situation seemed like a fractal to me. Chris Doss wrote: Who gets to determine Chechnya's status? People who live in Chechnya? In 1991, Grozny's population was about 50% non-Chechen. The Nautsky district in Chechnya was about 75% non-Chechen, mostly Russians, Ukrainians and Cossacks who lived there since the 15th century. Those people have almost entirely fled, been forced out, or killed. None of them would have voted for an independent Chechnya. Do their voices matter? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Promoting paranoia
Our local police department wants to get some money from the Homeland Security Department. The only catch is that they have to prove that we have terrorists in our midst. I assume that as police departments throughout the country compete for this money, the feds will have convincing evidence that the terrorists have thoroughly infiltrated every nook and cranny of our great land. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
book review: Welfare and the Constitution
>From the Law and Politics Book Review WELFARE AND THE CONSTITUTION, by Sotirios A. Barber. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004. 184pp. Cloth $27.95 / £17.95. ISBN: 0-691-11448-X Reviewed By Ronald Kahn, Department of Politics, Oberlin College. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/barber704.htm -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: [Marxism] Jonathan Schell on the DP's prowar stance
Moveon began in protest of the Clinton impeachment. It began as a letter that took a life of its own. On Sat, Jul 31, 2004 at 12:29:41PM -0400, Louis Proyect wrote: > Devine, James wrote: > > did the DP create Moveon.org? my impression is that its leaders created it and > > then moved into the DP orbit on their own. > > I wasn't clear enough. Moveon.org was created by people who wanted a > "respectable" alternative to the antiwar movement. It then morphed into > Howard Dean's collection agency and is now nothing but an arm of the > Democratic Party. > > > > -- > Marxism list: www.marxmail.org -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: JEP
Shleifer is the editor; DeLong is gone. So the journal has become more technical, less topical. Its beauty, especially under Stiglitz, was that it could keep non-specialists informed about different fields and truly offer different, even dissident, perspectives. On Sat, Jul 31, 2004 at 08:47:51AM -0700, Devine, James wrote: > [was RE: [PEN-L] Deeper Problems for Shleifer] > > Michael writes: >Does anybody niotice the rapid decline in the Journal of Economic > Perspectives? A right winger will take over the Journal of Economc > Literature. < > > I haven't been paying attention. Why do you think that the JEP is in decline? why do > you think it went into that tailspin? who is the editor? is it still Brad deLong? > > who's taking over the JEL? replacing whom? > > jim d > > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Microsof on Intellectual Property
Lohr, Steve. 2004. "Pursuing Growth, Microsoft Steps Up Patent Chase." New York Times (30 July). "Microsoft said on Thursday that it planned to increase its storehouse of intellectual property by filing 50 percent more patent applications over the next year than in the previous 12 months. Microsoft, the world's largest software company, increasingly regards the legal protection of its programming ideas as essential to safeguarding its growth opportunities." "Speaking at the company's yearly meeting with financial analysts, Bill Gates, the company's chairman, called patents a "very important part" of what he termed the "cycle of innovation" that has been responsible for Microsoft's past prosperity and continued corporate health." "Microsoft's stepped-up patent program, analysts say, will be watched closely in the industry to see if the company uses it mainly as a defensive tactic or as an offensive weapon to try to slow the spread of open source products." "Microsoft, Mr. Gates said, intends to file more than 3,000 patents in its 2005 fiscal year, which began this month, up from about 2,000 patent filings in fiscal 2004. It typically takes three years or more before a filed patent is approved. Today, Microsoft trails well behind I.B.M. and several other hardware makers in the size of its patent portfolio." "Mr. Gates cited research showing Microsoft patents are cited as "prior art," or examples of existing knowledge, in other patent filings somewhat more often than the patents of other technology companies, including Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Apple and I.B.M." -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Iran more democratic, liberal than Pakistan?
akistan at the behest of the CIA. The idea was to create a generation of Islamist warriors as a bulwark against communism and socialism, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Today the chickens have come home to roost, and people like Bulliet fail to give credit where it's due. I would expect this article from someone like Christopher Hitchens or Bernard Henry Levy, who are deliberately inaccurate, but it was unexpected of a tenured professor of history at Columbia University to so shamelessly distort the truth in an election year. Thankfully there are fairer people in the US who have very different conclusions about the Muslim world. The key to the democratic transition in the Muslim world lies in a country like Pakistan, which has the potential of becoming a modern and pluralistic democracy. Perhaps Bulliet should read something by people who actually know something about Pakistan like William Milam, Stephen Cohen, Dennis Kux, Robert Oakley, John L. Esposito and Stanley Wolpert, than regurgitating half-truths of people like Hitchens and Bernard Henry Levy. Yasser Latif Hamdani Lahore, Pakistan Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Deeper Problems for Shleifer
d Elizabeth Hebert (Hay's then-girlfriend, now his wife). US Attorney Donald Stern said at the time that his office had contemplated criminal charges but filed none. Judge Woodlock quickly dismissed the charges against Zimmerman and Hebert, on grounds that neither worked for Harvard or the government and were not parties to the contract. As previously reported, Harvard at one point offered to settle its part of the case for as much as $24 million, or two-thirds the value of its contract, in the course of an unsuccessful mediation by Judge David Mazzone, according to attorneys familiar with the case. Now that the government's claim to treble damages has failed, the offer, whatever it was, will have long-since disappeared from the table. Shleifer, who left Russia with his parents when he was 15, only to return as a senior adviser to its government (and a distinguished economist) at the age of 30, remains a Harvard professor. Until last year, he was a principal of LSV Asset Management, a money management firm for institutional investors that, with fellow economist Robert Vishny and Josef Lakonishok, he co-founded in 1991. His attorney, Earl Nemser, told Marcella Bombardieri of The Boston Globe, "We're pleased now that most of the claims in the case, and against Andrei Shleifer, have been dismissed. We expect the remaining claims will be disposed of favorably to him." Jonathan Hay, who became a student of Shleifer's while at Harvard Law School, joined the London office of the Cleary Gottlieb law firm as an associate in 2002. An initial hearing on the damages phase of the trial may be held as early as July 19. Extensive arguments about the ultimate success or failure of Harvard's Russia Project eventually can be expected from all sides. Judge Woodlock's finding, reported in a clearly-written 100-page memorandum and order, came nearly 18 months after both sides asked him to decide the legal issues as a matter of summary judgment. It was, perhaps, an unusually long deliberation, even for a judge with a reputation for taking his time. On the other hand, his findings were delivered a little in the manner of an O. Henry story, with a sudden twist at the end. The nub of the case turned out to be the Pallada Asset Management Company. Though evidence was adduced to show that Shleifer had been inviting his former student-turned deputy to invest with him in Russian oil stocks as early as the summer of 1994 -- and though he and Hay made several other kinds of personal investments in the next couple of years -- it was a scheme to win a license from the Russian SEC for Hay's then girlfriend, Elizabeth Hebert, as the first authorized vendor of Russian mutual funds, that led to Woodlock's decision to find both men guilty of the False Claims conspiracy charge. The meaning of "assigned to Russia" might be so ambiguous that a jury would be required to decide two counts of the complaint that Shleifer committed fraud by investing in Russia while regularly visiting Moscow from Newton, Mass., Judge Woodlock wrote. But on the third count, wrote the judge, there could be no such doubt. The available evidence clearly showed that a working understanding existed among Shleifer and Hay to inappropriately finance and assist in the launch of Pallada, in hopes of turning it into a Russian version of market-dominating Fidelity Investments. Hay's father lent Hebert $200,000 to buy a related business. Shleifer loaned her a similar amount a few months later to advance her plans. The smoking gun here was something called "the Steyer memo," a business plan written by Hebert, reviewed by Hay (and perhaps designed to be signed by him), and addressed to Thomas Steyer, a business associate of Shleifer's wife, in hopes of attracting a further round of investment from him and others. "We are likely to get a license before anyone else which will give us a significant first mover advantage... Given this project's relationship with the Commission, any other attempts by definition will be in a catchup mode... In the short to medium term, our advantage comes from the fact the regulator wants us to be first..." Shleifer was advisor to the Securities Commission. Hay was drafting the securities law. At one point, Shleifer consulted a Harvard lawyer to ask if his wife could invest in Pallada. It just wouldn't look right, replied attorney Michael Butler. "Tellingly" wrote the judge, "Shleifer did not ask Butler whether he could invest in Russia." And so it was, by making the loans and thereby financing the Pallada scheme, that the two men caused the submission of a false claim. Coming on page 92 of a 100-page opinion, the finding was a something of a surprise. It turned out that the meaning of "assigned to Russia" probably doesn't matter in Shleifer's case. One count of fraud is as defeating as three. The decision seemed to render moot any need to resort to a jury trial, and freed the court to move on to the question of who owes what and to whom. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: Communalising Kerala
This is truly sad. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: A Question for the Moderator
I don't have any simple answers. On the one hand, fragmentation makes for inefficiencies. On the other hand, the larger the extent of the central government, a greater number of minority groups might find themselves oppressed. Even if you fragment the state, you'll probably find even smaller ethnic minorities find themselves oppressed. Most societies are like fractals, break them up and you'll find even smaller divisions within each element. One overriding problem is that by fragmenting political units, an imperial power will have an easier time controlling them. So here is the closest I can come to a simple answer: let us hope that we can get to a socialist society in which people cannot profit from stirring up racial and ethnic hatred; so that things that are truly local can be handled locally; and that people can learn to cooperate. Of course, how you get there -- that is the central question. On Fri, Jul 30, 2004 at 04:36:05PM +0100, Ulhas Joglekar wrote: > Michael Perelman, > > Some posters on this list have expressed their support > for the breakup of Russia, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria > and Turkey. I would like know what is your personal > opinion in this matter. > > Ulhas > > > > Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online > Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Kerry's a better choice for some conservatives
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/29/04 11:32 PM >>> Dan Scanlan wrote: >> The Right Wing's Deep, Dark Secret >Some hope for a Bush loss, and here's why > By John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge We (people, leftists, left liberals) made significant gains under Nixon (despite his intentions) because we had behind us the threatening mass movements of the '60s. Leftists _must_ break, permanently and unambiguously, all ties to the DP -- and this includes the leftists of the DP (Wellstone, Obama, Hightower), who achieve nothing for us except symbolic gestures but provide cover for the party's left flank. Carrol <<<<<>>>>> come on, 'we' have chance in 04 to return 'liberal' jfk to prez, surely you recall last time he was in office - civil rights advocate, pro labor, tax wealthy - oh wait, he didn't actually initiate legal action in any antidiscrimination cases, he appointed segregationists to federal bench, he offered little help to civil rights activists attacked - and killed - by racists, he opposed increases in minimum wage, he sought to constrain wage demands by unions, he opposed reducing work week, he presided over tax cuts for rich and corporations... back to yesterday with jfk... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state? -
My apologies; it was intended for Doug, but the posts from David tonight were not very nice, especially after I asked that the thread be discontinued. On Thu, Jul 29, 2004 at 08:42:15PM -0700, Michael Perelman wrote: > He has behaved ok until tonight. One more & he is gone; or maybe I will just get him > to resub to LBO. > > > On Thu, Jul 29, 2004 at 10:51:40PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > > sartesian wrote: > > > > >So then why, Mr. Henwood, have you given credence to the notion that the US > > >presence might lend stability to Iraq? > > > > I haven't, asshole. > > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state? -
He has behaved ok until tonight. One more & he is gone; or maybe I will just get him to resub to LBO. On Thu, Jul 29, 2004 at 10:51:40PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: > sartesian wrote: > > >So then why, Mr. Henwood, have you given credence to the notion that the US > >presence might lend stability to Iraq? > > I haven't, asshole. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: India Turned Kashmir into the Bitter Place It Is Now
David, cut it out if you want to remain on the list. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of sartesian Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 10:29 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] India Turned Kashmir into the Bitter Place It Is Now You were much further ahead when you said you didn't know. Since then you've deployed the "outside agitator" explanation, and then this, neither of which address the real issues. - Original Message - From: "Chris Doss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 8:59 AM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] India Turned Kashmir into the Bitter Place It Is Now > --- Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > India turned Kashmir into the bitter place it is now > > Typical Guardian headline: > > Big country (fill in name of big country here) turned > small country (fill in name of small country here) > into the bitter place it is now. Small countries are > by definition victims of other countries and share no > responsibility whatsoever for the situation. > > > > __ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. > http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state? -
Damn it, David. Cut it out! On Thu, Jul 29, 2004 at 10:24:50PM -0700, sartesian wrote: > So then why, Mr. Henwood, have you given credence to the notion that the US > presence might lend stability to Iraq? > > - Original Message - > From: "Doug Henwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 8:05 AM > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Israel pushing for Kurdish state? - > > > > Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > > > > >Have you added up all the Iraqi civilians killed by various factions > > >of Iraqi and non-Iraqi terrorists and compared the number to that of > > >Iraqi civilians killed by US and other foreign troops who invaded and > > >have occupied Iraq and by economic sanctions before the invasion and > > >occupation? > > > > > >Americans who vote for John Kerry who will be the next POTUS, aka the > > >biggest terrorist and war criminal, have no moral standing to pretend > > >to be appalled by un-American terrorists. > > > > > >Only those who do not vote for Kerry or Bush have the moral standing > > >to criticize foreign terrorists. > > > > What a load of crap. Elections are about contesting for power, and > > often involve debased compromises; votes aren't symptoms of moral > > purity. > > > > And why is it impossible to hold two thoughts in mind at once? The > > sanctions were murderous and the war a horrible crime. There's no > > doubt that the U.S. and its very junior partners have killed far more > > Iraqi civilians than the "resistance." But there are some people on > > the western left - some of them members of PEN-L, even - who can't > > acknowledge that a lot of the Iraqi "resistance" consists of > > jihadists and unreconstructed Saddamites, i.e., absolutely awful > > forces. > > > > As Christian Parenti said when he returned from his first trip to > > Iraq - there's no way anything good can come of this. > > > > Doug -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
