[PEN-L] PK on China Challenge
June 27, 2005/New York TIMES. The Chinese Challenge By PAUL KRUGMAN Fifteen years ago, when Japanese companies were busily buying up chunks of corporate America, I was one of those urging Americans not to panic. You might therefore expect me to offer similar soothing words now that the Chinese are doing the same thing. But the Chinese challenge - highlighted by the bids for Maytag and Unocal - looks a lot more serious than the Japanese challenge ever did. There's nothing shocking per se about the fact that Chinese buyers are now seeking control over some American companies. After all, there's no natural law that says Americans will always be in charge. Power usually ends up in the hands of those who hold the purse strings. America, which imports far more than it exports, has been living for years on borrowed funds, and lately China has been buying many of our I.O.U.'s. Until now, the Chinese have mainly invested in U.S. government bonds. But bonds yield neither a high rate of return nor control over how the money is spent. The only reason for China to acquire lots of U.S. bonds is for protection against currency speculators - and at this point China's reserves of dollars are so large that a speculative attack on the dollar looks far more likely than a speculative attack on the yuan. So it was predictable that, sooner or later, the Chinese would stop buying so many dollar bonds. Either they would stop buying American I.O.U.'s altogether, causing a plunge in the dollar, or they would stop being satisfied with the role of passive financiers, and demand the power that comes with ownership. And we should be relieved that at least for now the Chinese aren't dumping their dollars; they're using them to buy American companies. Yet there are two reasons that Chinese investment in America seems different from Japanese investment 15 years ago. One difference is that, judging from early indications, the Chinese won't squander their money as badly as the Japanese did. The Japanese, back in the day, tended to go for prestige investments - Rockefeller Center, movie studios - that transferred lots of money to the American sellers, but never generated much return for the buyers. The result was, in effect, a subsidy to the United States. The Chinese seem shrewder than that. Although Maytag is a piece of American business history, it isn't a prestige buy for Haier, the Chinese appliance manufacturer. Instead, it's a reasonable way to acquire a brand name and a distribution network to serve Haier's growing manufacturing capability. That doesn't mean that America will lose from the deal. Maytag's stockholders will gain, and the company will probably shed fewer American workers under Chinese ownership than it would have otherwise. Still, the deal won't be as one-sided as the deals with the Japanese often were. [This is where I was confused in a recent message (that I later retracted). I was thinking too much in terms of a Japan 1980s/China 2000s analogy. Japan had a high Yen in the late 1990s and was able to buy US assets at bargain-basement prices -- and thus was more likely to squander their advantage. China does _not_ have a high Yuan (though it does have a lot of dollar-denominated assets to spend) and must be more economical.] The more important difference from Japan's investment is that China, unlike Japan, really does seem to be emerging as America's strategic rival and a competitor for scarce resources - which makes last week's other big Chinese offer more than just a business proposition. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation, a company that is 70 percent owned by the Chinese government, is seeking to acquire control of Unocal, an energy company with global reach. In particular, Unocal has a history - oddly ignored in much reporting on the Chinese offer - of doing business with problematic regimes in difficult places, including the Burmese junta and the Taliban. One indication of Unocal's reach: Zalmay Khalilzad, who was U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan for 18 months and was just confirmed as ambassador to Iraq, was a Unocal consultant. Unocal sounds, in other words, like exactly the kind of company the Chinese government might want to control if it envisions a sort of great game in which major economic powers scramble for access to far-flung oil and natural gas reserves. (Buying a company is a lot cheaper, in lives and money, than invading an oil-producing country.) So the Unocal story gains extra resonance from the latest surge in oil prices. [It remains to be seen how serious the China/US rivalry will be.] If it were up to me, I'd block the Chinese bid for Unocal. But it would be a lot easier to take that position if the United States weren't so dependent on China right now, not just to buy our I.O.U.'s, but to help us deal with North Korea now that our military is bogged down in Iraq. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Jim Devine Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let
Re: [PEN-L] ugly corporate interference at Univ. of Missouri, Kanasa City
Michael, I don't see either the background statement nor sample letter that are mentioned as included. Paul Quoting michael perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Business forms a blue ribbon committee to decide how a college should be run -- The AAUP chapter at UMKC is appealing for your help (if you are on several lists, apologies for multiple mailings). Since April a so-called Blue Ribbon Task Force has been at work evaluating the University of Missouri at Kansas City, a public institution belonging to the four-campus University of Missouri system. Commissioned by business interests outside the university, the Task Force is chaired by Benno Schmidt, who has made a career and a personal fortune privatizing public education. The Task Force has strongly suggested in public statements its intention to recommend removing UMKC from the University of Missouri system. Given Schmidt's track record, there is a high likelihood that the Task Force will also recommend partial or full privatization. Other Task Force members are on record in support of an autocratic model of university governance. The Task Force is an instrument of certain local businesses hoping to take control of UMKC and profit by reorganization of the university. Faculty and student organizations as well as administrators have already expressed public opposition to the possibility of a corporate takeover. Please join them by raising your voice against the dismemberment of the University of Missouri System, the isolation of UMKC, its downgrading to an underfunded, third rank institution, and the erection of financial barriers shutting out low income people and communities of color from higher education. The future of UMKC and of public higher education in Missouri is squarely on the line, and the direction it takes will impact everyone: faculty, students, staff, administrators, alumni, retirees, and the public at large. We need as many voices as possible to counteract the powerful backers of the Task Force and the extensive public relations apparatus it has mobilized to sell its agenda to the public. The plans for a corporate takeover of UMKC are on fast track, and we must start to build a large response now. The first wave of letters must be sent before the Task Force delivers its preliminary report on June 24. Please do the following: 1) contact officials (see list below) 2) if you live in the KC region, attend the Friday June 24 hearing in Kansas City of the Missouri State Government Review Commission. Be there to support testimony against the Blue Ribbon Task Force by UMKC administration, faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Time: 2PM. Place: Auditorium of Missouri Department of Conservation, Discovery Center, 4750 Troost (west side of Troost, driveway just south of fast food restaurant on corner). Below you will find a sample letter and a list of people to write to. If you can, send an e-mail message to everyone on the list, but even one message to a single person is a valuable contribution. The voice of the public defending public higher education needs to be be heard. Please forward this appeal to everyone you know who supports public higher education. If you are on the faculty of UMKC or of other institutions, please contact your colleagues, professional organizations, students and former students, administrators, staff, and individuals and organizations in the community you work with. If you are in the community, please contact individuals and organizations in your networks. So that the AAUP chapter can tabulate public responses to this appeal, please send a message to the web manager of the AAUP site ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) stating the number of people you have contacted. If it is everyone on the list, just write ALL. For more information please see the BACKGROUND STATEMENT below, which includes links to more extensive sources with documentation. Thank you very much for your support. Sincerely, Patricia Brodsky Professor of Foreign Languages President, AAUP chapter at UMKC -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: [PEN-L] PK on China Challenge
The part that surprised me in Krugman's article was the final paragraph in which he revealed his preference for blocking China. In his pre-leftish phase, wasn't Krugman angry with people like Laura Tyson who wanted to manage trade? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: [PEN-L] PK on China Challenge
A foolish consistence is the hobgoblin of little minds, right? he does argue that Japan China are different case. He doesn't seem to be advocating blocking China as part of industrial policy (which is the kind of thing that Tyson advocated). On 6/27/05, Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The part that surprised me in Krugman's article was the final paragraph in which he revealed his preference for blocking China. In his pre-leftish phase, wasn't Krugman angry with people like Laura Tyson who wanted to manage trade? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu -- Jim Devine Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
[PEN-L] the news
In New York Sunday, the Rev. Billy Graham completed what he said would be his last American crusade, warning that the end of his life—along with the end of the world—was near. sell! -- Jim Devine Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
Re: [PEN-L] the political economy of disease diagnosis
On Jun 26, 2005, at 9:33 AM, Jim Devine wrote: When I had my heart checked with ultrasound earlier this year, the tech predicted that within a few years 100% of the US population would be classified as needing meds. JD scattered thoughts on this a result of the fact that the folks who make the poisons (pollutants, food additives, fake sugars, etc.) also make the antidotes... if you count shopping as a med for consumeritis, we may already be 100 percent... or if television could be classified as medication (as in, I just need to vege out), etc
[PEN-L] Juan Cole's Class Trouble
Juan Cole's Class Trouble (Juan Cole, whose blog Informed Comment has enlightened and entertained many [including this reader], gets the class question wrong on the American and Iranian presidential elections) -- FULL TEXT: http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/06/juan-coles-class-trouble.html. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Monthly Review: http://monthlyreview.org/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
[PEN-L] coingate
x-tad-biggerCoingate -- could this bring down the Bushes? Is Ray Lemme Bush's Vince Foster? Is Gov. Jeb Bush's Department of Transportation an analog to Gov. Bill Clinton's /x-tad-biggerArkansas Development Finance Authority? Is there a stained blue dress in W's closet? Stay tuned! 'Cha Ching,' from ¢¢¢ to $$$: How the Bush Crime Syndicate funneled foreign cash into the U.S. political system x-tad-biggerBy Wayne Madsen /x-tad-biggerOnline Journal Contributing Writer Download a .pdf file for printing. Adobe Acrobat Reader required. Click here to download a free copy. x-tad-biggerFLORIDA PANHANDLE, June 21, 2005 (/x-tad-biggerx-tad-biggerwaynemadsenreport.com/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger)—Experienced federal investigators, acting independently, have discovered a covert funding channel used by the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns and the administrations of Jeb Bush in Florida and Bob Taft in Ohio to illegally funnel foreign and other questionable money into Republican coffers. Ever since the brutal death of Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) investigator Ray Lemme in July 2003, the focus of investigators in Florida and Georgia has been on the political scandal Lemme was uncovering. After his official investigation of contract fraud, money laundering, illegal immigration, and election fraud was shut down on orders of Jeb Bush, Lemme continued to investigate the use of FDOT to launder cash for the Bush brothers and their allies. Lemme's focus was on the use of the Florida Turnpike system to launder cash for the Jeb and George W. Bush campaigns. It was an investigation that would ultimately lead to Lemme's body being discovered in a motel room bathtub in Valdosta, Georgia. A two-state police cover-up of Lemme's death, threats directed at Florida and Georgia investigators, and a virtual media blackout indicates that the GOP administrations of Jeb Bush and Georgia's Sonny Perdue wanted the Lemme story to go away—and fast. The reason for the cover-up of Lemme's reported suicide is simple. Investigators have now discovered that foreign cash, including Chinese, Saudi, and Nigerian money, was laundered via the biggest state-run cash cow in Florida—the Florida Turnpike system. Because most of the transactions involving Florida's toll roads involve cash and huge amounts of it, it was easy for foreign and other questionable money to be laundered via FDOT. Lemme had reportedly become aware of the use of FDOT to commit criminal acts. Valdosta, where Lemme went to meet a still unknown source, is a key center for international organized criminal activity, including illegal foreign worker smuggling, involving close political allies of George W. and Jeb Bush. /x-tad-biggerx-tad-biggerFlashback: From Dec. 6. 2004 article Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for vote switching software, Wayne Madsen, /x-tad-biggerx-tad-biggerOnlineJournal.com/x-tad-biggerx-tad-bigger: Yang's [Yang Enterprises] questionable billing activities with its Florida DOT contract came to the attention of Ray C. Lemme, a seasoned senior investigator with the Florida DOT Inspector General's Office and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. Lemme had a lot of evidence to suspect that Yang was overbilling the DOT for millions. After discovering Yang's dirty laundry, Curtis went to work for the DOT. Mavis Georgalis, the DOT's contracting officer for the Yang contract, was also aware of improprieties with the contract. As a result of pressure from the Florida State House, both Curtis and Georgalis were eventually fired by the DOT because of their complaints about the Yang contract. Someone was obviously trying to send Curtis a message when, on August 14, 2002, he discovered that someone poisoned his pet Pomeranian dog, Emily. Lemme was forced to stop his official investigation of Yang for similar reasons. However, he decided to continue an unofficial investigation of Yang and its practices on the side. It was a fateful decision. According to DOT employees familiar with the Yang case, Lemme was aware that it was Jeb Bush who personally shut down his investigation of Yang. Lemme also leaked details concerning his investigation to the Daytona Beach News Journal. The investigator had previously requested a full audit of the Yang contract with the DOT, a request that was denied. Lemme also became aware of something else outside the framework of the DOT contract—that Yang had been involved in producing a prototype vote switching program for use with touch screen voting machines and that Tom Feeney was in on the scam. The last time Clint Curtis spoke to Lemme, he remembers the silver haired investigator excited about where his case was leading. Lemme told Curtis that the cover up of Yang was coming from as high up as I could imagine and that he had proof that was shocking. On Sunday, June 29, 2003, evidence indicates that Lemme drove from Tallahassee to Valdosta, Georgia, the home of Moody Air Force Base. A motel receipt
[PEN-L] The Post Keynesians really are losing the battle ...
From: Michael Perelman The paragraphs that Ted supplied make him sound even sillier. With so many people turning their own failures into substantial advancements in their own position and power, I am searching for a word. What is the opposite of meritocracy? -- Kleptocracy, sort of. Not that private property is theft or anything.
Re: [PEN-L] The Post Keynesians really are losing the battle ...
What is the opposite of meritocracy? Americacacracy? The Sandwichman __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: [PEN-L] The Post Keynesians really are losing the battle ...
Kakocracy? On 6/27/05, Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Michael PerelmanWhat is the opposite of meritocracy? --Kleptocracy, sort of.Not that private property is theft or anything.-- Jim DevineSegui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
Re: [PEN-L] The Post Keynesians really are losing the battle ...
What is the opposite of meritocracy? Demeritocracy, which leads to a surplus of detention centers. who said that the US had detention deficit disorder? -- Jim Devine Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti. (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
Re: [PEN-L] coingate
It seems like there is a high suicide rate among people who investigate conspiracies. Are depressed people drawn into such matters or -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: [PEN-L] The Post Keynesians really are losing the battle ...
On 6/27/05, Gil Skillman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What is the opposite of meritocracy? How about mediocracy? -- kakistocracy SYLLABICATION: kak·is·toc·ra·cy PRONUNCIATION:kk-stkr-s, käk- NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. kak·is·toc·ra·cies Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. ETYMOLOGY: Greek kakistos, worst, superlative of kakos, bad; see caco– + –cracy.
Re: [PEN-L] The Post Keynesians really are losing the battle ...
Autoplectic wrote: kakistocracy Then 'murikakistocracy to bring in the superpatriot angle and the pseudo-cognate. Then there's mereritocracy, which might be mistaken for a typo but isn't. Put 'em together and get 'mererikakistocracy: rule by the worst jingoist whores. The Sandwichman __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
[PEN-L] US bourgeosie uncertain whether rise of China will result in accomodation or confrontation
An article in today's Wall Street Journal describes the uncertainty in the US ruling class about China's spectacular economic growth and prospects. The latest trigger is the $18 billion takeover bid for Unocal by the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC). The issue is whether China should be viewed as a looming threat to US global hegemony, or as a vast new market and low-cost supplier of essential goods and services which will offer historic new opportunities for the expansion of US capitalism. (The answer, which the article neglects, is both, and explains the ongoing contradictory nature of Sino-US relations and the splits this has engendered within the American bourgeoisie.) CNOOC's offer to Unocal has stoked predictable anxiety within Congress and the defence and security establishment. But the Chinese oil company, headed by Southern Cal engineering grad Fu Chengyu, also has some powerful allies on its side, previously reported in the Journal. It's engaged an array of top American banking and lobbying firms, notably lead bankers J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, the law firm Akin Gump, and the lobbyist Public Strategies - the latter two companies based in Texas with close ties to the Bush administration. There is also widespread business concern, especially within the finance and technology sectors, that rejection by the US government of a successful CNOOC bid will impede American corporate efforts to penetrate the Chinese market. And there are foreign policy concerns that a rebuff would dissuade the Chinese from pressuring the North Koreans on the US's behalf. As the article notes, the optimists like to cite Britain's accomodation to rising American power at the turn of the last century as the template which will govern future Chinese-US relations. But others point to the the rise of Germany and Japan, and the threat they represented to the British Empire and American overseas ambitions, as a more accurate foreshadowing of the conflict which lies ahead. MG --- Is China's Rapid Economic Development Good for U.S.? By GREG IP and NEIL KING JR. Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL June 27, 2005; Page B1 Chinese oil company Cnooc Ltd.'s takeover bid for Unocal Corp. has brought into sharp relief two opposing American views on China's rapid economic development. Many in Congress and the Pentagon think it may hasten an inevitable clash between the U.S. and China for economic and political leadership in the world. Many businessmen and academics, however, think China's growing wealth and international economic ties will make it more democratic and a force for global stability. Both have history on their side. Brad DeLong, an economic historian at the University of California at Berkeley, sees a useful parallel in Britain's policy toward the emerging industrial colossus of the United States in the 19th century. As late as the 1840s, he notes, the U.S. and Britain -- then the world's sole superpower -- came close to war over territorial disputes in the Pacific Northwest and the lucrative fur trade there. But in subsequent decades Britain chose to accommodate, rather than suppress, the U.S. By 1900, the notion of conflict was widely regarded as silly, simply because the trade and economic connections were so tight and the political systems so compatible, Mr. DeLong said. Similarly, he argues the world will be safer if the Chinese in time see the U.S. as having aided, rather than hampered, their economic development. History, though, also offers counterexamples. Germany was catching up to Britain at the same time as was the U.S. but that relationship ended in war. Similarly, Japan was more open to imports and foreign investment before World War II than after, yet its rapid industrialization, especially later under a nationalist military government, ultimately made it a more formidable adversary of the U.S. There is no deterministic relation between economic advance and war or peace, said Charles Maier, a Harvard University historian. Katherine Barbieri, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina, has found that countries that trade more with each other are actually more likely to fight, in part because deeper relationships generate more things to fight about. Trade generates wealth but...certain countries may take that wealth and direct it to military purposes, she said. We're giving China the power to build a very strong military. China isn't easy to categorize. It has pursued market-based economic liberalization, foreign trade and foreign investment to lift its mostly poor, rural population out of poverty. It has a growing business elite, many with U.S. educations. Yet it remains a one-party state with a host of strategic friction points with the U.S. Since President Nixon led the U.S. opening to China in the early 1970s, every administration has wavered between seeing Beijing as clear friend or potential foe. Some Asia specialists
[PEN-L] Unocal's appeal
Unocal Becomes a Hot Property What Makes a Small Player Attractive to Industry Giants? It's Where the Oil and Gas Are By THADDEUS HERRICK Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL June 27, 2005; Page A6 Unocal Corp. accounts for less than 1% of the world's oil production, but its potential for growth -- in a climate in which oil is near $60 a barrel -- has made it one of the industry's hottest companies. With the company a target of a bidding war between Chevron Corp. and China's state-owned Cnooc Ltd., Unocal's value is widely seen in its discovered but undeveloped oil and natural-gas fields. Those fields are estimated to hold about 1.5 billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent. The U.S. oil company's booked reserves -- totaling 1.7 billion barrels equivalent, of which natural gas comprises roughly 60% -- are coveted as well, especially as the industry's bigger companies lament a dearth of new exploration and production plays. More than half of Unocal's proved reserves are concentrated in Southeast Asia, making the company even more attractive to Cnooc and Chevron, long a major player in the region. In addition to reserves in Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar, Unocal owns reserves in the U.S. and Canada totaling 556 million barrels of oil equivalent, most of it in the Gulf of Mexico. Unocal happens to have an interesting portfolio, says Fadel Gheit, an analyst with Fahnestock and Co. These are the sweet spots where people want to be. It wasn't until Cnooc made an unsolicited $18.5 billion cash bid last week for Unocal in an effort to break up its pending $16.5 billion acquisition by Chevron that Unocal took the spotlight. Unocal, El Segundo, California, hasn't always been so coveted. Earlier this year, some of its largest institutional shareholders were selling. Mutual-fund investment manager Capital Research Management Co., whose holding of 21.4 million Unocal shares as of March 31 was the second largest, dumped 4.4 million shares in the first quarter. The company declined to comment. In all, six of the top 10 Unocal shareholders reduced their holdings during the first quarter. Now Unocal, which has about 6,800 employees world-wide, may end up the biggest oil acquisition since a spate of big mergers a few years ago created the likes of Exxon Mobil Corp. and the present-day Chevron Corp. Last year, Unocal had earnings of $1.2 billion on revenue of $8.2 billion. Unocal's oil in the ground isn't its only appeal. The company is unencumbered by refining and marketing, making an acquisition easier: The process is less likely to run afoul of antitrust concerns regarding control of local gasoline markets. Refining and marketing, though lucrative this year, for many years offered low returns on investment. Long known for its 76 brand gasoline, Unocal has since 1997 focused exclusively on finding oil; the 76 brand now belongs to ConocoPhillips. The fact that Unocal is a pure asset play makes it easier to digest than an integrated company with complex refineries and chemical plants to operate. This factor is an important consideration for the Chinese, who have never acquired a company remotely this large. Cnooc already has tried to assuage potential anti-China sentiment in the U.S. by pledging that any oil or gas produced in the U.S. by Unocal will be sold there. The sudden popularity of a company that has largely flown below the radar screen underscores the scarcity of options for the industry's major players. Most of the world's biggest oil fields are already believed to have been discovered, and many of those are in oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia that are off limits to public companies. If you want to increase your reserves, you have to buy a company, says Adam Sieminksi, an analyst for Deutsche Bank. Still, a series of acquisitions isn't likely to follow the fight for Unocal. Analysts and industry experts say only a handful of companies can be considered takeover candidates, most of them smaller exploration and production concerns much like Unocal, though with less potential for growth. Among those mentioned: Apache Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. Unocal's gas and oil fields in Southeast Asia complement the offshore Chinese, Indonesian and Australian holdings of Cnooc. Unocal also owns a 10% stake in a large Azerbaijan field and pipeline operated by British oil company BP PLC, which is to move oil to the Mediterranean. A successful Cnooc bid would give the company oil to sell in the Atlantic market. Unocal is led by a geologist, somewhat unusual for an industry that tends to tap executives from finance or engineering. A Unocal employee since 1977, Chief Executive Charles R. Williamson was appointed in 2001, after serving as vice president for international operations. Until recently, the company may have been best known for its ties to Myanmar. Several years ago, a U.S. federal judge found that Unocal among other companies that joined in a partnership with
[PEN-L] Center for Popular Economics - Summer Institute
Dear Friends, Please circulate as widely as possible. Also note that scholarships are still available. Thanks, Emily Kawano The Center for Popular Economics invites you to our 26th Annual Summer Institute With a Special track on: Health and Economic Justice July 31-August 6, 2005 Amherst College, Amherst, MA Speakers workshop presenters: Heidi Behforouz, Partners in Health PACT; John Abramson, author of Overdosed Americans; Jim Westrich, health economist; Dickson Despommier, Columbia University, Environment Health Sciences; Jose deMarco, ACT-UP, Philadelphia; Mark Dudzic, national organizer for the Labor Party formerly with OCAW;Sarah Kemble, Physicians for a National Health Program;and more! The Summer Institutes: CPEs Summer Institute is a week-long intensive training in economics for activists, educators, and anyone who wants a better understanding of economics. We focus on the how the economic system impacts our lives, communities and work every day. Although activists from all over the world attend the Summer Institutes, classes and workshops are taught in English. No background in economics is required. Who attends the Summer Institute? CPEs Summer Institute draws a diverse group of participants from across the U.S. and around the world, with interests and expertise in a broad array of issues and organizing methods. On average, one-third of our participants are people of color, two-thirds are women, one-fifth are from countries other than the U.S., and ages range from 18-75. Together they form a lively community in which participants learn as much from the rich interaction with one another as from Institute programs. Core classes: At the heart of the Summer Institute program are two core courses, one on the U.S. Economy, one on the International Economy. All participants must choose one core course. The core classes meet each day in the mornings. Afternoon and evening events: In addition to the core courses is a rich selection of speakers, workshops, videos, and discussion groups. Some of these are led by CPE or outside facilitators, some are participant-led, some are spontaneously generated. In the evenings there are panels, speakers, and cultural events. All of these events are open to participants of both classes. Special Track: Each year we choose an issue area that we focus on in the workshops, panels as well as in the core classrooms. This years special track is on Health and Economic Justice. We will explore the relationships between health, poverty, race, and gender from a national and international perspective. Fees: The fee for tuition and meals is $750 and the fee for lodging in dormitory facilities at Amherst College is $150. If you feel that you cannot afford these fees, we strongly encourage you to apply for a scholarship. In past years around 80% of participants received scholarship assistance. Scholarships: Our scholarships are based both on financial need and on the applicants commitment to activism. We are committed to making our programs financially accessible. Scholarships are still available, but arelimited so please apply asap. Housing: Residential participants pay an extra $150 for 6 nights lodging from Sunday through Friday night. (An extra nights lodging is available for Saturday, July 30 for $35 to assist participants taking advantage of less expensive airline tickets.) Participants receive single rooms in Amherst College dorms unless they request a shared room (sorry, no double beds available). Bathrooms are shared, with separate facilities for men and women. The dorms are not air conditioned but fans will be available. Meals: A fee for meals is included in the tuition. They are served in the Amherst College Dining Commons and there is a wide selection of hot and cold meals including vegetarian and vegan options. Meals are provided from Sunday dinner through Saturday Breakfast. Children: We provide free childcare during all Institute programs. We charge nominal fees for childrens meals and housing. Fees for room and board for children can be found on the registration form. Late fees: There is an automatic $35 late fee for registration forms mailed after June 30, 2005. Scholarship requests sent after June 15 are discouraged but will be given consideration based on the remaining availability of funds. Location and Facilities: The 2005 Summer Institute will be held at Amherst College located in the beautiful Pioneer valley in Western Mass. Downtown Amherst, with its wide selection of restaurants, cafes, bookstores and shops, is in easy walking distance. There are hiking and biking trails nearby. All facilities are handicap accessible. Academic credit: Academic credit is available through the UMass-Amherst Continuing education Department. For more information email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call us at (413) 545-0743. Summer
Re: [PEN-L] The Post Keynesians really are losing the battle ...
Autoplectic wrote: On 6/27/05, Gil Skillman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What is the opposite of meritocracy? How about mediocracy? kakistocracy hey, who better to run a 'banana republic' than a khaki-stocracy ;-) --ravi
[PEN-L] new frontiers in litigation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1516246,00.html Californian 'earned $2.4m by joining Wall St lawsuits' David Teather in New York Tuesday June 28, 2005 Guardian For three decades the New York law firm of Milberg Weiss Bershad Schulman has been filing shareholder lawsuits against such internationally known companies as Walt Disney and Shell. Now it is being forced to defend itself from allegations that it paid kickbacks to at least one investor to join its class action suits. A three-year federal investigation has ended at the doorstep of arguably the most aggressive Wall Street law firm in the United States. A Californian man has been charged with taking at least $2.4m (£1.3m) in illegal payments to act as a plaintiff in dozens of corporate class-action lawsuits filed by the firm. The defendant, Seymour Lazar, 78, a former entertainment lawyer, has been charged with fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. The indictment, filed at the end of last week, names only a New York law firm as the source of the alleged kickbacks. But Milberg Weiss filed the suits in question and the firm has confirmed that it was subpoenaed. The firm and everyone involved intends to vigorously defend this case, said a spokeswoman. According to its own website, Milberg Weiss has recovered $30bn for investors, consumers and workers against corporations including Apple Computer, Intel, Cisco, Enron, Halliburton and Tyco. The firm has become a thorn in the side of corporate America and been cited in Washington as an example of abuse of the legal system and the need to curb class action suits. In a statement, the firm said that although the indictment against Mr Lazar did not name the firm it unfairly implicates the firm in the wrongdoing alleged against Lazar. We are outraged that these allegations have been made against the firm and reject them as baseless, it said. Mr Lazar appeared in suits against companies including United Airlines, Hertz Rent-a-Car and Genentech. The indictment claims he was illegally offered a share in the legal fees from the cases. Further changes to the law in 1995 limited plaintiffs to no more than five class actions in three years. Mr Lazar's lawyer, Thomas Biernert, called the government prosecution misguided. He told the Wall Street Journal that it was a a heavy handed attempt to pressure him into acting as a witness in the broader investigation into Milberg Weiss.
[PEN-L] the Jesuits of Capitalism
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=649959 The real power behind No 10 McKinsey is a highly secretive consultancy firm - and Tony Blair is more likely to listen to its advisers than to his own ministers. Katherine Griffiths investigates the 'Jesuits of capitalism' 27 June 2005 They are the modern buccaneers of the business world. They jet between cities, rack up huge expenses, and charge up to £6,000 a day to think the unthinkable for clients including big corporations and governments. They are the star consultants of McKinsey, the élite global management consultancy. Their backgrounds are diverse - former SAS commandos, business people, aid workers - but they are drawn together by the distinct McKinsey culture. Known as the Firm or the McKinsey Mafia, they are radical, zealous - and above all secretive. But now, it seems, McKinsey is becoming the problem rather than the solution. After almost 80 years as the most prestigious name in the management consultancy world, these Jesuits of capitalismare under attack. McKinsey stands accused of cronyism, greed and arrogance, as a result of associated scandals that stretch from the offices of Enron in Houston, Texas, to the corridors of 10 Downing Street. The firm, founded in 1926 by James Mac McKinsey, a professor of accounting at Chicago University, has grown to 83 offices around the world. It has counted former US President Dwight D Eisenhower and the Bank of England among its clients. Alumni have gone on to run famous companies, such as Louis Gerstner, who departed in the Seventies for American Express and later became chief executive of the food giant RJR Nabisco, and then IBM. Others, such as its director Kenichi Ohmae, helped to define thinking on globalisation in the 1980s. Stephen Green, chief executive of Britain's biggest bank, HSBC, trained at McKinsey. However, among the successes, there have been some notable failures for the firm. In recent years, a string of McKinsey accounts have become public-relations disasters, attracting a great deal of unwanted attention, including Swissair, America's discount retailer Kmart, and the telecoms group Global Crossing. The firm also advised the computer maker Hewlett-Packard on its acquisition of rival Compaq in 2002. More significantly, the firm has an uncomfortably close history with Enron. The Texas-based energy giant was transformed from a plodding company into a highly leveraged energy-trading powerhouse by Jeffrey Skilling, a rising star at McKinsey who joined the company in 1990 and seconded several other McKinsey graduates to help implement his radical ideas. While there is no suggestion that McKinsey was complicit in the subsequent scandal, critics say the arrogance of Enron's leaders is emblematic of the McKinsey culture. McKinseyites are notorious for enjoying bravado-fuelled pastimes and a hothouse work culture often compared to that of a conservative law firm. David Craig, a former consultant, wrote a book called Rip-Off! The Scandalous Inside Story of the Management Consulting Money Machine. He said consultants have been known to celebrate deals at parties with this song: McKinsey management consultants are we/ We take all our clients' money/ We can earn many a million/ Because our clients have no vision. Craig, who is not using his real name, says McKinsey people are not above subscribing to the popular management consultancy acronym AFAB - Anything For A Buck. They are a colossus. They are utterly and totally dominant, and they are light years ahead of everyone else. They also have a network of alumni in powerful jobs around the world. Nowhere are McKinsey's connections more notable than at the heart of the British Government. Focus groups, think tanks and consultants have never been far from Tony Blair's leadership. Yet the extent to which Downing Street relies on McKinsey has only recently been made clear - with the help of the Freedom of Information Act. McKinsey shares a long and fruitful relationship with UK governments. William Hague worked there as his first job, and John Major recruited Norman - now Lord - Blackwell from the firm to lead his policy unit. But the degree to which McKinsey alumni have ended up among Blair's most favoured advisers is unprecedented. Earlier this month, David Bennett, a former McKinsey partner, was appointed as the new head of Downing Street's policy directorate. He joins Adair Turner, another McKinsey insider, who was asked by the Government to formulate sweeping changes to Britain's pension system. Also at the Prime Minister's side in 2001 and 2002 was Nick Lovegrove, a director at McKinsey, who acted as an unpaid adviser to Blair. Matthew Elson, another former McKinsey consultant, was brought in to Downing Street in 2002. Most controversial of all was the appointment of Lord Birt of Liverpool, a former director general of the BBC and a close friend of Blair, who has been ushered into No 10 to do blue skies thinking on
