Fwd: [pga] Divisions and missed opportunities in Bombay

Forwarded from: "Oliver de Marcellus" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ++ Divisions and missed opportunities in Bombay I generally see the positive side of things, but if we are to advance, it is also necessary to recognise errors. Whatever its positive aspects (which other reports have amply develo

new chairs at WTO

Press/371 11 February 2004 GENERAL COUNCIL WTO chairpersons for 2004 The WTO General Council today (11 February) noted the consensus on the following slate of names of chairpersons for WTO bodies: Chairpersons of WTO Bodies - 2004 General Council Amb. Shotaro OSHIMA (Japan) Dispute Settlement

is AG blowing a China bubble

Is Alan Greenspan Behind China's Bubble Too?: William Pesek Jr. Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Globalization is globalizing the Federal Reserve. It has 12 districts and acts based on U.S. events, but its influence has never been greater. It isn't far-fetched to think of Latin America as the 13th district

pensions redux; Britain

Pensions insurance attacked Scrupulous companies to foot bill for negligent rivals Rupert Jones and Phillip Inman Thursday February 12, 2004 The Guardian The government is today likely to face the wrath of employers' groups, trade unions and opposition politicians over its measure aimed at prote

Re: The Indonesia story

Thanks Eugene, amazing stuff.   The story is also on the San Francisco Chronicle website, for those of us who don't have subs and are unable to buy the WSJ at the local newsagent:   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/11/financial1013EST0050.DTL     - Orig

US infant mortality increasing ?

Daniel Yee (Associated Press) writer drew my attention to the fact that, although U.S. life expectancy reached an all-time high of 77.4 years in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the American infant mortality rate (chance of dying between birth and exactly one year of age e

The Indonesia story

I probably should say something about the WSJ story I touted this morning. Edison Mission Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of what is now Edison International, the giant southern California utility, along with GE and others, won the right to build a coal plant at Paiton in Indonesia. Perhaps

Re: Airline deregulation

David B. Shemano wrote: Abstractly, why does this bother you? Why do you want people to get in an airplane to go 90 miles? Well, energy wise, which is more costly -- 100 people in an airplane or 100 people in 100 cars? Of course, there's trains too. Now, there's an idea! Joanna

Re: The economy - a new era?

Jim Stanford in his book "Paper Boom" discusses this issue at great length including a lot of empirical data demonstrating the superior economic and 'political' position of large firms vs small business. Small business tends to gravitate to a demagogic, right-wing populist position, often tinged w

Re: Michael Moore

Carrol Cox wrote: Michael Hoover wrote: dem power brokers would prefer losing with kerry to winning with dean... They have always preferred to lose with [whoever] rather than win with anyone who might conceivably (even unintentionally) give encouragement to anythink like a social movement. Dean

Better Lose With Kerry Than Win With Dean?

dem power > brokers would prefer losing with kerry to winning > with dean... > I find the claim doubtful. I would like to hear your reasons for holding it. This is the way I see things, please feel free to tell me where I go wrong. Dean was not a threat to the system, nor was the little bit of b

More Gini coefficients

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~gepstein/econ797/Syllabus%20and%20Readings/Re adings/sutcliffe.inequality.1.0702.doc

Re: Airline deregulation

So that I can take another flight from San Franciso, which is 160 miles by car. On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 10:46:17AM -0800, David B. Shemano wrote: > Michael Perelman writes: > > >> With the hub and spoke system, prices in some places -- Chico -- have soared. It > >> cost more to fly 90 miles to sa

Silence in Michigan about McPherson's energy connections

PEN-Ls, This is a Presidential issue (both Bush and MSU). Peter McPherson (Prez. of Michigan State University) is the chair of the powerful external Department of Energy advisory committee. Yet he has thusfar not been pressured by Michigan citizens, nor the Michigan media to publicly call on Vice

Re: The economy - a new era?

Jim Stanford in his book "Paper Boom" discusses this issue at great length including a lot of empirical data demonstrating the superior economic and 'political' position of large firms vs small business. Small business tends to gravitate to a demagogic, right-wing populist position, often tinged w

Re: The economy - a new era?

Marvin Gandall wrote: This is true, but I think the classical socialist movement favoured concentration for mostly economic rather than political reasons -- ie., like bourgeois economics, Marxists and social democrats saw concentration as "historically progressive" because it yielded economies of

Re: Michael Moore

Michael Hoover wrote: > > dem power > brokers would prefer losing with kerry to winning with dean... > They have always preferred to lose with [whoever] rather than win with anyone who might conceivably (even unintentionally) give encouragement to anythink like a social movement. Dean was quite tr

Re: Michael Moore

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02/11/04 02:23PM >>> February 11, 2004 Farewell, Clark: "Dude, Where's My Candidate?" By ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR Clark's mission was to stop the meteoric surge of Howard Dean Clark's function was to merely stop Dean, thus preserving their power within the Demo

Re: Michael Moore

Whichever candidate will best serve the marketing needs of his next film? (Some of which, I hear, will be animated in China.) Dan Scanlan February 11, 2004 Campaign Diary Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways Farewell, Clark: "Dude, Where's My Candidate?" By ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAI

Re: Michael Moore

Now that Gen. Clark's no longer running, who will Michael Moore endorse, knocking him out of the race? ;-) Whichever candidate will best serve the marketing needs of his next film? (Some of which, I hear, will be animated in China.) Dan Scanlan

True bravery

http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040207/DESERTER07/TPComment/TopStories The soldier who refuses to fight Jeremy Hinzman tells MICHAEL VALPY that he enlisted to get an education, not to kill people. But his superiors wouldn't listen and ordered him to pack for Iraq. I

Re: The economy - a new era?

This is true, but I think the classical socialist movement favoured concentration for mostly economic rather than political reasons -- ie., like bourgeois economics, Marxists and social democrats saw concentration as "historically progressive" because it yielded economies of scale, and large-scale

Re: Airline deregulation

Michael Perelman writes: >> With the hub and spoke system, prices in some places -- Chico -- have soared. It >> cost more to fly 90 miles to san francisco than from SF to New York. Abstractly, why does this bother you? Why do you want people to get in an airplane to go 90 miles? David Shemano

Re: The economy - a new era?

I started this thread but Doug Henwood's initial response turned it into the question of whether high concentration or its opposite should be preferred.     That's like asking if you prefer weightlessness or gravity.  What difference does it make what you prefer if you live under the force of

speaking of Larry Summers

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=357308

The war of words in Iraq: a cognitive limit of imperialism

In Iraq, "...some of the hired interpreters are betraying soldiers hunting for guerrilla fighters and the caches of arms they're using to attack American soldiers... "We heard about dozens of cases where the infantry would find out where stuff was, brief the interpreter, but the interpreter would

Re: The economy - a new era?

As in the corporatist model, it also makes cross-sector negotiations more likely--one omnibus business group negotiating with an umbrella labor organization. If, Doug has pointed out, larger businesses have bigger markets and are better able to pass on their costs to consumers, then cross-sector ne

Re: The economy - a new era?

Lenin applauded large factories for just that reason. On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 09:44:13AM -0800, joanna bujes wrote: > The other reason is that more concentration make it easier to organize > labor...they're all in one or a few places. I remember reading somewhere > famous that the mammoth factori

Re: The economy - a new era?

The other reason is that more concentration make it easier to organize labor...they're all in one or a few places. I remember reading somewhere famous that the mammoth factories of early 20th century Russia made it easier to organize the workers. Today, I guess it would make strikes more effective.

Re: The economy - a new era?

I know only of some older studies on the relationship between income distribution and concentration. I believe that they only looked at manufacturing concentration at the time and left out many of the other variables that were important because concentration itself was a response to the business c

America's benefactors

Asian financing of the US economy to keep it afloat as its largest export market is “the biggest aid programme of all time”, and Europe is paying the price, writes Martin Wolf in today’s Financial Times. As is been widely known, Asian central banks – notably in Japan, China, and Taiwan – have been

Buy today's Wall St. Journal

[apologies for length, but some list members might not have access to the article...] U.S. tilt to business stirs backlash in Indonesia PETER WALDMAN, The Wall Street Journal Wednesday, February 11, 2004 http://www.sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/02/11/financial1013EST0050.DTL

Re: The economy - a new era?

Julio Huato wrote: Why would concentration be more propitious for progressive politics? I can think of several reasons. Less competition means less pressure on wages (though this would be partly offset by higher prices in noncompetitive markets). Large firms are easier to organize, regulate, and s

Re: The economy - a new era?

SInce I am against private enterprise I would opt for allowing only publicly onwed non-profit airlines. One of the problems with deregulation together with privately owned airlines is that the most profitable routes are well served but other areas are served poorly or not at all.. Competition drive

Re: The economy - a new era?

Michael Perelman wrote: In short, we don't have good answers -- only opinions -- on the question of industrial concentration. Surely it'd be possible to correlate Herfindahls & Ginis, no? Hasn't someone done this? Doug

Re: The economy - a new era?

The relationship between large corporations and the distribution of income is not predetermined. Generally, small employers pay much lower salaries than large employers. Wal-Mart is the exception, but may represent a future trend. Large corporations may be easier to orgahe technological laziness

Iraqi bank to prepare for privatisation

MENAFN - 10/02/2004 (MENAFN) Iraq's state-own Rafidain Bank, the largest in the country, plans to lay off a third of its staff and restructure its debt-burdened balance sheet in preparation for privatization; the bank's chairman was quoted by Reuters as saying. The ex

FW: ATKINS DIET SHOCKER

humor from Andy Borowitz: SADDAM PLANNED TO DESTROY U.S. WITH ATKINS DIET Plotted âAxis of Obesity,â Says Bush Saddam Hussein planned to destroy America by luring every man, woman and child onto the Atkins Diet, President Bush revealed today. U.S. forces searching Saddamâs hideout in Tikrit u

Buy today's Wall St. Journal

Today's Wall Street Journal, Page 1. A story that should get the Pulitzer Prize. "Washington's Tilt to Business Stirs a Backlash in Indonesia." I have closely followed the Paiton power plant deal for years. The corruption in US corporations and at the highest levels of the US government is revea

Dow Chemical's Knowledge Factories

Hi socialist economists, Who said, "Growth is the opate we're all hooked on?" To find out, and to learn about a phenomenon that would have Thorstein Veblen turning in his grave, see my just released article on Michigan's Dow Chemical. . . http://www.ecocenter.org/200401/dowuniversity200401.shtml

Re: The economy - a new era?

Michael Perelman wrote: That was the big fight during the New Deal. One wing of the Democratic Party called for trust busting; the other, for organizing the potential of larger economic formations. Both sides have anti-progressive consequences. Of course they do, without "progressive" interventio