Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-29 Thread Brad DeLong
the pause in the narrowing of the gender gap... This I do not understand at all... Brad DeLong

Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-29 Thread Doug Henwood
Brad DeLong wrote: the pause in the narrowing of the gender gap... This I do not understand at all... Theories, none proven as far as I know: 1) welfare reform; 2) growth in IT jobs, in which women are underrepresented; 3) male employment is more procyclical than female; 4) weakening of

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Jim Devine
At 07:18 PM 9/27/00 -0700, you wrote: Jim, how important is the exchange rate for imports? I suspect that it is a major influence on exports since U.S. goods compete directly with those from other similar countries. We have our largest trade imbalance with China. Chinese wages are so low

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Michael Perelman wrote: Someone recently posted an article from the Wall Street Journal, I believe, to the effect that if unemployment has declined so little over such a long expansion, it would be sure to skyrocket with an economic slowdown. I think the argument was about productivity, not

Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug, Quoth you: The overall poverty rate has taken a sharp drop, and the black poverty rate is the lowest ever. Yeah, I can make a list of all the things that are wrong - from incarceration madness to an obscene wealth distribution - but this is just a bit too gloomy even for me.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Michael Perelman
I was writing in response to what Gene Coyle mentioned: the anemic rate of growth. I was merely suggesting that if the fall in unemployment has been so modest -- in terms of rate of change rather than the absolute value -- over such a long expansion, than a sharp downward turn could create

Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Rob Schaap wrote: Yeah, Doug, but is it appropriate to discuss unemployment and poverty in such parochial terms? Yes I know all this. I write about it a lot even. What stuns me, though, is the apparent inability of left economists to acknowledge that some half-decent things have happened to

Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Michael Perelman
Doug, as one of the dour lefties on the list, I would mostly agree with you but still ... Couldn't we just as well ask how an 8 year expansion could have done so little Your note about the improbability of the expansion with the growing surplus is worthy of note, but I think we have some

Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Peter Dorman
Doug, here are my questions: 1. Isn't this an "exhilirationist" expansion, marked by very high rates of gross capital formation? 2. As such, doesn't it depend on and reproduce greater income inequality? (Depend on, because capital goods must be purchased; reproduce because of the rapid run-up

Re: Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Michael Perelman wrote: Also, the more secure job part still seems suspect. Do you have much to go on beside the Stephanie Schmit (sp?) paper? Do you have a URL for the paper? It wasn't on the Milken Institute website. But her point was that perceptions of the general risk of job loss were

Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Rob Schaap
Hi again, Doug, Yes I know all this. I write about it a lot even. That's where I get half of it. Just reminding you, is all. Ordered your new book, too. At current cross-rates, they should be able to complete the payments out of my estate ... What stuns me, though, is the apparent

Re: Re: Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Michael Perelman
The 10 year data can be interepreted in another way. Let me use the same example I used earlier. Every member of our department with tenure or tenure track has been here more than 10 years. Few new jobs are opening up, so the old hang on. A larger percentage of our courses are taught by part

Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Louis Proyect
Rob Schaap: I wouldn't begin to know how to save anyone. Jusy having a good look around me, is all. Stuff's happening that's never happened before. What else is different? The mode of imperialism, I'd say is one. IT, and the booster-nonsense surrounding it, is another. America is completely

RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Forstater, Mathew
r 28, 2000 11:21 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:2435] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs Michael Perelman wrote: Someone recently posted an article from the Wall Street Journal, I believe, to the effect that if unemployment has declined so little over such a long expansion, it wou

Re: Re: Re: Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Michael Perelman wrote: The 10 year data can be interepreted in another way. Let me use the same example I used earlier. Every member of our department with tenure or tenure track has been here more than 10 years. Few new jobs are opening up, so the old hang on. A larger percentage of our

Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Forstater, Mathew wrote: But I do think you have to consider this: the African American overall unemployment rate is still at a rate that would be considered a recession if it held for the overall economy. That means that in the "best of times" the best that African Americans can expect is

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Louis Proyect wrote: The US economy expanded under Reagan's Rooseveltian deficit spending, while it expanded just as impressively under Clinton's Hooverite economics. What is the constant? Keeping the rest of the world under the heel of American corporations. Real wages fell under Reagan;

Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Louis Proyect
Real wages fell under Reagan; they've risen in the last 5 years. The black poverty rate barely budged in the 1980s; it's fallen sharply in the 1990s. Despite the constancy of the underheel. But I guess the U.S. working class doesn't matter, because they're the bought-off dupes of imperialism.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Michael Perelman
I don't see the inconsistency. Massive waves of downsizing eliminated lots of good jobs (instability). Later, those that could clung to their good jobs. The second stage may not represent instability, but it does not reflect any progress either. Doug Henwood wrote: Michael Perelman wrote:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Michael Perelman wrote: I don't see the inconsistency. Massive waves of downsizing eliminated lots of good jobs (instability). Later, those that could clung to their good jobs. The second stage may not represent instability, but it does not reflect any progress either. The glass is always

Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Louis Proyect wrote: Doug seems to care little about what exists beyond the island, "The island" is the place you I most PEN-Lers live. It's the dominant power in the world. I sometimes think that obsession with life off the island is a rationalization for disengagement from what goes on

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Jim Devine
At 12:20 PM 9/28/00 -0400, you wrote: I think the argument was about productivity, not unemployment. But still - what are you talking about? The U.S. unemployment rate is the lowest since January 1970, and the employment/pop ratio just a bit off being the highest in history. of course, a

RE: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Forstater, Mathew
certain kind of fed-upedness that should come with that. Mat -Original Message- From: Doug Henwood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 2:10 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:2452] Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs Forstater, Mathew wrote: But

Re: Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Louis Proyect
Doug: "The island" is the place you I most PEN-Lers live. It's the dominant power in the world. I sometimes think that obsession with life off the island is a rationalization for disengagement from what goes on on it. The US is important. My only point is that it has no lessons to offer the

Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Joanna Sheldon
Schaapster, That's where I get half of it. Just reminding you, is all. Ordered your new book, too. At current cross-rates, they should be able to complete the payments out of my estate ... You should check to make sure the size of your Sutton holdings haven't been figured into the amount you

Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Doug Henwood
Forstater, Mathew wrote: This is "as good as it gets." There is a certain kind of fed-upedness that should come with that. Yup. Which is one of the reasons I keep saying that "good times" may be better for left politics than bad times. Doug

Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Carrol Cox
Doug Henwood wrote: Forstater, Mathew wrote: This is "as good as it gets." There is a certain kind of fed-upedness that should come with that. Yup. Which is one of the reasons I keep saying that "good times" may be better for left politics than bad times. That's my assumption too --

Re: warning signs

2000-09-28 Thread Michael Perelman
Jim, the exchange rate certainly helps to hold inflation in check, but I am not sure how much it encourages imports. Are we on the same page? Jim Devine wrote: At 07:18 PM 9/27/00 -0700, you wrote: Jim, how important is the exchange rate for imports? I suspect that it is a major influence

Re: RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-27 Thread Charles Brown
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/26/00 12:01PM A question for our more excitable contributors: is an ordinary business cycle recession a "crisis"? CB: I forgot to ask, "crisis for whom ?

re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Eugene Coyle
This thread has drifted away a bit from the signs to the portent. Some signs: today's paper says that 13 major cities are in danger of overbuilding commercial real estate. today's paper says that for PGE and So. Calif. Edison, two of the largest corporations in the world, the deficits from

Re: re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Doug Henwood
I find this a little odd. The U.S. economy has its longest expansion ever, with many strange features that scream out for analysis (how'd it happen along with a fiscal tightening - shouldn't Keynesians be talking about this?; the alleged productivity boom, which accelerated late in the cycle;

re warning signs: Cannibalist based expansion

2000-09-27 Thread Charles Brown
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/27/00 02:24PM I find this a little odd. The U.S. economy has its longest expansion ever, with many strange features that scream out for analysis (how'd it happen along with a fiscal tightening - shouldn't Keynesians be talking about this?; the alleged productivity

Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Michael Perelman
I think that Doug's questions are excellent. The coexistence of low unemployment and low inflation seems to have its roots in the control of the labor force through access to cheap labor abroad and cheap imports. I'm not sure about the extent of the productivity boom, but it may play a role.

Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Jim Devine
Michael P. wrote: I think that Doug's questions are excellent. The coexistence of low unemployment and low inflation seems to have its roots in the control of the labor force through access to cheap labor abroad and cheap imports. I'm not sure about the extent of the productivity boom, but

Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Eugene Coyle
I'm going to risk an idea on Doug's questions, with all humility. I think the pathetically slow pace of the recovery in the early '90s played a role. It seemed pretty clear that the economy had turned up, yet it wasn't growing much and wasn't doing anything for unemployment. At the same

Re: re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Lisa Ian Murray
[apropos, Thurow on the stock market; full article @ http://www.crn.com/sections/news/top_news.asp?RSID=CRNArticleID=20154#RESTO FSTORY CRN_ The tech sector is only 8 percent of GNP but plays a much larger role in the stock market. How much of a danger is that to the economy, especially if

Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Michael Perelman
Someone recently posted an article from the Wall Street Journal, I believe, to the effect that if unemployment has declined so little over such a long expansion, it would be sure to skyrocket with an economic slowdown. Eugene Coyle wrote: I'm going to risk an idea on Doug's questions, with all

Re: Re: Re: Re: re warning signs

2000-09-27 Thread Michael Perelman
Jim, how important is the exchange rate for imports? I suspect that it is a major influence on exports since U.S. goods compete directly with those from other similar countries. We have our largest trade imbalance with China. Chinese wages are so low that an increase in the relative costs would

Re: RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-26 Thread Doug Henwood
Max Sawicky wrote: I do have doubts as to the inevitability of crisis, but I don't believe we have reached "permanent prosperity, . . . " The latter is a separate matter. Everyday life might be in crisis, but crisis as a danger to the economic system is a whole different story. I think the

RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-26 Thread Max Sawicky
CB: So do you not feel that there will inevitably , eventurally be a danger to the economic system as a whole ? Are you saying that capitalism might be eternal, permanent, unending ? yup. mbs

Re: Re: RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-26 Thread Doug Henwood
All you fans of crisis: what's the political benefit been of Japan's decade of stagnation? Of Latin America's two decades of polarization punctuated by depression, and of Africa's two decades of depression and social crisis? The next president of Mexico is going to be a morally conservative

RE: RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-26 Thread Lisa Ian Murray
CB: So do you not feel that there will inevitably , eventually be a danger to the economic system as a whole ? Are you saying that capitalism might be eternal, permanent, unending ? yup. mbs === But Jean-Luc Piccard says that in the 24th century material gain and economic

RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-26 Thread Max Sawicky
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/26/00 12:08PM CB: So do you not feel that there will inevitably , eventurally be a danger to the economic system as a whole ? Are you saying that capitalism might be eternal, permanent, unending ? Max: yup. ( CB: An honest person ! I never lie. mbs

Re: Re: RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-26 Thread Jim Devine
A question for our more excitable contributors: is an ordinary business cycle recession a "crisis"? Not really, though "crisis theory" (a.k.a. Marxian macroeconomics, which has a heavy infusion from Keynes) helps us understand it. In a real crisis, either there'd be a major change of course

Re: RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-26 Thread Jim Devine
I never lie. mbs I, on the other hand, always lie (including this sentence). Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

Re: Warning Signs

2000-09-25 Thread Timework Web
Max Sawicky wrote: I suppose if others predict crisis every six months or so, and I never predict one, eventually they'll be right and I'll be wrong. What's the opposite of a broken clock that's right once a day? Maybe an electric clock that keeps the right time until the lights go out. I

Re: Re: Warning Signs

2000-09-25 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, MP: Am I wrong to believe that the various warning signs are starting to cluster closer and closer together? [mbs] yes. Me: Nope. Worries about energy prices. [mbs] Prices that are still low by historic standards? Seems like we're confusing consumer griping with world-historic

Re: Re: Re: Warning Signs

2000-09-25 Thread Doug Henwood
Michael Perelman wrote: I wasn't predicting, just asking. And not hoping? Doug

Re: Re: Re: Warning Signs

2000-09-25 Thread Doug Henwood
Warning signs of what? A slowdown in U.S. growth to 3%? To 0%? To -10%? Is any of it meant to be good news? Doug

Re: Warning Signs

2000-09-25 Thread Michael Perelman
A dramatic economic reversal would cause considerable hardship at home. A continuation of the "boom" will cause considerable hardship world wide along with some benefits. The longer the neo-liberalism continues, the harder it will be to reverse in the future. So, I guess that a slowdown would

RE: Warning Signs

2000-09-25 Thread Max Sawicky
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/25/00 01:18PM I suppose if others predict crisis every six months or so, and I never predict one, eventually they'll be right and I'll be wrong. What's the opposite of a broken clock that's right once a day? Maybe an electric clock that keeps the right time until the

Re: Re: Warning Signs

2000-09-24 Thread Michael Perelman
Max Sawicky strongly reprimands me MP: Am I wrong to believe that the various warning signs are starting to cluster closer and closer together? [mbs] yes. Worries about energy prices. [mbs] Prices that are still low by historic standards? Seems like we're confusing consumer