[PEN-L] At a cost, Iran is evading sanctions

The biggest unintended consequence of the sanctions, apart from the Chinese moving in to fill the void left by the forced withdrawal of Western oil firms, has been the strengthening of economic ties between Iran and the Gulf States. That's contributed to a warming of political relations and a

Re: [PEN-L] David Brooks predicts a centrist Democratic president whoever wins

Louis Proyect writes: Michael Perelman wrote: Isn't this a common pattern, that the left falls (not really wins) into office once the right model becomes exhausted, leaving the purported left to harm the masses in ways that the right is reluctant to do. I would look at it a different way.

Re: [PEN-L] [lbo-talk] I hope you all vote(d) for Obama

I don't see much to choose between Clinton or Obama. I think we all know that what's said on the stump or outlined in policy statements should be taken with a grain of salt. The differences between the two aren't substantive ones and in the end, it is the institutional constraints (Carville's

[PEN-L] New budget proposes massive war spending as economy falters

Rising Cost Of Iraq War May Reignite Public Debate By YOCHI J. DREAZEN and JOHN D. MCKINNON Wall Street Journal February 4, 2008; Page A1 WASHINGTON -- The cost of U.S. military operations in Iraq is rising rapidly, and could reignite the national debate about the war, which has taken a back

Re: [PEN-L] ...And all I got was a lousy cammo t-shirt: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Baghdad.

Has the visit been arranged by the Democratic party? Photos of Ahmadinejad in Baghdad won't play very well with the keynote Republican campaign emphasis on how the surge is working... - Original Message - From: Leigh Meyers [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Thursday,

[PEN-L] Truly fictitious capital

(From today's Barron's - Randall Forsyth, What Zimbabwe Can Teach America About Asset Values) WHERE WAS THE BEST PLACE to invest in 2007? If you had picked emerging markets a year ago, you'd have been rewarded with a 33.55% return, by Morgan Stanley Capital International Indices' reckoning. And

Re: [PEN-L] Away with Sarbanes Oxley?

Michael Perelman wrote: Whatever happened to the rabid calls for eliminating Sarbanes Oxley? Does anybody even Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, etc? After calls for strong regulation to prevent such things from happening again, we Congress gave us the weak Sarbanes Oxley. Not long after, the business

Re: [PEN-L] Gindin, Brenner and capitalist catastrophe

Patrick wrote: According to Harvey, the contradictions of capitalism were 'displaced' instead of resolved: they were moved across time and space, especially via hyperactive financial markets. Time is accounted for in the vast credit bubble, which lets you pay now, on the basis of debt, and hope

Re: [PEN-L] Gindin, Brenner and capitalist catastrophe

Patrick wrote: No comrade, the crisis is unfolding now, right now, and your fairy tale of intrinsic US financial power (shared by Sam and Leo) is taking a twist you comrades didn't expect. Has the current crisis really caught those on the left - and beyond

Re: [PEN-L] Fed IS footing bill for lenders' crisis (that is, they will make us pay for it)

Charles asks: CB: What's your position , Marvin ? What do you say should be done ? == Fair question, Charles. I don't think the banks need a bailout; I think their shareholders should bear the burden. I'm for maximum debt relief and the maintenance of mass purchasing

[PEN-L] Fw: [PEN-L] Fed IS footing bill for lenders' crisis (that is, they will make us pay for it)

Charles: CB: Detroit's been in deep recession for 30 years, so they already shot this hostage. Ok, let 'er rip. Maybe it will lead to a revolution. It's worked for Detroit, hasn't it? ^^^ CB: Who said let her rip ? As Raghu hinted, give the money to the poor instead of the rich. Don't

Re: [PEN-L] Fed IS footing bill for lenders' crisis (that is, they will make us pay for it)

Raghu: So now what? The Fed has no choice but to bail someone out. I just think it'd be much better on many different levels, if the beneficiaries are poor (sub-prime) people instead of Wall St. === I think the real debate which is taking place - as always, in

[PEN-L] Fw: [PEN-L] Coordinated Central Banks Liquidity Injections -- Too Little Too Late To Address the Fund

Jim D: what about the coordinated part of this action? isn't that aimed at preventing the US dollar from going into free-faill as the FOMC cuts interest rates? == Mostly to do, I think, with easing the pressure on LIBOR by European banks reluctant to part

Re: [PEN-L] central bank credibility v. transparency

Julio: If people in the financial markets do this, how come they get the fundamentals so wrong? Maybe their perspective is not that of the working class. Maybe they don't care about human survival, let alone building communism. Maybe they only care about profits in the short run. Their

Re: [PEN-L] central bank credibility v. transparency

Raghu writes: On Nov 9, 2007 8:17 PM, Marvin Gandall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Or it may be due to the dollar's sharp fall since the August credit crisis. Since 2002, the Fed - with the tacit agreement of the other central banks - has been trying to engineer an orderly decline in the USD

Re: [PEN-L] central bank credibility v. transparency

of growth to rescue the older ones from crisis. - Original Message - From: raghu To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2007 9:15 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] central bank credibility v. transparency On Nov 11, 2007 5:24 PM, Marvin Gandall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote

Re: [PEN-L] central bank credibility v. transparency

Raghu wrote: On Nov 9, 2007 2:32 PM, Doug Henwood [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The Fed's slowness to ease runs counter to the more apocalyptic reading of the U.S. economy's prospects. According to the atimes.com article I linked to, the Fed's slowness to ease may be related to Bernanke's

[PEN-L] Fw: [PEN-L] China's emergent capitalist class

Jim wrote: are billionaires measured in terms of yuan or dollars? If it is the latter, if the yuan goes up (and the US$ falls), the number of PRC billionaires would fall. That is, the number of billionaires may be a temporary fluke. In dollars. From the Hurun Report, to which the Times

[PEN-L] China's emergent capitalist class

Little-Known Entrepreneurs Putting China Near Top of Billionaires’ List By DAVID BARBOZA New York Times November 7, 2007 SHANGHAI, Nov. 6 — The United States has more billionaires than any other country: 415 by the last count of Forbes magazine. No. 2, and closing fast? China. A year ago,

Re: [PEN-L] Success in Iraq?

Louis posted: The Washington Post SECTION: EDITORIAL October 14, 2007 Sunday Better Numbers; The evidence of a drop in violence in Iraq is becoming hard to dispute. [...] = If the numbers, which are always suspect, do show a marked drop, it is not because the

[PEN-L] Nobel awards draw attention to ideological underpinnings of economics profession

October 20, 2007 The Prize That Even Some Laureates Question By PATRICIA COHEN New York Times Carping from time to time over the unworthiness or politics of a particular Nobel peace or literature laureate is expected. But when it comes to economics, it’s the award itself that sometimes comes

Re: [PEN-L] Fw: [PEN-L] Banking on a bailout

Raghu wrote: What these guys are trying to do is a logical impossibility. They desperately need other investors to buy toxic securities (or equivalently lend on toxic securities) that they themselves would never put on their own balance sheets. Now why would any investor in their right mind do

[PEN-L] Fw: [PEN-L] Banking on a bailout

Raghu writes: $100B is a lot of money even in the huge mortgage market. The important thing is where is the money going to come from? The banks are not planning to lend that much cash to the new vehicle (though of course they will have to pitch in *some* amount of cash). The plan is to *raise*

[PEN-L] Banking on a bailout

Three leading Wall Street banks are pooling their resources to create a $100 billion fund which will buy distressed short term asset-back paper from bank-sponsored entities called special investment vehicles (SIV's) at a higher price than the banks would get in the market. It mainly appears to be

[PEN-L] Yellow dogs in new guises

Honda and UAW Clash Over New Factory Jobs Residency Rules Exclude Most Union Members; Indignant in Indiana By NEAL E. BOUDETTE Wall Street Journal October 10, 2007; Page A1 ANDERSON, Ind. -- When Honda Motor Co. announced last year that it was building a new plant amid the farms of southeastern

[PEN-L] Sobering up after the securitization binge

Interesting piece in today's Financial Times examining why securitization did not prevent a banking crisis. The banks make up a large part of the asset-backed market - either through their trading desks or the off balance sheet conduits they sponsor - so much of the risk is recirculated among

[PEN-L] For use against the Israel Lobby

(Two items posted on Louis Proyect's Marxmail list earlier today) Iran's Unlikely TV Hit Show Sympathetic to Plight Of Jews During the Holocaust Draws Millions Each Week By FARNAZ FASSIHI WSJ September 7, 2007; Page B1 Every Monday night at 10 o'clock, Iranians by the

Re: [PEN-L] Galbraith's new paper

Jim D. wrote: On 9/4/07, Doug Henwood [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The halting moves themselves aren't directed at the working class, but the haltingness takes the w.c. in to consideration. That is, without the financial crisis, the Fed would be hanging tough, and not even the melodramas of recent

Re: [PEN-L] Galbraith's new paper

Raghu wrote: [MG]If the central banks aren't centrally concerned with protecting capitalist class interests, than who is? You might as well jettison class entirely as a framework for understanding social and economic conflict. But in this This is not such a convincing argument. First of all,

Re: [PEN-L] Galbraith's new paper

Doug H. wrote: On Sep 3, 2007, at 3:19 PM, raghu wrote: Is there any evidence that the Fed does think in class struggle terms? Their slowness to ease in this cycle, for example. Much of Wall Street was expecting an easing even before the subprime crisis, but it never came - and they've been

[PEN-L] Regulating the financial lemons market

Central banks should not rescue fools By Martin Wolf Financial Times August 28 2007 Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. The one last Wednesday showing Christopher Dodd, chairman of the US senate’s banking committee, flanked by Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke,

[PEN-L] Summers on further regulation and mortgage bailouts

This is where Fannie and Freddie step in By Lawrence Summers Financial Times August 26 2007 Over the past 20 years major financial disruptions have taken place roughly every three years, starting with the 1987 stock market crash; the Savings Loans collapse and credit crunch of the early 1990s;

Re: [PEN-L] Fwd: Re: [PEN-L] a data question about the credit crisis

Doug Orr wrote: Raghu raises another interesting question about the details of mortgage backed securities. In the old days of a decade or so ago, if a borrower defaulted on a mortgage, the bank that issued the mortgage took the house, sold it at auction and received the proceeds. The cost of

[PEN-L] For some, a silver lining in the credit squeeze

While the volatile stock and bond markets are urging the Federal Reserve to cut the fed funds rate sharply and fast, other voices within the ruling class don't want it to unblock consumer and corporate bottlenecks to credit. They want tighter money to engineer a long hoped-for recession in the US

Re: [PEN-L] Waiting for the end of the world

Doug H. wrote: On Aug 18, 2007, at 2:09 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote: Or is this all preparation for the Fed going the next step and buying the MBS's outright? Is it limited by law as to what securities it can buy through open market operations or accept as collateral for loans through

[PEN-L] Pew's political typology of the US population

Doug Henwood recently posted on LBO a link to an interesting survey from the Pew Research Centre on the political attitudes of different segments of the US population, which I've since had a closer look at. The poll was conducted in December, 2004, following Bush's re-election. Since that time,

Re: [PEN-L] Waiting for the end of the world

Doug wrote: Hey Marvin, within minutes of the Fed's action I posted this to lbo- talk: [I'm guessing that lowering the discount rate while reaffirming the fed funds rate level is a way to target banks having real funding problems, while not easing up too much for the real economy, where the

Re: [PEN-L] Waiting for the end of the world

Jim wrote: I heard -- and I'd like to have it confirmed -- that the Fed was willing to accept mortgage-backed securities as collateral on discount loans. That's a lot like buying the mortgages themselves (but not the same thing). == Yes, I recall reading early last week -

Re: [PEN-L] rating agencies

The mortgage meltdown has not only brought the rating agencies under the gun, but will also increase the pressure on hedge funds to be subject to more state scrutiny and regulation. This is something which nervous big investors and central bankers have been seeking and the fund companies have

Re: [PEN-L] rating agencies

Jim Devine wrote: To be fair to the ratings agencies, they don't get money directly out of setting ratings (I think they're not-for-profit). They aren't conpeople as much as they don't want to rock the boat. On 8/16/07, Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The first quote is ridiculous.

Re: [PEN-L] Are central banks in control?

Julio wrote: And let me add quickly that sterilization is, of course, more than building up reserves. You have to offset the building up of reserves (for which you pay in high-power local currency thus expanding nominal M) by floating debt domestically or otherwise tightening credit.

Re: [PEN-L] Contagiousness

Julio wrote: Scholar-googling recent works on the structure of the credit system in the U.S., I bumped into this 2006 paper by NYU Stern's Edward I Altman on the recent boom of credit junk: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~ealtman/Are-Historical-Models-Still-Relevant1.pdf

Re: [PEN-L] uncle sam's banker

Uncle Sam, Your Banker Will See You Now By Paul Craig Roberts 08/08/07 ICH [...] This is a grim outlook. We got in this position because our leaders are ignorant fools. So are our economists, many of whom are paid shills for some interest group. So are our corporate leaders whose greed gave

Re: [PEN-L] Weighing the prospects of a financial crisis

Jim wrote: but not all financial crises lead to depressions. For example, look at 1987. Engels and Marx were clear, I believe, that the financial sector had enough autonomy from the real economy that it could have its own crises. == Sure, but isn't this the orthodox

Re: [PEN-L] Weighing the prospects of a financial crisis

Jim wrote: ...The Fed is the main policy organization in the US. If it cuts rates to fight the housing-related financial problems and the looming possibility of a steep recession (as in '87, etc.), it encourages inflation (already a problem) and an even steeper fall in the US dollar, which

[PEN-L] Pessimistic Palestinians are being over-optimistic

The road to peace runs through Jerusalem By Gideon Rachman Financial Times Published: August 6 2007 Before the Iraq war, optimistic neo-conservatives came up with a new slogan about the Israel-Palestine conflict: “The road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad.” American victory in Iraq would create

Re: [PEN-L] Does Roberts Get it Right? [Response to Marvin]

Leigh wrote: On 8/2/07, Marvin Gandall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: and it is not the case, in any event, that the least skilled tend to be more advanced in these areas than the most skilled. I wonder whether Leigh would agree. Disagree... More often than not, the least skilled are aware

Re: [PEN-L] Does Roberts Get it Right?

Carrol wrote: Borderline cases tend to corrupt analysis. Management (as I would describe it) is simply part of the capitalist class, their share of surplus value coming to them in the form of salaries. But Management is also a rubber-bag category that can be stretched weirdly. According to a

Re: [PEN-L] The Ward Churchill firing

How is Ward Churchill's scholarly work generally viewed by historians and other academics in his field without an ideological ax to grind?

Re: [PEN-L] The Ward Churchill firing

Louis wrote: Marvin Gandall wrote: How is Ward Churchill's scholarly work generally viewed by historians and other academics in his field without an ideological ax to grind? His major work is A Little Matter of Genocide. I found it well-researched and authoritative. It is basically

Re: [PEN-L] The hidden Marxism of the environmental movement (1)

Eugene Coyle wrote: There is an alternative that is dismissed by the mainstream Democrats (Barbara Boxer for example) as a good idea that can't be enacted. So let's line up behind Cap Trade. That is the Carbon Tax. = The Economist had a piece last

Re: [PEN-L] Let's Play Hide the Risk

Raghu writes: On 7/26/07, David B. Shemano [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What exactly is his insight? There is a great cost to taxpayers if the industry is regulated but not if the industry is unregulated? There is no one person to call? Diversification is good except when it is not? His

[PEN-L] The long march from Yenan to Barclays

Governments Get Bolder in Buying Equity Stakes By JASON SINGER in London, HENNY SENDER in New York, JASON DEAN in Beijing and MARCUS WALKER in Berlin Wall Street Journal July 24, 2007; Page A1 Foreign governments, flush with cash and no longer content with the meager returns to be had on safe

Re: [PEN-L] A question on the ethics of complicated econometric estimations

Julio wrote: To eliminate uncertainty altogether, we'd have to abolish the second law of thermodynamics. That's not going to happen soon. But from this doesn't follow that people will stop trying to reduce uncertainty with, for example, the refinement of time-series analysis. Human activity

Re: [PEN-L] inequality

Jim Devine wrote: On 7/15/07, raghu [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 7/15/07, Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/08/06/ben-stein-and-karl-marx/ This still leaves the crucial question unanswered - what is the reason for the erosion of the trade union

Re: [PEN-L] inequality

Michael Perelman wrote: Isn't the bureaucratization of the union hierarchy a part of the story? = I tend to see bureaucratization more as an expression than cause of the decline in trade union militancy - much facilitated of course by the institutionalization of labour

[PEN-L] Measuring values in an iPod

A new study has examined the manuufacture of the iPod in an effort to illustrate how the new global economy - based on a vast expansion of cross-border labour arbitrage and revolutionary advances in the means of communication and transportation and of supply chain management - functions, who

[PEN-L] Chinese capitalists and the state

Interesting, if impressionistic, view of the power relationship between China's rising capitalist class and state officials which conflicts with the usual inferences drawn outside. But they still seem to demand more of their regulators of Big Pharma than is the case here. :)

[PEN-L] Opaque and dangerous derivative markets

Any sophisticated investors out there holding assets in Bear Stearns' tottering High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund? Anyone been burnt by the recent scandal in Greece involving Constant Maturity Swap Steepeners?

[PEN-L] Sharon's dream

Sharon's dream, of course, is the inverse of Eldar's nightmare below and that of all liberal Zionists (and of Fatah): that the isolation of Gaza and the web of Israeli settlements and roads on the West Bank has put paid to the two-state solution which fell short of being realized by the Clinton

[PEN-L] Sadr's uneasy alliance with the Americans

June 3, 2007 Op-Ed Contributor An Enemy We Can Work With By BARTLE BREESE BULL New York Times London WHEN the populist Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr emerged from 14 weeks of invisibility on May 25, it was hard not to focus on his typically passionate anti-Coalition rhetoric: “No, no to America;

[PEN-L] Iran's opposition to immediate withdrawal

The article below makes an interesting companion piece to the one from the NYT I posted earlier this morning about the complex relationship between the Sadrists and the US. It's by the Washington Post's David Ignatius, one of the better connected and more astute commentators on US Mideast policy.

Re: [PEN-L] critique of Gintis

Julio wrote: From the inside, things don't look the way you describe *at all*. If there has been any ideological shift to register in the last decade, it's been precisely one in the opposite direction. And this is not surprising given the persistence of poverty and inequality in the globe, the

Re: [PEN-L] critique of Gintis

Carrol wrote: Too many leftists are flocking to a once-in-a-lifetime sale of 10 pairs (of rose-tinted glasses) for the price of one. Julio replied: Right, leftists who don't fall for that, are holier than us. Marv can speak for himself. But I don't think that by forwarding that note he

Re: [PEN-L] critique of Gintis

- Original Message - From: Carrol Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 4:04 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] critique of Gintis Doug Henwood wrote: On Jun 1, 2007, at 2:07 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote: I don't believe Carrol understands that ruling

Re: [PEN-L] is there an accountant in the house?

Charles B. writes: is there an accountant in the house? what do you think of this, as summarized by SLATE, May 29, 2007? USA Today leads with an analysis showing that if the federal government were to use the same accounting standards as corporations it would have recorded a $1.3

[PEN-L] Sovereign wealth funds

China's recent purchase of a $3 billion stake in the US hedge fund Blackstone and its plans to recycle hundreds of billions of its USD and other foreign exchange reserves into global equity and real estate markets has drawn excited attention by the financial press to the proliferation and rapid

[PEN-L] Recent Chinese economic measures

The Financial Times China correspondent says the latest tightening moves by the Chinese leadership will do little to cool the country’s blistering growth because of the political and economic constraints which are inhibiting it from doing so. These include the central government’s inability to

Re: [PEN-L] Kucinich's wife and the American Monetary Institute

Doug H. writes: On May 21, 2007, at 5:43 PM, Michael Perelman wrote: Charles Brown will enjoy this -- even though I don't think that the AMI is adding much to our understanding of the economy. That's putting it mildly. It's standard-issue monetary crankery, isn't it?

Re: [PEN-L] Nationalism and State Ownership Seen as Main Threats to Oil Supply

Yoshie writes: The article's real beef about nationalized oil is that there is inherent political pressure on state oil companies to direct their revenues to social programs and other state spending rather than to exploration and the development of new supply which would hold oil prices in

Re: [PEN-L] Financiers and fascism

I don't believe Nazi propaganda was, strictly speaking, anti-financier - even in theory. It was designed to draw the connection between moneylending and Jewry. It was not the charging of interest which was condemned as such, but only usurious loansharking which was portrayed as the exclusive

Re: [PEN-L] Financiers' activities and wealth creation

Louis P. writes: Marvin wrote: ...We can continue to disagree about whether the accomodations by the mass parties have been due to failures of leadership, as you contend, or to the unexpected historical resiliency of capitalism and extension of the universal franchise which have combined to

Re: [PEN-L] Financiers' activities and wealth creation

Louis Proyect wrote: The real problem is disincentives to invest. What do you do when there is no incentive to invest, such as was the case during the 1930s? In these circumstances, the state moves to reflate the economy by recapitalizing the banks and boosting mass purchasing power. The

[PEN-L] US response to new Fatah-Hamas government

All is not going according to plan for the US and Israel in their efforts to isolate Iran and its allies in the Mideast by forging a bloc of conservative Arab regimes against the Persians. As the report below notes, the US is now facing a dilemma about whether to recognize and prop up the fragile

Re: [PEN-L] Noted Arab Citizens Call on Israel to Shed Jewish Identity

Yoshie posted: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/world/middleeast/08israel.html February 8, 2007 Noted Arab Citizens Call on Israel to Shed Jewish Identity By ISABEL KERSHNER JERUSALEM, Feb. 7 — A group of prominent Israeli Arabs has called on Israel to stop defining itself as a Jewish state

Re: [PEN-L] The Great Dollar Crash of 2007

Productivity Growth Rebounds, Easing Pressure on Labor Costs By BRIAN BLACKSTONE Wall Street Journal February 7, 2007 4:21 p.m. WASHINGTON -- U.S. productivity growth rebounded during the fourth quarter of 2006, easing pressure on labor costs and suggesting that the economy still has the

Re: [PEN-L] Europe Resists U.S. Push to Curb Iran Ties

Yoshie posted: January 30, 2007 Europe Resists U.S. Push to Curb Iran Ties By STEVEN R. WEISMAN [...] Several European officials said in interviews that they believe that the United States and Saudi Arabia have an unwritten deal to keep oil production up, and prices down, to further squeeze

Re: [PEN-L] Saudi Officials Seek to Temper the Price of Oil

Yoshie posted: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/business/28oil.html January 28, 2007 Saudi Officials Seek to Temper the Price of Oil BY JAD MOUAWAD [] Sometimes, the uncertainty gives rise to more conspiratorial theories. Oil traders have been buzzing in recent weeks about whether

Re: [PEN-L] Saudi Officials Seek to Temper the Price of Oil

Leigh Meyers wrote: . The Saudis openly admitted to opening the taps in the days after 911 at the behest of the US adminstration. It was the meeting between al-Bandar and Bush shown in Farenheit 911 where that deal was cut. However, one of their oil ministry officials stated that if ALL

Re: [PEN-L] Saudis Waging an Oil War on Iran?

Yoshie wrote: There are lots of factors, from unseasonably warm weather (due in part to climate change) to rates of economic growth, many of which are beyond the control of oil producers. The issue is what the Saudi ruling class are doing with the part they do control, their own oil reserves.

Re: [PEN-L] Saudis Waging an Oil War on Iran?

Jim Devine wrote: it also hurts Russia, Venezuela, and all other high-cost producers. (This would include Iraq if it could actually get a significant amount of oil on the international market.) Is hurting those countries part of SA's plan? It seems that SA may be facing conflicting goals. On

Re: [PEN-L] EU productivity vs. US

US productivity growth lowest for a decade By Chris Giles in London Financial Times Published: January 22 2007 22:08 | Last updated: January 22 2007 22:08 The US economy last year recorded its lowest rate of labour productivity growth in more than a decade, with growth in output per hour

Re: [PEN-L] PLO and Palestine

Yoshie wrote: In the case of the ANC, it accomplished the most immediate and important goal of national liberation: the end of Apartheid. (The FSLN didn't face an apartheid problem comparable to what the South Africans did and what the Palestinians still do.) Fatah has not. Ceasing to be a

Re: [PEN-L] Socialism and Islam

Yoshie wrote: Fatah is no longer fighting Tel Aviv but is siding with and getting material support -- money and weapons -- from it and Washington in its war against Hamas. By doing so, Fatah essentially ceased to be an organ of a national liberation movement. The ANC and the Sandinistas never

Re: [PEN-L] Socialism and Islam

Yoshie wrote: On 1/15/07, Marvin Gandall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That said, if the left and the Islamists were equally vying for the allegiance of the masses in their own countries, they'd be at each other's throats - as in Palestine, for example. Fatah is not the left, however

Re: [PEN-L] Socialism and Islam

Yoshie wrote: On 1/16/07, Marvin Gandall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Fatah - or rather, the PLO, which it dominates - still represents the Palestinian left, such as it is, against Hamas and the rest of the Islamist movement, which was set up in opposition to it. So, that means Tel Aviv

Re: [PEN-L] Socialism and Islam

Yoshie wrote: But have you found any actually-existing Palestinian, pro-Western or anti-Western, secular or religious, who speaks of Fatah as the left and Hamas as the right (or whatever)? The idea of Fatah = the left seems to me to be your own creation...Terms such as left and right matter

Re: [PEN-L] Socialism and Islam

Jim D wrote: also, even if the left did exist as a social force, would any Islamists want to all with us? On 1/15/07, Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To consider the question of alliances seriously, you have to first build your own social force. Adding 0 to 1 equals 1.

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

Yoshie wrote: In many cases today, which force is left and which force is right are hard to decide. You look at, for instance, the Egyptian government and various Islamist organizations that oppose it, and it's difficult to say which is more to the left. That's true. I think the only place

[PEN-L] The private equity con game

Money Is Everywhere, But for How Long? Alan Murray Wall Street Journal January 3, 2007 It may be time to put away the bubbly. The New Year's forecasts are so unrelentingly sanguine that you have to wonder whether a tanker of strong, black coffee is in order. The U.S. economy will keep growing.

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

Yoshie wrote: The guarantee of minority rights is rooted philosophically in liberalism and pluralism, not democracy per se. People can democratically choose to establish and maintain liberal democracy with commitment to pluralism, but what if they democratically reject liberalism and

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

Yoshie wrote: There can be cases where your party is a junior supporter of the more or less secular government in power, which gets challenged by Islamists' electoral victory, mass revolts, or terrorist attacks, all of which have in fact happened in the Middle East, e.g., in Algeria, Egypt,

Re: [PEN-L] The strategy behind the surge

CJ wrote: I'm not really sure what you are waiting on to happen in Iraq Marvin, so I'm not really sure what predictions you will see come true. I think you have some hidden views about Iraq and Islamists that seems to cloud your thinking... === I want a full and

Re: [PEN-L] WSJ Mystery

Michael Perelman wrote: Why in the world would the WSJ let Ali Abunimah review Carter's book? Is the paper becoming more open to critical views? Hard to believe. Jimmy Carter's Book: A Palestinian View By ALI ABUNIMAH December 26, 2006; Page A12 = Not to

Re: [PEN-L] The strategy behind the surge

Sistani 'opposes coalition plan' Aljazeera.net SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2006 Iraq's most revered Shia cleric has withheld support for a US-backed plan to build a sectarian coalition, threatening hopes for political unity. I observed on A-List (also archived at utah edu) that Sistani was like a

Re: [PEN-L] The strategy behind the surge

Charles Januzzi is quite a kidder. He posts two items purporting to show that the Sadrists are cobbling together a non-sectarian Iraqi front to fight the Americans. The first (today, 11.01 am) is from tompaine.com. which states: Among those supporting the new National Salvation Front, along

Re: [PEN-L] The strategy behind the surge

Charles Januzzi wrote: The Sunni Resistance of the sort that fought it out with the US over Anbar and continue to do so has shown itself quite resilient and coherent--for a Resistance. And it has no superpower sponsorship, unlike the NLF in Vietnam... Reslient, yes - but I'm not sure what

Re: [PEN-L] The strategy behind the surge

Jim Devine wrote: On 12/21/06, Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How many times did the US apply the surge technique in Vietnam -- there was always light at the end of the tunnel. The joke at the time was that it was an oncoming locomotive. the escalations in VN weren't the same.

[PEN-L] The strategy behind the surge

The US ruling class is not only debating whether to send more US troops into Iraq in a final effort to secure Baghdad, but whether to aim at the Shia Sadrists or the Sunni insurgents. On the one hand, US planners are concerned that a blow against the Sadr forces would provoke an open revolt by

Re: [PEN-L] The strategy behind the surge

CJ wrote: The biggest weakness--which occurs a lot--in the AEI analysis is to see the Shia in Iraq monolithically. The very existence of the Sadrists cuts to the very heart of the conflicts amongst the Shia. In the event of a real Iraqi civil war, it is most likely to be Shia on Shia, with

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