Barter makes comeback in Argentina
NY Times, Sunday, May 6, 2001 To Weather Recession, Argentines Revert to Barter By CLIFFORD KRAUSS BUENOS AIRES, May 5 By the standards of most Latin American countries, Pedro Pérez hardly looks like a charity case. He wears a handsome sports watch and a thick gold wedding ring. His hair is neatly parted, he has all his teeth and his meticulous handwriting is the product of a decent public school education. But Mr. Pérez is just scraping by, struggling like many other Argentines to hold on to a middle-class life three years into a deep recession. At 43, he cannot count on a regular salary from his sales job at a shoe factory anymore, so he has been forced to sell his town house and Ford sedan, and his wife has gone back to work. And every Friday night Mr. Pérez carries bags of shoes, sneakers and shoe polish his factory gives him when it is too short of cash to meet its payroll to one of the many barter clubs that have sprouted up in this city, where he exchanges his wares indirectly for fruits, vegetables and handmade clothes. Bartering, that precapitalist form of commerce popular in Indian villages in Latin America even long after the Spanish conquest, is making a far-reaching comeback in Argentina as an improbable safety net for a forlorn middle class not accustomed to the hardships that are a way of life elsewhere in the region. The trueque clubs (the word means exchange or barter in Spanish) emerged in 1995, the brainchild of three young professionals looking for a way to help the lower-middle- class Buenos Aires suburb of Bernal overcome the brief recession that followed the Mexican currency crisis, whose effects had rippled throughout Latin America. That first barter club started with just 30 members. Today, as Argentina muddles through a recession with no end in sight, more than 450 clubs have been founded in 20 of the country's 24 provinces. They are nurtured first by word of mouth and then by ample news coverage and by the Internet, which is used to advertise their locations and schedules. An estimated 500,000 Argentines now barter regularly, and up to one million or almost 5 percent of the economically active population do so occasionally, according to sociologists who have studied the trend. About 10,000 people shopped at a May Day trueque mega-fair this week in a Buenos Aires suburb. At the clubs, people set up tables and stalls to peddle goods or the promise of services in exchange for scrip, barter money known as créditos. They can then use this to obtain other goods or services through the clubs, which have established an informal network. The goods range from food and produce to clothing and homemade skin-care products. The services include everything from dental work and plumbing to psychological counseling and tarot card readings, often proffered by underemployed or unemployed professionals. The traders set their prices by supply and demand, making the barter clubs a combination of competition and neighborly solidarity. Today the clubs have more than $7 million worth of scrip in circulation, bar-coded to guard against counterfeiting. An estimated $400 million in goods and services were traded last year. Organizers say they expect an 80 percent increase in the value of the transactions this year because of the deepening recession. The recession has been brought on and sustained by plunging commodity prices, rising interest rates, mounting public debt and an overvalued currency that has depressed exports. The new economy minister, Domingo Cavallo, says the economy should improve later this year, but independent economists say the slide is continuing. Should the government default on its debts, the recession could easily deepen and increase the prospects of a currency devaluation, which could cause still more companies with heavy dollar debts to fold. This is not a living, but it keeps me and my family above water, said Mr. Pérez, the shoe factory salesman. Ever since Brazil devalued two years ago, my factory has not been able to compete. They pay us in shoes to keep the business from collapsing until the economy picks up again if it ever does. The trueque clubs have become a vital stitch in the social fabric of scores of towns and neighborhoods. People who might be moping at home depressed by the near 15 percent unemployment rate and daily speculation of a government default or currency devaluation have instead revved up at home production of knitted sweaters, mate tea gourds and oven-baked pizzas to trade. It's an incubator for new businesses, said Carlos Alberto Fazio, an Economy Ministry official who is studying ways to support the clubs. The people have chosen the clubs first to survive and then to reintegrate into the formal economy. The trueque clubs expanded in popularity without government support. But as it continues struggling to find a way out of the economic malaise, the government has itself recognized the value of the clubs as a
Re: CA energy crisis -- one solution
I wonder what would happen to California if it became a ward of the IMF and the World Bank? It would probably be forced to sell off its public assets, like the LA municipal power plant, and all the water companies. Then, California would be forced to take a high interest loan to keep paying the power companies. When the loan ran out, they could take out another loan to keep paying the power companies, and to pay interest on the first loan. And so on. And if there was any hint that the state was going to buy out the power company, I believe the CIA would start funding paramilitary groups hiding out in the moutains. Eventually, President Bush would interrupt regularly scheduled programming to announcce Operation: Hollywood Storm. In all seriousness, the article made the levelheaded suggestion that California should use its money to buy power generating assets, not pay the extortionists' electric rates. Andrew Hagen [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Sun, 6 May 2001 01:02:19 +, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Seize the Plants: The First Step to Solving the California Energy Crisis By Stephen F. Diamond* [] Under such troubling circumstances the stakeholders of PGE, including its customers, its employee shareholders and the millions of individuals across the country whose pension funds are invested in the company, could step forward to organize an independent takeover of the company in tandem with the State. PGE and its remaining investors could be compensated by allowing them to retain the companys out of state assets despite the fact that these were purchased at the expense of PGE customers. At the same time, the Trust Company could move to repossess the vital in-state generating assets that were sold off to independent power producers only to be used to create the cartel-like pricing that has brought California to its knees in the last few months. The billions that these companies now argue they are owed for their rapacious exercise of market power could be written off in exchange for a minority equity position in the new Trust Company. [.]
Re: Re: Query on Terminology, was ... textbook
On Thu, 3 May 2001, Jim Devine wrote: The problem with the standard model of MC is that (1) it assumes that all firms have the same cost structure (even though they produce different products); and (2) it focuses on equilibrium, ignoring the process. Are there a good books that develop a non-standard models -- that go into process, or into the macro implications of this being the general case? MC seems to correspond very much to the MBA picture of the world, where firms compete over market share, brand-building and customer loyalty, rather than competing on price. Michael __ Michael PollakNew York [EMAIL PROTECTED]
the enemy's stuh tis'tiks
The word statistics refers to three distinctively different things: the science that deals with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of numerical data, often using probability theory, the data themselves and a branch of political science dealing with the collection of data RELEVANT TO A STATE [emphasis added]. One can postulate the objectivity and neutrality of the latter kind of statistics only on the premise that the state itself is a neutral and objective enterprise. This would be rather like analyzing the economy on the premise that wage labour is a neutral and objective relationship, freely entered into by two parties with equal opportunities to engage in or withdraw from the relationship. A given state may be more or less inclusive in the data it deems relevant to itself and that inclusiveness may change over time. The use of any specific data series as a barometer of a state's performance makes it a target for manipulation, either directly in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data or indirectly in the targeting of state policies to get the numbers right, regardless of whether the better looking numbers reflect real improvements or merely an opportunistic inflation of the selected performance indicators. IT'S THE MAP, STUPID One anecdote is only an anecdote, a million anecdotes is a statistic. Considering the *relevance to a state* angle, the data must be viewed as fundamentally geopolitical. The GDP of Canada should not contain the value of goods and services produced in Nebraska. The data presupposes a map. I am conducting the 2001 Canaada census for a portion of the island where I live and I was supplied with a map of my area that could best be described as a travesty of a map. It makes the Palm Beach County butterfly ballot look like a paragon of logic and design. My map shows roads connecting that don't connect, calls roads names they've never had and leaves off quite a few. It numbers as a 'census block' a small triangle of dust left between two roads that intersect in a 'V' and their cut-off. It leaves a vast, occupied territory unsullied with any census block number. The collection, analysis and interpretation of data is also a labour process. The census takers (who are *required* to supply their own vehicle) are paid at a piece-rate, presumably calibrated to compensate them at slightly above minimum wage -- if they work at a steady pace and make no mistakes. Given a map that doesn't show the territory, that would be impossible. In other words, to be blunt, viewed from the bottom of the division of labour, the 2001 Canada census appears to be a pantomime. Tom Walker Bowen Island, BC 604 947 2213
Re: Re: Re: Query on Terminology, was ... textbook
Michael, I have to disagree with you. The MBA approach is far more realistic than the MC approach. Michael Pollak wrote: On Thu, 3 May 2001, Jim Devine wrote: The problem with the standard model of MC is that (1) it assumes that all firms have the same cost structure (even though they produce different products); and (2) it focuses on equilibrium, ignoring the process. Are there a good books that develop a non-standard models -- that go into process, or into the macro implications of this being the general case? MC seems to correspond very much to the MBA picture of the world, where firms compete over market share, brand-building and customer loyalty, rather than competing on price. Michael __ Michael PollakNew York [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: Re: Re: Re: Query on Terminology, was ... textbook
On Sun, 6 May 2001, Michael Perelman wrote: Michael, I have to disagree with you. The MBA approach is far more realistic than the MC approach. I don't disagree. I was referring to Jim Devine's implied non-standard model of MC that made up for the normal MC shortcomings and made it dynamic. So, are there are any good economics books that try to treat any of the macro implications of the MBA model? Where everyone in the market is assumed to be competing on market share and brand and customer loyalty rather than on price? Michael __ Michael PollakNew York [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Women better with stocks
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47320-2001May5.html Unconventional Wisdom Boys Will Be Boys By Richard Morin Sunday, May 6, 2001; Page B05 Men believe they're better stock traders than women. Men expect a better return on their investment than do women who trade stocks. Men are more likely than women to think they're smarter about stocks than other people. Well, guys are wrong, wrong and wrong, say two economists who have studied the performance of 3 million stock transactions made by men and women through a major discount brokerage firm over a six-year period. Women who purchased stocks from a discount broker, presumably without the advice of a stock broker, earned the same return asmen did: About 1.5 percent a month, reported Brad Barber and Terrance Odean of the University of California at Davis in the latest Quarterly Journal of Economics. But when it came to trading, the clear winners were women, they found. Men were far more likely to frantically trade stocks -- and far more likely to see the value of their portfolios drop as a consequence. The average turnover rate of common stocks for men is nearly one and a half times that for women, they found. And at the end of the average year, they discovered that all of this trading had reduced the value of men's portfolios by nearly a full percentage point more than those of women. It's not that men pick loser stocks. The dirty little secret of investing is that people often sell stocks -- to finance new purchases or to act on a hot tip -- that typically are slightly better performers than the stocks they buy as replacements. Since men do more buying and selling, they do more trading down, thus they don't earn as much -- or lose more -- than female traders, the researchersreported.
Common Sense Economics
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010506/t38099.html Sunday, May 6, 2001 | Print this story Inflation Is More Than Mere Mirage Isn't it truly bizarre that during a year when housing costs have risen 25%, the price of gasoline has risen 50% and the price of electric power has doubled, the experts are still trying to sell the public on the notion that there is no inflation [Inflation's Revival: Trend or Mirage? April 29]? When the cost of three items that represent at least 40% of the average family's budget has risen an average of 35% in one year, does anyone take these experts seriously? Sanford Thier West Los Angeles
Re: Women better with stocks
Ian Murray wrote: But when it came to trading, the clear winners were women, they found. Men were far more likely to frantically trade stocks -- and far more likely to see the value of their portfolios drop as a consequence. More on the trickiness of statistics. Some information I think I posted on lbo a few months ago indicated that the _only_ subsector of the population (regardless of class, race, gender, etc) who did not overestimate their own competence were those suffering from depression. Now more women suffer from depression than men. Could this study identify the difference between depressed and non-depressed rather than the difference between men and women. I have a much better record of predicting disaster than Jan does (e.g., over the years I've burned food less often than she) -- but then I suffer from depression and she does not, so I never trust my own estimation of how long a given article has been on the stove. Carrol
Re: Common Sense Economics
Surely the tax cut will more than offset these price increases. On Sun, May 06, 2001 at 11:42:50AM -0700, Ian Murray wrote: Inflation Is More Than Mere Mirage Isn't it truly bizarre that during a year when housing costs have risen 25%, the price of gasoline has risen 50% and the price of electric power has doubled, the experts are still trying to sell the public on the notion that there is no inflation [Inflation's Revival: Trend or Mirage? April 29]? When the cost of three items that represent at least 40% of the average family's budget has risen an average of 35% in one year, does anyone take these experts seriously? Sanford Thier West Los Angeles -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: CA energy crisis -- one solution
And if there was any hint that the state was going to buy out the power company, I believe the CIA would start funding paramilitary groups hiding out in the moutains. and believe me, such groups already exist (and I doubt that the CIA would have scruples about helping neo-Nazis, since they've never had them before). -- Jim Devine - This message was sent using Panda Mail. Check your regular email account away from home free! http://www.pandamail.net
Re: Women better with stocks
Men believe they're better stock traders than women. Men expect a better return on their investment than do women who trade stocks. Men are more likely than women to think they're smarter about stocks than other people. Well, guys are wrong, wrong and wrong, say two economists who have studied the performance of 3 million stock transactions made by men and women through a major discount brokerage firm over a six-year period. This seems to parallel the common notion that women are less skilled drivers than men -- but that in practice men are worse drivers because they are more reckless, impolite, etc. -- Jim Devine - This message was sent using Panda Mail. Check your regular email account away from home free! http://www.pandamail.net
RE: Re: Re: CA energy crisis -- one solution
It's worse than you all think. They would send radio signals thru the receivers in your fillings and you would vote to re-privatize. If they hadn't picked up Valis he would be here to tell you. mbs And if there was any hint that the state was going to buy out the power company, I believe the CIA would start funding paramilitary groups hiding out in the moutains. and believe me, such groups already exist (and I doubt that the CIA would have scruples about helping neo-Nazis, since they've never had them before). -- Jim Devine - This message was sent using Panda Mail. Check your regular email account away from home free! http://www.pandamail.net
