[PEN-L:7712] Re: The rogue, p.m.
The small dictionary on my computer has, as one possible etymology for the term, the 16th century *cant roger* "a vagabond pretending to be a poor scholar." But these days there are so many poor scholars pretending to be poor scholars that perhaps we've no more use for the genuine vagabonds. Do you mean "poor" as in "impoverished?" Or "poor" as in "low quality?" Blair Blair Sandler [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7715] Re: The rogue, p.m.
Blair Sandler asked, Do you mean "poor" as in "impoverished?" Or "poor" as in "low quality?" Ah, the uses of ambiguity. ;-) Regards, Tom Walker ^^ knoW Ware Communications | Vancouver, B.C., CANADA | "Only in mediocre art [EMAIL PROTECTED] |does life unfold as fate." (604) 669-3286| ^^ The TimeWork Web: http://mindlink.net/knowware/worksite.htm
[PEN-L:7714] Re: an interesting WWW site
the estimates of the difference b/tw :"northern" and "southern" diets are also very thought provoking, especially when you see the number of fat people walking around in western societies. that is all i was hoping to do with this. If this is the point, read, HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH, Worldwatch's Alan Durning's critique of consumerism, which discusses northern and southern "diets" in the larger sense not just of food but resource consumption in general. It's good teaching material (of course it lacks any hint of Marxian class analysis but this can be remedied by the instructor). Blair Blair Sandler [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7711] Re: an interesting WWW site
At 2:43 PM 12/3/96, bill mitchell wrote: the estimates of the difference b/tw :"northern" and "southern" diets are also very thought provoking, especially when you see the number of fat people walking around in western societies. Still, the difference between doomsdays for the two diets was, if I remember right, 8 and 40 years. Either way, that's not a lot of wiggle room. Just how true is it, or were people saying the same thing 10 or 20 years ago? That's a serious, not a rhetorical, question. Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html
[PEN-L:7702] Critique of NAFTA's social clause
NAFTA's Labor Side Agreement: Lessons From the First Three Years, a new 27 page report published jointly by the Institute for Policy Studies and the International Labor Rights Fund, analyzes the performance of NAFTA institutions in handling complaints regarding labor rights violations. Written by American University law professor Jerome Levinson, the report focuses on the case in which the Mexican government suppressed the efforts of a group of workers to form an independent union at a Sony plant in Nuevo Laredo. It concludes that the labor side deal has failed to fulfill President Clinton's promise that NAFTA would provide effective mechanisms to ensure Mexico's enforcement of its own labor laws. You can get it for $7.50 plus $1.50 shipping and handling from IPS, 1601 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009; phone: 202-234-9382; fax: 202-387-7915. -- Labor Report on the Americas November-December 1996
[PEN-L:7708] Ernest Mandel's Legacy; lecture NYC
* PLEASE REPOST * The Brecht Forum and its projects: The New York Marxist School and The Institute for Popular Education presents The Legacy of Ernest Mandel a talk by Alan Freeman Wednesday, December 4 at 7:30 pm Ernest Mandel stood out in the twentieth century as a Marxist economist who explicitly denied any self-equilibrating of capitalism. On this basis, he produced a radically new account of uneven development in the Third World and successfully predicted the end of the post-world War II boom. Alan Freeman will discuss the relevance of Mandel's work for contemporary social and economic issues. Alan Freeman, a Lecturer at the University of Greenwich, co-edited _Ricardo, Marx, and Sraffa_ with Ernest Mandel and _Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics_ with Guglielmo Carchedi. Admission is $6. The Brecht Forum is located at: 122 West 27 Street, 10 floor New York, New York 10001 Phone: (212) 242-4201 Fax: (212) 741-4563 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] //30
[PEN-L:7709] The Mid-East the New World Order; lecture NYC
* PLEASE REPOST * The Brecht Forum and its projects: The New York Marxist School and The Institute for Popular Education presents The Debacle of the New World Order: The Middle East Today a talk by Sungur Savran Thursday, December 5 at 7:30 pm Recent events in the Middle East (developments in Iraqi Kurdistan, the state of the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process", etc.) have shaken the New World Order in the region to its very foundations, leaving the U.S. gains from the Persian Gulf War in shambles. What are the prospects for the near future? What solidarities exist for the liberation of the oppressed of the Middle East, in particular the Palestinians and the Kurds? Sungur Savran--an economist, teacher, and writer--is a political activist in the Turkish left. He is currently involved in the movement to stop the genocidal government attacks against the Kurdish people. Admission is $6. The Brecht Forum is located at: 122 West 27 Street, 10 floor New York, New York 10001 Phone: (212) 242-4201 Fax: (212) 741-4563 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] //30
[PEN-L:7707] The rogue, p.m.
Maybe a rogue isn't such a bad thing, after all, considering that a large proportion of novelistic literature is written from the perspective of the rogue. Of course, if (with Lukacs) we take the novel as the exemplary literary form for the expression of bourgeois consciousness -- in other words, of modernism -- we might even say that modernity itself has a certain *rogueish* point of view. The small dictionary on my computer has, as one possible etymology for the term, the 16th century *cant roger* "a vagabond pretending to be a poor scholar." But these days there are so many poor scholars pretending to be poor scholars that perhaps we've no more use for the genuine vagabonds. Perhaps this is what is really meant by post-modernism? Regards, Tom Walker ^^ knoW Ware Communications | Vancouver, B.C., CANADA | "Only in mediocre art [EMAIL PROTECTED] |does life unfold as fate." (604) 669-3286| ^^ The TimeWork Web: http://mindlink.net/knowware/worksite.htm
[PEN-L:7704] Second thoughts on re-engineering
MANAGEMENT GURU RE-ENGINEERS MESSAGE By Joseph B. White, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Michael Hammer, the management guru whose ideas launched tens of thousands of pink slips, wants to drive home a new message that some of his followers have missed. At a recent conference in Boston, the self- proclaimed "founder of the re-engineering movement" appeared before 437 managers with Donald Borwhat, senior vice president for human resources and public relations at GE Fanuc Automation North America. The joint venture of General Electric Co. and Fanuc Ltd. of Japan is re-engineering. It is embracing Mr. Hammer's idea that corporate hierarchies should be smashed and replaced with streamlined "process" teams made up of marketing, manufacturing, sales and service people that use computers to combine tasks and that work without a lot of supervisors. But Mr. Borwhat told the gathering that GE Fanuc, unlike a lot of companies, wasn't laying off workers. The results: GE Fanuc has boosted revenue by 18 per cent during the past two years, while the number of employees has risen by 3 per cent. "What can I say?" Mr. Hammer asked, turning toward the managers whose companies paid $2,200 (U.S.) a head for them to attend this three day meeting. "It's right. The real point of this is longer-term growth on the revenue side. It's not so much getting rid of people. It's getting more out of people." Three years after Mr. Hammer and consultant James Champy launched this decade's hottest management fad with their best selling book, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, Mr. Hammer points out a flaw: He and other leaders of the $4.7 billion re-engineering industry forgot about people. "I wasn't smart enough about that," he says. "I was reflecting my engineering background and was insufficiently appreciative of the human dimension. I've learned that's critical." So have a lot of businesses, disillusioned by the backlash against lay-offs, overwork and constant upheaval stemming from their efforts to adopt Mr. Hammer's model. Companies are learning that simply cutting staff, rather than reorganizing the way people in different functions work, won't yield the "quantum leaps" in performance Mr. Hammer and Mr. Champy heralded in their book. Corporate executives want consulting companies to provide strategies to boost growth or spark product innovation. That is one reason consultants are jumping on the surging popularity of computer network technology that makes it easier for engineers to share new product ideas and helps sales and marketing staffs find potential customers buried in corporate data warehouses. "Companies are saying, 'Don't cut me any more,'" Gartner Group analyst Bonnie Digrius says. Companies that just want to merge departments to cut costs are increasingly able to do so without consultants. Software maker Qad Inc. will soon include the flow diagrams used to map out tasks in a re- engineered company as part of its business software, automating the functions of re-engineering consultants. As a result, gurus like Mr. Hammer and consulting giants like Booz Allen Hamilton, Andersen Consulting and CSC Index are scrambling to remodel their re- engineering vehicles. They may even choose to trade in for new models as they look for the next big thing: hot candidates include "knowledge" management, enterprise software that links workers together, intranet technology and growth "strategy." "People are starting to realize that changing how people work is more than re-engineering," says Thomas Davenport, a business professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who is a former associate of Mr. Hammer's and a re-engineering pioneer. But Prof. Davenport also warns against relying on any single technique as the solution to business problems. "I hope there comes to be some skepticism about the next big thing," he says. "The next big thing will get us into trouble." The search for something better has caught fire as the appeal of re-engineering has waned. When Boston- based consultants Bain Co. asked executives at 1,000 companies this year to rate various management tools, re-engineering didn't score above average in any of the five major categories, such as improving financial results, building market share, boosting growth, improving competitive stance or promoting teamwork. In 1994, re-engineering led four the five, Mr. Bain say. Mr. Hammer says he began hearing concerns about re- engineering shortly after Reengineering the Corporation became a hit. "More and more people were calling me up and saying: "The design is great, but I'm encountering resistance,'" he says. By 1995, he and his staff had decided to expand their three day "basic training class" to five days. The extra two days are for "people issues," he says. Earlier this year, Mr. Hammer formed a subsidiary called Workplace Transformation Inc. to educate frontline workers in the why
[PEN-L:7700] French truckers win [Reuters] (fwd)
Forwarded message: Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 11:27:17 + Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: LabourNet [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: French truckers win [Reuters] [EMAIL PROTECTED] After French truckers win, analysts ask who's next Source: Reuters PARIS, Reuters. By paralysing French roads and causing economic disruption across western Europe, France's truck drivers have won a victory that could whet other appetites in a country with a long tradition of street protests. In 12 days of blockades, the truckers forced employers and Prime Minister Alain Juppe's government to concede retirement at 55 instead of 60, payment for loading, standby and compulsory rest time and a special 3,000 franc ($600) pay bonus. To most French people, opinion polls showed, it was a deserved victory for a harshly exploited group of workers, won in heroic revolutionary style by barricading the streets. ``They won,'' was the triumphant banner headline of the Communist party daily L'Humanite, echoed by the left-wing daily Liberation, which said the strike proved ``struggle pays.'' Yet to many industrialists and supporters of conservative President Jacques Chirac, it was an alarming example of the willingness of a weak government, haunted by last year's 24-day public transport strike, to pay almost any price to prevent another bout of widespread labour unrest. What Juppe called a ``balanced outcome'' looked suspiciously to them like a surrender to a special interest group with the power to bring France to a standstill. The deal conceded new social rights and regulations at the very time when the government, warning that France is pricing itself out of international competition, is trying to loosen labour market regulation and curb a lavish welfare system. ``The truckers' strike illustrated to a tee this 'French sickness'. It is always the same: a group of workers who have the power of blackmail take the country hostage and force the state, which can ill afford it, to intervene and hand them victory,'' lamented Franz-Olivier Giesbert, editor of the conservative daily Le Figaro. The main question among French commentators this weekend was which group of workers will be next to demand the sort of concessions the lorry drivers won. It was the third time in four years that determined strikers have forced a conservative French government to retreat. In 1993 it was Air France workers who forced the scrapping of a rescue plan for the loss-making airline involving job cuts. Last year, it was transport workers who forced Juppe to withdraw a plan to streamline the indebted SNCF state railways and make public employees work longer for a full pension. The conflict illustrated again that France's anxious conservatives do not share the determination of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher or U.S. president Ronald Reagan to set a precedent by taking on and defeating organised labour. If Juppe ever contemplated using the police to clear the roads, he quickly dropped the idea, sensing it would trigger the very national labour revolt which he is desperate to avoid. Now France's fragmented and relatively small trade unions are celebrating a rare victory in the private sector and pondering how to capitalise on their win for other workers. Already oil refinery workers plan industrial action next week and their demands include retirement at 55. But they lack the truckers' power to paralyse the country. Meanwhile, some in the financial markets are wondering about Juppe's resolve to stick to any policy -- including the budget austerity required to qualify France for a single European currency -- in the face of the threat of disruption. That is unfair, say his supporters, who argue that the prime minister is going to such lengths to avert trouble precisely to preserve the government's central aim of meeting the conditions and deadline for European monetary union in 1999. ``It may look messy but it preserves the essentials,'' one Juppe aide said. ``If it gets us through to the new year without a major social explosion, it will have been worth it.'' That may be a big ``if.' [12-01-96 at 08:42 EST, Copyright 1996, Reuters America Inc.]
[PEN-L:7703] French doubts about the EU
The Vancouver Sun December 3, 1996 FRENCH MINISTER ON TOUR TO SELL EU IDEAL The campaign is up against growing public opinion that sees integration as unbridled capitalism. By Nick Spicer, Southam Newspapers PARIS -- It looks like one of our national unity campaigns. A minister travels the countryside telling people about the benefits of cooperation, about how jobs can only come by sticking together, about mutual understanding between peoples. Constitutionally challenged Canada? No, France. French European Affairs Minister Michel Barnier has been touring France since Oct. 15 with a triple objective: giving Europe a bigger place in national politics, listening to people's views on Europe, and providing people with information on the future of France in the European Union. He's up against a public opinion that's turning away from the ideal of European integration because people associate it with unbridled capitalism and the 1992 Maastricht Treaty's guidelines on budgetary reform. "The big problem we're having is that people don't see any solutions in Europe. They see it as an additional constraint in their lives, but the opposite is true," said Pierre-Jerome Henin, Barnier's public relations officer. "People don't understand that their problems can't be solved on a national basis, but only on an international -- European -- basis," he added. Henin's view is supported by a 1996 poll commissioned eaerlier this year by the European Commission showing that Europe's goal of integration is in dagner of being supported only by national elites. It suggested that wile over 90 per cent of high level decision-makers in Europe think their country's membership in the EU is a "good thing," only 48 per cent of other Europeans do. And 15 per cent of people who aren't politicians, union heads, teachers, journalists or religious leaders consider belonging to the EU a "bad thing." There's also growing opposition in both France and the rest of Europe to the next step in Europeanb integration, the single currency to be called the euro. During the minister's visit last Thursday to Soissons in the northern region of Picardy, 150 anti-EU union members demonstrated as Barnier opened one of the regional forums of the National Dialogue for Europe. Barnier is just beginning a six month campaign to involve 1,000 youth volunteers, and broken into "regional" and "national" phases. The operation has a budget of $13 million Cdn.. but the European Commission is picking up half the tab. The centre-right government is actively pro- European but has to face down the Euroskeptic division within its own ranks. And as a final decision on which EU countries will join a single currency is 14 months away, European integration will likely become a main election issue. The ruling coalition faces voters early in 1998.
[PEN-L:7716] Fwd: No More Econ Ph.D's
Hm, Jason, do you think this quote is referring to Chicago or the New School? maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] In a message dated 96-12-02 18:03:57 EST, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (JASON HECHT) writes: Even on Wall Street, which has traditionally provided a rewarding outlet for economists, there has been a reaction against the subject. Morgan Stanley, for example will not hire economics Ph.D's unless they also have substantial experience outside academe. "We insist on at least a three-to-four-year cleansing experience to neutralize the brainwashing that takes place in these graduate programs." -- Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley Economist - Forwarded message: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (JASON HECHT) Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 96-12-02 18:03:57 EST Has anyone read John Cassidy's piece in the 12/2/96 New Yorker. "The Decline of Economics"? It's a bunch of fluff, but there are some choice quotes: "Is economics making enough progress to justify the millions of dollars a year that the taxpayer spends to subsidize economic research? the answer is no... Economists are like dairy farmers. We think we deserve every penny we get... We need more well-trained high-school teachers of economics, not more Ph.D economists." -- Greg Mankiw "I write down a bunch of equations, and I say this equation has to do with people's preferences and the equation is a description of the technology. But this doesn't make it so. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. That has to be a matter of evidence. ...Monetary shocks just aren't that important. That's the view I've been driven to. There's no question, that's a retreat in my views." -- Robert Lucas "Because of [Robert] Lucas and others, for two decades no graduate students were trained who were capable of competing with us by building econometric models that had a hope of explaining short-run output and price dynamics. We educated a lot of macroeconomists who were trained to do only two things - teach macroeconomics to graduate students and publish in the journals." -- Laurence Meyer Even on Wall Street, which has traditionally provided a rewarding outlet for economists, there has been a reaction against the subject. Morgan Stanley, for example will not hire economics Ph.D's unless they also have substantial experience outside academe. "We insist on at least a three-to-four-year cleansing experience to neutralize the brainwashing that takes place in these graduate programs." -- Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley Economist
[PEN-L:7701] Research on social clauses
SOCIAL CLAUSES AND FAIR TRADE: World trade is a women's issue! What is happening to world trade? The expansion of the world market economy involves the decontrol of trade relationships. This gives more power to multinationals, produces greater inequality and threatens the rights of workers. As a supposedly flexible and dispensible workforce women are particularly affected, often being employed for long hours with no basic rights or fired from jobs at a moment's notice. How can the rights of women workers be protected? For workers everywhere the urgent issue is how to protect their rights in a global economy. In Europe trade unions and many NGOs are campaigning for social clauses which guarantee basic rights in line with ILO conventions. A social clause in a trade agreement would allow economic sanctions to be taken against exporters who fail to observe these standards. However such measures are highly controversial and the motivation has often been the protection of jobs for workers in Europe. It is important to look at how and why particular proposals are made and whose interests they would serve. One thing that is certain is that the voices of women workers in the South have not been heard in debates on social clause agreements. Women Working Worldwide is therefore promoting the exchange of information and opinion on this issue and preparing to lobby appropriate bodies. ( e.g. EU Trade Committee) Campaigning for Fair Trade in Garments WWW is coordinating 'The Labour Behind the Label', a UK network of NGOs and others who are concerned to improve working conditions in the garment industry. We are also interested in the promotion of direct trading networks as ways of developing alternative trading opportunities. So what can you do? please let us know:- Have social clauses been discussed within your own group or trade union? Are you are interested in working together to lobby appropriate bodies? Do you want to work with us on the Labour Behind the Label campaign ? (If you are already working on social clauses please send relevant documents) Reply to : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Angela Hale - Women Working Worldwide Centre for Employment Research Room 126 MMU Humanities Building Rosamond Street West Manchester M15 6LL UK Tel: 0161 247 1760 Fax: 0161 247 6333
[PEN-L:7706] Re: an interesting WWW site
bill, bill, bill,
I am very sympathetic to green concerns and the need
to radically alter the system to deal with them. But,
please, let's not undermine the case with nonsense data.
For years there have been hysterical forecasts made on the
basis of misunderstood data. Just to pick on one of the
points on your list, 4 years to having only half the crude
oil left? Simply ridiculous.
Your Old Mate, Bahhhkley
My old mate
i made no claims that the stats were in any way solid. but it is food for
thought. even if they are a little correct they give rise for concern. and did
you go to the site and click the more detailed analysis? that is also very
interesting.
the estimates of the difference b/tw :"northern" and "southern" diets are also
very thought provoking, especially when you see the number of fat people
walking around in western societies.
that is all i was hoping to do with this.
kind regards
bill
--
## William F. Mitchell
### Head of Economics Department
#University of Newcastle
New South Wales, Australia
###* E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
###Phone: +61 49 215065
# ## ###+61 49 215027
Fax: +61 49 216919
## http://econ-www.newcastle.edu.au/~bill/billyhp.html
"only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned
and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."
(Cree Indian saying...circa 1909)
[PEN-L:7710] Re: Opposition in Serbia
A few Serbs I have spoken to in Berlin are convinced that the US is behind the opposition's activity. They are distrustful of both (all) sides and think that most workers are too. Marianne Brun On Tue, 3 Dec 1996, Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote: I would like to raise on this list the question of what is going on in Serbia and where is it leading. For over two weeks now there have been daily demonstrations against the Milosevic government and its cancelling of municipal election results, led by the group Opposition. On some days the crowds in Belgrade have been as large as 100,000 in number. Most of those involved appear to be either students or white collar workers with only one blue collar union leader publicly supporting Opposition. The question is, does the apparent lack of blue collar support for Opposition reflect: 1) fear of the role of right wing Serbian nationalists in Opposition? 2) placidity because of union leaders being bought out by the regime? 3) fear of repression by the recently expanded internal police? or 4)) residual sympathy for the old Yugoslav workers' management system? Related questions are: 1) To what extend does workers' management survive in Serbia (Paul P.?) (I understand that in Slovenia it survives pretty well but has been pushed back in mafia-nomenklatura privatized Croatia). 2) What is the balance within Opposition between ultra-nationalists, pro-capitalists, and pro-workers' management/market socialism types? Barkley Rosser -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7699] Re: Rifkin
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:7683] Rifkin Jeremy Rifkin shouldn't be faulted for being invisible. He's probably busy cranking out books, a worthy type of labor even though his products are so deeply flawed. Also, an emphasis on No disagreement here. technology as the source of all evil doesn't encourage social activism (that's uniting theory and practice!) I guess the most galling thing is the contrast between the media attention he soaks up and the lack of tangible political impact. This isn't simply a matter of 'just' writing books. If I see someone like Noam Chomsky get quoted on some issue, I get the feeling a political statement has been made. To try to be a little more specific, a political statement entails attaching some kind of analysis to an identification of friends, enemies, and some type of appropriate response, even vaguely described. Although I don't buy any of it, S. Tell's statements are overtly political. What political conclusion is one moved to after reading or hearing Rifkin? That's not a rhetorical question. I'd like to know. BTW, he used to really active. Back in 1976, he organized one of the three alternative to the US bicentennial celebrations. Even I had forgotten about that. It was a crock, but it was something. MBS === Max B. SawickyEconomic Policy Institute [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1660 L Street, NW 202-775-8810 (voice) Ste. 1200 202-775-0819 (fax)Washington, DC 20036 Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone associated with the Economic Policy Institute. ===
[PEN-L:7717] Re: Fwd: No More Econ Ph.D's
Hm, Jason, do you think this quote is referring to Chicago or the New School? maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] I think you should ask Stephen Roach, Maggie. A few comments: (1) A lot of those who receive PhDs in economics are less than desired by Wall Street investment firms. Perhaps this is due, in part, to what students learn in graduate school. One might think, for instance, that PhDs with areas of specialization in industrial organization and/or money and banking might be more desired by investment firms than PhDs with areas of specialization such as the history of economic thought or political economy. (2) There *is* a lot of useless indoctrination in graduate school. For instance, one could study industrial organization at some schools exclusively from the framework of general equilibrium theory. It is doubtful whether training in GET is useful for those who might be hired to make more practical evaluations for an investment banker. (3) In the early 1980's there was already a trend among investment banking firms to not hire MBAs. In part, this was related to what students learned at business schools. In part, it was related to the huge increase in people graduating with MBAs. There has also been (not quite as dramatic) an increase in the quantity of people receiving PhDs in economics. Perhaps the "excess supply" of PhDs in economics has also caused the investment firms to be more choosy. (4) It may be the case that for the kind of research that these companies want to undertake, PhDs in Business Administration may be more desirable than PhDs in economics. In any event, given the big money that these firms sometimes offer and the labor market in academe, they *can* be choosy and seek PhDs with years of research experience. Jerry Even on Wall Street, which has traditionally provided a rewarding outlet for economists, there has been a reaction against the subject. Morgan Stanley, for example will not hire economics Ph.D's unless they also have substantial experience outside academe. "We insist on at least a three-to-four-year cleansing experience to neutralize the brainwashing that takes place in these graduate programs." -- Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley Economist
[PEN-L:7705] Re: Rifkin
Max Sawicky wrote, I guess the most galling thing is the contrast between the media attention he soaks up and the lack of tangible political impact. This isn't simply a matter of 'just' writing books. If I see someone like Noam Chomsky get quoted on some issue, I get the feeling a political statement has been made. To try to be a little more specific, a political statement entails attaching some kind of analysis to an identification of friends, enemies, and some type of appropriate response, even vaguely described... Is this to suggest, then, that lack of tangible political impact is O.K., as long as one doesn't attract media attention? A kind of media asceticism? The _political_ success of the Christian Right has been attributed by at least one commentator (Phil Agre, a communications prof at UCSD) to their success at addressing deeply felt _cultural_ issues that shape the terrain upon which political statements can be made. Whether or not you like what the Christian Right has to say, it's hard to argue with their success. And it's a cop out to say "It's easy for them. They have all the money and they pander to prejudice and ignorance." I'm not sure that "making a political statement" is the same thing as preparing the ground within which a political statement can take root and grow. Therefore, I'm not eager to dismiss the political efficacy of "non-political" statements. I've got better things to do than to try to figure out whether Rifkin, as a case in point, specifically contributes to, or detracts from, the ground upon which _others_ can make political statements. I have heard -- from the horse's mouth (if I may call poor Jeremy a horse) -- that he is more interested in opening up the discussion about work than in being proven "right" in the final analysis. That's what he says, anyway. It seems to me (IMHO) that a discussion about work can be an inherently more political discussion than, say, a discussion about hairstyles or fly fishing. And maybe -- just maybe -- that discussion can be more successfully launched with a bit of gosh and golly techno-determinism than with an intellectually and politically rigourous discussion of the modes and relations of production in this or that historically specific regulatory regime of accumulation, or whatever (if you see what I mean). All I'm trying to say is: political efficacy = factual accuracy + analytical rigour, NOT. Ah, maybe I've watched _Music Man_ too many times and am starting to believe that line about "You got trouble, right here in River City..." Regards, Tom Walker ^^ knoW Ware Communications | Vancouver, B.C., CANADA | "Only in mediocre art [EMAIL PROTECTED] |does life unfold as fate." (604) 669-3286| ^^ The TimeWork Web: http://mindlink.net/knowware/worksite.htm
[PEN-L:7697] Re: an interesting WWW site
bill, bill, bill, I am very sympathetic to green concerns and the need to radically alter the system to deal with them. But, please, let's not undermine the case with nonsense data. For years there have been hysterical forecasts made on the basis of misunderstood data. Just to pick on one of the points on your list, 4 years to having only half the crude oil left? Simply ridiculous. I have no doubt that this figure comes from an estimate of current "proven reserves" against current extraction rates. But "proven reserves" are a very narrowly defined category that is almost meaningless for such a calculation and is far under the actual amount of crude oil out there. How do I know that? The level of officially estimated "proven reserves" has been steadily increasing for years. Quite a few of the other numbers are either based on things that are not well known such as what is the actual number of species in the world (btw, human activities have definitely accelerated the extinction rate and I do not support that). Your Old Mate, Bahhhkley On Tue, 3 Dec 1996 01:46:11 -0800 (PST) bill mitchell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear pen-l if any of you are looking for a bit of instant depression, a quick reason to become vegetarian, a quick reason to ransack your capitalist employer's capital, and more check out this site http://www.igc.apc.org/millennium/inds/ it is a site of leading world indicators with back up material and graphs and tables etc. for example: World Population:5,802,373,546 Years Until Insufficient Land - Northern Diet: 9 Years Until Insufficient Land - Southern Diet: 40 Species Extinctions Per Day: 104 Years Until 1/3 Of Species Are Lost: 10 Years Until Half of Crude Oil Is Gone: 4 Years Until 80% of Crude Oil Is Gone: 24 Percent Antarctic Ozone Depletion: 70+ Carbon Dioxide, Years Until Doubling: 61 Water Availability (000 cubic meters/person/year): 10 (estimate) each has a link to more detailed analysis of the specific indicator. chilling really (except the link on carbon dioxide which is all about global warming!!) kind regards bill -- ## William F. Mitchell ### Head of Economics Department #University of Newcastle New South Wales, Australia ###* E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ###Phone: +61 49 215065 # ## ###+61 49 215027 Fax: +61 49 216919 ##http://econ-www.newcastle.edu.au/~bill/billyhp.html "only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money." (Cree Indian saying...circa 1909) -- Rosser Jr, John Barkley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7694] Tenured and Untouchable . . .
HEADLINE: Tenured and Untouchable . . . SECTION: comment PUBLICATION DATE: 12/3/96 By William H. Wallace The Post's editorial ["Touching the Tenure Button," Nov. 14] calls attention to a pervasive problem in our system of higher education. It is encouraging to note that cracks are beginning to appear in the wall. Out of this debate must come a new system of accountability and uniform and enforceable standards of performance for tenured as well as non-tenured faculty. The elimination of this outrageous system as we have known it would enhance the efficiency and productivity, as well as the quality of higher education in America. As the academic community attempts to downsize and make itself more relevant to the world it serves, tenured faculties are able to stand in the way of badly needed changes and improvements in curricula -- changes that are necessary responses to the changing needs of the community. As one who has spent a number of years in universities -- as a faculty member and as dean of a business school (Old Dominion University) -- as well as many years in the world of business and finance, I have seen academics from inside and out. I believe the tenure system is a cancer on our system of higher education which perpetuates incompetence, ignores unproductive performance and exacts an enormous cost from taxpayers and other supporters of our educational institutions. In my role as dean, I found that, the faculty fought every proposal to improve the academic program -- not because of substance, but simply because the proposals represented change. Change in itself is a threat to faculty members in an environment that does not demand accountability in terms of either teaching quality or research output once the tenure decision has been made. Personal and professional ethics also suffer in the process. It was my experience that faculty members under circumstances without effective review and accountability can be, and often are, neglectful and sometimes even abusive of their students -- the paying customers. Financial circumstances in many public and private universities today require downsizing, which could yield positive results by both consolidating and upgrading programs. Yet university presidents are powerless in the face of belligerent faculties that threaten them with votes of no-confidence. All too often, university governing boards simply look for the course of least resistance, and do not back those presidents who are trying to meet mandates of change and efficiency. Recent events suggest, however, that this may be changing. Members of the academy react to proposed changes in the tenure system with varying degrees of outrage. The first argument heard is that tenure preserves academic freedom, and indeed, we are hearing it today. In fact, the system works in quite the opposite way. Rather than being protected by it, young and promising non-tenured faculty members often find that if their views are not in sync with the tenured members of their faculty, they cannot obtain tenure. In this way, tenured facilities control the ideological identities of their departments. The second argument of faculties is that tenure ensures the sovereignty of the faculty in matters of university governance. But the practical effect of this situation is that it enables the faculty to control and, if it wishes, prevent change. Both are perverse uses of tenure, in my judgment. State legislatures and university governing boards all over the country should wake up to what they are paying for and look at the value received. Even if currently tenured members were grandfathered, faculties of the future should be required to conform to a system of employment contracts under which their performance is evaluated before their contracts are renewed. The academic profession, like any other, should reward its outstanding performers. It should make their efforts worthwhile and encourage their professional development. But like other professions, it should recognize market and societal demands for change. It should also cull out its nonperformers, who have given higher education a bad image and who hide under the lifetime employment protection of tenure. The writer, an economic and financial consultant, is a former college teacher and administrator. --- Copyright 1996, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be archived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Corporation ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
[PEN-L:7696] FW: Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1996: BLS News Advisory: "BLS to Hold Technical Background Briefing on December 3" points out that BLS Commissioner Katharine G. Abraham will hold a technical background briefing on issues related to the construction of the CPI Tuesday, December 1 at 2 p.m. in the Conference Center, Room 1, 2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E. The purpose is to assist reporters who anticipate writing about the Final Report of the Advisory Commission to Study the CPI, scheduled for release December 4. The Commissioner will not discuss nor comment upon the report itself. Rather she will discuss the Bureau's program of scheduled improvements in the CPI, together with the Bureau's ongoing CPI research and development activities. Congressional leaders Sunday called for a revision of the government's main inflation measure, to smooth the way to a balanced budget deal. Leaders from both parties urged the White House to move quickly to adopt recommentions due in a report to be released Wednesday by the Senate Finance Committee. The report, by a bipartisan commission headed by economist Michael Boskin, is expected to say that the CPI overstates the inflation rate by up to 2 percentage points. BLS agrees the index may be flawed. On big problem: the way quality of goods is measured. If quality is improving, while prices remain the same, consumer actually are getting more for their money. But fixing those problems will take time, says Katharine Abraham, the bureau's commissioner. "There's still a lot of work and research" to do. And any changes in the CPI may not deliver the budget windfall sought by Congress, says a consultant with High Frequency Economics (USA Today, page 1, page 15A). __OMB Director Raines recommends that congressional Republicans and the White House settle on the best economic assumptions for the fiscal '98 budget, whether they are administion's projections, those of the Congressional Budget Office, or numbers in between. Several potentially thorny issues may arise in the budget debate, among them whether the existing measurement of inflation overstates reality. A bipartisan commission studying the CPI is expected to release its findings, including an expected recommendation to adjust the CPI downward. Raines said the White House would be "supportive" of efforts to improve the accuracy of the CPI, but he carefully drew a distinction between the technical accuracy of the index and desires among some lawmakers to legislate a downward revision to the CPI as a part of the budget plan. As the White House has in the past, Raines threw himself behind BLS, which is in the process of revising the inflation index. Legislating a downward change in the measure of inflation, as advocated by some lawmakers in both parties, would reduce entitlement benefit payments and raise some taxes. While that would save the Treasury billions of dollars a year, it would be politically unpopular in many quarters (Daily Labor Report, November 27, page A-4). Fed Chairman Alan Greespan tells anyone who will listen that the U.S. economy is doing better than government statistics suggest. Now he has some new Fed-generated research to back him up. Greenspan argues that official measures also understate the pace of which productivity has been improving. "With all the extraordinary technological advances of the past couple of decades," Greenspan asked in a speech last month, "why have our recent productivity data failed to register an improvement?" One reason, he said, is that government statistics miss "major gains...in the quality choice and availability of goods and services." Another is that it takes a very long time "for our newest innovations to work their way into the nation's infrastructure in a productive manner." By overstating price increases in some sectors of the economy, Fed economists Lawrence Slifman and Carol Corrado conclude, official statistics have understated increases in production of goods and services. The argument bolsters Greenspan's frequent assertion that the CPI overstates the rate of inflation. Government economists who oversee productivity calculations aren't confinced by the Fed analysis. "We do not think that research economists have presented clear evidence that productivity growth rates are substantially underestimated," said Edwin Dean, associate commissioner for productivity and technology at BLS. Among other things, he questions the Fed's techniques for combining data that the government collects on business production with data collected separately on business income. (The Wall Street Journal, November 27, page A2). Recessions no longer seem as inevitable, as the nation and policymakers react quickly to changes, says The Washington Post (page A1), in an article by John M. Berry. Both inflation and joblesslessness remain relatively low, says Berry. Economists, such as Fed Vice Chairman
