Dennis R Redmond wrote:
Mark, I hate to break the news to you, but in 1990 a little thing called the
Berlin Wall was bulldozed by, well, some revolutionaries. Germany's
11% unemployment is due to the collapse of the GDR economy; unemployment
is 18% and higher in the ex-GDR, and many of those
It is much more useful to look at PPP measures of per
capita GDP rather than just per capita GDP, although they
remain very imperfect. Although Doug Henwood has said that
PPP overstates living standards in poor countries.
Probably not so. Ask yourself if someone could actually
live
Doug,
Would you say the same critical things about the UN's
Quality of Life Index (QLI)? BTW, those have generally
shown pretty good conditions for officially socialist
countries. Cuba does pretty well compared with other Latin
American nations. They even had North Korea about even
Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote:
Although Doug Henwood has said that
PPP overstates living standards in poor countries.
Probably not so.
I didn't say that. I said using PPP shrinks the apparent income gap between
rich and poor countries, which is of some ideological use to the capitalist
oinkers.
The bottom line, in my book at least, is that measures of the quality of
life (QLI) are efforts to gauge use-value, while measures of GDP, whether
deflated using a price index, the current exchange rate, or the PPP
exchange rate, are measures of exchange-value.
Under capitalism, it is the
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Subject:Re: Marxism and the Indians of Peru, part 2
You need a long spoon to sup with the IBRD, it's true. However,
propaganda which relies upon publicly abandoning the most significant
indicator of market-driven progress is pretty double-edged. It's
tacitly abandoning the capitalist dream altogether.
Doug, do you know any insiders at
Jim,
My only disagreement is when you say that PPP measures
long-run power. PPP generally shows poorer countries not
as far behind richer countries as do official GDP stats.
But that is because of the non-marketed component. But as
you yourself noted, the GDP component reflects
On Tue, 17 Mar 1998, Mark Jones wrote:
Dennis, what actually ARE your politics?
Oh, I'm a Marxist who swears allegiance to the Transitional Program of
Grouchoism, whose main principle is that the first act of the revolution
will be a mass pie-in at all the boardrooms and corporate offices at
At 10:13 PM 3/17/98 +0800, Anthony D'Costa wrote:
What gibberish--the world-system with a hyphen is an obsession of those
Wallersteininian folks. Since when has nation states vanished and therefore
national competitiveness? It is premature to write off the state.
Regardless of whether you're a
At 05:36 p.m. 3/17/98 -0500, Barkley wrote:
Jim,
My only disagreement is when you say that PPP measures
long-run power. PPP generally shows poorer countries not
as far behind richer countries as do official GDP stats.
I was referring to the fact that the actual exchange rates fluctuate
In a message dated 98-03-17 05:07:29 EST, you write:
definitely was going to sink?
However, if you consult the archives of Marxism-International, you will
see that the alternatives are what we talk about all the time.
M
Good, I am glad someone has it all worked out then.
forwarded by Michael Hoover
IBM's board of directors thanked chairman and CEO Louis Gerstner for
restoring Wall Street's faith in the company with a $4.5 million bonus
and stock options in 1997, according to a financial statement filed
Monday.
Last year's bonus marks a 38 percent increase
But the subtext, Dennis, is that there is ONE capitalist
world-system and analysis has to BEGIN WITH the totality, and that
MARXIST problematic immediately factors out the relevance of your
obsession with nation-states, national competitiveness and other
sub-spenglerian themes.
What
Quoth Dennis, following a nearly unsolicited confession:
Speaking of the devil, Warren Buffet recently turned bullish, a sure sign
of imminent market doom. Anyone want to bet when the business cycle is
going to turn? My crystal ball sez, it's already started, only in Asia
instead of
BLS DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1998:
Energy prices continued their nose dive in February, helping to
eliminate inflation at the wholesale level as measured by the Producer
Price Index for Finished Goods, which fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1
percent for the month, BLS reported (Daily Labor
Ricardo Duchesne wrote:
Alternative? For the Latin American left today this type of
revolutionary politics has long been discredited. Che may still be
respected but his strategy is not. Have you not heard the term "new
social movements"?
ricardo
Unfortunately the Latin American Left has
I fully agree with Doug and said so up front that
there are all kinds of problems in measuring these. He
gave some good examples why.
What is now HDI used to be called QLI. Sorry for the
confusion.
BTW, compared to Denmark, etc. another reason the US
looks better on PPP than
Rosser Jr, John Barkley wrote:
Would you say the same critical things about the UN's
Quality of Life Index (QLI)? BTW, those have generally
shown pretty good conditions for officially socialist
countries. Cuba does pretty well compared with other Latin
American nations. They even had
Funny that no one should mention the UNDPs HDI (or did I miss it?). The
Human Develpoment Indicator comes up with a 0 to 1 figure, based on
indicators of health, income and eduaction. Health is a composite of infant
mortality, life expectancy, etc.; income is PPP'd; while literacy and
schooling
Mark Jones wrote:
The fact is that GDP does not correlate in any definite way to welfare.
Even the World Bank recognises this, since it doesn't rely on GDP figures any
more as an idnex of client welfare. The trend to replace GDP with GPI (Genuine
Progress Indicator) ...
You've got to be
One of my reservations about the PPP technique is that I'm convinced that
the IMF and such use it to make global comparisons less embarrassing.
Zimbabwe's PPP at $2,030 sounds a lot better than its cash income at $540
(World Bank figures). Even so, Zim's PPP income was 8.6% of the US's in
1987,
I know this is going to sound hackneyed, but isn't 'And your alternative?'
more or less what Ismay asked the captain when told the Titanic
definitely was going to sink?
However, if you consult the archives of Marxism-International, you will
see that the alternatives are what we talk about all
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