[PEN-L:8849] Thus Spoke Krugman
I was catching up on my NYT Sunday reading in our public library, and I caught a wonderful quote from Krugman. In an article comparing Krugman and Thurrow, Krugman says that Thurrow is full of it if he thinks that moving manufacturing to Third World counties was pushing down U.S. wages. According to Krugman, if you shift machines to Mexico rather than the U.S., why wouldn't it bring Mexican wages up rather than bringing U.S. wages down? "If a Mexican worker's output goes from one widget to ten widgets a day, his wages rise to that level. If you strip the story down, this is the only explanation that makes sense." I'm glad that reality doesn't get in the way of his "empiricist" mathmatical models. Anders Schneiderman Progressive Communications
[PEN-L:8848] Summer research position available
Dear Pen-L'rs, please circulate as appropriate to graduate students and others who may be interested in this: The National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives is seeking a short-term, full-time researcher for the summer months of 1997 to assist with a forthcoming annotated bibliography of "alternative proposals for a different society", including ecological visions, market socialist proposals, non-market socialist proposals, reform-within-capitalism, utopian fiction, combinations thereof, etc. This researcher should have strong reading and communication skills in either French or German and preferably both, as the goal will be to cover European sources and conversations. Preference will be given to applicants with strong background in radical political economy, democratic theory/ constructive political theory, ecological issues, and contemporary political-economic debates in general. A substantial (i.e. liveable) but not lavish stipend will be paid to the person hired, and it is envisioned that the researcher will be credited as a contributing co-author to the completed bibliography. Interested applicants may contact Thad Williamson via email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call Dawn Nakano at 202-835-1150. The priority application deadline is March 31, but the search will continue until the position is filled. Many thanks for your help-- Thad Thad Williamson National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives (Washington)/ Union Theological Seminary (New York) 212-531-1935 http://www.northcarolina.com/thad
[PEN-L:8847] Bankers Knew About Gold, Swiss Critic Says (fwd)
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 11:14:23 +0200 Subject: Bankers Knew About Gold, Swiss Critic Says Mercredi 5 Mars 1997-International Herald Tribune -par INTERVIEW, Jean Ziegler - Bankers Knew About Gold, Swiss Critic Says Q A Jean Ziegler, member of Parliament Jean Ziegler, a Socialist member of the Swiss Parliament and a professor of Sociology at the University of Geneva, has been a critic of the Swiss banking system and what he calls the country's "petrif'ied" concept of neutrality. He favors abolishing bank secrecy law;s and is the author of a forthcoming book, ?Switzerland, the Gold and the Dead.? In Geneva, Mr. Ziegler spoke with Robert Kroon for the International Herald Tribune. Q. In your forthcoming book you claim that World War II would have ended a year earlier if Switzerland had not sustained the Third Reich?s wartime economy. Isn?t that a bit of an overstatement? A. Absolutely not. I got access to some fascinating wartime archives from the Nazi Foreign Ministry at Wilhelmstrasse, which survived the destruction of Berlin. A 1943 document, signed by Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Walter Funk, Hitler?s economics chief, unequivocally states that without Switzerland?s help, the economy would collapse within two months. This refers to Switzerland as a laundering place for hundreds of tons of gold stolen from Poland, Czechoslovakia and later Holland, Belgium and the concentration camp victims. The Nazis desperately needed Swiss francs to buy raw materials for their war industry and in those days nobody wanted Reichsmarks. Hitler was very pleased with our so-called neutrality. Q. The Swiss Central Bank has said the ingots were stamped with Reichsbank markings, so they were not aware of the origins. Does that make sense to you? A. This is utter nonsense. In 1939 the Reichsbank president, Hjalmar Schacht, was fired for warning Hitler that Germany?s gold reserves were depleted and the country was facing bankruptcy. This was no secret to central bankers anywhere, least of all in Bern. The first ship ments of Polish gold carried false Reichsbank stamps, but the laundering operation went so smoothly that after 1940 the Nazis no longer bothered about such technicalities. Part of the 150 tons of ingots looted from the Netherlands arrived in Bern in its original state, or with French and American markings, because the Dutch Central Bank also held monetary gold from those countries. The Americans knew about all this through Allen Dulles, their spymaster in Bern. He had been a savvy Wall Street lawyer and cultivated excellent connections with Swiss bankers and politicians. The Allies warned us in 1943 that Switzerland would be held accountable after the war for its Nazi gold dealings, but they never stopped. Q. Wasn?t this the price Switzerland had to pay for keeping the Germans out? A. We might have been annexed if we hadn?t played ball. But at least, our wartime rulers should have come clean after the war. They should have accounted for their collaboration with Hitler and for delivering tens of thousands of Jewish refugees to the SS. Q. Quite a few Swiss politicians think a sudden confrontation with the past may shake the nation out of what some see as a state of complacency. A. I doubt it. The banks have opened their books to the Volcker Commission and put up a fund for Holocaust victims. Calling that a humanitarian gesture is sheer hypocrisy. It was the result of international pressure and not a long-overdue admission. Perhaps you cannot blame the Swiss for feeling like God?s chosen people, because we have had no foreign invaders since Napoleon. But in almost 200 years of peace our democracy has become petrified. We stand isolated, because neutrality is thoroughly irrelevant in today?s world. Switzerland should join the United Nations and the European Union. We must become part of the European family and accept its common laws. History has caught up with us but, unfortunately, too many Swiss still believe this crisis will blow over and then we?ll again live happily forever after.
[PEN-L:8845] Overworked and Underemployed
Barry Bluestone and Stephen Rose's article, "Unraveling an Economic Enigma: Overworked and Underemployed", in the March-April issue of American Prospect, is available online at: http://epn.org/prospect/31/31bluefs.html The copyright notice permits re-transmission of the article in its entirety. But because the file is about 45k, I won't send it out to the list. Just a teaser paragraph: "Based on a new analysis of the data, we have found that Americans are indeed working longer than they once did, if not quite as much as Schor would have us believe. But, more importantly, we have also found that many Americans are both overworked and underemployed. Because of growing job instability, workers face a "feast and famine" cycle: They work as much as they can when work is available to compensate for short workweeks, temporary layoffs, or permanent job loss that may follow. What's more, while American families as a whole are putting in more time, that work isn't producing significant increases in living standards. For the typical two-breadwinner household, having both parents work longer hours may not mean an extra trip to Disney World or nicer clothes for school; more likely, it means keeping up car payments or just covering the costs of food and housing." 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:8846] A split-screen American Gothic
== Do our national pathologies spring wholly from economic determinism? I suspect that our revolution is expiring in homeless shelters and bus stations - with no assist from Pope or Czar, Metternich or Guizot, French Radicals or German police spies - driven there by the abiding ice in the American family's heart. Dogs and cats know better. valis Occupied America From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] by emout12.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) id CAA09368; Tue, 4 Mar 1997 02:24:51 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 02:24:51 -0500 (EST) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Fwd: Mayor Saddened at Cousin's Death fyi Chuck Currie Burnside Advocates Group - Forwarded message: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 97-03-03 23:23:00 EST HTMLPREI.c The Associated Press/I/PRE/HTML By MICHELLE EMERY CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Mayor Bill Veroneau was saddened by the story of a homeless man found dead in a snowbank. But he was shocked to learn the man was his cousin, who had been living under a bridge less than a mile from City Hall. David Martel, 52, was in his dirt-floored, concrete cubbyhole under the Water Street bridge when he had a heart attack Feb. 13. He managed to crawl up a hill before he collapsed and died. ``I just think it's a tragedy,'' the 66-year-old mayor said Monday. ``I guess that's the luck of the draw. Those kind of stories are everywhere.'' Though the men were a study in contrasts - one a successful businessman and politician, the other living on the streets and dying penniless - Veroneau and Martel led similar, promising lives when they were young. They grew up in the same house, went to the same school, served in the military and attended college. Martel was a member of the high school debate team and secretary of his graduating class. He earned a degree in communications from Boston's Emerson College and served in Vietnam. After the war, Martel returned to the Concord area and worked part-time as a broadcaster at two radio stations. But his life apparently started falling apart in the late 1980s, after his mother died, Veroneau said. Martel's father died in the 1940s. At the time of his death, Martel had been homeless for nine years. He and Veroneau were never particularly close, partly because of the 14-year age gap. Veroneau said the last time he spoke to Martel, a decade ago, he had an apartment. When Martel died, city officials were unable to locate any relatives, so they had the body cremated and shipped the ashes to Bourne National Cemetery in Massachusetts. Ten days after Martel's death, the Concord Monitor told his story on the front page. That was the first that Veroneau knew of his cousin's fate. ``When I read the article, I said, `Oh, brother!''' he said. ``It's kind of hard to describe.'' Martel's aunt, Claire Breckell of Boscawen, said she didn't know he was homeless until she read of his death. She doesn't know why Martel, an only child, didn't call family when he lost a place to live. ``I think the war changed him or something,'' Breckell said. ``I really don't know what the matter was.'' Martel created a family of his own under the bridge, where he was known as the ``innkeeper'' of 14 cement cubicles. Other people turned to him when they needed a place to sleep, food or cheering up. He also studied the law: A filing cabinet full of his handwritten briefs, law books and cases remains in one of the cubicles under the bridge. Most of the papers are about one case - a 1995 ruling barring him from the state law library because he smelled, constituting a ``nuisance to others.'' Convicted of criminal trespassing, Martel felt he was a victim of discrimination and was fighting for a new trial. Even in death, Martel doesn't have a home. The cemetery on Cape Cod sent the ashes back because they were in a cardboard box rather than an urn. Now the box is in transit somewhere between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Veroneau wants it so he can bury Martel's remains in a family plot in Concord. ``It's disturbing to think of a family member in that kind of situation,'' he said. ``Maybe he just felt disenfranchised from the family.''
[PEN-L:8844] Teamsters organizing McDonald's in Quebec
The Globe and Mail Report on Business March 6, 1997 TEAMSTERS TAKING ANOTHER RUN AT A MCDONALD'S OUTLET By Konrad Yakabuski, Quebec Bureau Employees at a McDonald's restaurant near Montreal hope to succeed where their forerunners twice failed by asking Quebec's Ministry of Labour to recognize their union. If successful, the 62 workers at the fast-food franchise in St-Hubert, Que., will become the first McDonald's employees in North America to unionize. Two previous union drives--in 1993 and 1994--failed to win support from a majority of employees at McDonald's outlets in Longueuil, Que., and Orangeville, Ont. Toronto-based McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd. and its franchisees have vigorously resisted unionization. During previous attempts to organize, militant workers charged that their hours were cut to make way for more docile employees. The employer has also stalled unionization on technical grounds, objecting, for example, to the size of the bargaining unit. But local 973 of the Teamsters Union, which is seeking certification on behalf of the St-Hubert restaurant workers, is confident of victory this time and expects to organize employees at least a dozen more McDonald's outlets in the region within weeks. Fifty-one of the 62 workers--or 82 per cent of the St-Hubert restaurant's work force--signed the request for union certification, Teamsters officials said at a press conference in Montreal yesterday. That compares with only 53 per cent of the workers who sought certification with an affiliate of the Quebec Federation of Labour in 1993 at the Longueuil outlet. By the time Quebec's Labour Ministry ordered a vote on the request, however, support among employees had dropped to barely 40 per cent. "The difference this time around is that we made sure we had a solid majority from the start," said Louis Fournier, a spokesman for the labour federation to which the Quebec Teamsters belong. "So, we're confident that it will go through this time." Mr. Fournier added that employee turnover at the Longueuil outlet, which is on Montreal's South Shore, was very high, because the majority of its workers were students. Many of those behind the union drive had left before the matter was put to a formal vote, he said. The same problem is unlikely to arise at the St-Hubert outlet. The average age of its employees is more than 30 and the majority of them work full- time. The Teamsters began a new union drive on Montreal's South Shore last fall when it became clear that most of the grievances that prompted the Longueuil employees to seek certification had gone unaddressed at other McDonald's outlets. They include low wages and a failure by employers to compensate workers for overtime. Many workers said they are required to arrive up to 30 minutes before the beginning of their shift--without pay--to prepare machines and other equipment. One 30-year-old St-Hubert employee, Martin Tremblay, told reporters that after six years at the outlet he still only makes $6.90 an hour, or 20 cents more than Quebec's minimum wage of $6.70. McDonald's Quebec head office yesterday referred calls to a Montreal public relations firm. Late yesterday, the firm issued a brief but nebulous statement on behalf of the owners of the St-Hubert franchise, brothers Tom and Mike Cappelli. "The case of our restaurant is an isolated case," the statement said. "As local businessmen and members of the McDonald's franchisee community, we will continue to maintain an open-door policy with our employees in order to guarantee good communication." The St-Hubert employees' application for certification is now in the hands of the Quebec's Commissaire general du travail. The body, which is within the Labour Ministry, can choose to automatically certify the union if it has proof that support for certification is widespread, or request a formal vote by all employees. Mr. Fournier said he could not estimate how long it would take for the Labour Ministry to rule on the application. "That will depend on the objections McDonald's tries to raise," he said. "Corporate lawyers always have many resources at their disposal to stall the process." The Quebec Federation of Labour already represents workers at several fast-food restaurants in the province, including outlets belonging to Harvey's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Tim Horton's.
[PEN-L:8843] Two queries
Dear Penlrs, Does anyone know roughly what percentage of the U.S. stock market is made up of pension funds? Are similar figures available for 401ks? Thanks, Anders Schneiderman Progressive Communications
Re: 'Open the Social Sciences'
At 11:52 AM 3/5/97 +, David Byrne wrote: Finally, there is a serious addressing of the issue of the collapse of disciplinary boundaries in relation to =91fields=92 as the objective of social science. If I have a criticism of the report it is that it really only recognizes developments in the academy here. In other words it emphasizes fields of the kind represented by =91Area Studies=92 and doesn=92t recognize the profound significance of the application of the social sciences to areas of policy implementation. In the UK =91Urban Studies=92 and =91Health Studies=92 stand in this kind of relationship to the academy. In relation to this omission, the report singularly fails to address the issues raised by the conception of social science as =91action-research=92 - the role of the soal scientist in active transformation of that which is the object of study. The report is outstandingly clear on the antinomies of past / present and nomothetic / idiographic, but really doesn=92t handle at all the antinomy of pure / applied and the related but distinctive antinomy of engaged / observational. I have written this piece because the report does seem profoundly important. Obviously it is an immediate response and subject to modification in detail but I would appreciate other=92s views as they read the document. The main intention locally at least, is to get people to read the thing for themselves. While I share the report's recommendations to abolish the institutional boundaries in social science, I also believe that the narrative of the social science development, as told by the report's authors, ends too soon, namely in the late 1970s and then only selectively focuses on the input of feminist and pomo critique of positivism. By so doing, it misses an important and extremely onerous development that occurred, or rather accelerated, during the 1980s and 1990s. Had they taken those developments seriously, their optimism for the development of a universalistic science would have been muted, and the report would have taken a more alarming= flavour. The development in question is what call "epistemological privatisation of knowledge." To understand what epistemological privatisation of knowledge is, let us contrast it with its opposite, the ontological privatisation of subject matter -- as described in the historical narrative of the report. The development of idiosyncratic sciences, or Geisteswissenschaften, was accomplish through the following theory-building strategy. First, certain areas of the subject matter were ontologically separated from other areas of the subject matter. The former which, using Max Weber's terminology, can be described as "historical individuals" called for the use of different methods of study (namely historical analysis and description, focus on their uniqueness, etc.) than the other subject matter area that can be characterised, using Leibniz terminology, as the "population of monads" or virtually identical elements which required nomothetic methods of analysis (i.e. aiming at uncovering universal laws governing the behaviour of those monads). However, these two different methodologies were supposed to produce a universally valid and recognised knowledge. =20 This theory building approach, known as hermeneutics or learning something that is universal from the insight into what is particular, can be schematically represented as follows: ontological separation of subject matter: Historical individuals vs. population of monads | | | | produces two different methodological approaches: idiographic methodsvs.nomothetic methods (Geisteswissenchaften)(natural sciences) \ / \ / which merge of the epistemological level as: universal and intersubjectively accepted knowledge (even if pretences to universalism are parochial). This is the process the Gulbenkian Comission describes in its historical narrative. The narrative ends in late 1970s when the challenges to the ontological (and institutional) separation of the subject matters were challenged from the epistemological positions. That is: different viewpoints produce different classification of what is, in fact, a single subject matter. Therefore, why do not we pull those different point of view together is a form of a dialog to produce a better, that is, more universalistic, knowledge of that single subject matter? While based on their historical narrative, Wallerstein Co. call for a greater universalism in social sciences, the production of science itself took a sharp turn in the opposite direction to that depicted in the narrative -- toward the epistemological privatisation of knowledge. Unlike the hermeneutical approach described above, the anti-hermeneutic approach of
[PEN-L:8842] CPI for those over 65
Can anyone provide me with a cite showing that the CPI for those over 65 has been rising more rapidly than the overall CPI? I know Trudy Renwick had figures for women and other groups, but I don't know where her Public Utility Law Project is and don't know if she has figures for the general population over 65. Our newspaper here favors the cuts in Social Security to match an "accurate" CPI. Marianne Hill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:8841] Re: wealth distribution query
You need to get Eddie Wolff's book on Wealth published by the 20th Century Fund. I borrowed data from that source and put it in "The Political Economy of Economic Justice" (McGraw Hill 1996) available from them for $4.50. Also See the latest EPI version of the State of Working America and The New Field Guide to the US Economy from the Center for Popular Economics.
[PEN-L:8840] Re: wealth distribution query
Check out the American Prospect webpage for Edward Wolf's article analyzing wealth distribution through the 1980s. He draws from the Survey of Consumer Finances including the most recent round. The url is http://epn.org/prospect/22/22wolf.html. Dennis Breslin Uconn
[PEN-L:8839] Worldwide Economic And Political Chaos Marks Anniversary Of Stalin's
Today marks the forty-forth anniversary of the death of J.V. Stalin on March 5, 1953. Both Stalin and the first-ever socialist society in the world built by him are the targets of the most vicious anti-communist campaign on the part of U.S. imperialism and all of world reaction. It is important to question why this is the case. Today, the entire world is in utter economic and political chaos and there is chaos and anarchy in all other spheres. All the promises that a "free market economy" and "ideological and political pluralism" would be the harbingers of prosperity for all once "communism was overthrown," have been proven to be hollow indeed. Far from setting anything right, the financial oligarchy is pushing the world backwards towards medievalism at an increasingly rapid rate, attacking everything progressive with the aim of forever closing society's door to progress. The unprecedented crisis, the widespread anarchy and chaos and the unabashed medieval retrogression are profound indictments of what have been called "destalinization campaigns." Far from achieving democracy and freedom, all countries compelled to carry out "destalinization campaigns" are facing new forms of enslavement and exploitation. Leaving aside all the calumnies and slanders against J.V. Stalin, the truth remains that what Stalin fought for has to be fought for all over again if the workers and oppressed peoples of the world are to achieve real national and social liberation. Propagandists do their utmost to divert attention from the real achievements of socialism which ends the exploitation of persons by persons, by spreading all kinds of nonsense about the failures of what they call a "command economy" and "one-party state". There are no such things as "command economies" or "one-party states" in the manner they are spoken about. What was built under Stalin's leadership for the first time anywhere in the world was a socialist society in which the motive of production was the satisfaction of the ever-increasing material and cultural needs of the people. The political structure of such a socialist state was the rule of the working class and other working people who provided freedom and democracy to themselves and exercised their dictatorship over the remnants of all overthrown exploiting classes. The socialist Soviet Union of the working class and other working people opposed imperialism and all reaction and sympathized with and supported all struggles for national and social liberation. The anti-colonial movement developed rapidly under the influence of the revolutionary tide which developed as a result of the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union at that time. Such a Soviet Union was able to smash the Hitlerite Nazi invaders and liberate the whole of eastern Europe and other countries. Those who manipulated the discontent against the pseudo-socialist states which developed after the death of Stalin, in which the restoration of capitalism was causing great difficulties for the people, promised that "destalinization" would provide the people with freedom and democracy, economic prosperity and other rights. Which former so-called Stalinist country has seen any such results? The declaration of a "state of emergency" in Albania speaks volumes of what is happening in that country. And what about all the countries which were never so-called Stalinist? What is happening there? It is not only in the former Soviet Union and countries of eastern Europe where stories abound of bourgeois parties rigging elections, the influence of the financial oligarchy, mafia and other criminal elements in the polity, economic crisis and repression. What these self-serving "destalinization programs" achieved was the restoration of fascists and their collaborators, of revenge-seeking elements, of capitalist and imperialist exploiters. It is clear as clear can be that the working class and the broad masses of the people in the former Soviet Union and countries of eastern Europe have to carry out socialist revolutions in their countries if they are to provide themselves with freedom and democracy, economic prosperity and other rights. The experience of socialist revolution and construction under the leadership of Stalin will stand the workers and peoples of the entire world in good stead, rather than the negative experience of capitalist restoration which has created disaster for the peoples of the former Soviet Union and people's democracies. Communists call upon the working class and broad masses of the people not to be deceived by the reactionary anti-communist propaganda against Stalin. The issue is to look into their own conditions and work to open the door for the progress of the society, without getting diverted by the anti-communist self-serving propaganda of the imperialists and reactionaries. The real issue is to carry out the socialist revolution and construction with the working class in
