ten more countries to join euro
Peter Hain, at first described as somewhat eurosceptic, when appointed UK Europe Minister last year is increasingly making news items about Europe probably carefully crafted to manage media and public expectations no doubt under the guidance of Alistair Campbell, now that the war against the Taliban has been won. This news handle is to highlight the perception that 10 countries from Eastern Europe are on course to join the EU *and also the euro* as early as 1994. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4331594,00.html UK may be alone in Europe Chris Burford London
Re: state power theory of money
On Wednesday, January 9, 2002 at 20:03:44 (-0800) Steve Diamond writes: David Friedman, the anarcho-capitalist son of Milton, has a piece arguing for private money. ... This is the same idiot who in his book *Hidden Order* argues that Americans give gifts in non-cash form because of a hostility to money which he claims is typical of our society. (p. 331) Bill
RE: myth of the self-made man
Tom, since when do you examine sites that sell term papers to student plagiarists? -Original Message- From: Tom Walker To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 1/9/02 11:20 PM Subject: [PEN-L:21282] myth of the self-made man Deliberate or unconscious humour? http://www.ezwrite.com/Store/itemdetail.asp?IDNO=116 http://www.ezwrite.com/Store/itemdetail.asp?IDNO=116 Tom Walker
Re: Re: state power theory of money
Back in the 1960s, I spent a couple of afternoons with him at his apartment. He had a good sense of humor. He also thought that his father was too liberal. He wanted to abolish the FDA. Companies that sold bad medicine would be punished in the market place. William S. Lear wrote: On Wednesday, January 9, 2002 at 20:03:44 (-0800) Steve Diamond writes: David Friedman, the anarcho-capitalist son of Milton, has a piece arguing for private money. ... This is the same idiot who in his book *Hidden Order* argues that Americans give gifts in non-cash form because of a hostility to money which he claims is typical of our society. (p. 331) Bill -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Re: Re: state power theory of money
Michael Perelman writes: Back in the 1960s, I spent a couple of afternoons with him [David Friedman, son of Milton] at his apartment. He had a good sense of humor. He also thought that his father was too liberal. He wanted to abolish the FDA. Companies that sold bad medicine would be punished in the market place. The MF himself suggests that we get rid of the Food Drug Administration in his CAPITALISM FREEDOM. Once you've discovered that Thalidomide led to the horrible birth defects of your child, you refuse to buy that product again, so that the company eventually pulls the product from the market, bowing to the sovereign consumer... In reality, what would happen is that a lot of people would sue. The FDA seems aimed at protecting Pharma (both Big Small) from law-suits. A lot of US government regulations seem to fit this description (rather than being an expression of the will of the people). Unless it's through law-suits (and their avoidance) that the will of the people is expressed? Jim D.
RE: Re: Re: state power theory of money
I believe that the father has also advocated for abolishen of the FDA. While I don't agree with father or son on this at all, I do think it can be argued that in addition (but not instead of) its regulatory role, the FDA would serve the public interest a lot better by providing a lot more information about the products it regulates. If individual drug companies are allowed to promote drug directly to the consumer the FDA should also be obligated to present balanced information about those same drugs, including information about non-drug or cheaper drug alternative that might be just as good, including much wider publicity of the information that FDA accumulates on adverse drug reactions or ineffective drugs through post-market surveillance and post-market clinical studies. Such a role is very consistent with the whole Arrow, Stigletz, Alerloff stuff about information asymmetry, etc. (and one would think with the Friedman father and son if they really believe in the virtues of perfect markets) Of course it won't happen in the U.S. without a lot of agitation because, if done right, this would dramatically reduce drug industry profits. In the early days of the tobacco wars, there was a period during which tobacco companies were allowed to continue advertising on TV but anti-smoking ads were also put on the air during prime time. This has been shown to be the single most effective approach to reducing smoking. After a while this policy was substituted by ban on tobacco advertising along with a major decrease in the anti-smoking ads. If I remember correctly, the latter coincided with decisions that TV stations had no obligation to carry public service announcements as part of the to serve the public interest component of their license. The current situation is coming close to ludicrous. The other day I noticed a direct to consumer ad for Lipitor followed immediately by one for Zocar. Hey, you can't take them both! (For those who don't know, these are two of the best selling statin drugs for the control of high cholesterol). -Original Message- From: Michael Perelman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 10:51 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:21288] Re: Re: state power theory of money Back in the 1960s, I spent a couple of afternoons with him at his apartment. He had a good sense of humor. He also thought that his father was too liberal. He wanted to abolish the FDA. Companies that sold bad medicine would be punished in the market place. William S. Lear wrote: On Wednesday, January 9, 2002 at 20:03:44 (-0800) Steve Diamond writes: David Friedman, the anarcho-capitalist son of Milton, has a piece arguing for private money. ... This is the same idiot who in his book *Hidden Order* argues that Americans give gifts in non-cash form because of a hostility to money which he claims is typical of our society. (p. 331) Bill -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FW: today's papers: The Enemy of My Enemy is My...Enemy
from SLATE: The NYT notes that six U.S. congressmen canceled a meeting with Arafat, citing an American intelligence briefing that they said proved Arafat was personally responsible for the attempt to smuggle munitions aboard the freighter Karine A. These guys are nailed, said one congressman. Let me tell you the level it rises to: 100 percent certainty that Arafat was personally involved. 100 percent certainty that it was intended for the Palestinian Authority. I don't get this: doesn't the Palestinian Authority have an army and a police force? isn't normal for organizations like that to buy arms? doesn't the Israeli state import arms? if the PA can't arm its security forces, how can it suppress the violence of Hamas, etc.? why in heck is this a big flap? all of the above are rhetorical questions, not needing answers. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
RE: state power theory of money
the argument as it has been developed recently is that there are horizontal and vertical components of the money supply process. The horizontal component is the state money component. The vertical component covers most of these other instruments you refer to, which are basically understood as leveraging of state money. see Wray's UNDERSTANDING MODERN MONEY, Elgar, 1998 or my own A General Framework for the Analysis of Currencies and other Commodities in P. Davidson and J. Kregel, eds., FULL EMPLOYMENT AND PRICE STABILITY IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY, Edward Elgar, 1999. -Original Message- From: Steve Diamond [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 10:04 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:21277] state power theory of money David Friedman, the anarcho-capitalist son of Milton, has a piece arguing for private money. The problem I see with the state power/fiat money argument is that there are lots of instruments out there that should qualify as money that are not creatures of state creation. A recent article in one of the Hayekian journals actually makes this kind of argument in a discussion of money market funds - which, of course, have no reserve requirements. Stephen F. Diamond School of Law Santa Clara University [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Re: Re: state power theory of money
he wouldn't say his dad is too liberal, but too socialist. liberal for people like David Friedman means classical liberal or libertarian. by the way, for the austrian take on the state theory of money there is a good article by Selgin called On Assuring the Acceptability of a New Fiat Currency in Jl of Money, Credit and Banking, 1994. That is where I got the argument about fiat money being traceable back to a metalic standard. Also, Selgin had an article on How the Invisible Hand Would Handle Money in the JEL 1994. There is a whole free banking school that includes people like Selgin, Larry White, Steve Horwitz, etc. You can see why they see Uncle Miltie, who accepts a Central Bank, as not libertarian enough. -- From: Michael Perelman Back in the 1960s, I spent a couple of afternoons with him at his apartment. He had a good sense of humor. He also thought that his father was too liberal. He wanted to abolish the FDA. Companies that sold bad medicine would be punished in the market place.
re: myth of the self-made man
Jim Devine asked, Tom, since when do you examine sites that sell term papers to studentplagiarists? When I was a sessional instructor in the late 1980s I once encountered a plague of plagiarism in my class. I think the total number of offenders was eight or ten. Coincidentally, I also came across a lit critessay by Neil Hertz onthemoral instructionof punishingplagiarism. Hertz didn't say so but one might see an almost Franklinesque tone to the discourse on plagiarism. There arefurther ironic delights that may be had by juxtaposing the "essay-for-sale" on the plagiarism site to Franklin's essay on "The Way to Wealth." At theproverbial level, the student who buys one of those term papers is violating the principle of character buildingthat Benjamin prescribes. But at the structural level, the essay itself is a veritablewhirlpool of citation (and sometimes misattribution) that anticipates and satirizes the academic apparatus. The conceit is that the author of the "letter" is Poor Richard, who at the beginning of the essay mentions how he sometimes quotes himselfto set an example for others so thattheir citation mayelevate his literary authority. Poor Richard happens upon a public soliloquy being delivered by "Father Abraham" that consists entirely of sayings attributed to Poor Richard, "as Poor Richard says." At the conclusion of Abraham's speech, his audience (with the exception of Richard)approves of his moral instruction and proceeds to do the opposite. It is an open questionwhether Richard's compliance is a sign of his having been persuaded (by what were ultimately "his own words") or of his having been *implicated* by the profusion of his sayings. In other words, the "myth of the self-made man" is first and foremost a literary construction --and a conscious literary construction at that. Think also of Robinson Crusoe. Subsequent political and economic (mis)uses of the motif are suspect not simply because they are based on myth, nor because they are based on "bad", archaic ormisleadingmyth. They are suspect because they misrepresent the very myth upon which they are founded (often without attribution) -- an instance of plagiarism. Of course I am referring to "economic man" as one such instance of plagiarism.It isthrough such plagiarism that what originates as a democratic myth of character building can be falsely presented as a justification and defense of the devious ways and meansof an autocracy. I could go on but I have work to do. "Time is money," as Poor Richard advised. I'll close with three passages from the turn of the last century that retell and inflect the Franklinian myth of self-reliance from the vantage point of autocratic power. The first is from a National Association of Manufacturers' pamphlet, the second and third froma book published by a Washington public relations firm.All threewere produced as agitation against the eight-hour day. 1. "This is a strenuous life. The rewards are for those who work for them --a corollary of which is that the rewards are not for those who do not workfor them. The useful man in business -- and the laborer is a man of businessin his relations with his employer -- succeeds in making himself efficientand still more successful in proportion as he sees opportunities andembraces them. If these involve his rising early in the morning, he risesearly; if they mean that he must sit up late at night, he sits up late atnight. He lends his hand to the work that is before him, wherever it is andwhenever it is before him." 2. "Mr. Tynan in himself furnishes the finest of examples of what a willing,strong, self-reliant lad may do for himself in America. He left his home inCounty Tyrone, Ireland, ten years ago and came to this country without anacquaintance to welcome him anywhere in all its broad limits, He began workas a mechanic at 25 cents an hour for the Cramp company and has risensteadily to his present position, one of the most important in the yards.Mr. Tynan came to America a poor boy in the steerage of a common ship of thetimes. Within less than seven years he went back to British waters in chargeof one of the swiftest and finest of the " ocean greyhounds," the steamshipSt. Paul, built by the Cramps. From the very beginning of his connectionwith the yard, he worked overtime and his willingness in that respect withhis intelligence, strength and skill, brought him rapid advancement."3. "Mr. Tucker is a well-equipped native American, having had, before heentered the shop, training at one of the leading colleges of the land andhaving served in the shops with the commonest day laborers and having risento his present conspicuous and useful office through his own inherentaptness and sterling qualities of application and energy. He is a readyreliance to the masters and men of the yard in more ways than can be definedin the duties he is expected daily to discharge because of his
RE: FW: today's papers: The Enemy of My Enemy is My...Enemy
I had the same thought, but reportedly the shipment included C4 explosives and other implements that go well beyond the needs of a police force. Unless you think the PA feared aggression from Jordan. mbs I don't get this: doesn't the Palestinian Authority have an army and a police force? isn't normal for organizations like that to buy arms? doesn't the Israeli state import arms? if the PA can't arm its security forces, how can it suppress the violence of Hamas, etc.? why in heck is this a big flap? all of the above are rhetorical questions, not needing answers. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Fw: Re: Fw: confidential
- Original Message - From: jomo kambule [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 3:12 PM Subject: Re: Fw: confidential WHY ARE YOU SENDING THIS MESSAGE TO MANY PEOPLE? Karl Carlile [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Karl Carlile (Communist Global Group) Be free to join our communism mailing list at http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/ I received the following posting. I have forwarded it to various addresses: - Original Message - From: charles mosanga To: Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 3:24 PM Subject: confidential attn: Karl Carlile I am sending this message to you with the hope thayou will understand it's content and as well co-operate,as it will opportune us the privillage to establish mutuality and do to one another a life time favour.I got your contact from your country web. I am Charles Mosanga UGANDAN national.I do not intend to take you too much aback but ,I belive if you listen to the B.B.C. news or if you are conversant with the political events in Africa, then you should be aware of the assasination of the president of THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO President Laurent D. Kabila ,on tuesday the 16th of january 2001. This assasination was executed by my half brother COL.RACHID KAPENGA who's father hails from Congo.He was thepersonal bodyguard to the President.Prior to the president's death, my brother had surmmoned me and my mother to our family home in KAMPALA the Capital city of my Country .He showed to me certificate of deposit and other valuable documents belonging to a security company based in LOME the Capital city of TOGO inWest-Africa. He further disclosed to me that the President had secretly deposited the sum of Thirty Eight Million Seven Hundred Thousand United States Dollars($38,700,000.00) Without revealing to the security offcials the true contents of the consignment as it was deposited as a trunk box containing valuable and top secret governmental documents. He said the president had instructed him to quickly go to Lome and claim this money and hand it over to his friend president Charles Taylor of Liberia West-Africa for the purchase of ammunition to strengthen the military force of the Congo Army, following a percieved attack from the opposition forces of the United Anti Kabila Front . However,my brother was the president's most trusted guard and this gave him a direct access to the president's family and fortunately and as God will have it, a member of the Kabila family who was very close to my brother had earlier informed my brother that Mr Kabila was planning a massacre on all his opposition and might certainly extend to all his guards as he intends employing new ones for fear that his guards are too close to his family and as well know too much about his secrets. This is why my brother visited us in Uganda to hand us these documents and ask us to go to LOME and claim this money for our own use without telling us what his next intentions were as he was so much in a hurry to go back to Congo.I had barely arrived Lome when my mother called me to inform me that my brother went back and killed his boss, President Laurent D. Kabilla and as such he was equally killed by other guards who did not know what my brother knew. Now, with the new developement at hand no other person knows about this except my mother and myself and I intend to transfer these funds out of here as fast as I can that is why I am contacting you. If you are willing to assist me get these funds into your Country, I am willing to offer to you 15% of thetotal sum. I have succeeded in aquiring a mobile phone . Therefore,you can contact me on the telephone numbers (+228 9 035 155) or you can contact me on e:mail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I await your soonest response. Thanks and God bless. C. Mosanga __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ - Do You Yahoo!? Get personalised at My Yahoo!.
BLS Daily Report
DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 2002: RELEASED TODAY: The U.S. Import Price Index decreased 0.9 percent in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The decline followed drops of 1.4 percent and 2.3 percent in November and October, respectively. The Export Price Index also fell for the third consecutive month, down 0.2 percent in December. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped during the first week of the new year, the government reports today. The news suggested that the huge wave of layoffs triggered by the recession and the terrorist attacks may finally be abating. The Labor Department reports that new claims for unemployment fell by 58,000 last week to 395,000, the lowest level in 3 weeks. This improvement, which came after 2 weeks of big increases, was about 4 times the 14,000 decline that many private economists had been forecasting. Analysts said it could be a further sign that the labor market is stabilizing after the huge layoffs in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. On Friday the government reported that unemployment in December hit a 6-year high of 5.8 percent. However, the 124,000 jobs cut from business payrolls during December was sharply down from the 2 previous months when 800,000 Americans lost their jobs as travel-related businesses laid off thousands. A second report today shows that prices of imported goods remained well contained, falling by 0.9 percent in December, the seventh consecutive month that import prices have not increased. For the whole year, the Labor Department says, import prices were down by a record 8.9 percent, compared to an increase of 3.3 percent in 2000. The improvement reflected a big turnaround in petroleum prices, which had risen by 17.5 percent in 2000 but fell by 8.5 percent last year (Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press, http://nandotimes.com/business/story/215576p-2080668c.html). The recession has been tough for everyone, but for many blacks and Hispanics, the economic pain has been even sharper, writes Deborah Kong, Associated Press http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/214661p-2073497c.html). Experts say that's because those two groups tend to be the last hired and the first fired. Blacks and Hispanics have also been particularly vulnerable to the recession because many work in manufacturing, air transportation, hotels and temporary employment services -- industries that have been among the hardest hit by the downturn, some minority advocates say. The recession's blow to minorities was highlighted in the latest national unemployment report, released Friday. For Hispanics, the jobless rate for December was 7.9 percent, the highest it's been since July 1997. The jobless rate for blacks was 10.3 percent -- twice that of whites. This is a tough time for minorities primarily because they tend to be lower skilled than the average person in the work force, says Chris Thornberg, a senior economist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Writing in the feature Politics People (The Wall Street Journal, page A13), Albert R. Hunt says that blacks make only 70 percent as much as whites, almost seven in 10 African American babies are born to a single mother; and minorities are twice as likely to be without health insurance. The black unemployment rate last month was over 10 percent, double that of whites, and one-third of African American teenagers looking for work are jobless. U.S. wholesalers pared back their inventories for the sixth straight month in November, as sales remained unchanged, the Department of Commerce said today. It reported that stocks of unsold goods on wholesalers' shelves fell 1.1 percent. This compared with October's revised drop of 1.2 percent. November's drop in inventories was larger than expected. Economists in a Reuters poll forecast, on average, that inventories fell 0.5 percent. The stocks-to-sales ratio, which measures how long it would take to deplete current inventories, fell in November to 1.30 months' worth from 1.31 months in October (Reuters, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25049-2002Jan10.html). Last minute shoppers helped rescue many retailers from a disastrous holiday sales performance, but the gains were the result of heavy discounting that's expected to damage fourth-quarter profits. The value-oriented chains, particularly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., continued to be the big winners. And while department and apparel specialty stores like Federated Stores, Inc., Limited, Inc., and Gap, Inc. continued to struggle, their sales declines were not as steep as analysts expected (Anne D'Innocenzio, Associated Press, http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/215669p-2081875c.html). Data on wage bargaining in 2002 compiled by BNA in the first weeks of the new year show that the average negotiated first-year wage increase in all new contracts was 3.8
Query on a book its author
Charles Loren, _Classes in the United States: Workers Against Capitalists_, Davis, CA: Cardinal Publishers, 1977. This book is long out of print, and I believe the publishing company no longer exists. If anyone on any of the lists to which this post is being sent knows Charles Loren or knows anyone to whom the copyright of this book may belong (or if Charles Loren is on one of these lists), would you ask him/them/her if they would object to large parts of it being made available on the internet, and would they get in touch with me. A Barnes Noble search showed no copies of the book available on any of the many used book sites they list. Carrol Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Query on a book its author
i might regret this giving out this prized bit of information, but have you tried http://www.bookfinder.com ? the best source for used and out of print books on the web that I know of. a quick look found several copies listed... alan At 1/10/2002, you wrote: Charles Loren, _Classes in the United States: Workers Against Capitalists_, Davis, CA: Cardinal Publishers, 1977. This book is long out of print, and I believe the publishing company no longer exists. If anyone on any of the lists to which this post is being sent knows Charles Loren or knows anyone to whom the copyright of this book may belong (or if Charles Loren is on one of these lists), would you ask him/them/her if they would object to large parts of it being made available on the internet, and would they get in touch with me. A Barnes Noble search showed no copies of the book available on any of the many used book sites they list. Carrol Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Re: Query on a book its author
Alan Cibils wrote: i might regret this giving out this prized bit of information, but have you tried http://www.bookfinder.com ? the best source for used and out of print books on the web that I know of. Thanks -- but I wrote the post sloppily. I own several copies of the book, and at one time knew Charles Loren personally. If no one is currently claiming ownership I want to start scanning it in and passing it on to others, and perhaps to whole lists. Carrol
RE: RE: FW: today's papers: The Enemy of My Enemy is My...Enemy
I'm sure Israel imports equally nasty stuff (while having nuclear bombs). And Isreal has attacked the PA again and again, so there's no need to bring in fears of aggression from Jordan. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine I had the same thought, but reportedly the shipment included C4 explosives and other implements that go well beyond the needs of a police force. Unless you think the PA feared aggression from Jordan. mbs I don't get this: doesn't the Palestinian Authority have an army and a police force? isn't normal for organizations like that to buy arms? doesn't the Israeli state import arms? if the PA can't arm its security forces, how can it suppress the violence of Hamas, etc.? why in heck is this a big flap? all of the above are rhetorical questions, not needing answers. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
(Fwd) (Fwd) for Pen PKT?
--- Forwarded message follows --- The Polanyi Institute at Concordia University has announced an upcoming publication that many of you will find very interesting: Economy and Society. Money, Capitalism and Transition. Fikret Adaman and Pat Devine, editors. Black Rose Books, 2001. In resistance to the prevailing seductive market, and as part of the process of creating, organizing and stimulating al alternative to this, this volume of essays reinterprets the history of economic thought and re-examines monetary theory in general. The authors challenge the idea that money is primary a medium of exchange that developed as a response to the inconvenience of barter. They argue that historically money predates (market) exchange and should be seen fundamentally as a means of payment in discharge of a social obligation. This volume represents a tribute to the legacy of Karl Polanyi in that his work provides the framework and method of analysis around which work and action can be organized and stimulated. Orders can be sent to the Karl Polanyi Institute, e-mail address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] A special price of $32 CAN (plus $3.00 shipping and handling) is valid until March 30, 2002. --- End of forwarded message --- --- End of forwarded message ---
RE: (Fwd) (Fwd) for Pen PKT?
The Polanyi Institute at Concordia University is this Michael or Karl Polanyi? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Re: Query on a book its author
Title: Classes in the United States : workers against capitalists / Charles Loren. -- Author: Loren, Charles. Published: Davis, Calif. : Cardinal Publishers, c1977. Subject: Social classes --United States. Material: 296 p. ; 21 cm. Note: Includes index. Bibliography: p. 283-291. LC Card no: 76062650 ISBN: 0912930047 0912930055 pbk. System ID no: ACQ-6949 Holdings: Robarts Library CALL NUMBER: HN 90 S6L67 -- BOOK -- Available Charles Loren, _Classes in the United States: Workers Against Capitalists_, Davis, CA: Cardinal Publishers, 1977. This book is long out of print, and I believe the publishing company no longer exists. If anyone on any of the lists to which this post is being sent knows Charles Loren or knows anyone to whom the copyright of this book may belong (or if Charles Loren is on one of these lists), would you ask him/them/her if they would object to large parts of it being made available on the internet, and would they get in touch with me. A Barnes Noble search showed no copies of the book available on any of the many used book sites they list. Carrol Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dr. W. Robert Needham DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1 Tel: 519-888-4567 ext 3949 Home: 519-578-4143 http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/ECON/faculty/needham.html [We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. - Herman Melville]
Students
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/money/53910_debt10.shtml College grads hit by double whammy: huge debts, few jobs Thursday, January 10, 2002 By MARTHA IRVINE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Christian Miller can't get a car loan and, at age 27, has returned to his parents' New Jersey home, forced back by the double load of credit card debt and student loans. Like other twentysomethings across America, he's found that graduating from college means having to face tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Some even drop out before they finish school, while a growing number are declaring bankruptcy. It stinks, says Miller, who arrived on his parents' Livingston, N.J., doorstep on New Year's Eve two years ago. Financial experts predict this year's graduates will have an even tougher time. Never has a generation entered a recession-weakened job market so debt-ridden. I have a negative net worth of $14,000 -- it's great! Jessica Lopez says sarcastically. In some ways, the Lopez, 24, considers herself lucky. A senior at Florida International University in Miami, she's saved money by living with her parents and has about $2,000 in credit card debt -- tiny compared to some people I know. Still, she's already been turned down for a small business loan to start a clothing company, even though she works a part-time job and actually owes less than the average college grad. But the average graduating University of Washington senior is no better off than Lopez, according to figures gathered by the UW student financial aid office. The average student loan debt carried by last year's graduating class at the UW was $14,850, says Kay Lewis, director of the UW student financial aid office. And that does not include credit card, mortgage and other types of debt. The federal General Accounting Office says students are graduating with an average of $19,400 in student loans. Average student credit card debt rose from $1,879 in 1998 to $2,748 in 2000, according to the student loan agency Nellie Mae. It is the growth of the latter statistic that has financial experts most worried, especially since bankruptcies filed by those under 25 grew to a record 94,717 in 2000, according to a Harvard Law School study. A third of students have four or more credit cards, picked up everywhere from phone solicitations to the Internet. And some universities have signed deals with credit card companies, giving them exclusive rights to market on campus and use school logos on their cards. Delaware-based MBNA American Bank has such deals with about 600 colleges and universities, with about half a percentage point of interest earned on the cards going to the schools. The company says it targets alumni and upperclassmen, keeps its lines of credit at $1,000 or less and offers campus seminars about responsible credit card use. The last thing we want to do is give a college student a credit card (when) they can't handle it, says MBNA spokesman Brian Dalphon. Officials at Capital One, another major credit card provider, offer a high school credit card to teens, 16 to 18, who get the card guaranteed by a parent or guardian. Diana Don, a spokeswoman for the Virginia-based company, says parents use the cards to teach their children how to be responsible before going to college. But some are wary. Marketing credit cards to young people before they have the experience to understand what the ramifications are can have some pretty devastating consequences for them, especially with increasing reliance on credit reports, says Robert Pregulman, executive director of WashPIRG, a Seattle-based consumer advocacy group. Increasingly, young people find themselves denied jobs, rental housing and insurance, based on credit reports, Pregulman says. Ruth Johnston, assistant controller of student fiscal services at the UW, says her office has been offering free classes to freshmen, and even middle school students, on managing their finances, with a heavy emphasis on credit cards. Bob Doyle, of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, says students should be learning about financial responsibility from their parents well before buying on credit. He advises parents to lend money to their teenage children, and then make them find a way to pay it back. Too often, he says, parents forgive loans or continually bail out their children. That is doing more harm than good, Doyle says. Sandie Rosko, manager of the UW office in charge of collecting debts from current and past students, says her office is focusing on educating students against taking out a larger student loan than they really need. You're a freshman, you come to the university, you find out you're eligible for a loan of $15,000. Are you educated enough to say that's wonderful but I don't need $15,000, I need $6,000? Rosko says students have more credit card debt than they used to. Those already in debt and graduating into a recession may have to learn some tough
Screening: _The Myth of the Liberal Media_ (Tue., Jan. 15)
Progressive Film Series: Critical Perspectives on Wars, Classes, Empires _The Myth of the Liberal Media: the Propaganda Model of News_ (Prod. the Media Education Foundation, 1999) Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish the myth of the liberal media. Using systematic empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of elite propaganda. Date: Tuesday, January 15 Time: 7:30 p.m. Location: 264 MacQuigg Lab, OSU, 105 W. Woodruff Ave., Columbus, OH A propaganda system treats victims of its own government or clients as unworthy victims, i.e. victims unworthy of media attention and indignation. * Worthy Victims = 3,117 dead or missing in the 911 attacks = 2,893 dead or missing at the World Trade Center + 184 dead or missing at the Pentagon + 40 dead in Pennsylvania (Source: New York Times 9 Jan. 02: A11) * Unworthy Victims = 3,767 Afghan civilians dead in US bombing attacks (as of 6 Dec. 01) + uncounted undocumented workers (aka illegal aliens) dead at the WTC (Source: Marc W. Herold, a professor of Economics Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire, at www.cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm) The number of the Afghan civilian dead, considered in proportion to the total Afghan population, is roughly equivalent to about 38,000 US civilians or eleven World Trade Center attacks, but deaths of Afghans are invisible in the US corporate media. Sponsored by the Student International Forum www.osu.edu/students/sif OSU campus map: www.osu.edu/map/linkbuildings/macquigglab.html For more info, contact Yoshie Furuhashi at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 614-668-6554; and Keith Kilty at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 614-292-7181. The flyer for the screening is available at http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/myth.doc. -- Yoshie * Calendar of Events in Columbus: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html * Anti-War Activist Resources: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html * Student International Forum: http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/
OOOPs Excuse me Re: Query on a book its author
I screwed up by writing the original too carelessly. Thanks much to all those who have informed me of the book's availability. But I wanted primarily to determine if whoever owns it at present is willing to have it scanned and e-mailed or put on e-lists or websites. I own several copies of the book. I knew Charles Loren personally at the time the book was published. I would like to get in touch with him and/or those who hold copyright to the book. Thanks again, and sorry I sent so many people on the wrong chase. Whether one agrees with the book or not (I mostly do), it is invaluable in raising the many questions concerning a marxist class analysis of the U.S. Cardinal Publishers was created by The New Voice (TNV) primarily to publish Loren's books. TNV no longer exists, but was one of the scattering of groups in the U.S. in the '70s to oppose the effort of New Communist Movement to copycat China by creating a United Front analogous to that in China (in a nation without a peasantry -- absurd). Carrol
Re: RE: (Fwd) (Fwd) for Pen PKT?
Karl Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba From: Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:[PEN-L:21304] RE: (Fwd) (Fwd) for Pen PKT? Date sent: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 15:34:52 -0800 Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Polanyi Institute at Concordia University is this Michael or Karl Polanyi? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Ford
Ford plans to cut up to 20,000 jobs David Teather in New York Friday January 11, 2002 The Guardian Ford Motor Company will today announce plans for mass job cuts as part of an overhaul designed to drag the struggling car manufacturer back to profitability. Estimates on the number of employees who will lose their jobs range from 10,000 to 20,000, including executives and factory floor workers. The cost of the restructuring is said to be in the region of $4bn (£2.8bn). According to reports from Detroit, at least three assembly plants in North America, including one at Edison in New Jersey, have been identified as candidates for closure with production hours likely to be scaled back at others. The company recently said it had the capacity to build 1.9m more vehicles than it can sell. The cutbacks in production will have a deep knock-on effect among the company's suppliers and outside contractors. It is not yet clear if the impact will be felt directly in Britain and other parts of Europe. Shares in the world's second largest car manufacturer were around 6% lower in early trade, at close to five-year lows. Ford is on course to report a loss of some $2bn for 2001, its first deficit in almost a decade as competition from European and Asian manufacturers intensifies. Investors are concerned that any corrective action at Ford to get the company back on its feet will be hampered by the powerful United Auto Workers union. Existing contracts mean there can be no plant closures or enforced redundancies until September 2003. Investment bank UBS Warburg yesterday cut its recommendation on Ford from hold to reduce. Analyst Saul Rubin said he expects the cuts to be the first in a long process which will ultimately account for 25,000 to 30,000 staff - around 25% of the workforce. But he added: We fail to see how such a move can be made in one go, given the power of the UAW. The whole restructuring will have to be phased in stages over a lengthy period of time. The restructuring is being led by chief executive William Clay Ford Jr, a member of the founding family who was brought in to restore the company's fortunes. He replaced Jacques Nasser in October last year. Non-core parts of the business are expected to be put up for sale to raise cash, possibly including the Kwik Fit retail business in Britain. Sales of cars and trucks reached record levels in the final three months of the year, but at a steep cost. Fears that the September 11 terrorist attacks would have a detrimental effect on sales prompted 0% finance deals that damaged margins. There is also concern that the post- September bubble will eat into sales during 2002. DaimlerChrysler said on Tuesday that it, too, was suffering in the tough economic conditions, and admitted that it would be difficult for the car manufacturer to meet its operating profit targets this year. But there were more positive noises yesterday coming from General Motors, the largest car maker in the world. The company said that it will report fourth-quarter results next week that will exceed Wall Street expectations. As part of a continuing programme, GM is cutting 4,700 jobs this year. A spokeswoman for Ford declined to comment.
Japan---yet another kakistocracy update....
http://www.feer.com The Yakuza Recession SOMETIME DURING Japan's annual cherry-blossom festival last April, one of Tokyo's top private economists held a meeting that would reverberate across the Pacific and trigger alarm bells at the highest levels in Washington. At his office in a glass skyscraper in central Tokyo, he spoke with a veteran investment banker and colleague who also happened to be friends with Paul O'Neill, the United States Treasury Secretary. The economist, an American, and the investment banker, also American, were discussing a matter long the subject of innuendo: Japanese organized crime-the yakuza-and its role in the bad-debt crisis that is primarily responsible for keeping Japan in recession. The economist spoke with urgency because in the previous year a small cadre of former FBI agents and other U.S. lawmen had uncovered a pattern of collusion between the banks and corporations that dominate the Japanese economy and yakuza gangsters that might even make a Russian oligarch blush. What is more, the economist said, those links suggested that the yakuza, far from being just a motley band of pimps, drug pushers, gamblers and extortionists-with only a peripheral role in their nation's multibillion dollar banking crisis-were in fact one of the most significant obstacles to its resolution. After returning to the U.S., the investment banker wasted no time outlining to his friend O'Neill the details of what retired police chief Raisuke Miyawaki has dubbed the yakuza recession. Neither Miyawaki nor any other credible commentator suggests that deflation, policy blunders, political inertia and a whole range of other factors haven't contributed to Japan's decade-long stagnation. All the same, Miyawaki, a Tokyo University Law School graduate, former spokesman for Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and former head of the National Police Agency's organized crime division, estimates that up to 50% of the bad debts held by Japanese banks could be impossible to recover because they involve organized crime and corrupt politicians. I watched this develop in front of my eyes before I retired in the 1980s, he says. The key issue today is that a substantial portion of the existing bad loans cannot be recovered solely by bankers because the original loans involved politicians, bankers and yakuza. No less troublesome, former U.S. law-enforcement officials now working for U.S. financial institutions in Japan worry that the yakuza might try to parlay their grip on the world's second-largest economy into a global presence. Already, some former U.S. lawmen believe, the yakuza could have ploughed as much as $50 billion into U.S. financial markets alone. Although many Japanese politicians, police officers and other government officials scoff politely at Miyawaki's assertions, the results of the investigations headed by the former U.S. lawmen-now working full time on due-diligence investigations for U.S. investment banks in Japan-make compelling reading. Starting in the late 1990s, U.S. investors began aggressively buying assets from cash-strapped Japanese companies. To date, they have spent at least $15 billion on everything from golf courses, theme parks and property to car, chemical and pharmaceutical companies and pachinko pinball-machine parlours. High-profile American deals in Japan include the giant Ford Motor Co.'s takeover of Mazda Motor Corp. Banking-industry insiders say some U.S. investors took stakes in enterprises that turned out to have ties to the yakuza. Earlier this year, for instance, the Tokyo office of U.S. institutional investor Lonestar was besieged by Japanese right-wing extremists after it bought Eventail, a golf-course management company with ties to the yakuza. An employee in Tokyo for the U.S. fund declined to comment. However, a Tokyo-based property analyst familiar with the incident says the company is pretty cavalier in its approach to business risks in Japan. Maybe they see a chance to make so much money, so fast, that they can return to the United States before they encounter really serious trouble, he says. In stark contrast, blue-chip U.S. investment banks leery of hurting their reputations have taken the unusual step of supplementing the accountants who do much of their due-diligence investigations with former FBI agents and other U.S. law-enforcement officials. These days, some U.S. financial institutions examine three to four deals a week for possible yakuza involvement; all told, in the past two years alone, they have used electronic databases, private investigators and contacts in the Japanese police, government and underworld to conduct at least 600 such investigations. Many of the former U.S. law-enforcement agents who headed those probes were familiar with the yakuza from their days of public service. But even so, what they uncovered left them intrigued, amused and in some cases shocked. To begin with, they found yakuza active in literally every sector of the
