[PEN-L:9763] Rethinking Marxism conference

I just heard a description of the "Rethinking Marxism" conference that occurred in Amherst late last year. The reporter (Olga Celle de Bowman, a sociologist from Peru) said that there was a tremendous amount of (verbal) conflict between the audience and the speakers at the plenaries, something I

[PEN-L:9761] tenure

what experience do people in places like the UK have with the absense of tenure for professors? is it as bad as some people in the US fear? is there a lot of violation of academic freedom? in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount

[PEN-L:9752] re: Environmental Economics

Robin is right: mainstream economics is environmentalist in theory, but not in practice. It also assumes that the possibility of "external costs" is simply given technologically (which profit-maximizing capitalists then realize in practice); this ignores E.K. Hunt's theory, in which capitalists

[PEN-L:9726] unemployment in Britain

In today's New York TIMES (April 29), there's a graph showing unemployment rates in Britain, compared to those in the US and the Continent, using "OECD standard measures." My question: though it is well-known that Thatcher's administration several times redefined unemployment rates so that they

[PEN-L:9712] globalization question

Rakesh writes: If Indonesian capital can escape the contradiction between production and consumption through the export of consumer goods--as suggested by Jim-- why can't US capital escape the same contradiction through the export of investment goods to markets in Asian and Europe? To some

[PEN-L:9705] globalization question

Michael Hoover suggests (correctly, I think) that the fact that the jobs in the southern US didn't pay well meant that there were inadequate consumer markets in the South, so that there was no self-sustaining growth; the actual growth was jump-started by military-related spending. If we go

[PEN-L:9692] globalization

Terry McD writes that First, I agree that recent technical innovations in communication and transportation are of an incremental character and are therefor relatively insignificant. I don't see why incremental changes should be dismissed. Don't quantitative changes sometimes lead to qualitative

[PEN-L:9676] more Peru

Jerry, I don't get it: why are the supporters of Sendero relevant to pen-l? Sendero, like the MTRA, is down for the count, not very relevant as a political force in Peru except as a force that scares and/or disgusts people. Rather than talk about fights that have happened on other lists (M-I,

[PEN-L:9673] Walras vs. Surplus-Value

(initial caveat: I am not presenting a brief in favor of Sraffa's system; I am going to ignore that system. I think that Joan Robinson's critique (that it was only dealing with comparisons of unrealistic equilibrium points) was sufficient. I don't see it as either a substitute for or a

[PEN-L:9445] Re: Zaire

Louis P. brings up the issue of Zaire, one that pen-l should discuss. My feeling is that the US is pressuring and is going to pressure Kabila's forces so that they will be safe neo-liberals but (hopes the State Department) not kleptocrats like Mobutu. With the USSR no longer counterbalancing

[PEN-L:9499] query: uneven development

Does anybody on pen-l know of any good references on (or special insight into) the subject of the Marxian theory of "uneven and combined development." I am specifically thinking of the theory that the Bolsheviks invoked in the early 20th century, rather than the dependency school's "uneven

[PEN-L:9524] neo-liberalism

I always thought that the word "neo-liberalism" was a (perhaps unconscious) effort to deal with the conflicting meanings of the word "liberalism": "liberalism" means "classical liberalism" (laissez-faire) in Europe and most other places, while in the U.S.A., it means "welfare statism." So

[PEN-L:9626] Peru

does anyone on pen-l have any special information about the government raid on the Japanese ambassador's mansion (ending the hostage sitation)? it seems very suspicious that ALL of the hostage-takers were killed. It sure sounds like some of the hostage-takers were killed after they were taken

[PEN-L:9619] re: civil society

Michael Perleman writes that (or quotes Thernborn that): To Hobbes and Locke, civil society was contrasted with a state of nature and was synonymous with a politically organized society. For Locke, the "state of nature" (ch. 2 of the 2nd TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT) was extremely different from

[PEN-L:9592] Re: DARWIN AWARDS

Jim Craven writes:You all know about the Darwin Awards - It's an annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. this kind of thing always evokes a chuckle (as with NEWS OF THE WIERD's recent story about a

[PEN-L:9546] a prayer for the 'nineties

Dater Loster (commonly known as "Our Hard Drive") Our Hard Drive Which art internal Volume C: by name; Thy code be clean, Thy fonts be seen On screen as they are on paper. Give us tis day our documents, And lead us not into fragmentation But deliver us our data. For thine is the SCSI, and the

[PEN-L:9531] Genuine Progress Indicator

Doug writes that I understand that the GPI [Genuine Progress Indicator] people didn't include education in their index because they think there's no evidence that spending more money improves results. I don't think so. Rather than starting with real GDP and subtracting or adding to correct for

[PEN-L:9505] Re: Walras vs. Sraffa

Robin Hahnel writes: BUT the Sraffian framework is more self-consciously limited. It screams out that something other than the analysis you are being presented goes into determining the wage/profit ratio. This self-conscious limitation is very important. The Walrasian attitude seems to be to

[PEN-L:9489] geo-mean CPI

Rich Parkin writes: Incidentally, Jim, the subst. effects they claim to be addressing are only within product classes (close substitutes) (Purdue v Tyson?) rather than across them (chicken v beef), at least according to the NY Times... I stand (or rather, sit) corrected. But if the geo-mean

[PEN-L:9478] geometric-mean CPI

besides the obvious political advantages of using the geometric-mean CPI (lowering the budget deficit), is there any _theoretical_ reason why it is superior to the old arithmetic-mean CPI? I am not impressed by the substitution effect story. If higher prices of beef drive me to eat chicken

[PEN-L:9427] Re: text book hell

Michael, here's a list of books I give my students (they choose one and are supposed to write a book review that goes beyond regurgitation): 1. Teresa Amott, Caught in the Crisis: Women and the U.S. Economy Today. 2. Alan Blinder, Hard Heads, Soft Hearts: Tough-Minded Economics for a Just

[PEN-L:9415] social democracy utopianism

Tom Walker quotes Max as saying that The issue isn't whether I or anyone else "likes" social democracy... The issue is how good stuff happens and how shit happens. And then quotes me as replying: The basic argument here is whether [A] positive social change happens because grassroots agitation

[PEN-L:9402] social democracy ad infinitum

I'm sorry if the following repeats anything that Sid, Elaine, Anders, and Louis said (not because they're wrong but because repetition is boring). I'll limit my discussion to a small number of points. Sorry if my missive is still too long.

[PEN-L:9386] socio-economics?

there's some sort of distinction between "socio-economics" (Etzioni) and social economics (the REVIEW OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS). To make things worse, there are several flavors of institutional economics, which is very similar to social economics. If any one knows what the differences are between

[PEN-L:8915] Kevin Murphy

does anyone in pen-l land know anything about the work of Kevin Murphy of the University of Chicago, who just won the John Bates Clark award? in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410

[PEN-L:8912]

I wrote: The actual development of working class movements is much less predictable than the development of capital. Jerry writes: Yeah, but the prediction of the actual development of capital hasn't been that easy either. Perhaps it would be better for Marxists if they got out of the

[PEN-L:8873] testing

testing: does this new e-mail facility work? (Sorry to bother you.) -- Jim

[PEN-L:8869] the MERU {child of NAIRU} revisited

The JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES, Winter 1997, had a useful forum on the "Natural Rate of Unemployment," or what is more scientifically termed the "Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment" (NAIRU). On pen-l, it seems, we reached a consensus to call it the "Macroeconomic

[PEN-L:9375] more Sraffa vs. Walras

I wrote: A long time ago, someone (Gil Skillman, I believe) argued on pen-l that the Sraffa system was simply a special case of the Arrow-Debreu general equilibrium model. He now writes: I confess I made a claim similar to this, but the details of the argument are important why should we

[PEN-L:9107] Meszaros

I just read Joel Kovel's glowing review of Meszaro's BEYOND CAPITAL in the March 1997 MONTHLY REVIEW. Despite the rave review (which may be that way because MR published the book), the book doesn't seem worth it. Read the review and see. Mike Lebowitz (once a pen-l stalwart) published an

[PEN-L:9123] four minor points

1. If you haven't read Jane Smiley's comic novel MOO, do so. It's got great descriptions of the economist, Dr. Guest, who thinks of students as "customers" and trains them (with evangelistic glee) to be individualistic free-riders. He loves the fact that the results fit with his a priori vision

[PEN-L:9130] customers or suckers?

Max S. asks a very good question: If students who pay for some type of education are not customers, what are they? Suckers? Strictly speaking, suckers are a kind of customer, so they could be both. In fact, I think that many of them are both. The point is that students are supposed to be _more

[PEN-L:9157] utopianism -- final words??

For the sake of not only my own ego-enlargement but also the progress of pen-l debate, it's good to read Louis Proyect saying, after simply repeating his previous points, that Jim Devine is correct. Marx and Engels did respect what they [the utopians] were doing since utopian publications,

[PEN-L:9200] slovenia mondragon

Barkley blames the tendency for top management to take over from worker-managers on the interference by the League of Yugo Communists, etc. That's plausible, but since the co-ops are not owned by the worker-managers alone, but by the state, isn't that kind of interference almost inevitable. Even

[PEN-L:9214] more on co-ops and unemployment

Paul Phillips, writes that it is Horvat who rails against the Ward/Vanek model as empirically untrue -- in fact just the opposite. Right. But is the Ward model empirically wrong because it is logically flawed (because a worker co-op does not have an inherent tendency to be exclusive, to avoid

[PEN-L:9294] formalism, Horvat, utopia

Over the weekeend, Louis P. wrote: You [Paul Phillips] and Jim Devine lost me about three posts ago when you starting focusing on Horvat. I think that was probably the idea. Louis, I don't think that anyone was trying to drive you out of the discussion by being overly formal. It's the language

[PEN-L:9343] more requiem

Max Sawicky responded to a little essay I presented to pen-l on "requiem for social democracy" in a very irritating way. Rather than trying to digest the whole thing, he splits it up and answers piece-meal. That's not good for a serious discussion. I'll skip over his unneeded and distracting

[PEN-L:9352] yet more requiem

Max writes: What remains difficult to demonstrate, it seems to me, as opposed to theorizing about, is whether the effective popular movement must be overtly revolutionary, or merely strong enough to be a political threat just by playing according to the rules of the bourgeois political system.

[PEN-L:9320] requiem for social democracy

I'm all in favor of social-democratic reforms: it'd be great, for example, if this country (the U.S.) had a Canadian-style single-payer national health system, though it probably could be improved. The problem with social democracy is not the reforms themselves. I doubt that anyone on pen-l

[PEN-L:9303] miscellaneous ideas

If today's rumor is true about America On Line wanting to take over CompuServe, then _no-one_ will be able to get on-line. In the U.S., the phone companies keep on introducing new area codes. Recently, for example, they announced the split of the 213 area code (downtown Los Angeles) into two, so

[PEN-L:9369] Walras vs. Sraffa

A long time ago, someone (Gil Skillman, I believe) argued on pen-l that the Sraffa system was simply a special case of the Arrow-Debreu general equilibrium model. Anybody interested in this issue will want to look at Dumenil Levy THE ECONOMICS OF THE PROFIT RATE, ch. 4. It suggests that this

[PEN-L:9224] yet more co-ops and unemployment

I'm very glad that Paul Phillips decided to return after his short break. He writes I find it somewhat ironical that we, who rail against the neoclassical model, accept a neoclassical model to judge the behaviour of co-ops, socially owned firms etc. The Ward-Vanek model begins with the same

[PEN-L:9206] unemployment with worker co-ops

Barkley writes: Ben Ward did have this famous backward-bending supply curve argument with arguments that coops will not hire labor. This tendency to not hire labor, which coincides with not laying labor off, tends to be an intra-firm phenomenon. Jaroslav Vanek has argued that the solution to this

[PEN-L:9159] a new welfare capitalism

Roger Alcaly (who used to be a leftist, I believe) has an article in the most recent NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS on the new wave in corporate organization. Though it's got some interesting facts, it's pretty poor. He's praising the phenomenon of (some) corporations giving more power or privileges to

[PEN-L:9108] yet more utopianism

Louis Proyect writes: the 19th century utopians were trying to figure out ways to "perfect" the French revolution by extending political equality to social equality. The problem is that they had no concept of class struggle. However, as Hal Draper and other writers have note, Marx Engels did

[PEN-L:9096] more utopianism

Louis P. writes: Carlos Fonseca, the founder of the FSLN, did not have utopian dreams. He had a model of the good society in mind and this was Cuba I have no doubt that this is so. However, I would bet that he also (1) wanted to adapt the Cuban model to Nicararaguan conditions; and (2) to

[PEN-L:9088] utopianism

Here, I define utopianism as an effort to make moral ideals more concrete, to develop pictures of how "true socialism might actually work in practice" or "true communism might work in practice." Louis Proyect criticizes utopianism. I can understand why, but as Peter Dorman points out, that "why"

[PEN-L:9042] Elster and Cohen

I totally agree with Louis Proyect that Elster's presentation and critique of Marx is either almost or totally worthless. His opus, MAKING HASH OF MARX, seems nothing but a collection of errors. I haven't had the patience to read the whole book. But every time I have dug into it in order to get

[PEN-L:9016] yet more market socialism

I wrote: How could the market be an "alternative"? an alternative to what? to socialism? it's clearly not an alternative to capitalism. Justin S. writes This is a little glib, Jim. You know perfectly well that there are serious socialists, a fair number of us, who do argue that market socialism

[PEN-L:9001] speaking of Hayek

The laws of quantum mechanics imply that Hayek couldn't have been wrong _all the time_. But I think it's bad karma to bring up Hayek on pen-l, because there are Hayekian lurkers about who will bombard us with the Truth about Hayek. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL

[PEN-L:8989] more market socialism

to Patrick B.: I didn't know Roemer had sunk that low, getting so wrapped up in the market mystique. Justin S. writes that: we need to develop alternatives, market and nonmarket. I am glad taht there are people who categorically reject markets and so work on nonmarket alternatives, but the need

[PEN-L:8978] Market socialism

Ron Baiman writes: I too like much of Hahnel-Albert's work but feel that their categorical rejection of all market mechanisms is counter productive and leaves them open to the wishfull thinking impractical utopian type criticism to which they have been subjected. It's important to remember

[PEN-L:8973] a new SSA?

On Sat, 15 Mar 1997, Michael Eisenscher responded to "my" reperiodization of the stages of US capitalist development: BTW, it is worth recalling that Gordon, Edwards, Reich, et al. arrived at their periodization of SSAs based on a fair amount of econometric work and empircal examination of the

[PEN-L:8971] Roemer's folly

Breaking away from animal husbandry with my sheep, I am tempted to defend Los Angeles against the dire slander that it is New York (the so-called "Big" Apple) that is the world center of sarcasm and irony rather than the City of the Angels. But instead, a couple comments on Roemer. First, I want

[PEN-L:9783] game theory torture

(apologies ahead of time for this: I also walked out of the Mel Gibson flick "Ransom" thinking about game theory.) The L.A. TIMES today (May 1, 1997) published exerpts from the CIA manual on how to torture prisoners (used at the notorious US Army School of the Americas). This book should not be

[PEN-L:9783] game theory torture

(apologies ahead of time for this: I also walked out of the Mel Gibson flick "Ransom" thinking about game theory.) The L.A. TIMES today (May 1, 1997) published exerpts from the CIA manual on how to torture prisoners (used at the notorious US Army School of the Americas). This book should not be

[PEN-L:9812] RM conference overdetermination

I'm sorry that I started a discussion of the Rethinking Marxism conference. Not having been there, I didn't know that people were so sensitive about it. Worse, I didn't realize that it would open the Jerry vs. Louis debate. Anyway, I think that pen-l has said enough about that conference --

[PEN-L:10479] re: gender and biology

I had written there's clearly a biological/genetic/evolutionary basis for sexism. Obviously, the average man's superior upper body strength compared to the average woman gives him the upper hand when "might makes right." And that's a basis of a lot of women's subordination (even though it's

[PEN-L:10455] Re:Ehrenreich McIntosh article

Not only did Louis gracefully post Barbara Ehrenreich Janet McIntosh's "The New Creationism," but the NATION actually came before June. It's okay as journalism goes (and as Doug knows, journalism has its limits). My main problem for me is that it didn't give the PoMotistas a chance to defend

[PEN-L:10408] Re: Gender Roles

Wojtek writes that: we can safely dismiss all so-so biologies, eveloutionary psychologies, etc. as crap without even reading it, for the same reason we dismiss astrology, parapsychology, and metaphysics without even bothering to refute them -- because they attempt to sneak on us an impossible

[PEN-L:10398] MegaStores

Bill writes: I'm also curious about goods which are now sold in giant stores (Office Depot, for example) where the "sales staff" are generally clueless, phone lines with automated menus replace a real salesperson, and you generally have to forage for your own goods (I'm exaggerating a bit). this

[PEN-L:10393] re: bio-determinism

I wouldn't reject the role of all biology/genetics/evolution in explaining human behavior. However, I would follow Marvin Harris, the anthropological padrone primero of "cultural materialism," to see a revolution in human evolution, where the evolution of culture (including technology) replaced

[PEN-L:10217] planning and democracy

Bill Lear writes: Perhaps Jim Devine, who seems to have a cool head about this, can intercede and tell me if I am being unreasonable. I feel the flames rumbling---but that's how I respond when I feel that democracy is being swept aside as some romantic fantasy, and that engaging in queries about

[PEN-L:10214] jobless growth

As far as I can tell, the term "jobless growth" makes sense in two different ways. (1) in a recovery period like circa 1992 in the US, businesses respond to increased demand for their products by using "overhead workers" (long-term employees) more intensively and extensively (longer hours)

[PEN-L:10172] locality, loyalty, misc. comments

I substantially agree with what Wojtek said in response to my missive in this thread (locality == loyalty?). All I was saying is that one can't simply look at social geography. Class is also important, along with race and gender. I wrote ... democracy is an end in itself, rather than being a

[PEN-L:10135] Nature's contribution

according to a very short blurb in May 15's L.A. TIMES, "Mother Nature is giving humanity $16 trillion to $54 trillion worth of services a year to the world, a new report says [in the May 15 edition of NATURE]. That's bigger than the global gross national product, which the World Bank estimates

[PEN-L:10126] democracy

I wrote: ...democracy is an end in itself. ... democracy is the only legitimate political principle. Terry McD COMMENTs: While I agree that democracy is the political principle which should be applied in a socialist or communist context, I don't think democracy is either meaningful or

[PEN-L:9894] Re: jobless growth

I wrote: In terms of my research, what's happened is a shift from the "labor scarce" economy of especially the 1960s, where exuberant growth pulled up wages relative to productivity, to a "labor abundant" economy where this doesn't happen, as in the 1920s. (I'm sorry about the scarce/abundant

[PEN-L:10020] wave of autism

Over last weekend, I attended the convention of the Autism Society of California (because my son has a relatively mild case). One fact jumped out: autism is becoming more common. It's hard to separate the case of a neurological/psychological problem like this becoming more common vs. the case

[PEN-L:10049] globalization

I had written ... in the late part of the 19th century, a period of DEglobalization started. The US and Germany led the way toward nation-based industrialization, backed by strong restrictions on trade. Michael P. writes: Yes and no. Both countries tried to build up their industrial structures

[PEN-L:10377] Re: Gender roles

there's clearly a biological/genetic/evolutionary basis for sexism. Obviously, the average man's superior upper body strength compared to the average woman gives him the upper hand when "might makes right." And that's a basis of a lot of women's subordination (even though it's becoming

[PEN-L:10349] more planning and democracy

Max titled his missive on this subject "The Plan Boss, the Plan" as an effort to introduce some humor. I am not humor-impaired, but it took me a couple of days to get it. The problem is that I'm TV-deprived, especially with respect to the 1970s and early 1980s. I never saw the "Brady Bunch," "the

[PEN-L:10284] democracy planning (II)

I'll skip most of what Max said in this thread because Bill Lear already answered it. I agreed with all or almost all of what he said -- and it would be tedious to go through what Bill said to figure out if there are any points that need to be strengthened or dropped. I'll stick to the technical

[PEN-L:10273] democracy planning

Maurice Foisy writes: In our state (and evrywhere in the U.S.) when groups such as labor or the Democratic party attempt to rationalize the use of scarce resources - through targeting on winnable districts, etc.- the only perspective from which this makes sense is a centralized one, i.e. at the

[PEN-L:10268] re: inefficientcies of planning

But you've got to admit that the high-tech astronaut pen did produce some good jokes on Seinfeld. During the heat of the space race in the 1960's, NASA decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the

[PEN-L:10264] budgetary matters

Max S. writes Post-1986, US borrowing is financing tax revenue erosion and increases in health care (Medicare and Medicaid). ... Presently, public borrowing in the U.S. ... is making possible an intergenerational redistribution (e.g., borrowing finances health and nursing home care for the

[PEN-L:10112] locality -- loyalty?

Wojtek, if I read you right, you're saying that being in the same geographical area, especially in face-to-face contact, breeds solidarity. Maybe, but that predicts that the plant manager will have more in common with the plant's rank and file than with the folks at corporate HQ. That doesn't fit

[PEN-L:10101] central planning {was: Kasparov's defeat]

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote As long as, for whatever reason, "peripheral devices" are allowed to feed bullshit to the processing units, no processing system, even one with the zillions-Deep-Blues processing capability, can solve the resource allocation problem. That is true of both, central planning

[PEN-L:10095] re: profit boom

Trevor Evans asks: ... could Jim Devine say how the 'conventional rate of profit' is defined. The one that Dean Baker (not "the" Dean Baker) reports on was calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce. I do not have a copy of the _Business Conditions Digest_ in

[PEN-L:10080] Deep Blue vs. Shallow Red

Yeah, Louis, I know that Kasparov is not even a _shallow_ red, but on the side of the devils. But who can resist cuteness? Someone should dig up the old Bob Gibson/Hamilton Camp song (to the tune of "John Henry") about the battle between "a thinking man" and a computer (guess who wins).

[PEN-L:10073] deglobalization

As Doug points out, except when it helps people defend against colonization, nationalism isn't pretty. (Even then, nationalism can be a problem: look at how China and Viet Nam fought. Cambodian nationalism under Pol Pot was worse than disgusting.) That suggests that I need to stress that the

[PEN-L:10037] pen-l debates

I think that the discussion on pen-l would be better (and I think it is pretty good at this point) if people made a clear effort to distinguish between what participants in pen-l say and the views being responded to. I am thinking of Doug's tendency to respond to what Roger Burbach says (or

[PEN-L:9972] shadows on the cave wall

Awhile back, wojtek sokolowski said that it is better to analyse social institutions (e.g. how the production is being organised in the developing countries) rather than watching trends in economic aggregates which, paraphrasin Plato, are but shadows cast on the wall of a cave populated by

[PEN-L:9951] downsizing

Louis notes: My experience, by the way, is that American corporations have shot themselves in the foot with a lot of the downsizing ... This is something that a lot of the business press has been saying, even outside of EDP. But downsizing has been pushed onto corporations by (1) creditors and

[PEN-L:9934] more on feudalism

I had written: In the Marxian tradition, "feudal exploitation" involves "direct repression" as "the main mode of labor control" but NOT "the abundance of cheap labor" which "makes it more rational [for the employer] to employ more human labor [rather] to invest in labor-saving technology."

[PEN-L:9930] feudal exploitation

Wojtek S writes that "Feudal exploitation", by contrast, obtains when the abundance of cheap labour makes it more rational to employe more labour than to invest in labour saving technology. I call it "feudal" because the volume of human labour was the main factor under the human control affecting

[PEN-L:9920] Re: jobless growth

At 10:43 AM 5/6/97 -0400, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: Assuming that "capital" is the shorthand for "the power to fetch the benefits of other people's labour," the question of primary importance is how the capital owner can fetch those benefits under different conditions. Investment is but one form

[PEN-L:9919] Doug's chorus

Like the character played by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the flick "Jerry McGuire," Doug is repeating: "show me the evidence." That's a good thing to ask. But let's not get all the way in to empiricism, where the evidence is all there is. BTW, back in the 1950s, when Daniel Bell predicted "the end

[PEN-L:9904] more on globalization

I wrote: The simple index [ of openness for the US] rises, steadily but with a steepening curve, from 4 per cent in 1959 to over 12 per cent in 1996. Tavis repliesWhich is to say, not much, relative to the rest of the world. agreed, but the point is that the US economy has changed and is

[PEN-L:9893] re: what is the opposite of globalization?

(I know I should be grading term papers, but they're so bad...) Tavis writes:I guess I'd have a slightly different answer. The autocentric economy seems derivative of the postwar import-substitutionist economy, which nobody is really doing much of anymore. Deregulation is happening almost at

[PEN-L:9887] jobless growth correction

I said "The longer the boom, the longer the 'real economy' is fragile." I meant to say that "the MORE the real economy is fragile." BTW, I am not predicting an instant replay of the Great Depression (though that scenario seems more likely that when I wrote my 1994 RPE article). The US and world

[PEN-L:9885] what is the opposite of globalization?

Doug asks: what is the opposite of globalization? To my mind, the opposite of globalization is the autocentric economy, where (on the level of the economy as a whole, not for individual capitalists) wages are treated as a source of demand and most investment goods are purchased domestically.

[PEN-L:12719] Question: The USSR and the Great Depression

michael perelman asks:During most U.S. depression, capital has succeeded in preserving part of its prior gains by bearing down harder on workers, farmers, etc. Such was not the case during the Great Depression. Was there any reason, other than the existence of an alternative system, that made

[PEN-L:12704] Immiseration of the 3rd World Singapore.

We have to reconcile Ed Herman's theory of third world immiseration with Anthony's glowing description of Singapore's prosperity, complete with obnoxious cellular phones. More generally, how to reconcile Herman's story with the success of a lot of East Asia. The second, more general, question has

[PEN-L:12703] Re: Can Marxism explain the Holocaust?

Again, thanks to Louis for his learned presentation. This is a VERY important question. I'll bring in a small number of points: * the idea of a "people-class" encouraging social antagonism (in this case, the Jews) fits with the pluralist view that when "social cleavages" (class vs. class,

[PEN-L:12700] re: Algeria

Thanks, Louis for the great analysis of Algeria. I hope there are other people who know about that country who can add as much. Louis mentions the distinction between Algeria and Cuba, with the latter being a case of a country that did break with capitalism. It is useful to clarify

[PEN-L:12691] Algeria

Louis Proyect writes: The FLN in Algeria caved in to pressures from the Algerian bourgeoisie. My impression was that the FLN caved because the "battle of Algiers" (the grass-roots popular rebellion against French rule, portrayed in the famous movie of the same name) was defeated by the French.

[PEN-L:12664] Re: Third World economic decline

BTW, Anthony, I already knew that Los Angeles was quite different from (much richer than) the vast majority of other third-world cities. Anthony asks: What sort of non-capitalist growth is there? At least in historical terms, we have have the pre-capitalist, feudal, whatever, if it was growth

[PEN-L:12648] time machine

Living on the US West Coast, I receive the NATION magazine long after everyone on the east coast. I received the Sept. 29 issue, which was probably mailed on the 17th or the 20th, on Sept. 26. This means that I get to enjoy life as if I were in a time machine. Seemingly weeks after the official

[PEN-L:12646] Re: Third World economic decline

Anthony P D'Costa writes: The capacity of the "have nots" around the world to absorb intolerable levels of living is almost infinite from the perspective of those who "have". While it is a relevant question, bad air or growth (and structural change), more people are caught up with growth and

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