Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 23:31:10 +1100
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Rob Schaap [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Australian Update #1
G'day Max,
One thing I'm hearing more about from
my dear friends at the Heritage
. . .
Agreed, California might be more ethnically diverse than any other state in
the US, but that does not explain why class politics did not develop in,
say, Massachussetts, Wisconsin or Kentucky. The point I am making is that
while the US as a whole migh be diverse, individual regions
I don't think that we are making much headway here. Max and Nathan approve of the
Dem's strategy. Others don't. The proof:
I challenge anybody to show that I have said
anywhere that "I approve of the Dem's strategy."
First of all, there is no "Dem's strategy."
There is no "Dem's," and
G'day Penners,
Believe it or not, Oz is actually an interesting place to be just now.
No doubt. One thing I'm hearing more about from
my dear friends at the Heritage Foundation is the
great experiment in privatization of social
insurance in Australia enacted by your blessed
social
The answer as to why class politics did not emerge in the US with
an electoral manifestaion as opposed to
Europe is SIMPLE. (Skocpol's analysis is so beside the point it is
I think this is a good point, though your
confidence in its veracity is a little
breath-taking. I would note that
.. . .
Fine, anyone who has ever spent a month in Europe can dig PJ's meaning,
but so what? If our guardian angel waved her remote tuner and magically
produced a parliamentary system, given the nutbar of obsessions stalking
our fractured so-called society there would be more single-issue
From Jim D. (no slouch himself in the word-count
department),
Max writes: I'd say what caused it to break down was, among otherthings,
that the Democrats promoted the interests of blacks without due attention
to working class interests in general.
Do you have any evidence of this?
My god, way back in the mid-1980's _Ron Brown_ was the DNC chair, before
the DLC took over the Democratic Party from the alliance of Cold War
Keynesians (like Humphrey and Mondale) and Dixiecrats.
The DLC doesn't control the party. It doesn't
even control its own members. The DLC meets a
In a message dated 98-04-10 17:10:37 EDT, max writes:
Feel free
to regale him with your pet nostrums of vegetarian
leninism ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
ah, but can we regale him with vegetarian stalinism? inquiring minds want to
know. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
By all means, let a
Listers will probably be interested in today's
gossipy Post article on the professional rivalry
between Jeffrey Sachs and Larry Summers. The
bottom line is they agree on most everything but
debt relief.
The URL is:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/biz1.
htm
MBS
maxsaw wrote:
In the early 1970's, productivity growth dropped
in the U.S., well before most of the talk of
globalization. This trend can explain much of
subsequent U.S. political economy without need
for reference to globalization or
universalization of the market: the need
In the early 1970's, productivity growth dropped
in the U.S., well before most of the talk of
globalization. This trend can explain much of
subsequent U.S. political economy without need
for reference to globalization or
universalization of the market: the need to
reduce wage growth,
The name of this initiative suggests that it is a measure in favor of
campaign finance reform.
One effect might be to force unions to work on organizing more than
cozying up to Democratic wing of the money party.
The new leadership of the AFL took as its
inaugural premise the need for a
And how, exactly, is the marginal cost of info-production zero? I can
I presume what Prof. Perelman meant was that once
created, information can be used by additional
persons or additional times without cost, unlike
depreciable capital or 'exhaustible' consumption
goods. Conveying or
Oh, and about the annexation of Canada. I should note that
the US citizens of the NorthWest Angle of the US on lake
of the Woods are petitioning congress to secede and join
Canada because of the rotten treatment they are getting
from the US. I just hope the US Government gives them the
Whatever liberalism came out of FDR's time has
now split between a quasi-social democratic view
which is oriented to labor and living standard
issues on one side, and a more middle-class
focus on 'the poor,' ecology, reproductive
rights, civil liberties, and at its worst,
'identity
Don't forget those exceptionally talented people who are socially productive
"unemployed" but would be much less socially productive if they were
employed. And I'm not kidding.
I tried that argument about 30 years ago but
didn't have much success with it. Hope it works
better for you.
From: James Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Max writes: You could also interpret [right-wing] scandal-mongering
[against Clinton] as a straight-forward strategy to delegitimize government
and feed the attitude that nothing constructive can come from government.
This attitude is the most
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 16:20:10 -0600 (CST)
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I couldn't clearly distinguish who wrote what. It appeared that it
was some sort of joint post, as you posted something that had "from"
valis, but no quote indicators. No intention to lump the two of you
James Heartfield wrote:
. . .
In fact the descent into scandal has more to do with the failures of the
right-wing opposition - in Britain and in America. Rather contesting the
policies of Blair and Clinton, the right have latched onto sexual and
other scandals to make up for their lack
Exploitation or theft have nothing to do with the
extent to which colonization fueled capitalist
development. What matters are returns in
excess of cost. Even thievery is not possible
without costs to the perpetrator. ...
Sure, but if you only measure the GNP returns of trade, you are
Bill,
After I responded I realized I may have
misunderstood what you and LP said.
I agree the colonizer's gain could be more than
offset by the victimized country's economic
losses, so that we could say in net terms
capitalist colonization did not contribute to the
world's productive
Rakesh Bhandari wrote:
Tom, there has been a lot of talk about this odd coalition against US
participation in the IMF bail-out of South Korea, Indonesia, etc. Aside
from labor dinosaurs and eco-freaks, so rudely brushed aside by Rubin, who
are some of the powerful members this odd
dear max,
by referring to dinosaurs and freaks, I was mocking the contemptuous way
technocrats dismiss their opposition, how they so rudely brush people
aside. Sorry the irony didn't come out. Don't send my address to the
Rakesh,
I'm sorry to say your irony was lost on me
entirely. I read
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eugene P. Coyle)
Hey, they sent Jake Garn once, how do you explain that?
He was head of the relevant committee. He
car-jacked his way in.
Diod they want to find out what the effect on a limited IQ is?
No. Abel and Baker didn't want to come out
. . .
Or they can send me a roundtrip plane ticket to D.C. so I can give a seminar
on Hours of Work to the Economic Policy Institute (I'm sure Max will let me
billet at his place for free, as long as I don't eat too much cabbage and
beans). Preferably the ticket will be routed so I can
From: James Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Funny thing. Yesterday, the traffic people on the radio said that a big
. . .
This seems further evidence of the LAT's rapid rightward run, as business
considerations dominate editorial policy to a much greater extent under the
new regime
The financial accounting myopia has produced the mirror image of that
incomplete socialist accounting. Instead of discounting capital depreciation
and assigning fictional values to inventory, it discounts the social costs
of labour and thereby enormously inflates the value of financial
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Walker)
From ACCOUNTANTS AND THE PRICE SYSTEM:THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL COSTS
. . .
Sounds like the overhead costs of labor can be
translated as public goods in the neo-classical
sense of the term.
Don't get me wrong. I love public goods. At the
From: Robin Hahnel [EMAIL PROTECTED]
My neighborhood consumption council will request neighborhood public
goods like side walks and play ground equipment for local parks. . . .
This sounded no different than the routine
operation of local government. What is new and
improved
From: Dennis R Redmond [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I apologize in advance to PEN-Lers who are probably bored stiff with all
this theory-stuff and are wondering what all this has to do with
economics, but bear with me.
. . .
that a revived Left can't limit itself to the
From: Robin Hahnel [EMAIL PROTECTED]
By 'proportional share,' do you mean we are
financing everything via head taxes?
An important first step is that income is distributed equitably in the
first place -- which we believe it is in a participatory economy. . . .
If incomes
. . .
political end. Here's part of a recent column by the beloved Pat
Buchanan (NY Post, 11/29):
I'd like to note that on the level of op-ed
analysis, Buchanan's comments here are
unimpeachable. The only wrinkle in the quote is
the gratuitous, jew-baiting reference to Goldman
Sachs.
. . .
validating those threatened financial practices. Anyone here want to risk a
global deflation?
When it goes on a spree, big finance takes lots of hostages.
I wouldn't, but I don't think the authorities
would either, which ought to create opportunities
for concessions. That's why
From: Doug Henwood [EMAIL PROTECTED]
. . .
Except that these international bailouts, unlike the SL resuce, don't cost
U.S. taxpayers anything. The Treasury made a profit on the Mexico bailout,
and the Bretton Woods institutions are also profit-makers.
The question is how much
From: James Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In a somewhat muddled op-ed article in today's L.A. TIMES, Perotoid Populist
Kevin Phillips had an interesting suggestion: that any bail-outs of "elite"
financial institutions be paid for by a tax on financial transactions,
rather than out of
From: Thomas Kruse [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Max's drawing a line post is very timely, very to the point: we really must
hash out what a progressive position on bailouts should be. I agree that
these are the sorts of crises we will see more of. As evidenced by the NYT
article attached
It seems to me that our politics lacks the right
response to the current and incipient financial
events. By "our" I include both a liberal,
muddle-through stance and a radical,
sit-back-and-gawk posture.
The Administration is going to support IMF
bail-outs and some of the left is going to
From: James Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
coming back to the gigantic and crucial theoretical debate that held pen-l
by the throat recently (until comrade Sawicki pointed out the correct path
to us all), I bought a copy of THE DILBERT FUTURE: THRIVING ON STUPIDITY IN
THE 21ST CENTURY
Don't miss the URPE/IAFFE Plenary at the ASSA in
Chicago
Aspects of a Progressive, Feminist Agenda: ADVOCATES and ACADEMICS
Saturday, January 3rd at 8:00 P.M., Hyatt Hotel-Water Tower
This year, URPE (Union of Radical Political Economics) and IAFFE
(International Association
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 1997 11:02:05 +0800 (SST)
The two books one by Amsden (1989) and Woo (1991) are interesting books.
FYI: Steve Smith did a report for EPI a couple
of years ago on the Asian industrial policy
model.
MBS
==
Max B.
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 20:15:46 -0500
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Doug Henwood [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Dilbert
Dilbert is a perfect way for cubicle-bound office drones to blow off steam
in a socially harmless way.
From: John Treacy [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Let the new motto of the revolution be:
Liberte, Legumite, Fraternite, et Flactuation
And long live the Potatoship of the
Proletariat.
MBS
Let's see if I've got this straight. We're going
to organize a revolution of workers on behalf of
a system they don't like (socialism) in order to
radically reduce their consumption and change its
composition to boot. That sounds like a plan.
My only question about the one-hamburger a
For whatever it's worth, lest I be embroiled in
an endless intra-Slavic vendetta, let
interested parties (if any) please note that
in my original post I thought the professor's
article sufficiently interesting and
substantive to merit a reaction, albeit with some
criticisms and questions.
First prize for citing Tom Lehrer first goes to
E. Dannin. Honorable mention to Prof Rosenberg
for tracing the reference one layer back, and
also because I'm not certain, given his
extra-hemispheric location, whether he was first
or not.
BTW Bill, Maxine said hello back. Her talk was
Quoth Valis:
Quoth Tom re Max:
The disruption and the socialization of the losses are not random processes.
Life goes on more or less for some people and just less for others. While
Chossudovsky may have been hyperventilating, Max's and Doug's sanguine
comments about the "low rate
And another thing.
Are you saying that _I_ sympathize with Chossudovsky's politics or excuse
failures in logic and careless use of data? Or are you just setting up a
bogus dichotomy as a platform to pontificate from? I simply was pointing out
that Doug and Max were citing low unemployment
capitalists it serves? Anyone got any figures on proposed U.S. military
spending for the 1997-2002 period, and how much to that goes directly to
the contractors?
You can get it from the Office of Management and
Budget web site. You want the 'Mid-Session
Review' which has the latest
Jim,
Rather than revolutionary pressure, you cite
'outside the beltway' agitation as a force for
positive change, which I wouldn't deny. However,
under present circumstances we don't observe such
agitation around Fast Track, so we (i.e., you)
have to consider the possibility that
Mike E. said:
Max, perhaps I am losing my ability to discern your tongue-in-cheek wit from
your serious argument, but if this is a series argument, I am surprised it
Serious as a heat rash, though you were not the
sort of person I had in mind as an implicit
target. I was most interested in
Comrades,
It is said that when the U.S. government does
something good or fails to do something bad, it
is only as a concession to an incipient
proletarian-revolutionary movement. When it
fails to do something good or elects to do
something bad, on the other hand, it is said to
merely be
Can anyone recommend a book, or preferably an
article, which surveys the current state of
Marxist economic theory, particularly in terms of
delineating the assorted schools of thought and
associated persons?
Thanks,
MBS
==
Max B. Sawicky
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 13:27:09 -0700
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kevin Phillips, who I read regularly in the L.A. TIMES and hear on (U.S.)
National Public Radio, seems to be a leftist Perotist. I don't think he's a
leftist (and it's nauseating to think that he may be counted
. . .
Right now one of the only signs of optimism is the fact that bands like
Rage Against the Machine are among the most popular among angry white
youth. . . .
There's some new group from Britain called
"Chomba Womba" which is supposed to be left-wing.
The name alone is promising.
"Business Economics" also had an article with
the same conclusion. Weather
the recent data are only a "short cycle" (1986-1995) around the long-term
decline (1945-1985) remains to be seen.
Thanks. I'd appreciate a more complete cite,
if you can provide it.
Max
William S. Lear wrote:
At the end of last month, Paul Phillips asked about reasons to oppose
privatizing social security. Today on CSPAN I saw something I hadn't
seen before. A very trim, well-dressed and articulate gentleman, who
repeatedly stressed to the audience that he was "a good
With Valis doing my choreography and Max Sawicky my diet (beans, rice, stale
cabbage) all I need is someone to design my wardrobe -- any volunteers?
Hint: my stature, bearing and and facial characteristics are those of a
commedia dell'arte Scaramouche.
I never accused you of consuming stale
The major municipal union, DC 37, led by the undead Stanley Hill, has just
endorsed Rudy. I was at a dinner party a few months ago with Mario Cuomo's
former tax commissioner, who's never voted for a Republican in his life -
and he's voting for Rudy (because Rudy "proved that New York City
. . .
BTW, I am assuming that ESP doesn't work.
I knew that.
MBS
Max Sawicky wrote,
shagging debutantes. The bottom line is they
can't stand to think about their own lives and
the real problems of the mundane world, so
they are drawn to fantasy.
To which Tom Walker, in a rare moment of unalloyed yeehaw, replied:
I couldn't agree
I guess I'm getting old(er) and soft(er), but I have to admit more than a
bit of admiration for someone from the bosom of the establishment who uses
her (unearned, unjustified) celebrity to tackle the international arms
industry and the British Tories on issues like land mines.
The
Max Sawicky wrote,
And I'd gladly pay to see a jacquerie.
Or a purple cow?
This looks like a Chagall reference, but I don't
get it. Please enlighten.
MBS
==
Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dumbest comment I've heard on Diana:
Bob Edwards on NPR this a.m. (Friday) about the
situation in London:
"It's almost a social revolution."
MBS
==
Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Suite 1200
From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:12136] Re: Can You Top This
This sort of derision is unnecessary, and possibly outsmarts itself;
a majority of the British population is telling the royal family
to shape up or ship out, and that _is_ almost a social
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 19:11:22 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Robert Naiman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:12130] consumer price changes due to trade and trade
agreements...?
Is anyone aware of attempts to empirically measure "increases in
Yeah, and what about the Minsky paradox, and the danger of validating
threatened financial practices? The factoid I quoted yesterday, that the
bailout era has been one of financial crises of unprecedented severity and
frequency, argues that indulgence does have its downside.
I don't dispute
From: "DICKENS, EDWIN (201)-408-3024" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:12071] Re: Greenspan on Govt. Intervention in Markets
of last resort. Max: why aren't lender of last
resort interventions like dropping a big bag of
money on ailing institutions? If the point is to
Maybe we're both making impressionistic generalizations that beg technical
issues. You seem to be saying that easy money has beneficial general effects
on the economy under almost any circumstances. That seems to me to be a kind
of mechanistic Keynesianism. I would argue that the heart of the
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 1997 10:18:59 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Doug Henwood [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L:12067] radio
I'm doing a post-Labor Day special on my radio show (WBAI, New York City)
this Thursday evening. I've got Edie Rassel of the
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