[PEN-L:10978] Paris Club/Press Briefing by McCurry, Steinberg and Summers

[Paul Altesman]

Well, I guess you (and most of Pen-l) can guess the story.  The Soviets (and
now the Russians as the legal successor state) were left "owed" quite a bit
- by countries some Paris Club members might think of as "squeezables" (i.e.
Iraq, Cuba, Libya, etc).  Theoretically, once Russia has membership, the
Paris Club could invoke default, and (under the cross conditionality clause)
call in all official loans as well as block future ones (the Paris Club only
covers official lending; the London Club handles private debt).  There might
be a particular twist for Iraq since any unfreezing of overseas assets
(post-sanctions) is usually preceeded by negotiations over debt repayment
(and Paris Club members usually give eachother equal preference status).

For what its worth, even when I was last dealing with Russian Finance
Ministry people (a few years ago when they were still quite naive) only the
most straightfaced could speak of this as real debt. It is mostly
denominated in old Rubles and was an accounting measure for future barter
claims.  However, many officials refered to it - a reminder of a different
time on the international scene.


At 11:22 AM 6/21/97 -0700, Doug Henwood wrote:
>The White House wrote:
>
>>DEPUTY SECRETARY SUMMERS:  At about 5:30 a.m. this
>>morning, an agreement was reached between Russia and the Chairman of
>>the Paris Club on principles for Russia's accession to the Paris Club.
>
>What the hell is going on here? The Paris Club is for creditors, and Russia
>is a giant debtor. The ostensible reason seems to be that Russia is a
>creditor of poor countries in Africa and elsewhere, debt that will be
>heavily written off, but the new issue of World Bank News, published by an
>institution Summers used ot work for, reports a new $880 million loan to
>Yeltsin's collapsed country. I'd thought the Paris Club - which, as the
>Financial Times put it many years ago, doesn't officially exist and doesn't
>have any permanent staff or bylaws - was one of those institutions that
>were too important to play PR games with. Can anyone make sense of this,
>aside from the PR value of throwing Russia a bone? Is this some elaborate
>ruse for eliminating Russia's credits and exchanging them for more debts?
>
>

"DEBATE" ISSUE #3: OUT SOON!!!

[FRANCO BARCHIESI]

Fed-up with neoliberalism?
GEAR is putting your life in the low gear?
   Co-determination doesn't excite you?

  Then why don't you try

 *** D  E  B  A  T  E ***  
Voices from the South African Left
   ?
  ISSUE 3 now in preparation COMING SOON
 with: 
 
 Special Focus: INTELLECTUALS IN RETREAT
Heinrich BOHMKE and Ashwin DESAI - "The Death of the Intellectual, 
The Birth of a Salesman: The South African 
Intellectuals in the Democratic Transition"   
Oupa LEHULERE on challenging GEAR
Edgar PIETERSE on culturing development discourse
Meshack KHOSA on the situation of the Pan-African intellectual

 PLUS:
Focus on the Land: Fana SIHLONGONYANE on the crisis of the 
agrarian reform and Andile MNGXITAMA on the question of the 
chieftaincy;
Patrick BOND on the tragedy of neoliberal housing policy;
Noor NIEFTAGODIEN on cuts in tertiary education budget;
Franco BARCHIESI reports on "Debating the South African State" - a 
"Debate" Workshop with Jeremy CRONIN, Claire CERUTI and Noor 
NIEFTAGODIEN;

  LAST BUT NOT LEAST:
FOR HUMANITY AND AGAINST NEOLIBERALISM - "Debate"'s participation to 
the Second Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and against 
Neoliberalism (Madrid, Spain 26 July - 2 August 1997);
ACTION ALERT: Repression against comrades at the University of Durban-
Westville;
WORLD FORUM FOR ALTERNATIVES - An Introduction;
BOOK REVIEW: Giovanni Arrighi's "The Long Twentieth Century", by 
Stephen GREENBERG.

### "DEBATE" supports the COMSA and SRC members criminalised at the 
University of Durban-Westville - DROP ALL CHARGES, REOPEN THE CAMPUS, 
NOW!!! ###

To subscribe to "DEBATE" (one year, three issues, airmail included):
 South Africa Overseas
Workers and R50.00  N/A 
Full-Time Students  R40.00
Salaried IndividualsR75.00$30/GBP20
Institutions   R120.00$60/GBP40

Cheques payable to "Debate-Voices from the South African Left" should 
be sent to: "DEBATE", PO Box 483, Wits 2050, SOUTH AFRICA.
Free issues to political prisoners on request.

--

Franco Barchiesi
Sociology of Work Unit
Dept of Sociology
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3
PO Wits 2050
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel. (++27 11) 716.3290
Fax  (++27 11) 716.3781
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/aut_html
http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~mshalev/direct.htm

Home:
98 6th Avenue
Melville 2092
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel. (++27 11) 482.5011

[PEN-L:10977] Re: K/Y ratios

[blairs]

First, off-the-top, shallow proposal: the rate of exploitation is higher?
Given the higher social wage elsewhere, this would make sense, no?

>Sorry if the subject heading seems racier than it turns out to be...
>
>Anyway, what, if anything, does it mean that the U.S. has the lowest
>capital/output ratio in the OECD? Here are some numbers for 1996, from the
>OECD in Figures, 1997 edition:
>
>CAPITAL/OUTPUT RATIO, BUSINESS SECTOR, 1996
>
>Australia   2.87
>Austria 3.71
>Belgium 2.89
>Canada  2.46
>Denmark 3.87
>Finland 3.57
>France  2.93
>Germany 2.75
>Greece  2.48
>Ireland 2.09
>Italy   2.82
>Japan   2.55
>Netherlands 2.18
>Norway  3.43
>Spain   2.60
>Sweden  2.89
>Switzerland 3.21
>UK  2.81
>US  1.91
>
>Doug
>
>--
>
>Doug Henwood
>Left Business Observer
>250 W 85 St
>New York NY 10024-3217 USA
>+1-212-874-4020 voice  +1-212-874-3137 fax
>email: 
>web: 






Blair Sandler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

[PEN-L:10976] Re: K/Y ratios

[Doug Henwood]

Tavis Barr wrote:

>I guess it could mean one of two things:
>
>(1) Capital intensive firms in the US somehow are really more productive;
>(2) Relative to other countries, the US has had more productivity gains
>through speed-ups than through mechanization.
>
>Is this a trick question?

Not at all. I guess I was hoping to elict some thinking on the course of
the capital-output ratio over "development."

Doug

[PEN-L:10975] Re: K/Y ratios

[Tavis Barr]

I guess it could mean one of two things:

(1) Capital intensive firms in the US somehow are really more productive;
(2) Relative to other countries, the US has had more productivity gains 
through speed-ups than through mechanization.

Is this a trick question?

Curious,
Tavis


On Fri, 20 Jun 1997, Doug Henwood wrote:

> Sorry if the subject heading seems racier than it turns out to be...
> 
> Anyway, what, if anything, does it mean that the U.S. has the lowest
> capital/output ratio in the OECD? Here are some numbers for 1996, from the
> OECD in Figures, 1997 edition:
> 
> CAPITAL/OUTPUT RATIO, BUSINESS SECTOR, 1996
> 
> Australia   2.87
> Austria 3.71
> Belgium 2.89
> Canada  2.46
> Denmark 3.87
> Finland 3.57
> France  2.93
> Germany 2.75
> Greece  2.48
> Ireland 2.09
> Italy   2.82
> Japan   2.55
> Netherlands 2.18
> Norway  3.43
> Spain   2.60
> Sweden  2.89
> Switzerland 3.21
> UK  2.81
> US  1.91
> 
> Doug
> 
> --
> 
> Doug Henwood
> Left Business Observer
> 250 W 85 St
> New York NY 10024-3217 USA
> +1-212-874-4020 voice  +1-212-874-3137 fax
> email: 
> web: 
> 
> 
> 

[PEN-L:10974] Re: Morgan Stanley on class war

[Doug Henwood]

Gordon Taylor wrote:

>The URL given led me to a dead end. It has either changed or is wrong.
>However,
>by using some cyber-sluething, I was able to come up with a URL that led to
>the article in question.
>
>The URL is:http://www.ms.com/GEFdata/digests/970620-fri.html#xtocid126332

I just cleared my cache and tried:

http://www.ms.com/GEFdata/digests/970620-fri.html

and it worked just fine.

Doug

[PEN-L:10973] Re: Morgan Stanley on class war

[Hank Leland]

Try http://www.ms.com/GEFdata/digests/latest-digest.html


Gordon Taylor wrote:

> The URL given led me to a dead end. It has either changed or is wrong.
> However,
> by using some cyber-sluething, I was able to come up with a URL that
> led to
> the article in question.
>
> The URL
> is:http://www.ms.com/GEFdata/digests/970620-fri.html#xtocid126332

[PEN-L:10972] Re: Morgan Stanley on class war

[Gordon Taylor]

The URL given led me to a dead end. It has either changed or is wrong. However,
by using some cyber-sluething, I was able to come up with a URL that led to
the article in question.

The URL is:http://www.ms.com/GEFdata/digests/970620-fri.html#xtocid126332

[PEN-L:10971] Re: Morgan Stanley on class war

[Doug Henwood]

Karl Carlile wrote:

>What is the url of this website Doug?

I should have done this the first time around. The Morgan Stanley articles
are at http://www.ms.com/GEFdata/digests/970620-fri.html.

Doug

[PEN-L:10970] Re: 1997-06-20 Press Briefing by McCurry, Steinberg and Summers

[Doug Henwood]

The White House wrote:

>DEPUTY SECRETARY SUMMERS:  At about 5:30 a.m. this
>morning, an agreement was reached between Russia and the Chairman of
>the Paris Club on principles for Russia's accession to the Paris Club.

What the hell is going on here? The Paris Club is for creditors, and Russia
is a giant debtor. The ostensible reason seems to be that Russia is a
creditor of poor countries in Africa and elsewhere, debt that will be
heavily written off, but the new issue of World Bank News, published by an
institution Summers used ot work for, reports a new $880 million loan to
Yeltsin's collapsed country. I'd thought the Paris Club - which, as the
Financial Times put it many years ago, doesn't officially exist and doesn't
have any permanent staff or bylaws - was one of those institutions that
were too important to play PR games with. Can anyone make sense of this,
aside from the PR value of throwing Russia a bone? Is this some elaborate
ruse for eliminating Russia's credits and exchanging them for more debts?


Doug

--

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
250 W 85 St
New York NY 10024-3217 USA
+1-212-874-4020 voice  +1-212-874-3137 fax
email: 
web: 

[PEN-L:10969] Re: K/Y ratios

[[EMAIL PROTECTED]]

I hope you ultimately have an answer to that question, Doug.  Though not
quite sure that I really understand the concept, I looked for interesting 
correlations.  All I could find was that Ireland and the Netherlands,
next lowest to the US in the list, are also becoming service economies.
Does that get the brass ring?
   valis
   Occupied America 

 
> Anyway, what, if anything, does it mean that the U.S. has the lowest
> capital/output ratio in the OECD? Here are some numbers for 1996, from the
> OECD in Figures, 1997 edition:
> 
> CAPITAL/OUTPUT RATIO, BUSINESS SECTOR, 1996
> 
> Australia   2.87
> Austria 3.71
> Belgium 2.89
> Canada  2.46
> Denmark 3.87
> Finland 3.57
> France  2.93
> Germany 2.75
> Greece  2.48
> Ireland 2.09
> Italy   2.82
> Japan   2.55
> Netherlands 2.18
> Norway  3.43
> Spain   2.60
> Sweden  2.89
> Switzerland 3.21
> UK  2.81
> US  1.91

[PEN-L:10968] Re: Morgan Stanley on class war

[Karl Carlile]

What is the url of this website Doug?

   Karl

I've just snagged two articles from the Morgan Stanley webiste, one by
Jim Fralick in London on the "tyranny of the middle class" (the
disturbing tendency of particuarly the Euro-m.c. in resisting welfare
state cuts) and the other by Stephen Roach in New York on the
increasing tensions between capital and labor. They're a bit long for
here, but I'll forward them to anyone who asks.

Doug

--

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
250 W 85 St
New York NY 10024-3217 USA
+1-212-874-4020 voice  +1-212-874-3137 fax
email: 
web: 



  




  Yours etc.,
 Karl