Facing South
F A C I N G S O U T H A progressive Southern news report December 18, 2003 * Issue 68 Published by the Institute for Southern Studies and Southern Exposure magazine. To join the Institute and get a year's worth of Southern Exposure and Facing South, visit www.southernstudies.org INSTITUTE INDEX * Law Order Amount of fines a Texas woman faces for selling a vibrator to undercover police: $10,000 Number of Dallas drug cases overturned because police illegally planted fake cocaine: 80 Fines faced by a Florida peace volunteer for breaking sanctions and going to Iraq: $10,000 Fines faced by Halliburton Co. for $73 million in Iraq business deals in late 1990s, under sanctions: $0 Share of private prison market held by Corrections Corporation of America: 49.4% Approximate number of prisoners mistakenly released by CCA at a Tulsa jail: 12 Amount spent by CCA to settle shareholder lawsuits, in millions: $120 Staff turnover rate at a CCA prison in Tennessee: 104.8% Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies. _ DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region BREAUX RETIREMENT SPELLS MORE TROUBLE FOR SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS The announcement that conservative Louisiana senator John Breaux (D) will not be seeking re-election -- the fifth Southern Democrat to vacate a seat for 2004 -- makes the Democrats' position in the South even more tenuous. (Mother Jones, 12/12) http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/12/12_521.html BIG BROTHER'S LITTLE HELPER Atlanta-based ChoicePoint Co. provides detailed personal information about citizens to over 30 federal agencies, including those tasked with enforcing the Patriot Act, and 90% of insurance carriers. They're also the company that wrongly disenfranchised over 10,000 Florida voters in 2000, erroneously labeling them as felons. (Creative Loafing, 12/4) http://www.atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2003-12-04/cover_news.html HALLIBURTON SLAMMED FOR SERVING DIRTY FOOD Fresh off revalations that Houston-based contractor Halliburton Co. was overcharging the Pentagon for fuel in Iraq comes new reports that Halliburton has been serving dirty food to over 110,000 U.S. and Coalition troops in Iraq. The Pentagon found blood all over the floor and rotting meats and vegetables among other offences. (AFP, 12/14) http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/12/14/2003079545 REPORT BLASTS PRIVATE PRISON COMPANY CCA Nashville-headquartered private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America is plagued by financial instability and substandard conditions in its prisons that contradict recent attempts at image improvement, charges a new report by Charlotte-based Grassroots Leadership. (Associated Press, 12/10) http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_2491122,00.html MODERN-DAY SLAVERY HELPS FLORIDA FARMS THRIVE Florida agriculture is a $6 billion-plus industry. And an investigation by the Palm Beach Post found farmworkers who reported being locked up, raped, sickened by pesticides, and shorted on pay to the point that they could barely survive. Primarily Mexican but also Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and Honduran, they are part of an oppressed work force that allows Americans to purchase a half-gallon of fresh orange juice for $3.39 or a pound of tomatoes for $1.29. (Palm Beach Post, 12/7) http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1203/07slave.html REVELATIONS ALTER THE THURMOND LEGACY Revelations that Strom Thurmond, at 22 years old, had fathered a child with his family's 16-year-old black maid, will alter his legacy. He was a racist by day and a hypocrite by night, says civil rights activist Rev. Joseph Lowery. (Associated Press, 12/17) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storycid=536ncid=536e=2u=/ap/20031218/ap_on_re_us/thurmond_s_legacy_2 TEXAS HOUSEWIFE BUSTED FOR HAWKING EROTIC TOYS A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops. The Brisbane vibrator company she works for says Texas is an antiquated place with more than its share of prudes. (San Francisco Chronicle, 12/16) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/16/SEXTOYS.TMP
Looking Back
For a look back to the better times of U.S. relationship with Saddam Hussein, see the following: Patrick E. Tyler, Officers say U.S. aided Iraq in war despite use of gas, New York Times, August 18, 2002. U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their possible impact on health consequences of the Gulf War, 1994 Report by the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. William Blum's cover story in the April 1998 issue of The Progressive, Anthrax for Export. Jim Crogan's April 25-May 1, 2003 report in the LA Weekly, Made in the USA, Part III: The Dishonor Roll. Iraq: U.S. military items exported or transferred to Iraq in the 1980s, United States General Accounting Office, released February 7, 1994. U.S. had key role in Iraq buildup; trade in chemical arms allowed despite their use on Iranians and Kurds, Washington Post, December 30, 2002. Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. policy and the prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980-1994, The National Security Archive, 2003
Re: Americans best-informed people, ever
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/19/03 9:39 AM According to Bob Herbert in today's NY Times, Americans are the best-informed people in the history of the world. Bill which explains why more than 50% (according to public opinion polls anyway) of them still think that saddam hussein was responsible for 9/11... santa claus
Re: Looking Back
National Security Archive has just released a Saddam Hussein Sourcebook at: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/special/iraq/index.htm dms
Packaging of Hot Wheels
When I was a lad, I used to play with Hot Wheels. Our next-door neighbor worked for Mattel and would bring us new cars and track before they were released to the public. My brother and I had tons of track and we would set up huge race courses about our house; we'd spend lots of time thinking about the design, then we'd set to work connecting the bright orange plastic track together with the deep crimson plastic tongues. There were 90 and 180 degree curves, loops, and a few accessories such as a spinning, battery-operated booster station, but it was basically lots of track. Today, you cannot purchase just plain track. Mattel has repackaged everything into discrete kits, none of which are compatible, so you can't make a large race course. You can by Crash Canyon, and Battle Arena, and Extreme Challenge, etc., but no plain track kits. In searching for plain track, I noticed that on Amazon a reviewer posted the question Why can't you buy plain track anymore?. My question exactly. What is the economic term for such practices? Why deprive children of the creative, constructive opportunity in order to boost profits? Oh, sorry, that last question is self-answering. Seriously, though, there is planned obsolescence, is this planned incompatibility? Lots of toys available these days in the stores suffer the same problem. They are designed to maximize profits by preventing the children from using them in multiple different ways. The manufacturers convert the many dimensions inherent in a simple product (that can be combined many different ways) into many different complex products that can only be used in one way. This latter practice is, incidentally, the opposite of good software design, which follows the former model. In software, we call this metric coupling in which separate components are not inherently tightly coupled, but can be used in many different contexts. Bill
Women's health: Palestinian Media Watch
from Ray Hanania. . . . A detailed profile of Palestine Media Watch was published this week that examines how organizations have been able to influence the media using the Internet that I thought members would be interested in ... == The revolution will be e-mailed Can a widespread, loosely knit organization connected only through e-mail make the American mainstream media take notice of the Palestinian perspective? Written and photographed by Tamam Mango / Cambridge, Massachusetts Published Thursday, November 13, 2003 In May 2002, an Israeli tank shell killed a Palestinian mother and her thirteen-year-old daughter. The pair was grazing sheep on their land, far from any Israeli checkpoint. In defense of their actions, the Israelis said that the two women 'looked suspicious.' The incident did not make the front page of any national American newspaper. The next day, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed two Israelis near Tel Aviv in response, and the event topped headlines of every major paper in the country. Whole article: http://inthefray.com/html/article.php?sid=109 == Thanks Ray Hanania www.hanania.com
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
About the Maasi. . .I was referring to the pre-capitalist Ilparakuyo Maasi as described in the work of anthropologist Peter Rigy. . . as for the Continuum concept. . .refer to the website under that name. . . Brian
only in the USA
Shanksville, PA is the town where the jet hijacked by terrorists crashed on 9/11. It is close to Johnstown, where I taught at the Univ. of Pittsburgh campus for 32 years. In today's New York Times, there is an article about the impact of 9/11 on the folks there. Most are rabid Republicans and strong supporters of George W. Bush. However, there are a good many people who are skeptical that Bush's policies are making them safer, and many who worry that no one cares about the terrible state of the economy. Average income andeducation levels are below national average. When a local grade school teacher told the reporter that she was worried about U.S. policy in Iraq and how it might be damaging our trustworthiness abroad, another teacher burst in with the following: "I know I get defensive about this stuff, but with what we have been through and wit my husband in the military, I have to trust President George W. Bush and I support him 100 percent." . . . As a sign of her admiration, Ms. Edwards said, she bought her husband a special Christmas gift: a military action-figure doll of George W. Bush. Michael Yates
Re: Wolf on Renminbi Flexibility
On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [I thought this was a surprising good discussion that covered all the bases.] Interesting though, that the general principle that in a fixed rate system the burden of adjustment falls on the deficit country, is completely ignored; ie the entire problem is framed as a question about what *China* will do ... That's completely true. But aren't Chinese production and US demand now such a symbiotic whole that the opposite course -- fixing the US current account deficit by deflating the US -- would hurt China badly? Not to mention the fact that the present system presents China with a $350 bln opportunity cost in the form of dollar reserves that are doing nothing. And that at this rate it will need a little deflationary pressure soon. So cet. par. and ignoring the difficulties, it seems that China might end up deciding to implement something like Wolf's medium term strategy even if it consulted only its self interest. Do you think not? Theoretically, the coherence of the principle that adjustment should always fall on the deficit country seems to need the presupposition that what happens to the country in question will have a negligible effect on the other members of the world economy. In cases where that assumption clearly doesn't hold because the economy in question is too large, it seems like it's been standard practice, at least since the death of the gold standard, to set that principle aside for more mutualistic approach, whether back in the day of the dollar/mark/yen negotiations, or in the now-speculated-about future of dollar/euro/yen/renminbi adjustments. Admittedly this institutionalized exception -- mutualism for us, adjustment for you -- institutionalizes unfairness to the weak and poor. But that's capitalism in a nutshell. And as far as China is concerned, it's being treated here at least in the abstract as one of Us: as a major world economic force that has to be reckoned with. Michael
Re: Packaging of Hot Wheels
Bill's note reminds us how pervasive planned obsolescence is. He then says that good software is made to have metric coupling, but then good commerce makes software incompatable. Isn't that right? Bill Lear wrote: When I was a lad, I used to play with Hot Wheels. Our next-door neighbor worked for Mattel and would bring us new cars and track before they were released to the public. My brother and I had tons of track and we would set up huge race courses about our house; we'd spend lots of time thinking about the design, then we'd set to work connecting the bright orange plastic track together with the deep crimson plastic tongues. There were 90 and 180 degree curves, loops, and a few accessories such as a spinning, battery-operated booster station, but it was basically lots of track. This latter practice is, incidentally, the opposite of good software design, which follows the former model. In software, we call this metric coupling in which separate components are not inherently tightly coupled, but can be used in many different contexts. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
I don't understand why we go round and round on threads like this. Doesn't everybody understand where each poster is coming from now? What I would love to see is new threads that would engage the hundreds of lurkers on the list. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
the capture of saddam
J. Edgar Hoover used to to reenactments of the capture of famous criminal, where he would heroically appear to apprehend the evil doer. Why did Bush not fly his fighter plane to Iraq and pull Saddam out of the hole on prime time tv? Is Karl Rove getting stale? By the way, I suspect that the soldiers would not just climb down into a hole and find SH with his hands up. The would certainly throw in a stun grenade or gas him before bringing him up. Of course, none of this is germane to pen-l, but nobody seems interested in the real economy. Does anybody have any feel for the types of jobs that are being created now? Is the international economy stable enough to carry Bush till next October? Are we in the midst of a new stock market bubble? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
Fine with me. I have no interest in discussing the vicissitudes of contracts and every interest in the dynamic disequilibrium of capital. dms
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
- Original Message - From: dmschanoes [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fine with me. I have no interest in discussing the vicissitudes of contracts and every interest in the dynamic disequilibrium of capital. dms = The two, of course, being totally separable issues, especially with regards to financial markets. Ian
Re: the capture of saddam
According to BLS: Losses in manufacturing and transportation. Gains in finance, construction, and professional and business services. Stock market bubble? Dead cat bounce is more like it, which doesn't mean you can't make money in it. I think the US is really about to drop into the double of the double dip-- classic elements right now-- commodity prices rising, gold with a 25% appreciation, production for inventory, overproduction continuing in steel, aluminum, autos etc. Bubbles? Biggest one of all time-- it's called China-- with non-performing debt levels at or exceeding Japan's levels of 6-7 years ago-- overinvestment in production capacity without the infrastructure to support the actual production-- i.e. transportation, circulation, utilities (water, electricity), feverish snapping up of IPOs (latest one I read about was IPO of Great Wall Auto on Hong Kong Index-- demand for shares was 26X the float, with buying on a 90% margin. Re: Infrastructure and domestic market in China-- Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing-- Wholly owned Chinese Fab Operation.er, maybe not.. Says W. Wong-- Chairman: We came here to build a fab for the domestic market otherwise it makes no sense because your costs are higher than in Taiwan because of the lack of infrastructure. Domestic market? The plant is managed by Taiwanese. The first contracts are with OKI of Japan and the big target for Grace is Silicon Storage Technology in the US. Domestically owned? Partner in this enterprise is George W. Bush's younger brother. Is the intl. economy stable enough? Don't know. But cyncial, jaded, suspicious NYer that I am, I'm betting there is no '04 election. dms
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
joanna bujes wrote: What's the continuum concept? something to do with there being no transfinite numbers between aleph-0 and aleph-1? (where 2**c = aleph-1???). whether that is correct (as recalled from my sketchy knowledge of math) is doubtful. what it has to do with fidel castro is of course beyond me. ;-) perhaps i am confusing the hypothesis with the concept? --ravi
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
ravi wrote: joanna bujes wrote: What's the continuum concept? something to do with there being no transfinite numbers between aleph-0 and aleph-1? (where 2**c = aleph-1???). whether that is correct (as recalled from my sketchy knowledge of math) is doubtful. what it has to do with fidel castro is of course beyond me. ;-) perhaps i am confusing the hypothesis with the concept? ack! was intended offlist. forgive the foray into dubious math. --ravi
Re: Marx's theory of unequal exchange, for beginners
Mike asked: I can see how an employer can profit from selling the commodities her workers produce for wages. I'm afraid I'm ignorant about how one State can expoit another State through purchasing. Is China now exploiting the USA because it buys less than it sells to the US? Unequal exchange is a term applied to forms of exploitation which trading in marketable objects and entities (in Marx's language, commodities, Waren) may involve. So historically, the occurence of unequal exchange is historically speaking as old as the history of trading practices, and not limited to a full-fledged capitalist society. But what does the inequality consist in ? The essential concept of unequal exchange is that of buying cheap and selling dear, which means that a commodity is bought either: - below its real value and sold at a higher value, or - it is bought at its real value and sold above its real value, or - it is bought above its real value and sold at a price even higher than its already inflated acquisition cost (e.g. stockmarket). If unequal exchange occurs in trading, the consequence of this is, that producers, investors and consumers incur either higher costs or lower incomes (or both) in the buying and selling of commodities than they would have, if the commodities had traded at their real value. So in that case, they are disadvantaged in trading, and their market position is worsened, rather than strengthened. But, of course, anyone can claim to have been cheated or ripped off in exchange, in the sense of having received an unfair price for a commodity, less than it is really worth, or in the sense of having paid more than it is worth. The question which must be answered therefore is what the real value of commodities actually is, what their real worth is, and how that could be objectively established anyhow. This question preoccupied philosophers and economic thinkers for many centuries, giving rise to the moral science of political economy, which was originally concerned with the problem of what would be a fair and just exchange, and how trading could be regulated in the interests of a more harmonious progress of human society. In modern bourgeois thought however, this is mainly a purely subjective matter, it can be judged only on the basis of how an individual actually lives his life and how he conducts himself as individual in the marketplace. So in modern bourgeois thought, it is essentially a question of style, moral behaviour and spirituality of individuals, not an economic issue. If there is an unfairness, there must be an impediment to the market; if the market could expand, all would be fair. What Marx seeks to do is to go beyond moral discussion, in order to establish what, objectively speaking, real values are, how they are established, and what the actual objective regulating principles of trade are, basing himself principally on the insights of Adam Smith and David Ricardo (but many other political economists as well). That being the case, Marx, like the more advanced political economists, is no longer immediately concerned with what a morally justified price might be, but rather with what objective economic value is, such as is really established in real market activity and real trading practices. And Marx's answer is that the real value is essentially the labour cost involved in producing it, its real production cost, measured in human labour time or in production cost prices. Thus, Marx find that the real value in a capitalist economy is the production price of a commodity, defined as the sum of the average real cost price (materials used up + labour costs) and the average profit reaped by the producing enterprises. But the production price, the real value, is only a theoretical value, to which, under perfect competition, prices would gravitate. In reality, market prices oscillate above and below that theoretical value, equating to that value only in limited cases. There is no way in capitalist society that real product values of commodities can be established, other than if perfect competition existed. Afterwards, after trading has occurred, we might o course calculate that yes, commodities sold at their production price or no, they sold at prices significantly above or below real production prices. We can of course dispute endlessly about what an adequate profit is. But the point is really this: precisely because of the very nature of competition, there can NEVER be perfect competition, because competition means precisely that you try to do things to advantage your own position in the market-place, and disadvantage competitors in the marketplace, for example through blocking competition, so that you can hike up the selling price, or buy stuff at a lower cost. You always try to improve your own market position, and worsen the market position of others. This is of course hidden in bourgeois ideological views, which present competition as a kind of sport, and may the best man
Correction
I wrote: In the meantime, wise men which consult about how to continue the system of exploitation for the long haul. It should be: In the meantime, wise men will consult about how to continue the system of exploitation for the long haul. J.
Re: Americans best-informed people, ever
Bob Herbert was being ironic. Anyone who actually read the column knows that by best he meant most informed about trivia, and that such information is part of the process of entertaining ourselves to death. Shane Mage When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly. When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true. (N. Weiner) [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/19/03 9:39 AM According to Bob Herbert in today's NY Times, Americans are the best-informed people in the history of the world. Bill which explains why more than 50% (according to public opinion polls anyway) of them still think that saddam hussein was responsible for 9/11... santa claus
Correction and the others on unequal exchange.
The following reference in Jurriaan's message on unequal exchange does not exist. The only article Anwar wrote for that book was the one on transformation problem. However, the revised version of the Science and Society articles on international trade and unequal exchange was later published in an edited book by E. Nell, Growth, Profits and Property : Essays in the Revival of Political Economy. Being from the East, I would also recommend Samir Amin's and many Indian Marxists' writings on unequal exchange. Anwar Shaikh, The theory of international exchange, article in Jesse Schwartz, The Subtle Anatomy of Capitalism Ahmet Tonak Jurriaan Bendien wrote: I wrote: In the meantime, wise men which consult about how to continue the system of exploitation for the long haul. It should be: In the meantime, wise men will consult about how to continue the system of exploitation for the long haul. J.
On the economy (was on the capture of Saddam)
MIchael asked about the economy. A rare subject for this list. I had the feeling that the bump this fall from the tax cut might end before carrying Bush to triumph. But the WSJ had a story the other day that the farm economy is starting to boom. High prices for cattle and grains. Leading to big purchases of tractors and other heavy equipment, and building of houses, etc. That seems to be an additional bump that may be enough to keep the expansion going for a year. I do think the new stock market bubble is inflating, because my sense is that we are in for a long period of very slow growth, world-wide and in particular in the USA. Consequently the stock market isn't going much higher on fundamentals -- so any spurt in share prices won't reward new buyers. Gene Coyle michael wrote: J. Edgar Hoover used to to reenactments of the capture of famous criminal, where he would heroically appear to apprehend the evil doer. Why did Bush not fly his fighter plane to Iraq and pull Saddam out of the hole on prime time tv? Is Karl Rove getting stale? By the way, I suspect that the soldiers would not just climb down into a hole and find SH with his hands up. The would certainly throw in a stun grenade or gas him before bringing him up. Of course, none of this is germane to pen-l, but nobody seems interested in the real economy. Does anybody have any feel for the types of jobs that are being created now? Is the international economy stable enough to carry Bush till next October? Are we in the midst of a new stock market bubble? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
The observable evidence of unequal exchange
You might ask, how can we empirically verify that unequal exchange has occurred ? Of course, economists who think in the spirit of Marx don't just want theory or moral diatribes, they want empirical evidence. Well, there are at least six good indicators of unequal exchange in price terms: (1) the terms of trade. This refers to the relative prices of goods and services traded on international markets, specifically the weighted average of a nation's export prices relative to its import prices, as indicated by the ratio of the export price index to the import price index measured relative to a base year. Using this type of calculation, it could be established in New Zealand where I lived for two decades that, for example, in the 1960s and later 1970s and 1980s, a farmer had to produce an increasing number of sheep and cows to buy one tractor (I am just using an illustrative example here). In other words, he had to produce more of the same product to obtain another product through trade. (2) Accounting analysis of product unit values, i.e. the composition of the various costs included in the final market price of a commodity (the price to the final consumer who uses or consumes the product). If for example it is found that an increasing fraction of that sale price represents costs other than direct production and transport costs, but instead profit, interest and rent income, then unequal exchange in trade has increased. But because of the creative gross and net income expenditure accounting it is done, this is often not easy, since various incomes and expenditures are included under headings which make it difficult to understand what the costs were actually for, or what activity gave rise to the incomes. (3) The change in the shares of net income between social classes and class fractions. If the discrepancy between the gross and net incomes of one social class, relative to another social class, increases, then a transfer of claims to wealth is occurring. This could be due to less income generated in production, or to income transferred in exchange (trading), or to taxation. We can compare also the actual average labour hours put in by one social class, the the net income accruing to that social class. (4) The trend in the cost structure of production of a country as a whole, or particular sectors, which refers to the amount of capital expenditures not directly related to the actual production of a product, i.e. costs incurred in addition to materials, equipment and labour (interest payments, incidental expenses, insurance, taxes, rents and the like). (5) The contribution to net output and investment by the FIRE sector (Finance, Banking, Real Estate, Insurance, Renting and Leasing), and the expenditure on capital goods by type by different sectors. (6) The proportion of net profits, net rents, net interest payments and net property income transferred to other nations or obtained from other nations. Generally speaking, Marxists do not do this research, a few do, but not many. They prefer moral diatribes and theories, claiming that you cannot measure Marx's value categories. But that is why people do not believe them. A credible argument must be based on the facts of experience, and the role of socialist economists is to provide them. Jurriaan
Re: Correction and the others on unequal exchange.
My apologies, it slipped my mind. I cannot remember everything. Yes, I agree Samir Amin's writing are also very important. He is really one of the few people considering unequal exchange theoretically and empirically in recent years. J. - Original Message - From: E. Ahmet Tonak [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 8:33 PM Subject: [PEN-L] Correction and the others on unequal exchange. The following reference in Jurriaan's message on unequal exchange does not exist. The only article Anwar wrote for that book was the one on transformation problem. However, the revised version of the Science and Society articles on international trade and unequal exchange was later published in an edited book by E. Nell, Growth, Profits and Property : Essays in the Revival of Political Economy. Being from the East, I would also recommend Samir Amin's and many Indian Marxists' writings on unequal exchange. Anwar Shaikh, The theory of international exchange, article in Jesse Schwartz, The Subtle Anatomy of Capitalism Ahmet Tonak Jurriaan Bendien wrote: I wrote: In the meantime, wise men which consult about how to continue the system of exploitation for the long haul. It should be: In the meantime, wise men will consult about how to continue the system of exploitation for the long haul. J.
Re: On the economy (was on the capture of Saddam)
The farm boom will also lower the deficit by maybe $4 bill. because of lower subsidies. The higher commodity prices may put pressure on the Fed., but Greenspan will not dare to raise interest rates before the election. You never know where the cracks will appear, but I suspect it will come in the international markets. On Sat, Dec 20, 2003 at 11:35:19AM -0800, Eugene Coyle wrote: MIchael asked about the economy. A rare subject for this list. I had the feeling that the bump this fall from the tax cut might end before carrying Bush to triumph. But the WSJ had a story the other day that the farm economy is starting to boom. High prices for cattle and grains. Leading to big purchases of tractors and other heavy equipment, and building of houses, etc. That seems to be an additional bump that may be enough to keep the expansion going for a year. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: On the Economy
Measuring the Measures: Here's where the economy was 3 months ago: WSJ 9/8: US manufacturing capacity mid1995-2000 grew by one third, largestincrease in 50 years.However, since 2001, paper, textile, metals industries have closed so manyplants, capacity is back to 1995 levels.1999-2003, Transatlantic fiber capacity increased by a factor 14. No newcables are planned for the forseeable future.Airlines have grounded 2000 aircraft.US office vacancy rates for 2Q 2003 at 17.6% (record is 18% in 1991recession).Ford will reduce North American production capacity by 15%.And there:Financial Times 9/10. After worst downturn in 20 years, chemical industryhas reduced capacity to the 1993 level.China's petrochemical consumption between 1998-2003 increased 40%.Petrochemical estimating [hoping] for a further 60% growth by 2006.WSJ 9/10-- In first half 2003, global offic vacancy rates increase worldwideand rents fall. In Africa, Europe and Middle East vacancy rate up 1.1%,rents down 4%.Asia Pacific, slight decline to 15.4%. but rents down 5.4%.HongKong rate at 16.1%, rents down 12.4%Latin America at 17% vacancy, rents down 5.4% __ So, are there indications of a turnaround in capacity utilization? No. And I don't think the bourgoisie have dismantled enough capacity yet. So another incident will erupt that will define the hard landing of the economy. dms
Re: On the economy (was on the capture of Saddam)
From the New York Times Magazine on Sunday. Economically, Mike B) December 21, 2003 ENCOUNTER The Loophole Artist By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON Few Americans have heard of Jonathan Blattmachr, a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley McCloy. But among the 16,000 or so lawyers in America who specialize in trusts and estates, which is to say in the passing of wealth from one generation to the next, he enjoys the status of a Hollywood star. In these circles, his first name alone prompts recognition. Men (and a few women) of great wealth confide in Blattmachr. The Rockefellers are among those who seek his counsel. Because his specialty is maintaining wealth across time, he needs to know more than just the size and shape of his clients' fortunes. His work requires knowing whether a marriage is an enduring bond of love or a commercial relationship, or whether heirs can be trusted with fortunes or only allowed a stream of income. He knows of prodigal sons and promising granddaughters, of executives at family-owned businesses who will not learn for years that the brass ring was never going to be theirs. Sometimes men of great wealth whisper secrets they would never share with their wives. He knows how much a mistress costs or whether, if health fails, a spouse can be trusted with the power to pull the plug. His clients reveal these things to Blattmachr because he can help them maintain their wealth now and for their children. He can chart clandestine routes through the maze of the tax code, making a man who appears as a Midas to his bankers look like a pauper to the tax man. Blattmachr helps the superrich keep their riches -- at the expense of everyone else. Sometimes the price is paid in higher taxes. More often it's paid in cuts in services or by borrowing from the next generation of taxpayers. He's not ashamed of this. His methods are perfectly legal. In fact, he sees himself not as someone who exploits the system for the benefit of the few but as the guy who keeps the system honest for everyone. For his job to have meaning -- and to score intellectually, which is his main source of satisfaction -- the tax system has to have integrity. It can't be corrupt or too easily foiled. Just as there is no honor in getting a criminal acquitted when the judge can be bought, there is no honor in finding a tax loophole when the code yields too easily to manipulation. His cat-and-mouse game is to work the loopholes in the system until the government finds them and draws them closed. And when he sees something in the code he considers egregious, he speaks up, as he did when he objected to the repeal of the estate tax. The repeal would ''shift the tax burden from the wealthy to everyone else,'' Blattmachr said one morning in one of his two offices, this one a sunny Park Avenue aerie from which he can look down on the great wealth machine that is Manhattan. Given that shifting the tax burden one wealthy person at a time is Blattmachr's full-time occupation, a cynic might think that his opposition to the estate-tax repeal was just self-interest. But Blattmachr will have plenty of work, estate tax or not. There are always trusts to be designed and capital gains taxes to be cleverly avoided. The superrich will always be looking for ways to shelter their money. Blattmachr's objection to the repeal -- which, in the end, was restricted to just one year, 2010 -- is more complicated. It reflects his capacity to push and pull the rules to his clients' advantage, while still yearning for an ideal, principled law. Blattmachr's practice exists because America has two tax systems, separate and unequal. One is for wage earners, and most of us know firsthand that that system works effectively. The other is for the wealthy, who control much of what the I.R.S. knows about their finances and who in recent years have paid a shrinking share of their incomes to sustain the civilization that makes their riches possible. Few of us also know that this means that the 400 Americans who reported the biggest incomes in 2000 paid just 22.3 cents out of each dollar in federal income taxes. That is about the rate paid by a single person making $125,000. Wealth is more concentrated in America than at any time since 1929. Tax specialists like Blattmachr have done their part, but the tax code itself -- written and approved by Congress -- also stacks the deck. Consider just a few examples. Hidden in a 1985 law was a subsidy for cushy executive transportation. Senior executives aren't charged for personal trips on company jets, but they must pay income tax on the value of the flight, which is counted as income, just like salary and bonus. The value of the flight, however, is not based on actual costs but on a formula required by Congress, one that discounts the value so deeply that it makes personal use of a company jet more attractive than any other form of pay. It allows a C.E.O. to travel in a corporate jet coast to coast for $260. But the company gets to take a
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
joanna bujes wrote: Mike Ballard quoted What we found in examining diaries, letters, autobiographies, pediatric and pedagogical literature back to antiquity was that good parenting appears to be something only historically achieved, and that the further one goes back into the past the more likely one would be to find children killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized and sexually abused by adults. Indeed, it soon appeared likely that a good mother, one who was reasonably devoted to her child and more or less able to empathize with and fulfill its needs, was nowhere to be found prior to modern times. It seemed to me that childhood was one long nightmare from which we have only gradually and only recently begun to awaken. LLOYD deMAUSE Psychohistory and Psychotherapy, Foundations of Psychohistory 1992 I don't believe this, Joanna Neither do I. My research into aboriginal society prior to the European invasion reveals a society which was very caring of their children and one very intolerant of sexual abuse of children. Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
Not that this is worth belaboring, but clearly the author of this passage is not referencing aboriginal societies as he bases his conclusions on an investigation of diaries, pediatric, and pedagogical literature. Even then, I think it is safe to assume he means European and European-derived diaries, pediatric, and pedagogical literature. dms
financial market spillovers
[the deepening of global tort law for financial markets is a quiet, inexorable process and a potential stumbling block for policy coordination... http://www.iosco.org/ ] [New York times] December 21, 2003 U.S. Fund Troubles Are Spilling Into Europe By CONRAD DE AENLLE LONDON EUROPEAN regulators and investors have opened a second front in the fight against mutual fund trading abuses. Government agencies that oversee the activities of portfolio managers in some of the largest European fund markets have begun investigations into whether funds in their jurisdictions have allowed preferred investors to engage in frequent trading and late trading to the detriment of other shareholders. Such problems are at the heart of the American controversy. Some pension plans and consulting firms that build portfolios for institutional investors are reviewing their relationships with companies accused of trading abuses by American authorities. Unilever, the British and Dutch maker of food and household goods, has gone a step further and has fired Putnam Investments as a manager of its British pension fund, in response to abuses in Putnam funds in the United States. Many companies under investigation in the United States have big operations internationally. Companies that are found to have broken trading rules, either in funds sold in the United States or abroad, are bound to lose business from large foreign investors like pension funds, and from financial advisers who steer small investors into funds, European advisers and consultants said. That would compound the difficulties that these companies face in the United States, consultants warned. There is not necessarily a causal connection there, but clearly it is distracting to senior management and to current portfolio managers to keep getting barraged by adverse commentary, said John Webster, managing director of the investment management business at Greenwich Associates, a consulting firm in Greenwich, Conn. There is a sensitivity at these institutions where assets move up and down on an elevator every day. The impact on morale is fairly considerable. Investigators in France and Germany have sent questionnaires to fund companies asking how they limit frequent and after-hours trading. Investigators in Germany have gone further, pursuing complaints of improper trading, according to Morningstar. In addition, the Italian and Dutch authorities are examining whether there have been improprieties in their markets. The earliest European effort to tackle trading abuses began in June, before the allegations surfaced in the United States. An industry body in Luxembourg, which serves as a financial center and tax haven for Europe and has one of its largest fund industries, set up a panel to establish the extent of any abuses there. Last month, the country's financial regulatory commission asked all fund distributors, mainly banks, to verify that no trading abuses were occurring, said Simone Delcourt, head of its department for regulation of mutual funds and pension funds. Regulators also sent letters to fund managers that offer products in Luxembourg and have been accused of trading violations in the United States. So far, Ms. Delcourt said, no abuses have been found. In Britain, one of the world's largest markets for equity funds, the Financial Services Authority, the British equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission, summoned senior executives of 25 of the largest mutual fund managers in the country, including many names familiar to American investors, for a meeting this month with its chairman, Callum McCarthy. The agency would not identify the companies at the meeting, but spokesmen for Fidelity Investments, J.P. Morgan Fleming, Invesco and Gartmore Global Partners said that their companies were represented. Two other fund managers with large presences in Britain and the United States, Merrill Lynch and Barclays Global Investors, were not asked to attend. Barclays is known in the United States primarily for its exchange-traded funds, but in Britain it is one of the biggest managers of mutual funds. The highly unusual personal meeting was called to allow Mr. McCarthy to emphasize to the executives that I expect them to take personal and direct responsibility for ensuring there is a proper review of past trading practices, he said on his agency's Web site. He added that the organization had surveyed fund managers' activities and that we cannot conclude, on the basis of what we have discovered so far, that abuses are not a feature of the U.K. system. Elaborating on Mr. McCarthy's comments, David Eacott, a spokesman for the Financial Services Authority, said that some information supplied by managers had raised suspicions. The first cut of data that firms have provided to us has proved inconclusive, he said. There is some trading activity we want to look at, although not necessarily market timing activity. He added that the investigation is not driven by
query
I believe to have read somewhere that of the first German edition of Karl Marx, Das Kapital, only 100 (one hundred) copies were printed. Does anyone know about that? Thanks - GK _ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcommpgmarket=en-caRU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
Regarding child abuse in pre-modern societies, I think we often tend to see in such societies the things that we want to see, i.e. noble savages. And what is considered abuse in one society may be a social norm or even an obligation in another society. Infanticide, genital multilation, incest, child marriage and many other things we consider distasteful are still common in many parts of the world and have their origins in venerable tradition /or _practice_. regards, Grant.
Re: Fidel Castro on unequal exchange
There are forms of abuse that are a lot worse than child abuse. J.
Re: query
Das Kapital Vol. 1 came out on 14 September 1867 in an edition of 1,000 copies, priced at 3 Taler and 10 groschen per copy. J.
