Re: Mark Jones

2003-04-12 Thread Rob Schaap
It has been my lot - and I'm sure no-one in Leftopia is alone in this - to become deeply fond of fellows who ended up hating each other. Mark loudly and eloquently despised a few blokes I persist in rating most highly, and each of those despised him right back. That's why the left is so

Re: Re: Re: the emporer

2003-04-04 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Michael, anti-war movement was never going to stop war here but it (and public opinion globally is anti-war) forced u.s. to alter certain plans and, consquently, may have prevented mass iraqi slaughter, may limit u.s. ability to operate its own protectorate in post-war period, and

Re: John Pilger article

2003-03-27 Thread Rob Schaap
k hanly wrote: I thought Basra was a much larger city than 600,000. Cheers, Ken Hanly Three times larger, according to the Beeb. Cheers, Rob.

Re: Press Lapdogs for Coalition Forces

2003-03-26 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Michael, Rendon - apparently the inventors of the Iraqi National Congress - is another that comes to mind.. There's plenty on that via Google. Cheers, Rob. Michael Hoover wrote: embedding - pentagon-speak for new policy of attaching journalists to particular military units - has

Re: Rumsfeld's happy little blunder

2003-03-12 Thread Rob Schaap
Quoth Doug, He said the U.S. might attack Iraq without the UK. Was it a blunder, or did he really mean it? I think it was the PNAC mob's knickers showing through. In their ideal world, Uncle Sam would go this alone. Any sharing of the hard yards might lead to pressure for complicated

Oops: Rumsfeld's happy little blunder

2003-03-12 Thread Rob Schaap
... hadn't finished ... Quoth Doug, He said the U.S. might attack Iraq without the UK. Was it a blunder, or did he really mean it? I think it was the PNAC mob's knickers showing through. In their ideal world, Uncle Sam would go this alone. Any sharing of the hard yards might lead to

Re: The ideological implications of Scorcese's latest film

2002-12-20 Thread Rob Schaap
I dare guess you don't agree with Rosenbaum, Louis. I've not seen the film yet, although see it I shall. But I'd not be surprised if Rosenbaum has a point when he writes the film's 'blockbuster dimensions ... tend to overwhelm ironic subtexts and morose afterthoughts'. Producers can do that to

Re: finals

2002-12-16 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Ian, It sounds very much like JK Galbraith, but as you do like to surprise us, I'm going to guess Milton Friedman. Cheers, Rob. [who wrote/said it?] When corporate capitals become so large that they can control markets instead of being controlled by them, it can no longer be said

Keen on road to debt deflation

2002-10-19 Thread Rob Schaap
In Australia, a miserabilist is never alone ... http://www.prudentbear.com/archive_comm_article.asp?category=Guest+Commentarycontent_idx=16477 Steve Keen is the author of Debunking Economics and Professor of Economics Finance, University of Western Sydney, Australia Debunking Economics

Question re. work time

2002-10-02 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Was it here I read the other day that when Britain was moved to a 3-day week by the energy crisis of '74, they found that productivity did not decrease? If so, I'd love a cite and/or anything else that comes to mind. Potent datum, if it's true, no? Cheers, Rob.

Re: debunking greenspan redux or, finance asbubble gum and duct tape

2002-09-30 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Quoth Doug: This is one of the weird things that happen when lefties cite right-wing bears as sources. Right-wing bears are very often Austrians and/or libertarians of some stripe, and believe that state economic policy is impotent or destructive. Lefties who do this are

Re: Re: bubble watch

2002-09-11 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Eugene, People will keep making house payments while the credit card debt piles up, then default on the mortgage at the end. Amazing how much sheer misery a concise analytical sentence can contain, eh? Best, Rob.

Re: Sueddeutsche Zeitung builds up JD's ego

2002-08-28 Thread Rob Schaap
No poophead references, Jim. They reckon you're preparing yourself to be indignant because you doubt you will be accorded your rightful place in history as author of 'dubya-recession'. Now that your intellectual property is internationally recognised, the Devine name is but a protracted dip in

Re: Re: RE: Japan

2002-08-20 Thread Rob Schaap
Michael Perelman wrote: I understand that there has been a terrible overbuilding of golf courses in some parts of the country -- at least my father tells me that it has happened in Florida. Country clubs are having difficulty in keeping a sufficient membership. Jim Devine may have

Rumours of war on Iraq

2002-08-18 Thread Rob Schaap
I'm with Michael Pollack on this one. No realistic discernable strategic goal. No reliable staging posts. No enduring alliance. No conceivable solution to the Palestine question. No decisive good will in the region. No hard evidence to defend pretext #1 (Baghdad links to al Qaeda), pretext

generous offer from Ravi

2002-08-12 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, If it's any easier, I've a rightly unheralded blog dawdling fitfully along at http://blogorrhoea.blogspot.com/ and would be honoured to put up anything penpals might like to write for the common weal. Er, as long as no technical knowledge other than cutting and pasting is required

Terror threat overblown

2002-08-11 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Ken, Strange the article doesnt mention that there doesnt seem to have been a significant Al Qaeda terrorist act in the US since Sept. 11, almost a year now. None of the periodic warnings have been followed by attacks. I may sound a bit nutso here, but it seems to me that the

Cookie-cutter Economics

2002-08-10 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, ABC talk-backer and Age columnist Terry Lane squeezes ol' Karl into every column these days, bless him. Cheers, Rob. Room for only one big bickie maker By Terry Lane THE AGE August 11 2002 The Spouse is in a frenzy. Again. This time it's Arnott's closing the

liberalism

2002-08-01 Thread Rob Schaap
Doug Henwood wrote: Michael Perelman wrote: Is this discussion or the elitism thread going anywhere? Not really, but does any thread ever go anywhere? It's the journey, dudes, not the destination. Right now, I think liberalism'd be a lovely idea. I'm sure we'd've got there years

Re: Radio Henwood

2002-08-01 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug, * Ruy Teixeira of The Century Fund, talking about public opinion on the corporate scandals Ask him if it's true Cisco aren't about to sign off on their statements, and that some of ther head-suits might be opting for more time with the families. Dark rumours are a material force,

Expertise

2002-07-30 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Justin, The left should have learned by now to flee--as ordinary working people will--from the idea of the Vanguard Party as the expert repository of Political Expertise. It's not a menace any more, as it once was, but it's political suicide to advocate it. Whilst I agree entirely and

Efficiencies

2002-07-30 Thread Rob Schaap
Today's news here is about a fatal crash - on the ground at a metropolitan airport, mind - of two light planes at 6.30 in the evening. After a recent decision, the control tower is no longer manned from 6.00pm on account of typically low traffic after dinner. And a dirty great tanker has just

short-selling

2002-07-26 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug, Oh yes, blame the short-sellers, not the idiots who bought stuff on the way up. This is almost American in its stupidity. Were they idiots? Technoboosters (Negropontes, Gilders and Malones come to mind), professional researchers, leading journos and auditors alike - all boasting

Re: rejecting a school

2002-07-26 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Jim, Can someone name the main achievement of one author who has been dubbed post-structuralist? Speaking as a reader of English translations, I dare suspect only Foucault could write such that he might be understood and enjoyed - and even he had many a moment. That said, and although

Re: Re: Query: WorldCom and Internet

2002-07-25 Thread Rob Schaap
That was beaut, Ravi! As for Worldcom's chances - UUNET might ultimately get 'em through, but it seems it all depends how much corporate clientele they lose in the (very) mean time. Many thanks, Rob. hi rob, i will attempt an answer to some of your questions. yes, if uunet ceases to

Query: WorldCom and Internet

2002-07-23 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all (perhaps especially Ravi), There was a bit of indignation in parts European when KPNQwest went under, as parts of their Ebone operation (referred to as 'internet backbone') were duly shut down. Why won't this happen to WorldCom's UUNet (also referred to as 'intenet backbone' and

Back to the future of Australian industrial relations

2002-07-08 Thread Rob Schaap
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/06/1025667073364.html Abbott: a boon to the dark satanic mills By Terry Lane July 7 2002 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/06/1025667073364.html Is it possible that Mr Tony Abbott MHR is a time traveller? Could he really

Re: Good analysis of WCOM and Credit Bubble

2002-07-02 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Penpals, Just to lend a little flavour to the WorldCom saga, here's a little note from Xmas 2000 - poignant and, with respect to the likely state of other telcos', possibly significant : G'day Doug, In light of your note that ... Naomi Klein says that high marketing costs essential to

specifics from ANTHRO-L critics re: LTV

2002-06-30 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Nancy, 1. Supply and demand is the constraint [on the amount of value in the world at any given time, since it isn't labor]. It doesn't matter how much something cost, in labor, materials, etc. if there is no demand for the item. It's just supply and demand. I've seen two recent

Good analysis of WCOM and Credit Bubble

2002-06-29 Thread Rob Schaap
And another from Red Herring: http://www.redherring.com/columns/2002/friday/lastword062802.html Blame Newt Gingrich for WorldCom The former speaker of the house and his fellow Republican Revolutionaries of 1994

increasing US inequality

2002-06-23 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, For a while, the booming 1990's restored a fixed range, raising hopes of a lasting solution to income inequality. And now we are learning that the solution failed to last even as long as the boom. And so die all hopes that technology can fix social problems ... if the problems be

Re: Global unequal exchange

2002-06-12 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Penpals, This beaut bleat from the Melbourne AGE: Howard is sacrificing our interests By Kenneth Davidson June 13 2002 Is John Howard mad, or is he just looking for an excuse during his visit to

Re: Bono the useful idiot

2002-06-05 Thread Rob Schaap
Nice forward, Louis. I am what has become the uncoolest of creatures, a U2 fan of 22 years' standing, but I find that Marsh's article has given true voice to the ache this whole drawn-out business has occasioned deep in my expansive gut. Felt a few twinges when Attanborough saved the South

Markets and Diversity

2002-06-03 Thread Rob Schaap
I think Steiner discovered in 1951 that when a second TV station went to air in a market, it invariably felt obliged to emulate the schedule of the first - sorta ensuring a shot at half the going market. He then discovered a third station did precisely the same thing - better to chase 33% of a

Gould again

2002-05-31 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Carrol, David Hawkes is an English professor at Lehigh -- where one of his colleagues I just discovered is the Intelligent Design biologist Behe. (This knowledge from a post to Science for the People list, which I will fwd shortly.) He is also on the Milton-L list, to which I am

Re: Gould again

2002-05-31 Thread Rob Schaap
Having said: Er, which are the slimy bits? The bits Hinrich forwarded seem okay to my innocent eye ... ... and having now read further down the list of Pen-Lisms, I might save some heat by mentioning I don't see 'intelligent design' following on from any of what Hinrich posted. I certainly

Re: Re: Price Discrimination on Internet

2002-05-25 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Sabri, But when you visit a website that dropped that cookie on your computer, the website has access to the cookie and can process that information on your computer. Why is this not also a violation of privacy according to the US law? I was under the (unusually optimistic) impression

Re: Re: Re: Question about the economics of information

2002-05-24 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Ian, Just what is a *unit* of information, anyway? A sentence, a hypothesis, a theory-paradigm? The notion that we can apply marginalism to any of these questions just seems silly. This is exactly how scientists attack Dawkins' 'meme'. Is a pair of flared trousers one meme or a

Re: UN World Food Programme calls for a massive response

2002-05-22 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Diane, Timely article, comrad; this is going to be very big, I'm afraid. I do note though that the otherwise worthy article appended fails to remind us that in both Malawi and Zimbabwe (and probably others - I just don't know about those) the IMF is at the root of it. And directly.

Re: Re: Hutton's declaration of war 2

2002-05-22 Thread Rob Schaap
But of course Chris did not write the words attributed to him, as the thread title and his preamble showed. The failure to show respect to the opposing argument and actually deal with it, but to dismiss the individual with disrepect, is symptomatic of this approach to marxism. Onya,

Pearl Harbor Eagleton

2002-05-20 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Gene, Bush's INTENT, if such it was, to get us into a hot war with Iraq, and the Muslim world, has not yet been addressed publically. Well, msnbc's Jim Miklaszewski reckons game plan to remove al-Qaida from the face of the Earth, was afoot before 911. Indeed, al Qaidea had been the

Terry Eagleton

2002-05-18 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Christian, You wrote: I appreciate Eagleton's felicity with language and ability to turn a phrase. But don't you think that the point is misplaced? I mean, Eagleton conflates historical socialism with the socialism in his head, and then concludes that actually existing socialism somehow

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: RE: reform and rev

2002-01-18 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Christian, Michael wrote: Also, interest rates are a very, very weak determinant of investment. Are you speaking generally? If so, do you know of any good empirical stuff that supports this? Reckon pen-l has hit a very rich vein of late - gratitude to all. Anyway, if memory

Re: RE: Re: Re: reform and rev

2002-01-18 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Running Dog And Carrol, it is Tienamen. I may be off on my spelling but, I'm closer, I betcha! Cf. The Tienamen Papers, edited by Andrew Nathan. Michael Running Dog Pugliese, Woof, Woof! It was always rendered Tianenman here at the time. I still remember those poor young folk

LMD on neoliberal strategy: today Mont Pelerin; tomorrow the world

2002-01-16 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, The history of the war on social democracy , as per the latest LMD. http://MondeDiplo.com/2002/01/11alternative United States neo-liberalism seems to have triumphed: the US now dominates military and diplomatic affairs; Europe

Re: Re: Bankruptcies Residential debt in Oz

2002-01-09 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug, You wrote: hmm, so what's with this? ASIA-PACIFIC: New data show strong growth in Australia Financial Times; Jan 8, 2002 By REUTERS: AGENCY MATERIAL and STEPHEN WYATT Well, good retail stats accompany bad residential debt and bankruptcy stats pretty snugly, and good

Bankruptcies Residential debt in Oz

2002-01-07 Thread Rob Schaap
2001 record year for bankruptcy THE AGE CANBERRA, Jan 8 AAP|Published: Tuesday January 8, 5:55 PM A record number of people declared themselves bankrupt in 2001, figures released today showed. More than 26,000

Re: Re: underconsumption undertow question

2001-12-29 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug'n'Jim, Sez Doug: Must dissent here. The confidence numbers are a good leading indicator of the bizcycle. They generally bottom about 3 months ahead of the cyclical trough (and top out about 1-2 months ahead of the peak). And the confidence numbers themselves - at least the

Re: FW: Re: RE: No recognition for Enduring Freedom!

2001-12-25 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Jim, I've lost your answer to the below, but if I remember my original point, the idea of Caligula naming himself Germanicus isn't that different from Reagan being dubbed Granadicus, Bush Panamacus, or Clinton Sudanicus. (They're a bunch of cusses, too.) If memory serves, Caligula

'War on Terror': PR problems in non-Anglo-Saxon world #x to the nth power

2001-12-25 Thread Rob Schaap
South Korean school kids singing praises of bin Laden SEOUL, Dec 26 AFP|Published: Wednesday December 26, 2:41 PM http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/12/26/FFX3IEEZNVC.html School children in South Korea are singing the praises of Osama bin Laden to the dismay of

The New Economy Goes Bust

2001-12-11 Thread Rob Schaap
Table of international business operating costs LONDON, Dec 11 AAP|Published: Tuesday December 11, 10:33 PM http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/12/11/FFX674JKCQC.html The Economist Intelligence Unit today released a report on business operating costs in 31 key countries around the world,

Trade and Corporations: free trade as strategic trade

2001-12-11 Thread Rob Schaap
Truss disappointed with US subsidies deals CANBERRA, Dec 12 AAP|Published: Wednesday December 12, 7:49 AM http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/ The United States will not cut billions of dollars in farm subsidies despite a plea in Washington from a high-level group of Australians, including

Aboriginal arrest rates ...

2001-12-09 Thread Rob Schaap
One-third of indigenous men have been arrested: study SYDNEY, Dec 10 AAP|Published: Monday December 10, 1:45 PM http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/12/10/FFXL41YZDQC.html Nearly a third of Australia's indigenous men were arrested over a five-year period, according to report released today.

Trusting The State To Protect The Marginalised And Downtrodden

2001-12-06 Thread Rob Schaap
So Murdoch's *Australian* and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have on the strength a gentle-voiced left-of-centre (and consequently lonely-voiced) old chap called Phillip Adams. A bit of an institution is our Phil. Anyway, so our Phil wrote in October that the US citizenry was not

Imperialism and Empire (by John Bellamy Foster)

2001-12-04 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Greg, Please take note that Meszaros correctly notes as does Empire, that we are past classic imperialism as described by Lenin - this is the criticial point. Now the question is whether US Global Hegemonic Imperialism is a contingent and passing episode or the logical end product of

Comparative education survey

2001-12-04 Thread Rob Schaap
It's typical of Ozzie media to blow up the good bits (and hasn't the US gone down the shit chute?!) but that Oz's education is undergoing class and gender crises is a long-held suspicion that now enjoys that all-important official statistical verification. Despite Australia's egalitarian ethos,

Little Finance Terminology Question

2001-12-03 Thread Rob Schaap
Hey Doug, What's this 'fair value' stock exchange pre-opening reports are always on about. Never been able to make hide nor hair of it. Whatever it means lots of big numbers are opening well below it this week, I notice. Cheers, Rob.

Re: Re: Little Finance Terminology Question

2001-12-03 Thread Rob Schaap
Onya, Doug! Although I hadn't realised enough NASDAQ companies were projecting dividends to allow the calculation. And would that be Fisher Black, the dude you chide in WS for calculating risk in terms of deviation from an expected return, rather than factoring in a notion inferred by the rest

Project for Pen-l

2001-11-30 Thread Rob Schaap
Subject: [globalization] Network 2002 - December 2001 Issue To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Globalization ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Posted: 11/30/2001 By [EMAIL PROTECTED] Network 2002 - December 2001 Issue Trade rules: It's déjà vu all over again

postmodernism?

2001-11-27 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Jim, Maybe Taliban is (was?) polycentric, but that doesn't make it post modern. Polycentrism is as old as the hills. If memory serves, EP Thompson made a big deal of the Luddites being polycentric (although he wrote it in English). Maybe 'postmodernism' is a handy tag in the field of

Re: A project for Pen-L

2001-11-27 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Paul, What I do not have is a comprehensive critique of so-called free trade, all the agreements etc. What I would like to see is pen-l put together a comprehensive critique of 'free trade' (sic) that we could use in classes, public protests, media, etc. with all the appropriate

Re: Re: postmodernism?

2001-11-27 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug, polycentric (although he wrote it in English) poly = a prefix meaning many therefore: polycentric = having many centers polyamory = having many lovers polymorphous = exhibiting many types or stages polygon = having many sides Poly Styrene = a punk singer from the late

Re: .csuch@Î

2001-11-24 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Mark writes: JP Morgan is considered to be in the early stages of crashing. http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=15139 I know nothing about this, but don't see why the notion is so ridiculous. Many of the Net's finance sites have been whispering for a year about

Sabri on Turkey

2001-11-21 Thread Rob Schaap
Nasilsin sevgili Sabri? Finally I am back home and just saw this: Why does America, or as Chris keeps calling it, Empire, although I am not sure if he is aware of that America and Empire are the same thing, do that? The Canada, the EU, and Japan, what are they, chopped liver? Doug

Re: Re: Sabri on Turkey

2001-11-15 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug, Michael Perelman wrote: Why does America, or as Chris keeps calling it, Empire, although I am not sure if he is aware of that America and Empire are the same thing, do that? The Canada, the EU, and Japan, what are they, chopped liver? As Oz isn't on your list of exemplary

irrelevant rate cut

2001-11-12 Thread Rob Schaap
From Morgan Stanley Co. at http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20011109-fri.html#anchor0 Global: Monetary Policy Pitfalls in an Era of Globalization Stephen Roach (New York) The world’ s major central banks are at it again -- first, America’s Federal Reserve and then the European

irrelevant rate cut

2001-11-12 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Ten minutes with today's US papers discloses that OPEC's cutting production by a million barrels, rocketing insurance rates and ever more exacting loan conditions are hitting US businesses, earnings reports are yet further down, big business September quarter profits are down

Off topic - madmen

2001-11-12 Thread Rob Schaap
Carrol Cox wrote: Doug Henwood wrote: Gar Lipow wrote: Oh well, asshole remains unobjectionable. Why? They're importantly functional and can even give pleasure. Interrogate the term's unacknowledged heteronormativity! I kinda hope my initial impression that Doug was having a dry

irrelevant rate cut

2001-11-11 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Jim, what's the CAD? Sorry, I guess I imagined that's what people'd call the current account defecit. Apropos which, this just in from Doug Noland (excerpted from http://www.prudentbear.com/homepage.htm): ... Quinlan and Chandler make a typical Wall Street error in focusing on

Re: Re: Re: Re: America is losing the battle for hearts and minds

2001-11-11 Thread Rob Schaap
Michael Perelman wrote: Leahy did not understand that the bomb was dropped as a message to the USSR. Well, that was certainly a salient component, Michael. I think bloodless technocratic 'ecologically valid field-testing' was tragically part of it, too. But let's have a little empathy for

Australian general election

2001-11-10 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Well, John Howard's social-conservative-yet-economically-neo-liberal-zealot-yet-spending-whatever-marginal-seats-require outfit walked shamelessly into an election with nothing but a firm conviction to keep Afghan and Iraqi refugees off our blessed shores - it was all they went on

Saudi Arabia

2001-10-29 Thread Rob Schaap
We should figure out what [the terrorists] want us to do, and not do it. In which case they should've shut Shrubya before his minders had him blurt out 'war' and 'harbours' at the start. The US has already done what the terrorists wanted 'em to do (continually kill some of the world's poorest

Ken Davidson on Oz economy - lotsa familiar themes

2001-10-24 Thread Rob Schaap
The budget surplus obsession is costing us dearly By KENNETH DAVIDSON Monday 22 October 2001 Why are both sides of politics obsessed with the size of the budget deficit or surplus? Is it really the measure of economic success or failure, or is it just another bit of jargon designed to

Strategy of tension

2001-10-22 Thread Rob Schaap
Bill Rosenberg wrote: None of the New Zealand alerts have proved to have any basis. Same here. Cops, firemen, a closed mailroom and a suddenly switched off air-conditioning system at work today, though. None of it quite tense enough to get anyone the afternoon off, though. Even if things

Re: frontiers of free enterprise

2001-10-19 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Jim, In the meantime, I can't read the newest stuff from pen-l. No problem, Jim. PEN-L has been a fortnight ahead of the mass media on the issue of the day, a decade ahead of the Nobel judges on economic critique, and, in seeking to give actual substance to the 200-year-old ideals that

Nobel Laureate Encourages Global Justice Movement

2001-10-18 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Nobel Laureate Encourages Global Justice Movement Published on Tuesday, October 16, 2001 by the Inter Press Service Joseph Stiglitz, whose critiques of free market fundamentalism cost him a senior job at the World Bank in 1999 but won him the Nobel Prize for economics last

New economy bull

2001-10-05 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Carl, ... Now there is a global economic recession in the offing. It has become evident that herd behaviour caused by the risk reduction procedures of big institutions can be disruptive and lead to irrational valuations. Dog bites man -- read all about it! It does seem the markets

'globalisation' of beaks and peepers

2001-10-04 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Penpals, Just listening to mellifluous Auntie Beeb whilst going through my evening PEN-L revelations when on comes a spot about thousands of Japanese girls spending their first year's savings on new eyelids and pointy noses. Coulda been interesting, of course - I've long suspected a

Re: Informed opinion?

2001-10-04 Thread Rob Schaap
Ken Hanly wrote: The Taliban controls about 95% of the country. Doesn't this show that they have done rather well against the Alliance? Anyone who manages to control 95% of Afghanistan is doing well given its recent history. Pakistan will not be happy if the Northern Alliance are given

Did class distinctions aid the bombing

2001-10-04 Thread Rob Schaap
Writes Ann: Even with the open secrets of capitalism I still would like to know about the intentionally of our catastrophic intelligence ( knowledge ) failure Reports disgruntled erstwhile *Times* editor Harold Evans in the *Guardian*: September 11: how the media ignored the warnings By

Evidence against bin Laden

2001-10-03 Thread Rob Schaap
Just building on this ObL stuff while I may; isn't there something of a fetish happening here? I mean, I go a good way with Andy's position on the bloke, but I keep harking back to EP Thompson's explanation for why the magistrates couldn't nip the Luddite movement in the bud. Experienced

Re: Event Studies

2001-10-03 Thread Rob Schaap
Rarely do so many dramatic forces bunch together like this. Do any of you have any thoughts about what to expect in the economy? Well, we can't discount the possibility of a big Keynesian splurge under the cover of war and rumours of war, but it does all depend on stuff like how long it is

Guardian state - identity cards

2001-10-02 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Chris, Yesterday a government minister, Jeff Rooker, indicated at a fringe meeting that the government had no interest in introducting identity cards. I in fact generally agree with the arguments of Peter Preston. In a radically democratic and humane society our identities should

War on terrorism

2001-10-02 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Well, it's clearly been decided that the decisive rump of us don't require itemised evidence before our polities enter a war. It also seems that the UN has been well and truly been put in its place; America has a convenient complex of bilateral arrangements in place now, and the ever

Capitalism's ethic is grow or die.

2001-10-02 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Penpals, From Stratfor, via LBO's Bryan Atinsky, who asks apposite questions, I think. I agree with the substance of Bryan's reservations, but feel that doesn't so much auger well for Japan as badly for the US (and the rest of us). Short of a fully fledged war economy, hundreds of

War on terrorism

2001-10-02 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Carl, Tony the Terrible is a sight to behold. I think of the UK as the Cheshire Cat of imperialism; the martial might has disappeared, and all that remains is the sanctimonious Attitude hanging disembodied in midair. That nails it! 'Course, I suspect it's an Anglo-Saxon thing. Oz

Evidence against bin Laden

2001-10-02 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Andy and Jim, BTW, as far as I know, there are NO bin Laden supporters or sympathizers on pen-l. To whom are you referring? The only way that people on pen-l can be seen as supporting bin Laden is if one makes the Osama bin Laden-type assumption that the world is black and white, so

Re: Capitalism's ethic is grow or die.

2001-10-01 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Jim, the grow or die tendency of capitalism isn't always realized. GoD leads to over-accumulation either relative to natural constraints (à la David Ricardo or Mark Jones) or by creating its own barriers (à la Marx). Accumulation can be blocked by excessive debt accumulation, unused

Capitalism's ethic is grow or die.

2001-09-30 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Well, It doesn't look like too much growing is in the offing (see short report on Japanese consumption projections and consumer sentiment) until some capital eats itself towards new profitability and investment possibilities (look for major indigestion in both the domestic banking

Re: Change of plans?

2001-09-30 Thread Rob Schaap
The weekly news magazine said President George W. Bush's administration concluded that Afghanistan, where prime terror suspect Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding out, has fewer good targets than Kosovo. What was so good about the stuff they obliterated in Yugoslavia, ferchrissakes?

query

2001-09-25 Thread Rob Schaap
A couple of months ago, I edited my general news bookmarks down by 90% (it's easier to do than you think, and simply required in this day and age, I suggest), and found myself, for what it's worth, left with the following sites. Must haves: http://www.theage.com.au/ I agree with Eugene;

Not good

2001-09-25 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day Doug, For the record, Comrade Coyle, here's what I had to say in LBO #97, written in May. The only way I've changed my tune since then is towards greater gloom. Good article, Doug. 'No ordinary business cycle' nails it, for mine. Core synchronisation, and the triumph of 'shareholder

Not good

2001-09-25 Thread Rob Schaap
Who is we in your response, Rob. Presumptuous of me, I'll admit. I was talking about the ranked economists enliste. I shouldn't be surprised if some of 'em find people suddenly taking notice of 'em, and was idly speculating at the sort of things a newly-fledged left-Keynesian or

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not good

2001-09-24 Thread Rob Schaap
Mark Jones wrote: You still didn't let us know what *you* think we should do about falling markets. Maybe the answer will be in your forthcoming book about the New Economy. Well, I'll take a pop. Let's take another look at 'infrastructure', 'natural monopoly' and 'public good' and

Re: Where are we going????

2001-09-24 Thread Rob Schaap
Michael Perelman wrote: I worry that the worst impacts will be those that were unforseen. That got me to thinking about the fall of the USSR, which I think has made the world worse in more ways that I can imagine. I suspect that the wars in Yugoslavia would not have happened. Nor would

Re: Bombing Afghanistan...

2001-09-24 Thread Rob Schaap
G'day all, Don't take me for a Taliban apologist, but where does Rumsfeld get off calling the Taliban's claim they don't know wher ObL is, 'simply not credible'? He probably doesn't know where ObL is himself (indeed, if ObL actually was the culprit, no-one probably knew as at 9/11), and we'd

Re: The oil nightmare and the terrorist trail

2001-09-20 Thread Rob Schaap
Chris Burford wrote: Another indication that global capitalism has to be dovish, and tie the hands of any politician looking for a quick political solution: Another analyst points out that what would also be bad for the markets is if it was discovered that an oil-producing state was

Britain/US split?

2001-09-20 Thread Rob Schaap
Writes Michael: ... And while the focus of this mainly British-sponsored effort is primarily European, of course other similarly-minded folks (as Dubya would say) are welcome to join ... Mark Latham: ex-Whitlam staffer, research contributor to *The Whitlam Government 1972-1975*, self-styled

Soothing platitudes from Chairman Has-been decoded

2001-09-20 Thread Rob Schaap
I see things are so bad on the Dow just now that Yahoo is referring to telcos as 'a defensive oriented group' ...

Re: Soothing platitudes from Chairman Has-been decoded

2001-09-20 Thread Rob Schaap
I hear they're evacuating Chicago's Sears Tower now ... that true? Rob.

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