Jim,
Before I can answer your question, could you explain what _you_ mean
by evidence. Bergson says, The beliefs to which we most strongly adhere
are those of which we should find it most difficult to give an account,
and the reason by which we justify them are seldom those which have led us
to
What does a petpertuance mean?
All I know is that if one dwells on the topic too long the grammar
begins to look wrong. For example what is the relationship between the
preposition in, the verb believe and the term God? In this context, the
utility may well be reminding us not to go on at length about the
ineffable. Speaking
My response to Max's four proposed policy changes, my own suggested
changes amplify Max's fourth proposal:
Lower or no taxes on the first X dollars of labor
earnings, higher on the remainder (there is more
than one way to do this, but the principle is the
main thing).
This is one I can
A few other policy changes that should be thrown into the discussion are
VASTLY improved parental leave and income replacement (the Sweden model),
a similar educational leave and income replacement scheme (Norway) and
some kind of basic income or citizen's income.
Fifteen random theses concerning Enron and the next Marx
1. The next Marx is corporate.
2. The corporate Marx has already written its Capital and its 18th
Brumaire.
3. The text inscribed by the corporate Marx is action.
4. The revolution is to read that action as text.
5. Kenneth Lay was going
Perhaps the events of the past couple of years have just been too novel
to assimilate.
It strikes me that any one of the three big institutional crises would,
in 'ordinary times', qualify as a historical event. For those with short
memories, I am referring to the Bush/Gore deadlock, 9-11 and
James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy?
Enron Prize?
Chairman Greenspan?
Ah, the cunning of reason, the genius of capitalism, the stench of
sycophancy. It's enough to make you choke on your pretzels.
Maybe a better name for a spread-sheet would be a fiddle-sheet.
Jim Devine wrote,
I was fiddling around with my spread-sheet this morning. . .
Tom Walker
(604) 947-2213
In Canada, airline deregulation has led to an Air Canada monopoly. Lou in
particular and others in general may be interested in the expert witness
evidence (including my own submission) posted online by the airline
customer sales and services employees' Local 1990 of the Canadian Auto
Workers at:
Louis's discussion of Java reminded me of the effect of
(Peter? Philip?) Ramus's 16th century "reform" of Aristotlean dialectcs,
as chronicled by Walter Ong. In a nutshell, Ramus made dialectic more
"teachable" by reforming it into a vast hierarchy of dichotomies. The
resulting knowledge may be
Several years ago there was a spate of reporting about how employee stock
option plans were essentially watering the stocks. There was an article in
Forbes and one in the Wall Street Journal that I recall. Part of this had
to do with the failure (much protected by the big five) of accounting
Tim,
This doesn't directly answer your question, but I would call your
attention to the item posted earlier today by Paul Phillips: "Complaint
about violation of academic freedom in hiring by SFU." The Dean of Arts
who appears to carrying the ball for the anti-Noble team, John T. Pierce
is
I should clarify that I didn't mean to attack all CED practitioners by my
remarks -- only to highlight the nebulousness, perhaps treacherously so,
of CED. Like all things that have a cachet of "alternative", CED may
indeed provide a niche equally for seekers of genuine change,
time-serving
Michael Perelman wrote,
the paper of record has an article entitled
A Trickle-Down Theory for a Shorter Workday
[5]http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/01/business/01BUSH.html
Will the working class follow our fearless leader's example?
The real question is will organized labour and left scholars
Let me get this straight. Monsanto's private property is intellectual
property, essentially a legal fiction on par with M.'s corporate
personhood. The farmer's land is mere _real_ property, essentially also a
legal fiction but having a common law history going back many, many
centuries. So the
The ACU wrote:
It's fairly simple: When one considers the proposed
ban against all political advertising 60 days prior to an election,
who, at that critical juncture, will control the hearts and minds
of Americans going into Election Day, other than the leftist
press?
Just for arguments sake,
That's the nicest thing anyone ever said to me. When I was around 5 or 6 I
wanted to be a stand-up comedian when I grew up. I used to stand on the
sofa in the living room and deliver monologues into a make-believe
microphone.
Rob Schaap wrote,
Reckon Lenny Bruce had a bit of the lefty about
Or, not to put too fine a point on it, the "pipeline" theory. I wonder how
such a theory could conceivably comprehend the idea of fiction (other than
its own, that is).
ann li wrote:
It's often referred to as the "hypodermic needle" theory of communication
and in some ways bears similarity
-- Forwarded message --
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 13:03:52 -0800
From: Norman Solomon [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: The Non-Issue of "Media Finance Reform"
THE NON-ISSUE OF "MEDIA FINANCE REFORM"
By Norman Solomon / Creators Syndicate
WASHINGTON --
I don't get it. Every morning on the radio after the seven o'clock news
Charlie Chucklehead from Swindlemore Securities comes on to tell me it's a
Good Thing if the Dow is up and it's Bad Thing if the Dow is down. On the
way across town, I pass half a dozen billboards telling me my future's
1. Doug's "critique" came in response to no one actually doing the
simpleminded leftish habit thing that it criticizes. Jim Devine wrote
something about the consumer confidence bounce reminding him of the
suckers' rally after 1929. Hey, today's another day. Did the bear shit in
the woods again?
Justin:
"The only thing about the Situation that gave Stencil satisfaction was that
his theory explained it." --Thomas Pynchon, V. (quoted from memory)
I have to confess to feeling awful Stencil-like some of these days. Or
would that be doubly redundant?
Tom Walker
(604) 947-2213
Going only on the portion of the exchange Lou quoted, there is nothing in
what Keen said that I couldn't agree with, from what I would term a
"Postonian Marxian" position, namely that the LTV and Marx's analysis of
the commodity in capitalism form the basis of an immanent critique of
bourgeois
Who is to say the IF Nader had not run, Gore wouldn't have performed even
worse in the campaign? There was no major third party candidate in the
1988 election and Dukakis lost all by himself. There is every bit as much
reason to believe that Nader was a burr in Gore's saddle that made him
run
It's now official -- the Dow Jones Industrial Averages has fallen more
than 20% from its high, making this a "bear market". Does the Pope shit in
the woods?
Tom Walker
(604) 947-2213
I reformatted my hard drive tuesday, which means I deleted all the
files. I think its good for the computer to do that. Sort of like emptying
the ashtrays. As a matter of fact, I was given this computer because the
CD-Rom wasn't working. The Rom's a bit wonky but I think the main problem
was
Seth Sandronsky wrote,
No. Assuming the calculation is right, the $4.7 trillion would represent a
value that could never be realized because if investors tried to liquidate
their portfolios, prices would come down and they would "lose" the $4.7
trillion that they never had in the first place.
Apparently some people can't tell the difference between laissez-faire and
a lazy fairy. Military procurement is the rock upon which the American
Free Enterprise System is built. All that other crap about the "private
sector", "supply and demand" and "price competition" is window dressing
for the
Funny, last week in his op-ed piece in the Washington Post, Reich wrote
that the Democratic Party was DEAD. Maybe he's imagining that a new
anti-corporate party will surge to the fore by 2002?
Justin Schwartz wrote,
I wish I could be so optimistic. Contrarry to the effusions of our friend
It's amazing how it can take a "new economy" five years to learn something
everyone already knew thirty years ago. Psst, wanna buy a tulip?
Tom Walker
(604) 947-2213
Over deep-fried chicken at the R D Luncheonette downtown on North Duke
Street . . .
Ah, the atmosphere! I'll try again to send a comment that got swallowed by
the ether on Wednesday. In the summer of 1998, when the markets were
falling in response to the Asian crisis some of the big name stock
On Thursday, a firecracker was set off at his building and someone
defecated in an elevator . . .
Tom Walker
(604) 947-2213
Back in the summer of 1998, as the U.S. stock markets were dipping
precipitously, a familiar refrain of the 'optimistic' talking heads was
that a huge amount of new institutional money was still flowing into the
equity markets. I ran a quicky demographic analysis of the hypothetical
sources of
Praying for salvation:
The hemorrhage reverberated across the world and rang alarm bells in
the White House. President George W. Bush expressed concern on
Wednesday over the sharp drop in stock prices, but said he had ``great
faith'' in the U.S. economy.
Or divine
I just got finished tangling with a telephone messaging system that
undoubtedly was sold to the provincial government as a "labour saving /
cost saving device." In the short term, it probably saves a few dollars on
paper by concentrating workload on fewer employees. In the longer run,
those
Hey, I know I'm kind of slow on this one, but my article was mentioned in
the November/December 2000 issue. In "Doing Something About Long Hours",
Lonnie Golden and Deb Figart presented an overview of the analysis
contained in their book, "Working Time: International Trends, Theory and
Policy
Whatever else, I got a kick out of Greg Clark dubbing Michael "the Chico
Marx".
Tom Walker
(604) 947-2213
No, I counter-offered her a hair transplant and a Dale Carnegie course but
it was no dice.
maggie coleman wrote,
Tom, don't stop at half a statement -- did you get either??
Tom Walker wrote:
For the last two years before we split, my ex-wife lobbied me to get a
vasectomy and a
David's "1000 flowers" bring to mind H.L. Mencken's reply when asked how
much he would pay for 10,000 words on the San Francisco earthquake: "Which
words?, In what order?" (leaving aside the odds that such famous quotes
are likely to be misattributed). The 1000 flowers that get financed are
not
For the last two years before we split, my ex-wife lobbied me to get a
vasectomy and a PhD.
Tom Walker
(604) 947-2213
Doug Henwood wrote,
$150,000/4,000 = $32.43/hr.
$60,000/1,850 = $37.50/hr.
You may have less stress, Justin, but you still make less.
No. $37.50 an hour is more. Assuming Justin is paid for his marginal
productivity, he is also more productive. Justin may also be able to work
more years
Rob wrote:
I see the best-cities-to-live-in poll for the year is out. If memory
serves, Vancouver came top . . .
And here I was thinking how glad I am to be out of Vancouver. The problem
with being one of the "best cities to live in" is housing costs go up
correspondingly. Thus it becomes
Jeffrey L. Beatty wrote,
I'm making light of it, but the "creeping irrationalism" represented by
the likes of the thinking in this essay really frightens me.
Superficially, there is a lot to make light of in this creeping
irrationalism. Fundamentally, though, it is frightening that the likes
Rob Schaap wrote,
Hope Olasky eventually gets to that bit of bible-based free market
economics where his idol tips over the merchants' trading tables, or even
that bit where he alludes to camels and eyes of needles ...
Don't hold yer breath, Rob, that part is not in the abridged corporate
kelley wrote,
which is all fine. but, the fact is, at least too progressive social
movements were made possible by strong religious-based institutions: the
civil rights struggle and the abolition movement and parts of the labor
movement, especially in the south, where testifying in
Michael Pugliese wrote:
Long story here in the Texas Observer goes into the ideas and background
of Olasky.
http://www.texasobserver.org/bushfiles/
http://www.texasobserver.org/bushfiles/olasky.html
Excellent introduction. PLEASE READ! As George Dubya Bush said in his
election victory
Carrol Cox wrote,
One must assume, rather, that they know what they are doing, and
that they are doing it competently. Identify their motives with their
actions.
I take this as axiomatic. But it then raises another question: HOW DO they
know what they are doing? Could they be ever so successful
From: "The Last Puritan: Meet Marvin Olasky, Governor Bush's Compassionate
Conservative Guru" by Michael King
For Olasky, economics (like charity) is a very personal science,
with the Bible as prescriptive authority. He refers regularly to
something he calls "Bible-based free market economics,"
Jim Devine asked,
isn't "compassionate conservatism" the same as _noblesse oblige_, i.e.,
that the rich and powerful are obligated to take care of their social
inferiors, so that the latter won't resent the former and take care of
matters themselves?
Noblesse oblige would be too charitable.
Maggie Coleman wrote,
A friend of mine sent this to me, thank heavens I now KNOW what
compassionate conservatism is!
Compassionate conservatism: It's compassionate to take in illegal
immigrants. It's conservative not to pay them.
That may be too true to be funny. As I understand it, the
Robert MacDiarmid asked,
can anyone with a better grasp of stats than I have help with a rebuttal
to this drivel?
Anti-globalization activists have their facts wrong
JOCK FINLAYSON
I don't have the stats but I know Jock and have debated him several
times. What he does, and he's pretty good
Unemployment develops . . . because people want the moon; -- men cannot
be employed when the object of desire (i.e. money) is something which
cannot be produced and the demand for which cannot be readily choked off.
There is no remedy but to persuade the public that green cheese is
Chris Burford wrote:
Doesn't a sandwichboard get in the way?
I've designed a very light and comfortable one from corrugated plastic.
You sound like a sort of amiable electronic sophist, enigmatically
wandering from city state to city state attracting curious attention and
playing with the
Investors added another worry to their long list of concerns after a
tumultuous 2000 for the market, now fearing that major U.S. banks
could be hit with losses from their lending to struggling California
utilities.
``It's hard to make the case that an interest-rate cut is the
Jim Devine wrote,
By Jessica Garrison, TIMES staff writer.
economist John Maynard Keynes, father of supply-side
economics..."
Perhaps she means progeny conceived by antithesis?
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
Gene Coyle asked,
Just who was the mother of supply-side economics? And what was Keynes
doing in bed with her?
Or was it one of those turkey-baster conceptions?
Surely you've heard of "Bastered" Keynesianism? That makes Paul Samuelson
the mother, doesn't it?
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and
Michael Perelman wrote:
Perhaps Bush will have the same run of luck that Clinton did.
Perhaps . . . if he hangs around in the Oval Office with his fly undone.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
Although maybe if they fed the economic data through a Florida voting
machine . . .
Senior Clinton administration officials angrily charged that top
members of President-elect George W. Bush's team were ''talking down''
the economy in a campaign for tax cuts that could backfire by
I'll go out on a limb with a prediction that the coming hard times will
not necessarily be a recession (technically), they will be largely
impervious to fed reflation or tax cut voodoo and they will be
characterized most strikingly by a rolling series of supply bottlenecks
and infrastructure
On January 20, 2001 wear black or go naked.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
David Shemano wrote:
the left critiques of neoclassical economics is that neoclassical economics
incorrectly assumes that markets are "natural" and not a creation of the
rules of the political system, which reflect the interests of the powerful
in that system.
The rules of the political
"At a certain point in time, the motif of the doll acquires a
sociocritical significance. For example: 'You have no idea how repulsive
these automatons and dolls can become, and how one breathes at last on
encountering a full-blooded being in this society.'
-- Walter Benjamin, Arcades Project,
Also (on the eve [Eve] of the millennium):
Karl Marx, "Results of the Immediate Process of Production" Appendix to
Capital vol. 1, 1976 translated by Ben Fowkes. (discussion of formal and
real subsumption)
Susan Buck-Morss, "The Flaneur, the Sandwichman and the Whore: The
Politics of
Yoshie wrote:
Sexism commodity fetishism make many men unable to distinguish
human beings called "women" from dolls bachelor machines.
The obverse of this true observation is the emasculation of the man
without money. There are no "innocent" positions outside the infernal
circle of sexism
I thoroughly agree with and endorse Michael's ruling. I think it's time
for (en)closure on this matter.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
Donna Haraway says that we are all "cyborgs."
I say (taking liberties with Susan Buck-Morss and Walter Benjamin) that we
are all sandwich[wo]men. Cyborgs are the fetishized manifestation of our
sandwichedness.
Cyborg ist mort. Viva la smo/rgasbord!
Tom Walker
No. NASDAQ is bouncing at a rate that should have it approaching 3000,
2000, 3500, 1500, 4000 and 1000 any day now.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
Max,
Can you say le-gis-la-ture? A vote in the hand is worth two in the Bush.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
David,
Your question presumes markets are anathema to socialists and I agree that
is a fair assumption with regard to "traditional marxists". There are also
market socialists, such as Justin Schwartz on this list. I happen to hold
a third position, which is more or less agnostic toward markets.
Rob Schaap wrote:
Class Intrerview:
LO, VFK, FUACV?
S, IMXv N IFNNEK.
URDOA! UC, VRS N URD.
FIFNNEK, IFNNED!
FUFNNED, VFNNEM'!
S, URXK.
S, VRDOA2.
Isn't that a typo in the first line, or did you mean "Intrerview"? The
rest is perfectly
What else could one say but "the chips are down."
David Shemano, you're in the right industry! Ever thought
of teaming up with a sandwichman/deconsultant (it's sort of like being a
bankruptcy attorney at the macro scale)? Let's do lunch.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
P.P.S. I'm claiming more than you attribute to me. I'm saying that
Max Weber committed an intellectual crime of anachronism, akin to an
anachronistic argument that Socrates was "gay."
Is an intellectual crime anything like a thought crime?
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and
Samuel Pepys wrote,
. . . and also reading a little of
_L'escholle des filles_, which is a mighty lewd book, but yet not
amiss for a sober man once to read over to inform himself in the
villainy of the world.
. . . and I to my
chamber, where I did read through _L'escholles des filles_, a lewd
Ian Murray wrote,
While Socrates may have said something like the above; he's totally
wrong on the sentiment. The love of money and power are manifestations
of a fear of death, the source of the idea of a duality of the
"soul" and the body. The pyramids and Pharaoh's say it all
i.e.,
Anybody else find it _spooky_ that James Baker III is quarterbacking the
Bush manuevers? Wasn't he the guy [not some son of a guy] who received
stolen Carter briefing books from William Casey in the 1980
elections? Wasn't he the guy who authorized the Glaspie wink to Saddam for
the invasion of
Said Walker:
it is inevitable that popular protest express itself in
inarticulate and perhaps inappropriate slogans.
Replied Sawicky:
ok. And inappropriate personalities, like Jerry Brown, for instance.
Exactly.
so both sides are full of it. so what?
So the "sidedness" requires that
Brad DeLong wrote,
I've never understood the whole "things are bad, so let's make them
worse!" meme...
Several Democratic Senators and newspapers which had endorsed Gore are now
urging Gore to not pursue a legal challenge to the Florida results to
avoid a "constitutional crisis", which in their
Nathan Newman wrote,
. . . the deeper problem
beyond Gore v. Bush in these elite media and politician calls to bypass
recounts or the courts through a concession. There were and are serious
violations of law in the election and the right to go to court
Under current circumstances, a Bush election (by the electoral college,
including the Fla. outcome) would be a blatant coup d'etat, even if
Gore went along with it. The Florida election should be invalidated
leaving no majority in the electoral college which would a vote by the
house. I assume
His car briefly went onto the shoulder of the road when he swerved to
avoiding hitting the ghost of Mary Jo Kopechne.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
Two great quotes from Time, Labor and Social Domination (p. 80). I would
be more than happy to discuss, if anyone else is interested:
". . . those positions that assert the existence of a totality only to
affirm it, on the one hand, and those that recognize that the realization
of a social
Hi Robin,
What do progressive economists think of how well speculative markets
aggregate information, relative to feasible alternatives?
I would suggest looking at speculative market reactions to downsizing
reports in the 1980s and 1990s. Job cuts were greeted by jumps in stock
prices.
Carroll Cox wrote,
This query is based on an argument advanced some years ago by Sweezy and
Magdoff. I can't remember the exact source, but I believe it was an MR
Review of the Month. They were speaking specifically of socialist
society, and argued that one of the mistakes of Soviet theorists
Robin Hanson replied
.. speculative market reactions to downsizing ...Subsequent analysis,
.. found no significant relationship Bre-X ... buying into a
swindle ...
I'll accept these as specific examples of errors in market
estimates. But the question is whether some other source has
Monday October 30 5:53 PM ET
L.A. Police Under Fire After Killing Actor at Party
By Sarah Tippit
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The scandal-plagued Los Angeles Police
Department was under fire again on Monday as angry questions swirled
over an officer's shooting to death a
Louis Proyect wrote,
(Some of you may be familiar with the name Loren Goldner. His writings
have been circulated widely on the Internet. I had mistakenly assumed
that he was a member of the American SWP, but he seems rather to be a
"council communist" of long standing. In any case, he has
Michael Perelman wrote,
Regarding Martin's question about the nature of University employment.
John Stuart Mill: "The proper function of an University (is) not ... to
teach the knowledge required to fit men for some special mode of gaining
their livelihood. . .
I think it might be useful
Brad de Long wrote,
Walt Whitman Rostow is a very good development economist and economic
historian. But I wouldn't call his tenure as Assistant to the
President for National Security a big win...
I wouldn't call Rostow's once canonical _The Stages of Economic Growth_ a
big win as
In response to Peter Dorman's question, my suggestion for a solution would
be to start the retirement process much earlier. Paradoxical? The point
would be to introduce a phased reduction of working time, such that one
would never entirely withdraw from work, it would simply become less and
less
Max Sawicky wrote:
I suppose if others predict crisis every six months or so, and I never
predict one, eventually they'll be right and I'll be wrong. What's the
opposite of a broken clock that's right once a day? Maybe an electric
clock that keeps the right time until the lights go out.
I
In a message dated 9/23/00 8:44:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
The only other relevant question is whether labor creates value. For those
who think not, they do not belong on PEN-L, but that's just my opinion.
One other relevant question concerns the "value of value"
I wrote:
There is an immaculate conception between this topic and the "Market as
God" thread.
Jo wrote:
Yeah? And who emerges from the spotless sheets? You positing a saviour
of some sort, Sandwichman?
Don't you mean:
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches
Charles Brown wrote,
Though most of the book "value" is used. But "value" can be used to refer
to "use-value" too. Value in the sense of "wealth" is in the form of
commodities, and commodities are bundles of exchange-value and use-value.
Remember, though, "A commodity appears at first sight
Mat Forstater wrote,
I don't see either one as short-hand for the other. Exchange-value is the
expression of value.
Correct. However, Marx _used_ exchange-value as an abbreviation, _said_ he
had used it as an abbreviation but then pointed out that, strictly
speaking, it was wrong to do so. I
There is an immaculate conception between this topic and the "Market as
God" thread.
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
215-2273
Jim Devine wrote:
A leftist Jesuit recommended the following to me:
(For the whole thing, see http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99mar/marketgod.htm)
The Market as God:
For more variations on the theme, "the religion of the market", see:
An engaged Zen Buddhist:
The first time I tried to read Chapter One of Volume I, I kept falling
asleep. Over the years, as I have re-read the chapter and learned and
experienced other things, the chapter has become much more readable and
enjoyable. A distinguishing feature of literature is that it improves with
JKSCHW wrote,
I have read and indeed taught the major pomos
poststructuralists--Derrida, DeMan, Foucault, DeLeuze Guttari,
Baudrillard, Lyotard, Rorty, and made an effort to get a grip on
Irigaray, Kristev, Butler, and Spivak. I am pretty
confident that they share a family resemblance
Gee, it seems that either a lot of folks have read much more
post-modernist stuff than I have or maybe it's that it is easier to make
sweeping generalizations about something on the basis of hearsay. There's
a lot of crap that gets written under the pretension of
post-modernism. The same can
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