Two Americas of Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ
Two Americas of Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ: http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/07/two-americas-of-fahrenheit-911-and.html -- Yoshie Furuhashi English Comparative Studies Ohio State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] 614-668-6554
Re: Russia Steps in to Aid Banking Crisis
I don't know -- I'm not a banking expert. I actually had an account at Guta for awhile. But Guta is just not a household name. When I was working for the Russia Journal, we practically never wrote on Guta. --- sartesian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think Chris Doss's remarks on Russian banking worries (and I think they are in the worry, not crisis,category) are a little too non-chalant.. The Guta bank is/was/had been considered one of the sounder banks in the Russian financial network, with higher quality loans/assets to better performing Russian businesses. __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Productivity.
As I'm sure most of you have noticed US labour productivity has been the talk of the economics blog world of late. I have a few questions regarding this productivity boom that have not been answered sufficiently in what I have read so far. Productivity, as best as I can tell, is defined as follows: Productivity = (Gross Output - Foreign Inputs) / Domestic Labour So, foreign inputs are simply ignored by the formula, doesn't this mean that if cheaper foreign inputs displace domestic inputs that this calculation would show a rise in productivity? Also, since US dollars sent abroad to pay for these foreign inputs will eventually come home and make demands on US productivity, shouldn't this increasing dependence on foreign inputs eventually cause inflation? In fact, doesn't this rise in productivity happen to exist against the backdrop of massive hoarding of US currency in Asian Central Banks? Is this preventing the inflation? In this light, can it be said that the 'Productivity Boom' is really Asian productivity financing US consumption? What hapens when the Asians begin to spend some of that US currency?
Coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon
NY Observer, July 14, 2004 House Of Bush, House Of SaudHouse Of Cusack by Rachel Donadio Michael Moores Fahrenheit 9/11 may have focused feverish attention on the alleged axis of evil between the Bush family and the Saudis, with inferences about their business connections drawn largely from Craig Ungers book House of Bush, House of Saud. But coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon. Once it emerged that the majority of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, the Middle Eastern country began mounting an increasingly sophisticated charm offensive whose scope goes far beyond Crawford, Tex., and Kennebunkport, Me., landing squarely in other American power basesincluding the one in Chappaqua. When it comes to forging ties with Democrats or winning over hawkish types who want the U.S. to stop depending on Saudi oil, the Saudis are more likely to offer a scintillating roundtable conference than a plum business contract. In January, for example, the Saudis funded a lavish three-country junket for Bill Clinton and an entourage of about 40 former Clinton administration officials and Lincoln Bedroom guests. And last month, the Saudi government underwrote a remarkably frank journalists roundtable discussion on Saudi Arabia and its discontents with editors of The New Republic, which was published as paid advertising in that magazines July 5 and 12 issue. Held on June 8, the roundtable discussion was moderated by New Republic senior editor Lawrence Kaplan and featured the magazines editor in chief, Martin Peretz; New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright; the chief investigative correspondent of U.S. News and World Report, David E. Kaplan; and the Washington bureau chief of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, David Montgomery, all of whom had either traveled in or reported from Saudi Arabia. Called Inside the Kingdom: The Views and Perspectives of Journalists in Saudi Arabia, the edited transcript was printed in the same font as the rest of the magazine, although it was labeled a special advertisement sponsored by the people of Saudi Arabia, allies against terrorism. Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic, said he had selected the panelists and agreed to the panel on the grounds that it be intellectually honest. These ambitious but not overbearing P.R. moves are a sign of a growing sophistication in the Saudis understanding of how to soften relations with Americans critical of the countrys repressive regime, according to Noah Feldman, a professor at New York University Law School and a Middle East expert. Even sponsoring stuff thats critical on the whole might turn out to be better for the Saudis, Mr. Feldman said. None of the critics debating the future of Saudi Arabia on the governments dime, after all, are Saudi citizens. As the New Republic panelists pointed out, within Saudi Arabia, would-be reformers are deathly afraid to speak their minds. Education is the most important part of the program, to send our message to the American people directly and have them decide the facts when presented with them was how Nail Al-Jubeir, the director of the Information Office at the Saudi embassy in Washington, summed up the Saudi P.R. offensive, which is being coordinated by the Washington firm Qorvis Communications. Unfortunately we have too many people, so-called pundits and experts, and a majority have never set foot in Saudi Arabia and are speaking nonsense. There is also the care and feeding of former office holderswhich, of course, sends a message to those currently in office of what awaits once they retire to the lecture circuit. Mr. Al-Jubeir said Mr. Clinton had attended the Jeddah Economic Forum two years in a row. He was invited to come, and it was an honor, Mr. Al-Jubeir said. We extend our friendship to former Presidents . Our friendship to them extends beyond when they leave office. So it was that in January, a plane belonging to Crown Prince Abdullah took off from Newark Airport to shuttle Mr. Clinton and his entourage to the Jeddah Economic Forumwhere Mr. Clinton delivered the keynote address. Then, for good measure, the princes plane took the whole gang on to the World Economic Conference in Davos and a German media-prize dinner in Baden-Baden. Beyond a write-up in the New Jersey Jewish NewsFirst Stop: Saudi Arabia; West Orange Woman Joins Bill Clinton on Whirlwind Overseas Speaking Tourthe ex-Presidents Saudi-funded junket barely got any press attention, certainly not from the likes of Michael Moore, who seems to train his viewfinder only on Republican-Saudi ties, with Democrats conveniently out of range. Even Mr. Unger said he was not familiar with the Jeddah Economic Forum and did not know that Mr. Clinton had brought a group there. This is news to me, to be honest. I havent really investigated it, so I dont want to comment, he said. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
[stop-imf] Africa should not pay its debts - Jeffrey Sachs
I happened upon this in the LBO-archive. Carl Remick asked a similar question about Jeffrey Sachs in 1998. CB ^^ Has Jeffrey Sachs changed his tune... Charles Brown CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us mailto:lbo-talk%40lbo-talk.org?Subject=Has%20Jeffrey%20Sachs%20changed%20hi s%20tune...In-Reply-To= Tue Sep 15 06:34:34 PDT 1998 * Search LBO-Talk Archives Sounds like post-neo-neo-classical neo-keynesian globalism. Charles Brown Carl Remick cremick at rlmnet.com http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk 09/15 9:31 AM ...or am I just tone deaf? Just read a piece of his in the current Economist (9/12) Making It Work, where he emerges as a nemesis of the whole West-o-centric, top-down, model of global economic development. He says that a G16 (including eight LDC members) should be substituted for the G8, that there should be massive cancellation of external debt in the poorest nations and that developmental aid should shift from short-term loans to outright grants. He says it should be recognized that the IMF/World Bank have no political legitimacy in the developing world, e.g.: A G16 summit should take up fundamental reform of the international assistance process itself. The aim should be to restore legitimacy to local politics, and abandon the misguided belief that the IMF and World Bank can micro-manage the process of economic reform. To be sure, he also says: Developing countries are not trying to overturn Washington's vision of global capitalism, but rather to become productive players in it -- and that's what he want to help. Nonetheless, Sachs seems to be more fundamentally critical of central institutions of global capitalism than I had been aware. I'm confused. When The Wall Came Down, Sachs struck me as the embodiment of Western arrogance in his meddlesome, market-oriented prescriptions for Russian reform. When did he become such a bleeding heart? Carl Remick by Perelman, Michael I mentioned a couple days ago how much Jeffrey Sachs has moved to the left. Chris's message is further confirmation. As I said before, he has also been very strong on Haiti. Perhaps Paul A. has something to add about the relationship between Sachs and the United Nations. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898 ^^
absolute general law of capitalist accumulation
Reviews of Capital by Frederick Engels 1867 Review of Volume One of Capital for the Demokratisches Wochenblatt March 1868 excerpt ...We will pass over a number of further excellent investigations of more theoretical interest and will pause only at the final chapter which deals with the accumulation or amassing of capital. Here it is first shown that the capitalist mode of production, i.e. that inaugurated by capitalists on the one hand and wage-workers on the other, not only continually regenerates capital for the capitalist, but at the same time also continually produces the poverty of the workers; thereby it is provided for a constant regeneration of, on one hand, capitalists who are the owners of all means of subsistence, all raw materials and instruments of labour, and on the other hand, the great mass of the workers, who are quantum of the means of subsistence which at best just suffices to keep them able-bodied and to bring up a new generation of able-bodied proletarians. But capital does not merely reproduce itself: it is continually increased and multiplied--and thereby its power over the propertyless class of workers. And just as it itself is reproduced on an ever greater scale, so the modern capitalist mode of production reproduces the class of propertyless workers also on an ever greater scale, in even greater numbers. ...Accumulation of capital reproduces the capital-relation on a progressive scale, more capitalists or larger capitalists at this pole, more wage-workers at that Accumulation of capital is, therefore, increase of the proletariat (p 600). Since, however, owing to the progress of machinery, owing to improved agriculture, etc., fewer and fewer workers are necessary in order to produce the same quantity of products, since this perfecting, that is, this making the workers superfluous, is more rapid than even the growth of capital, what becomes of this ever-increasing number of workers? They form an industrial reserve army, which, when business is bad or middling, is paid below the value of its labour and is irregularly employed or is left to be cared for by public charity, but which is indispensable to the capitalist class at times when business is especially lively, as is palpably evident in England--but which under all circumstances serves to break the power of resistance of the regularly employed workers and to keep their wages down. The greater the social wealth ... the greater is the relative surplus-population, or industrial-reserve-army. But the greater this reserve-army in proportion to the active (regularly employed) labour-army, the greater is the mass of a consolidated (permanent) surplus-population, or strata of workers, whose misery is in inverse ratio to its torment of labour. The more extensive, finally, the lazarus-layers of the working class, and the industrial reserve-army, the greater is official pauperism. This is the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation (p. 631) These, strictly scientifically-proved--and the official economists are taking great care not to make even an attempt at a refutation--are some of the chief laws of the modern, capitalist, social system. But does this tell the whole story? By no means. Marx sharply stresses the bad sides of capitalist production but with equal emphasis clearly proves that this social form was necessary to develop the productive forces of society to a level which will make possible an equal development worthy of human beings for all members of society. All earlier forms of society were too poor for this. Capitalist production is the first to create the wealth and the productive forces necessary for this, but at the same time it also creates, in the numerous and oppressed workers, the social class which is compelled more and more to claim the utilisation of this wealth and these productive forces for the whole of society--instead of their being utilised, as they are today, for a monopolist class. Reviews of Volume One of Capital ... greater is official pauperism. This is the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation (p. 631). These, strictly scientifically ... www.marxists.org/archive/marx/ works/1867/reviews-capital/dwochenblatt.htm - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 Subject: capitalism AND dialectics AND nature From David Black On Wed, 8 Jul 1998, Kenneth Ferris wrote: The Nation magazine in the U.S. has recently said (probably not the first time anyone has said this), that capitalism is always in crisis. Any thoughts on why that is so? A number of recent studies have highlighted the odd resemblance between the self-moving, self-manifesting and self-grounded categories of Hegel's Logic and the value-form of capital, as a totalizing abstract universal; in Marx's words, growing big with itself as it sucks in the living labour of human beings and invades every area of their existence. Istvan Meszaros, a former student of George Lukacs, has produced a magisterial critique of Capital as an order of social metabolic reproduction which subjects humanity under its shadow of unconrollability and asks: are we really destined to live forever under the spell of capital's global system glorified in it's Hegelian conceptualization, resigned - as he advised us to be in his poetic reference to 'the owl of Minerva [that] spreads its wings only at the falling of the dusk' - to the tyrannical exploitation of the World Spirit? Hegel's absolutes however, end up being permeated with absolute negativity, there his dialectic remains relevant to Marx's dialectic of Labour and Capital. In Capital, Vol. I in the chapter on the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation; capitalism, which cannot produce wealth without producing poverty, eventually begets its own negation, the organised working class and other new passions, new forces. Because Nature, according to Hegel, is incapable of self-movement, it is the job of pure thought to discover its own Essence as Freedom. The Absolute Idea thus externalizes itself, allowing the moment of the Particular to go freely from itself into Nature. But in Hegel's view of Nature, which is the very opposite to Rousseau's, Humanity's natural state of Particularity is that of untamed individual wills, selfishness and irrational passions. In societies in which individual wills are fully under the rule of such external necessity, freedom can only have the most an abstract existence. Thus Hegel, having proceeded from his Phenomenology of consciousness to Science as the of pure thought of Logic whose Nature if is its Essential freedom, now has need of another element to transcend the state of nature: the Philosophy of Mind. For Hegel, the Beginning is also the End, although the self-movement of reality is not so much circular, as a circle of cirles; what goes around comes round, but at a higher level, as in a spiral. However, what is involved in this process of reconstitution at a higher level is not just a spiral of Progress; from Hegel's standpoint of political economy progress is implicitly a spiral of Crisis. As Marx puts capital is destructive as well as productive. As early as 1841 Marx argues that the practice of philosophy is the critique that measures the individual existence by the essence, the particular reality by the Idea. Marx, in breaking with Hegel, declares: theory becomes a material force when it grips the masses and in mid-1843, in his unpublished Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, he attacks Hegel for failing to measure the idea by what exists and for making an a priori deduction of Prussian reality from a philosophical construction. However, Marx, as Dunayevskaya would have it, by no means leaves behind the notion of Hegel's self-determined Idea when he takes onboard labour and political economy; and in this light, to go off on another track, Althusserian arguments on Marx's allegedly Feuerbachian attempt to project the recuperation of an alienated essence through the subject becoming an identical subject/object are highly questionable. Marx does not project the notion of an alienated human 'essence' unconditioned by history. Rather, in his sixth Theses on Feuerbach in 1845, Marx writes: Feuerbach resolves the religious essence into the human essence. But the human essence is no abstraction in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations. In the 1844 Critique of the Hegelian Dialectic, Marx writes that the greatness of Hegel's dialectic of negativity as the moving and creative principle is its grasp of the essence of labour and the possibility of human self-realisation through human collectivity and as a result of history. Hegel had put activity as the mediator between subject and object, but he presented it as thinking activity mediating between thought-entities. Although Feuerbach, in breaking from Hegel, wanted to differentiate thought-objects from sensuous objects, Marx found Feuerbach's materialist dualism wanting; Feuerbach conceived reality only in the form of an object or of contemplation, but not as human sensuous activity, practice, not subjectively. Marx sees Hegel's standpoint as that of modern political economy. In
Re: absolute general law of capitalist accumulation
Daniel Davies asked: was he right? Hegel's logic elaborates an ontology. One of its key concepts is internal relations. Individual entities are internally related where their essences are the product of their relations. This contrasts with the concept of external relations which conceives individual entities as substances in the senses of Aristotle and Descartes, i.e. as possessing properties without being themselves properties and as needing nothing but themselves in order to exist. This has implications for the meaning of language. Where relations are internal the identities of related things change with changes in their relations so it isn't possible to use language to fix their meaning once and for all. Meaning depends on context. Meaning is, for this reason, essentially vague. It also has implications for deductive axiomatic reasoning. This requires that, to the extent required by the particular reasoning involved, meaning remain unchanged. It also leads to the interpretation of laws such as the general law of capitalist accumulation as immanent since they are expressive of the nature of the behaving individuals and hence change as this nature changes with changes in their relations. When combined with other ontological premises, the idea of relations as internal produces a philosophy of human history as a set of internally related stages in a process of bildung through which human consciousness develops to rationality. These ideas have been appropriated by Marx. He treats capitalism as a stage in such a process. One aspect of this is that the logic and laws of capital hold, at best, only for the relations that constitute capital. Another is that these relations are to be understand as developmental relations i.e. as relations that generate an increased degree of rational self-consciousness in those who occupy the dominated position within them. Marx will consequently be misinterpreted where these Hegelian features of his treatment of capital are ignored. Since most Marxists ignore them, most Marxists misinterpret him. One illustration of the need to take account of them in reading Capital is provided by Hegel's idea, rooted in the above ontological ideas, of the fully rational self-consciousness as the self-consciousness of the educated person. Hegel elaborates this in the Philosophy of Right. By educated men we may prima facie understand those who without the obtrusion of personal idiosyncrasy can do what others do. It is precisely this idiosyncrasy, however, which uneducated men display, since their behaviour is not governed by the universal characteristics of the situation. . . . Education rubs the edges off particular characteristics until a man conducts himself in accordance with the nature of the thing. (Hegel, Philosophy of Right, p. 268) Educated individuals determine their knowing, willing, and acting in a universal way. (pp. 124-6) These passages are cited by Marx in Capital to indicate Hegel's very heretical views on the specialization and division of labor. (Capital vol. 1 [Penguin ed.], p. 485) Marx himself appropriates the idea. It's embodied in the German Ideology's description of a person able to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as [she has] in mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic (German Ideology, p. 47) and in Grundrisse's idea of the universally developed individual (Grundrisse, pp. 161-2). It's taken as the basis of what must become a general law of social production in an ideal community in the following passage from Capital, a passage which also indicates some of the ways Marx views capitalism as working to make the actualization of the idea practicable. Modern industry never views or treats the existing form of a production process as the definitive one. Its technical basis is therefore revolutionary, whereas all earlier modes of production were essentially conservative.29 By means of machinery, chemical processes and other methods, it is continually transforming not only the technical basis of production but also the functions of the worker and the social combinations of the labour-process. At the same time, it thereby also revolutionises the division of labour within society, and incessantly throws masses of capital and of workers from one branch of production to another. Thus large-scale industry, by its very nature, necessitates variation of labour, fluidity of functions, and mobility of the worker in all directions. But on the other hand, in its capitalist form, it reproduces the old division of labour with its ossified particularities. We have seen how this absolute contradiction does away with all repose, all fixity and all security as far as the worker's life-situation is concerned; how it constantly threatens, by taking away the
Salon.com versus Ralph Nader
Nader's got some explaining to do. Why is his campaign headquarters housed in his nonprofit's tax-exempt offices? By Joe Conason, salon.com March 15, 2004 | Ever since Ralph Nader announced his independent candidacy for president last month, both friends and critics have wondered why he is running -- and where the great gadfly will obtain the enormous resources needed for a national campaign. Already there is evidence that his organization may be cutting financial corners and skirting the dubious edge of federal election and tax laws. full: http://archive.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/03/15/nader/ === Strange alliance Why is Rupert Murdoch's media empire publishing Ralph Nader's latest tome? By Eric Boehlert, salon.com July 9, 2004 | When former Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean faces third-party candidate Ralph Nader in a 90-minute debate to be aired on National Public Radio Friday, Dean is sure to press Nader on whether his run for the White House will again help Republicans on Election Day, and on whether Nader has become that party's pawn. Another good question Dean might ask Nader, critic of corporate-controlled Washington and foe of rampant media consolidation, is why Nader's new book, which arrived in stores this week and kicks off his presidential campaign, is being published by Rupert Murdoch. Chairman of the expansive conglomerate News Corp., the conservative Murdoch has been a chief advocate for more than two decades of extensive media deregulation. And his HarperCollins is not only publishing Nader's The Good Fight: Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap but providing the candidate with expensive public relations promotion and media bookings. full: http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2004/07/09/nader_murdoch/index.html === The Washington Post June 21, 1985, Friday, Final Edition Village Voice Sold By Margot Hornblower, Washington Post Staff Writer The Village Voice, New York's iconoclastic weekly, was bought today for more than $55 million by Leonard Stern, the wealthy and controversial owner of the Hartz Mountain pet products company and a major real estate developer in New York and New Jersey. The Voice had been owned since 1977 by Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media magnate who owns the New York Post and recently bought a group of seven television stations for $2 billion with another partner A group of Voice employes, including Senior Editor Jack Newfield, met last week in the office of attorney Adam Walinsky to discuss founding an alternative paper with a new unnamed backer. We have concerns about Leonard Stern based on things we've learned about his past, including his business practices, said JOSEPH CONASON, a political writer and union official. Murdoch, according to Voice employees, left the paper alone to pursue its independent viewpoint. === On the phone with Ralph Nader Salon editor David Talbot and the presidential contender have a frank and honest exchange of views. July 14, 2004 | Last Friday, Ralph Nader's campaign spokesman Kevin Zeese e-mailed Salon, saying that Nader wanted to speak with Salon editor David Talbot about recent articles that have appeared in Salon concerning him and his candidacy. The following is a transcript of the ensuing three-way phone conversation among Nader, Zeese and Talbot. It ranged over Rupert Murdoch (whose company published Nader's new book), Democratic dirty tricks against the independent candidate's presidential bid, and Nader's acceptance of conservative money and support. Nader opened the conversation by charging that Salon had not solicited a response from him when preparing two recent critical pieces about him -- The Dark Side of Ralph Nader, by Lisa Chamberlain, and Strange Alliance, by Eric Boehlert. For the record, Chamberlain made repeated phone calls to Nader's campaign office and Zeese's cellphone seeking a comment from Nader or his spokesman but received no replies. And Boehlert spoke to Zeese on the phone, quoting him in his piece. Nader: Why didn't your reporters call for a response? Talbot: They did. Nader: Since [Lisa Chamberlain] was writing about the campaign, wouldn't you have the decency to call our campaign office? Talbot: It's always Salon's procedure, whenever we do a critical article on anyone -- whether it's the Bush administration or you or anyone -- to give them a chance to respond. That's always our policy. full: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/07/14/naderphonecall/index.html === The San Francisco Chronicle AUGUST 10, 2001, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION Salon backers kick in more cash; 11-member group puts up $2.5 million amid further layoffs By Dan Fost Salon Media Group said yesterday that a new infusion of cash -- and a new round of layoffs -- will help it reach profitability by the end of this year. Longtime Salon investor BILL HAMBRECHT and Adobe Systems founder John Warnock are leading a group of 11 investors in
Thrift shop imperialism
For sale -- cheap: 'Dead white men's clothing' In Africa, the West's castoff clothes are de rigueur, not demeaning. Nearly everyone has to buy used LA Times, July 14, 2004 By Davan Maharaj, Times Staff Writer Tossed off a flatbed truck, a 100-pound bale of used panties and bras, worn socks, DKNY suits and Michael Jordan jerseys lands with a thud amid a jostling swarm of shoppers. Okech Anorue slits the plastic wrap on the refrigerator-size bundle he bought for $95 and dives in. There's bound to be a gem in there like the faded leather bomber jacket once worn by Tiffany of Costa Mesa High School. That piece now hangs on the premium rack in his 5-foot-by-5-foot stall with a $25 price tag. These clothes make people's dreams come true, says Anorue, chairman of the vendors association at Yaba Market. Everyone wears them, from insurance women, vendors, poor people to parliamentarians. When they put them on, you can't tell rich from poor. Much of Africa was once draped in fabrics of flamboyant color and pattern, products of local industry and a reflection of cultural pride. But with half of its people surviving on less than a dollar a day, the continent has become the world's recycling bin. People scramble for 10-cent underpants, 20-cent T-shirts and dollar blue jeans discarded by Westerners. A young man in the Congolese jungle wears a T-shirt that pleads: Beam me up, Scotty. In a Lagos nightclub, a Nigerian ingenue models a used red negligee over a hot-pink halter top. A young Liberian fighter with an AK-47 assault rifle wears a tan bathrobe like a trench coat. In Togo, the castoffs are called dead white men's clothing. Few people in that West African country believe that a living person would throw away anything this good. Consumers in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania call the used clothing mitumba, the Swahili word for bale. Without mitumba, most Ugandans would be walking naked in the countryside, lamented an editorial in that country's leading newspaper, the Monitor. Insatiable demand from village shops and sprawling urban markets has turned the West's castoffs into an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Clothing is only the most visible example. Polluting refrigerators and air conditioners, expired medicines and old mattresses also are routinely shipped and resold here. Used vehicles imported from Japan dot African roads. Antiquated secondhand computers power many African governments. The trade in hand-me-downs offers millions of Africans another means to endure their daily struggle with poverty. Shoppers get cheap clothes, and legions of vendors eke out a living one worn T-shirt at a time. Mere survival has a long-term cost: The continent is losing the capacity to produce its own clothing. Although labor is cheap, Africans cannot make a shirt that costs as little as a used one. Every textile mill in Zambia has closed. Fewer than 40 of Nigeria's 200 mills remain. The vast majority of textile factories in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi are shuttered as well. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs. We are digging our own graves, says Chris Kirubi, a Kenyan industrialist who blamed secondhand clothing for the demise of his textile mill. When you make your own clothes, you employ farmers to grow cotton, people to work in textile mills and more people to work in clothes factories. When you import secondhand clothes, you become a dumping ground. full: http://www.latimes.com/news/specials/world/la-fg-clothes14jul14,1,5275395.story?coll=la-home-headlines -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young by Solana Pyne The Village Voice One Sick Fall With health insurance out of reach, a generation braces itself for the worst July 13th, 2004 11:30 AM If they're not outright poor as a class, young adults in this country are at least very, very broke. The average collegian graduates with more than $20,000 in debt, headed for a job market where real hourly wages have kept pace with neither inflation nor the cost of living. Young adults are broke in part because of their unprecedented schooling in the latest census figures, 28 percent of those between 25 and 29 reported holding a bachelor's degree which promised to pluck them away from the constellation of problems plaguing America's underclass, whether it was trouble with housing or inadequate medical care. Yet there they are, these latest inheritors of the American dream, lined up in emergency rooms for toothaches and the flu, not because they're having emergencies, but because they don't have health insurance, and emergency rooms, unlike private doctors, are obliged to give them care. Since 1987, the number of uninsured young adults has grown at twice the rate of older adults, even though the demographic itself is shrinking. One-quarter to one-third of adults under 35 went without insurance for all of 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available an increase of 1.2 million from the year before. Half were uninsured for some part of 2002. Of the 43.6 million uninsured adults in the U.S., 41 percent are young. Of all the rationales John Kerry and George Bush will give this year as they stump for their individual visions of helping the nation's uninsured, one of the most pragmatic is that those little plastic cards can make the difference, for a crucial group of consumers, between having a financial parachute and cratering into debt. Maria Davidson, of Meriden, Connecticut, was 26 and working for low pay with no benefits when her seven-year-old son tried to kill himself. The ambulance took him to Yale-New Haven Hospital. She had no private coverage for herself and her family. Her children were not eligible for public plans, and she wasn't aware of programs that could have covered the hospital expenses. Her son amassed $3,900 in bills that Davidson just couldn't pay. That was nine years ago. By the time the bill was resolved as the result of a lawsuit, she owed, with interest, over $6,000. Collection agencies were garnishing her wages and had put a lien on her condo. Much of her story is sadly typical. A survey published in May by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit based in New York City, found that of the uninsured between 19 and 29, half had trouble making payments, had been contacted by a collection agency, or had modified their lifestyles to pay off medical bills. And the cost hardly stops with lost purchasing power. The Commonwealth Fund's survey found that more than half of those young and not covered had gone without needed medical care in the last year, which included not seeing a doctor, failing to fill a prescription, or skipping a recommended medical test, treatment, or follow-up visit. Long Islander Fred Gumm, 26, now has health insurance through his job at Starbucks, which, he said, is pretty much the only reason I work there. He went without coverage for two and a half years, during and after school at SUNY-New Paltz. While uninsured, he broke a few fingers and injured his shoulder and his back. He didn't go to the doctor because he couldn't afford the bill, and as a result, the injuries healed badly and still trouble him. The story for middle-class kids these days is that you're covered by your family's insurance until you graduate college, and then you're on your own. For those not in school, the cutoff comes even sooner. You turn 19 and lose your parents' coverage, said Sara Collins, an economist for the Commonwealth Fund. In theory, you quickly get a job that comes with insurance. That's the way our system is designed to work, with employers rather than the government providing coverage. But as premiums have risen, companies have begun to consider forgoing health plans. In September, the trade journal BenefitsNews.com reported that among companies with 10 to 49 workers, the percentage of those offering insurance dropped from 66 percent to 62 percent. That four-point dip may not sound like much, but the journal estimated it could represent some 200,000 businesses. What's more, young people tend to work for smaller firms think entrepreneurial start-ups and only 55 percent of companies with fewer than 10 workers carry health plans. A May 2003 report by the Commonwealth Fund found that 65 percent of working young adults are eligible for an employer-sponsored plan, compared to 77 percent of older adults. What looked like a relatively seamless transition for your parents looks for you like a rickety bridge. You're not making much money, you've got student debt,
absolute general law of capitalist accumulation
In Hegelian jargon absolute is contrasted with relative. Perhaps Marx sharply stresses the bad sides of capitalist production as its absolute aspect, but with equal emphasis clearly proves that this social form was necessary to develop the productive forces of society, etc. , as the relative aspect. The impoverishment is the absolute and the progressive aspect is relative. CB Reviews of Capital by Frederick Engels 1867 Review of Volume One of Capital for the Demokratisches Wochenblatt March 1868 Excerpt These, strictly scientifically-proved--and the official economists are taking great care not to make even an attempt at a refutation--are some of the chief laws of the modern, capitalist, social system. But does this tell the whole story? By no means. Marx sharply stresses the bad sides of capitalist production but with equal emphasis clearly proves that this social form was necessary to develop the productive forces of society to a level which will make possible an equal development worthy of human beings for all members of society. All earlier forms of society were too poor for this. Capitalist production is the first to create the wealth and the productive forces necessary for this, but at the same time it also creates
Re: Coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/14/04 8:51 AM coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon. of course... saudi gov't is among top ten buyers of u.s. arms, human rights abuses in saudi arabia include use of u.s. made restraining belts and chairs, saudis also use electro-shock devices of which u.s. is leading developer of technology... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Kucinich delegates fold like a cheap suitcase
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/13/04 9:18 AM
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 11, 2004
Kerry heads off platform squabble
From the Nation/Politics section
Stephen Dinan
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's
campaign headed off a showdown in the party platform yesterday over
Iraq, convincing rival Dennis J. Kucinich's supporters not to demand
withdrawal of U.S. troops or the establishment of a Department of Peace.
dem leaders/candidates have worked overtime to prevent such disputes
since 72 when platform fight on evening of mcgovern's acceptance speech
pushed him to
about 2am eastern time when most of nation was asleep, many more people
were
tuned into dems arguing with each other during prime time (reps had
similar, albeit lesser, experience in 92 when bush the first essentially
allowed religious right to run
things)...
clintonite control of dem party in 92 and 96 not only prevented any
apparent internal differences, it also led to 'progressives' speakers
being pushed out of prime tme slots (they'd had enough of jesse
jackson's rouings 84 and 88 convention remarks)...
desire to present unified front on national tv makes sense from party
perspective, kucinich folks have to make decision at some point re. that
('their') party... michael hoover
--
Please Note:
Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from
College employees
regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon
request.
Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: absolute general law of capitalist accumulation
In a message dated 7/14/2004 9:03:49 AM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Modern industry never views or treats the existing form of a
production process as the definitive one. Its technical basis is
therefore revolutionary, whereas all earlier modes of production were
essentially conservative.29 By means of machinery, chemical processes
and other methods, it is continually transforming not only the
technical basis of production but also the functions of the worker
and the social combinations of the labour-process. At the same time,
it thereby also revolutionises the division of labour within society,
and incessantly throws masses of capital and of workers from one
branch of production to another. Thus large-scale industry, by its
very nature, necessitates variation of labour, fluidity of functions,
and mobility of the worker in all directions. But on the other
hand, in its capitalist form, it reproduces the old division of
labour with its ossified
particularities.
Comment
"Modern
industry. . .technical basis is therefore revolutionary . . . By
means of machinery, chemical processes and other methods, it is continually
transforming . . . the functions of the worker and the social combinations of
the labour-process.. .Thus large-scale industry, by its very nature,
necessitates variation of labour, fluidity of functions, and mobility of the
worker in all directions. But on the other hand, in its capitalist form,
it reproduces the old division of labour with its ossified
particularities."
"In its capitalist form" . . . begs the question . . . exactly or
specifically what is in its capitalist form? Engels call capitalist production a
"social form" of something. ("capitalist production . . . clearly proves that
this social form was necessary to develop the productive forces of society.)
Answer: the industrial system.
Large scale industry or the industrial system - in its capitalist form
or/and in its Soviet form, evolves and expands extensively and intensively, with
both forms of this process passing the one into the other. Extensively as a
world changing process in relationship to feudal economic and social relations .
. . and this extensively development that replaces the feudal system is
itself a certain intensive implementation and expansion of the technical
properties that distinguish large scale industry from manufacture. The
"internal" intensive development of particular branches of the industrial system
occurs on the basis of continually revolutionizing the technologically regime.
Revolutionizing the technological regime . . . as intensive development . . .
drive extensive expansion as a given state of technology is applied that alters
and expands all the pathways of the industrial system.
Each quantitative expansion of the industrial system further alter the form
of the working class and all classes of the industrial system . . . as the
system evolves on the basis of it extensive and intensive development. The
revolution in the technological regime ("technical basis is therefore
revolutionary") begins the leap from industrial society to post industrial
society "in its capitalist form."
It is not that Marx ignores the subjective or human quality that makes
society . . . a collection of human beings organized a certain way. Rather . . .
his argument is what drives history as qualitative leaps in development and
production. The technical basis is mobile - revolutionary, in relationship to
the social relations existing as a given was people are organized as
implementation of production.
Engles state:
"But capital does not merely reproduce itself: it is continually increased
and multiplied--andthereby its power over the propertyless class of workers.
And just as ititself is reproduced on an ever greater scale, so the modern
capitalist modeof production reproduces the class of propertyless workers
also on an evergreater scale, in even greater numbers. "...Accumulation of
capitalreproduces the capital-relation on a progressive scale, more
capitalists orlarger capitalists at this pole, more wage-workers at that
Accumulationof capital is, therefore, increase of the proletariat"
Where do these people come from that are being converted into and
reproduced as property less proletarians? "(T)he modern capitalist mode of
production reproduces the class of propertyless workers also on an ever greater
scale."
Here is the theory problem or finding our place and moment in history. The
industrial system fundamentally converted the world and . . . radically
eliminated the last vestiges of feudal economic and social relations as the
result of the Second World Imperial War . . . along with destroying the
closed colonial system. The closed colonial system itself was a certain
_expression_ of the extensive development of the industrial system - with the
property relations
Re: Mike Ditka
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/13/04 5:08 PM Is he really running for Senator? Charles Barkeley spoke about running for Alabama governor, but he dropped the matter. Michael Perelman Some in Illinois Want Ditka for Senate By MIKE COLIAS Associated Press Writer July 14, 2004, 4:42 AM EDT CHICAGO -- In a Hail Mary pass by the state GOP, the party chairwoman met with former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka about a possible run for the U.S. Senate. Illinois Republicans are scrambling to find a replacement candidate with less than four months left until the November election. Jack Ryan dropped out nearly three weeks ago over embarrassing allegations in his divorce papers that he took his wife, Boston Public actress Jeri Ryan, to sex clubs before they split up. The party's top choices have refused to run. Mike Lawrence, interim director of the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, said the GOP's fascination with Ditka is understandable. In some respects, the Republicans are in the position where it looks as if they're going to have to throw a Hail Mary here, he said, and Mike Ditka was an All-Pro end. A number of Republican leaders in both Illinois and Washington said Tuesday that Ditka's name recognition, regular-guy appeal and analytical game-planning skills would make him a viable candidate to challenge state Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic rising star. The public is really tired of the slick politicians, they're tired of sound bites, they're tired of trial lawyers running government. To have a decent, ordinary guy, a regular guy, run, I think is something that the public would overwhelmingly embrace, said state Sen. Dave Syverson, a member of the Republican State Central Committee. Ditka, 64, said he had not decided on a run after meeting Tuesday night with Illinois Republican Party chairwoman and state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka at his Chicago restaurant. He said it is an exciting idea but he has not made up his mind. I've talked to some people but that's about all I've done, Ditka said earlier Tuesday. The Hall of Famer led the Bears to the 1986 Super Bowl and now spends most of his time on TV as a football analyst and pitchman for a casino and an anti-impotence drug. Off the field, Ditka is well known as a conservative Republican. In 2000, he warmed up a crowd for then-candidate George W. Bush by saying the W stands for women. I believe women want a man for president of the United States. If he ran for Senate, Ditka could energize the Republican base, as well as independent voters, and possibly put Illinois back into play for Bush, said U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, whose retirement opened the seat. If Ditka entered the race, Fitzgerald said, the Republicans would have a real chance of winning. Thousands of fans have weighed in on the www.draftditka.com Web site -- created to urge Ditka to become the state's GOP chairman but transformed into a Ditka for U.S. Senate movement. Even Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, thinks Ditka would be a good choice, though he thinks Obama will win. He noted actors Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger made the transition to politics and former sports stars had done the same. If they can do it, Mike Ditka can do it, Blagojevich said. But Ditka is not a shoo-in. State Sen. Kirk Dillard, a central committee member, said Ditka would have to go through a vetting process before he would sign on to his candidacy. And Ditka, who recently joined ESPN as an NFL analyst, could lose his endorsement deals if elected. He also has a new clothing line and his restaurant to consider. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Ditka would just be walking onto another gridiron. I'd say, `Mike, you've had several bruising experiences in your life. Be prepared for another one,' McCain said. -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Mike Ditka
Michael Hoover wrote: The Hall of Famer led the Bears to the 1986 Super Bowl and now spends most of his time on TV as a football analyst and pitchman for a casino and an anti-impotence drug. This would seem to qualify him to run as a Democrat, a party badly in need of some viagra. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Productivity.
Dmytri asks: I have a few questions regarding this productivity boom that have not been answered sufficiently in what I have read so far. Productivity, as best as I can tell, is defined as follows: Productivity = (Gross Output - Foreign Inputs) / Domestic Labour So, foreign inputs are simply ignored by the formula, doesn't this mean that if cheaper foreign inputs displace domestic inputs that this calculation would show a rise in productivity? Dmytri, foreign inputs don't appear to be ignored in the formula you've given above, but I would definitely agree with you that as cheaper foreign labor inputs displace domestic labor inputs, productivity would rise. I would crudely measure labor productivity by dividing real GDP in a period by the number of labor input units employed during the same period. I would also add that ANY measure of productivity is sure to increase in value if firms are: 1. learning how to do more with fewer full-time labor inputs 2. learning how to replace full-time labor input with temporary labor input 3. learning how to replace labor-intensive processes with more capital-intensive ones 4. learning how to replace domestic labor input with foreign labor input (as you mention) ...which is what is happening in the US today, thus the so-called productivity boom. Also, since US dollars sent abroad to pay for these foreign inputs will eventually come home and make demands on US productivity, shouldn't this increasing dependence on foreign inputs eventually cause inflation? That's an interesting question. If US dollars are going abroad to purchase machinery and equipment (increasing imports in machinery/equipment as is happening in Canada today, see article below), there would be a downward pressure on prices on the demand side -- and future productivity increases on the supply side. Also, if US dollars are going abroad to purchase cheaper foreign labor inputs, productivity rises (as you mention), theoretically expanding aggregate supply and putting downward pressures on the average level of prices. But there are so many other factors and the part I wrote above about US dollars going abroad to purchase machinery/equipment is not happening. Thanks for the interesting thoughts. Diane Surge in imports spurs hopes for gains in productivity Machinery demand fuels record gains The Globe and Mail Wednesday, Jul 14, 2004 Exploding demand for machinery and equipment fuelled a record surge in Canadian imports in May, sparking hopes that the long-awaited improvement in productivity may be around the corner. The Canadian business sector has been lagging the United States in productivity improvement since 2001. The jump in imports -- attributed in part to a strong Canadian dollar -- cut sharply into Canada's trade surplus, which fell to $5.2-billion from $7-billion a month ago. Imports of machinery and equipment climbed 13.9 per cent during the month to $9.6-billion, the largest increase since September of 1981, offering some grounds for optimism that Canadian firms are investing in technology that will bolster their competitiveness and yield long-awaited economy-wide improvements in productivity. Gains were widespread, affecting telecommunications gear, office machinery, transportation equipment and laboratory supplies. The sharp increase suggests a meaningful capital spending cycle is developing, said Robert Spector, of Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. We've been anticipating this for some time as companies take advantage of the stronger Canadian dollar, the low cost of capital and lean balance sheets in an effort to boost sagging productivity. The rise implies spending in the economy is becoming more balanced between the consumer and business investment, he added. Overall imports climbed 7.8 per cent in May, the biggest gain since the beginning of 1997, reaching a record $31.6-billion. Exports showed a modest gain of 1.3 per cent to $36.8-billion. Businesses are more confident, and willing to shell out on machinery and equipment, said Warren Lovely, senior economist at CIBC World Markets Inc., with equipment imports now up 20 per cent from a year ago. Three solid months of labour-force growth show businesses are hiring and investing in capital goods as well, Mr. Lovely said. The upturn mirrored a Bank of Canada survey this week showing a growing optimism among Canadian firms about sales prospects, investment intentions and hiring. Last year's 20-per-cent rise in the value of the Canadian dollar means goods imported from the United States are cheaper, said Stephen Poloz, chief economist at Export Development Canada (EDC). It's like putting the equipment on sale, he said, and that's where our productivity catch-up will come from. More than 70 per cent of machinery and equipment imports come from the United States. Among those looking for productivity gains is Toronto-Dominion Bank, which signed a $420-million contract with Hewlett-Packard Canada to upgrade its network of banking machines and debit-card
The State of America's Children 2004
The State of America's Children 2004: A Continuing Portrait of Inequality 50 Years After Brown vs. Board of Education 7/13/2004 12:24:00 PM Contact: John Norton of Children's Defense Fund, 202-662-3609 WASHINGTON, July 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- This week the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) released The State of America's Children 2004, which provides a comprehensive examination of how children are faring in our country. The book paints a troubling picture -- based on the most recent statistical data and analyses -- of an unacceptably high number of children who are still being left behind. One in six children in the United States continues to live in poverty. One in eight-9.3 million-children have no health insurance. Three out of five children under six are cared for by someone other than their parents on a regular basis. Only 31 percent of fourth graders read at or above grade level. An estimated three million children were reported as suspected victims of child abuse and neglect. Almost one in ten teens ages 16 to 19 is a school dropout. Eight children and teens die from gunfire in the U.S. each day -- one child every three hours. Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education and 40 years after President Johnson declared a War on Poverty, many minority and lower-income children still lack a fair chance to live, learn, thrive and contribute in America, said Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of CDF. The great unfinished business of our nation in this first decade of the 21st century is to open wide the doors of equal education and economic opportunity to every child in America. It's time to build a powerful 21st century movement to emancipate our children from racial injustice and poverty. We must summon the moral, political, and financial courage to make sure that we truly leave no child behind. The State of America's Children 2004 features the most recent data available on our nation's children and reviews developments in family income and child poverty, hunger and food assistance, child health, child care, Head Start and school-age care, education, children and families in crisis, and juvenile justice and youth development. Graphs and charts along with the latest and most compelling statistics clarify the status of children in several key areas: Family Income: -- Three out of four poor children live in families where someone worked and one in three poor children lives with a full- time year-round worker. More than 5.1 million children live in extremely low-income households spending at least half of their income on housing. -- Twenty-two million adults and 13 million children live in households suffering from hunger or food insecurity without hunger. The richest one-fifth of households made 10.7 times as much in median income as the poorest one-fifth, the widest gap on record from the U.S. Census Bureau. Child Health: -- 9.3 million children lack health insurance; yet six million of these uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) under current law. -- Infants born to Black mothers are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as infants born to White mothers. -- The number of overweight children has more than tripled since 1980. Almost nine million young people are overweight -- over 15 percent of children and adolescents under age 19. Child Care, Head Start, and School-Age Care: -- Sixty-four percent of mothers with children under six and 78 percent of mothers with children ages six to 17 work outside the home. -- In 48 states, the cost of center-based childcare for a four-year-old is greater than tuition at a four-year public college. -- The number of children participating in Head Start has more than doubled during the past three decades, but currently the program only serves three out of five three- and four-year-olds. Education: -- Seven out of ten fourth graders cannot read or do math at grade level. -- Ninety percent of the nation's children attend public schools. Children in the poorest families are six times as likely as children in more affluent families to drop out of high school. -- Three-quarters of the nation's public schools are in need of repairs, renovations, and modernization. The average school building is more than 40 years old. Yet states spend on average almost three times as much per prisoner as per public school pupil. Children and Families in Crisis: -- Three million children in a year are reported abused or neglected and referred for investigation or assessment; close to 900,000 of them are confirmed as victims of child maltreatment. -- Child abuse and domestic violence co-occur in an estimated 30 to 60 percent of the families where there is some form of family violence. -- The 51,000 children adopted from foster care in 2002 is almost double the number adopted in 1995, but more than 126,000 children in foster care continue to wait for permanent families. Juvenile
Hegel Marx
Shane M. writes: In the depths of WW One Lenin felt called upon to study the Science of Logic. He found it revelatory, and in his Philosophical Notebooks he wrote (I quote from memory, perhaps inexactly): It is impossible to understand Das Kapital without a thorough comprehension of Hegel's Science of Logic. That is why, after fifty years, none of the Marxists has understood Marx. Daniel D: was he right? I'd say so (though there may have been Marxists before Lenin who studied the SCIENCE OF LOGIC and Lenin never heard about it). I think reading Hegel helps one understand Marx, but that it's too bad that one has to read Hegel to do so. Charles B: I'm quite open to Hegel in relatively simple language compared to the original. From my experience, the translation to simpler language would be a complicated project itself though. Are you saying someone has put Hegel (or dialectics) into simpler language ? Levins Lewontin's DIALECTICAL BIOLOGIST presents a good effort to present dialectical method (epistemology) in the language of science. They summarize it as describing the totality (whole) that we have to understand in which parts make whole (the various individuals and internal structures of a totality create the totality itself) and whole makes part (the nature of these individuals and structures is profoundly shaped by the totality in which they operate). This back-and-forth doesn't settle down into any kind of equilibrium. Instead, the totality is always changing. (an example: under capitalism, our actions create history, though not exactly as we please, since we are constrained by various institutional structures (such as corporations or political parties). The nature of our consciousness and thus our actions is in turn shaped and largely determined by our positions within capitalism, while the institutional structures are also shaped and largely determined by capitalism's laws of motion.) To LL, the dialectical method does not produce answers to our questions as much as questions to ask of the real (empirical) world. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Young, broke and uninsured
Village Voice, July 13th, 2004 Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young by Solana Pyne If they're not outright poor as a class, young adults in this country are at least very, very broke. The average collegian graduates with more than $20,000 in debt, headed for a job market where real hourly wages have kept pace with neither inflation nor the cost of living. Young adults are broke in part because of their unprecedented schoolingin the latest census figures, 28 percent of those between 25 and 29 reported holding a bachelor's degreewhich promised to pluck them away from the constellation of problems plaguing America's underclass, whether it was trouble with housing or inadequate medical care. Yet there they are, these latest inheritors of the American dream, lined up in emergency rooms for toothaches and the flu, not because they're having emergencies, but because they don't have health insurance, and emergency rooms, unlike private doctors, are obliged to give them care. Since 1987, the number of uninsured young adults has grown at twice the rate of older adults, even though the demographic itself is shrinking. One-quarter to one-third of adults under 35 went without insurance for all of 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are availablean increase of 1.2 million from the year before. Half were uninsured for some part of 2002. Of the 43.6 million uninsured adults in the U.S., 41 percent are young. Of all the rationales John Kerry and George Bush will give this year as they stump for their individual visions of helping the nation's uninsured, one of the most pragmatic is that those little plastic cards can make the difference, for a crucial group of consumers, between having a financial parachute and cratering into debt. Maria Davidson, of Meriden, Connecticut, was 26 and working for low pay with no benefits when her seven-year-old son tried to kill himself. The ambulance took him to Yale-New Haven Hospital. She had no private coverage for herself and her family. Her children were not eligible for public plans, and she wasn't aware of programs that could have covered the hospital expenses. Her son amassed $3,900 in bills that Davidson just couldn't pay. That was nine years ago. By the time the bill was resolved as the result of a lawsuit, she owed, with interest, over $6,000. Collection agencies were garnishing her wages and had put a lien on her condo. Much of her story is sadly typical. A survey published in May by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit based in New York City, found that of the uninsured between 19 and 29, half had trouble making payments, had been contacted by a collection agency, or had modified their lifestyles to pay off medical bills. full: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0428/pyne.php -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Hegel Marx
When Marxists heap adulation on a reactionary, racist, anti-humanist metaphysician and Prussian propagandist, then perhaps we have a slight problem. Sure, some of Hegel's ideas are built into Marx's thinking and later Marxism. So are Aristotle's, Leibniz's, etc. Sure, Marx matured in an atmosphere of Hegelianism and could not have avoided being influenced byt it (even if the influence was filtered through radical Hegelians). But if we leap backward over Marx to Hegel and start to proclaim that Hegelian ontology has any value and validity today, we really come close to betraying the spirit of Marx. Some Marxists have claimed to find that just about every non-Marxist philosopher was advancing materialism. It isn't true of Hegel. Hegel and Kant represent the two important streams of idealist thinking that have come down to us. We can give those guys credit for their place in the history of ideas, but we have to recognize that historical and dialectical materialism denies the validity of most of their doctrines. *Except* in the context of the history of ideas, they have no relevance. What really pisses me off is reading Marxists proclaiming the importance of old idealist philosophers -- and new idealist philosophers -- and totally neglecting the naturalist, realist, philosophers. We have to overcome the tendency to heap invective on thinkers whose ideas are close enough to Marxism to pose a real threat of presenting an alternative to Marxism and of seducing people away from Marxism. That was the case with Lenin vis-a-vis Mach -- no radical, but yet a philosopher of science, unlike Hegel. Think of the way we vilify or ignore Dewey. Russell. Whitehead. Mead. The positivists. Etc. These folks represent the main line of thinking in philosophies that are friendly to science and are to one degree or another materialist (although the word of course scared them). Nor are these philosophers somehow anti-humanist and anti-subjective. There is, IMHO, more humanism in John Dewey than there is in the entire Hot Dog school. Dewey, after all, pioneered the most humanistic form of education that we have. And, for goodness sake, Mead practically invented social psychology. Enough said. I don't plan to respond to other postings on this thread unless it becomes unavoidable (personal). En lucha Jim Blaut -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Hegel Marx
Think of the way we vilify or ignore Dewey. Russell. Whitehead. Mead. who is this we? jd
Re: Productivity.
Diane Monaco wrote: Dmytri, foreign inputs don't appear to be ignored in the formula you've given above, but I would definitely agree with you that as cheaper foreign labor inputs displace domestic labor inputs, productivity would rise. A productivity guy at the BLS told me that foreign labor inputs would be counted as foreign production as well, with little impact on the productivity figures. Doug
business as usual?
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction Lobbyists, aides to senior officials and others encouraged invasion and now help firms pursue contracts. They see no conflict. By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Ken Silverstein Times Staff Writers July 14, 2004/L.A. TIMES WASHINGTON - In the months and years leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, they marched together in the vanguard of those who advocated war. As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty. Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in Iraq. For instance, a former Senate aide who helped get U.S. funds for anti-Hussein exiles who are now active in Iraqi affairs has a $175,000 deal to advise Romania on winning business in Iraq and other matters. And the ease with which they have moved from advocating policies and advising high government officials to making money in activities linked to their policies and advice reflects the blurred lines that often exist between public and private interests in Washington. In most cases, federal conflict-of-interest laws do not apply to former officials or to people serving only as advisors. Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said the actions of former officials and others who serve on government advisory boards, although not illegal, can raise the appearance of conflicts of interest. It calls into question whether the advice they give is in their own interests rather than the public interest, Noble said. Michael Shires, a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, disagreed. I don't see an ethical issue there, he said. I see individuals looking out for their own interests. Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey is a prominent example of the phenomenon, mixing his business interests with what he contends are the country's strategic interests. He left the CIA in 1995, but he remains a senior government advisor on intelligence and national security issues, including Iraq. Meanwhile, he works for two private companies that do business in Iraq and is a partner in a company that invests in firms that provide security and anti-terrorism services. Woolsey said in an interview that he was not directly involved with the companies' Iraq-related ventures. But as a vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm, he was a featured speaker in May 2003 at a conference co-sponsored by the company at which about 80 corporate executives and others paid up to $1,100 to hear about the economic outlook and business opportunities in Iraq. Before the war, Woolsey was a founding member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an organization set up in 2002 at the request of the White House to help build public backing for war in Iraq. He also wrote about a need for regime change and sat on the CIA advisory board and the Defense Policy Board, whose unpaid members have provided advice on Iraq and other matters to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Woolsey is part of a small group that shows with unusual clarity the interlocking nature of the way the insider system can work. Moving in the same social circles, often sitting together on government panels and working with like-minded think tanks and advocacy groups, they wrote letters to the White House urging military action in Iraq, formed organizations that pressed for invasion and pushed legislation that authorized aid to exile groups. Since the start of the war, despite the violence and instability in Iraq, they have turned to private enterprise. The group, in addition to Woolsey, includes: * Neil Livingstone, a former Senate aide who has served as a Pentagon and State Department advisor and issued repeated public calls for Hussein's overthrow. He heads a Washington-based firm, GlobalOptions, that provides contacts and consulting services to companies doing business in Iraq. * Randy Scheunemann, a former Rumsfeld advisor who helped draft the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 authorizing $98 million in U.S. aid to Iraqi exile groups. He was the founding president of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Now he's helping former Soviet Bloc states win business there. * Margaret Bartel, who managed federal money channeled to Chalabi's exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, including funds for its prewar intelligence program on Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. She now heads a Washington-area consulting firm helping would-be investors find Iraqi partners. * K. Riva Levinson, a Washington lobbyist and public relations specialist who received federal funds to drum up prewar support for the Iraqi National
Who is David Cobb?
Counterpunch, July 14, 2004 Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold The Green Deceivers By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR (clip) So who is this new champion of the Greens, David Cobb? In the 1990s, Cobb, who markets himself as a working class hero, lived in Houston, where he worked as a lawyer for an insurance company, the bane of Nader and most poor people. There, according to a former colleague, Cobb's duties included finding ways to deny claims to injured parties and sick people. Cobb ran the local Green Party as a tiny autocracy, unilaterally deciding which issues to take a stand on. According to several Houston Greens, Cobb proved to be both politically timid, extremely calculating and heavy-handed. In 1996, Cobb refused to oppose a local referendum on a taxpayer-financed stadium, which ended up only being opposed by libertarians. Cobb told a local Green organizer: That vote was doomed to lose so we didn't waste our time on it. Grassroots organizing? Hardly. This is top-down organizing at its most petty and self-destructive. Another example from Texas. In 2000 during the peak of Bush's killing spree, a group of anti-death penalty activists got arrested during a protest outside the killing chamber in Huntsville before the execution of Gary Graham. They soon circulated a letter of support through the progressive community. Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn signed on, as did many local groups and churches. But not the Houston Greens. Not at first, anyway. Cobb objected. According to an anti-death penalty activist, Cobb said he didn't want the Greens associated with the campaign to save Graham from the lethal needle because he might be guilty. What does guilt have to do with moral opposition to the death penalty? What kind of courage does it take to oppose the execution of the innocent? Eventually, more humane hearts in the local Green community over-ruled Cobb and the party finally signed on. But too late to do Gary Graham any good. Bob Buzzanco, a history professor and radical activist at the University of Houston, has watched Cobb's political peregrinations for many years. When the war broke out, in 2003, a group of Students at the University of Houston, where I'm a professor, began to organized a peace group, and I was an advisor to them, recalls Bob Buzzanco. Cobb and the Greens came to one of their meetings and acted in a most aggressive way and I had to publicly tell them that it was inappropriate to try to hijack a student peace group for the Greens. What about Palestine? Nader recently denounced both Kerry and Bush as being owned by the Israeli lobby in DC. But don't expect David Cobb to stand up against the rampages of the Sharon government. Buzzanco had a radio show on the local Pacifica station in Houston, KPFT. In 2002, he came under attack from local liberals for his commentaries on the rampages of the Sharon regime, a campaign that finally resulted in Buzzanco being placed under an internal investigation by Pacifica's thought police. The local Greens were a major player in the Zionist slander campaign here, Buzzanco told me. Two of Cobb's friends, George Reiter and Deb Shafto, were using KPFT as a campaign vehicle, to the detriment of other Left parties. They were front and center in the campaign calling me and others anti-semitic. When I talked to Cobb about it, he did nothing, far more concerned about getting that 0.001 percent of the vote than in being accountable for their candidates. The Houston Greens were a mess and Cobb was, in my estimation, an ego-driven charlatan. But take comfort. At least he's not a millionaire ... not yet anyway. full: http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair07142004.html -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Hegel Marx
Long version: Last time I looked, we weren't heaping praise on Hegel, nor has anyone denied Hegel's racism. But denying the importance of both the substance and method of Hegel to Marx's of work because Hegel wasn't a humanist, was an idealist, and was ignorant, in every sense of the word, concerning Africa is substituting moral repugnance and outrage for historical analysis, something which is anti-Marxist to the core. Marx never denied the importance of Hegel for the development of his work. Marx, to my knowledge, also never described his work as humanism. And despite the acrobatics of some, Marxism has little enough to do with what passes as humanism. Short version: We were discussing Marx's use of Hegelian jargon, whether or not he even used it (I still can't find anything that comes close to Hegel's expositions). If somebody out there is vilifying Russell, Mead, Dewey, that's a horse on a different colored list. -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Jul 14, 2004 12:14 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Hegel Marx When Marxists heap adulation on a reactionary, racist, anti-humanist metaphysician and Prussian propagandist, then perhaps we have a slight problem. Sure, some of Hegel's ideas are built into Marx's thinking and later Marxism. So are Aristotle's, Leibniz's, etc. Sure, Marx matured in an atmosphere of Hegelianism and could not have avoided being influenced byt it (even if the influence was filtered through radical Hegelians). But if we leap backward over Marx to Hegel and start to proclaim that Hegelian ontology has any value and validity today, we really come close to betraying the spirit of Marx. Some Marxists have claimed to find that just about every non-Marxist philosopher was advancing materialism. It isn't true of Hegel. Hegel and Kant represent the two important streams of idealist thinking that have come down to us. We can give those guys credit for their place in the history of ideas, but we have to recognize that historical and dialectical materialism denies the validity of most of their doctrines. *Except* in the context of the history of ideas, they have no relevance. What really pisses me off is reading Marxists proclaiming the importance of old idealist philosophers -- and new idealist philosophers -- and totally neglecting the naturalist, realist, philosophers. We have to overcome the tendency to heap invective on thinkers whose ideas are close enough to Marxism to pose a real threat of presenting an alternative to Marxism and of seducing people away from Marxism. That was the case with Lenin vis-a-vis Mach -- no radical, but yet a philosopher of science, unlike Hegel. Think of the way we vilify or ignore Dewey. Russell. Whitehead. Mead. The positivists. Etc. These folks represent the main line of thinking in philosophies that are friendly to science and are to one degree or another materialist (although the word of course scared them). Nor are these philosophers somehow anti-humanist and anti-subjective. There is, IMHO, more humanism in John Dewey than there is in the entire Hot Dog school. Dewey, after all, pioneered the most humanistic form of education that we have. And, for goodness sake, Mead practically invented social psychology. Enough said. I don't plan to respond to other postings on this thread unless it becomes unavoidable (personal). En lucha Jim Blaut -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Productivity.
Doug wrote: Diane Monaco wrote: Dmytri, foreign inputs don't appear to be ignored in the formula you've given above, but I would definitely agree with you that as cheaper foreign labor inputs displace domestic labor inputs, productivity would rise. A productivity guy at the BLS told me that foreign labor inputs would be counted as foreign production as well, with little impact on the productivity figures. Would have little impact on which productivity figures, Doug? If foreign labor inputs are displacing domestic labor inputs, and domestic labor inputs are counted in domestic productivity figures, wouldn't there be an impact on domestic productivity figures? (domestic labor productivity)=(domestic output)/(domestic labor input) ...so if domestic labor input goes down and if domestic output stays the same or increases...then domestic labor productivity will go up. I'm thinking that the BLS productivity person you refer to was suggesting that foreign labor inputs don't directly enter domestic labor productivity formulas as Dmytri originally suggested in the previous post...and I would agree. Just a thought. Thanks, Diane
Re: Hegel Marx
Louis Proyect wrote: En lucha Jim Blaut This reminds me of an argument I was never able to have with Jim. In the context of a different discussion he remarked in a post on the marxism list that if one knew all the facts involved one would not have to study the relations among them. As I say, it was a parenthetical remark and it was not until almost a year later in wandering through some old posts that I came across it. Hence the lack of any discussion with him on the point. (I have a hard copy of the post someplace but currently all my printouts are in one chaotic pile and I wouldn't be able to put my hands on it. Until I do regard this as a remembered paraphrase, not as Jim's precise words.) But he was profoundly wrong on that, though how much it influenced his thought and practice in general I do not know. Carrol
Re: Productivity.
Diane Monaco wrote: Would have little impact on which productivity figures, Doug? If foreign labor inputs are displacing domestic labor inputs, and domestic labor inputs are counted in domestic productivity figures, wouldn't there be an impact on domestic productivity figures? (domestic labor productivity)=(domestic output)/(domestic labor input) ...so if domestic labor input goes down and if domestic output stays the same or increases...then domestic labor productivity will go up. If the work is done abroad the value added is counted as part of foreign, not domestic, output. The foreign labor would be embodied in purchased components. Doug
Re: Productivity.
strictly speaking, labor productivity isn't (domestic output)/(domestic labor input). Rather, it's (domestic value added)/(domestic labor input), where value added = domestic output minus intermediate goods input. BTW, it sure looks like the concept of value added is very similar to Marx's S+V. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Diane Monaco Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 10:57 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Productivity. Doug wrote: Diane Monaco wrote: Dmytri, foreign inputs don't appear to be ignored in the formula you've given above, but I would definitely agree with you that as cheaper foreign labor inputs displace domestic labor inputs, productivity would rise. A productivity guy at the BLS told me that foreign labor inputs would be counted as foreign production as well, with little impact on the productivity figures. Would have little impact on which productivity figures, Doug? If foreign labor inputs are displacing domestic labor inputs, and domestic labor inputs are counted in domestic productivity figures, wouldn't there be an impact on domestic productivity figures? (domestic labor productivity)=(domestic output)/(domestic labor input) ...so if domestic labor input goes down and if domestic output stays the same or increases...then domestic labor productivity will go up. I'm thinking that the BLS productivity person you refer to was suggesting that foreign labor inputs don't directly enter domestic labor productivity formulas as Dmytri originally suggested in the previous post...and I would agree. Just a thought. Thanks, Diane
The End Of Management?
TIME.com: The End Of Management? -- Jul. 12, 2004 http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1101040712-660965,00.html /
Federal Reserve research
New from the Financial Markets Center (7/14/04) Federal Reserve Research Roundup: January-June 2004 Each year, staff and visiting scholars at the Board of Governors and 12 Reserve Banks publish hundreds of journal articles, working papers, policy essays and other reports addressing topics that range from monetary aggregates to school vouchers. The Q1/Q2 Roundup (http://www.fmcenter.org/PDF/RRjan-june04.pdf) summarizes noteworthy Fed research and provides links to the original Fed documents and related materials. Highlighted topics include banking consolidation, inflation targeting, Iraq's economy and casino gambling. In addition, a new FMC report maps research activities at the Board and Banks -- and provides what we believe to be the first comprehensive survey of the educational background of Fed economists. http://www.fmcenter.org/PDF/FedResearchMap_July04.PDF (map) http://www.fmcenter.org/PDF/Fedeconomists_degrees.PDF (economists' educational background) Previous editions of Research Roundup are archived at: http://www.fmcenter.org/fmc_superpage.asp?ID=355
Re: Productivity.
Suppose a Chinese girl makes a pair of Nikes for $2. Someone in the US puts them in a box and sells them for $150. The boxer is paid $2, but his productivity statistics will look fairly impressive, even considering the marketing management overhead. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Productivity.
Doug wrote: Diane Monaco wrote: Would have little impact on which productivity figures, Doug? If foreign labor inputs are displacing domestic labor inputs, and domestic labor inputs are counted in domestic productivity figures, wouldn't there be an impact on domestic productivity figures? (domestic labor productivity)=(domestic output)/(domestic labor input) ...so if domestic labor input goes down and if domestic output stays the same or increases...then domestic labor productivity will go up. If the work is done abroad the value added is counted as part of foreign, not domestic, output. The foreign labor would be embodied in purchased components. True, in a perfect world. But the foreign labor inputs used, should technically be subtracted from domestic value added as imported intermediate goods inputs, as Jim D. more accurately detailed above, although it is always understated, thus overstating domestic output (domestic value added). So when domestic value added, if you will, is overstated and domestic labor input falls, domestic labor productivity rises. Imported intermediate goods inputs are understated because the work that is outsourced to contractors, is typically further outsourced to subcontractors and other unidentifiable brokers, jobbers, etc. along the way -- and the actual value is lost and hidden. Diane
Re: Query from a correspondent
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/12/04 5:42 PM For some inexplicable reason I am cyber-debating some American social democrat. He insists that the 1974-75 oil shock caused the US recession and (implicitly) US decline from hegemony and the good days. We three all disagree with each other on many questions but I *think* that we all agree that this theory is ridiculous. In his magnum opus that appeared in New Left Review in 1998, Brenner dismisses this argument out of hand by noting that the recession began in 1973 so the oil shock argument doesn't even make sense. He only spends one line on this though, dismissing it out of hand. Does anybody know any other good sources that don't use much dogmatic rhetoric? been alota years since i read it but bluestone and harrison's 'great u-turn' may be useful re. above... -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Facing South: 7/9
F A C I N G S O U T H A progressive Southern news report July 9, 2004 * Issue 83 _ INSTITUTE INDEX * Remember Enron? Amount of contributions that Enron gave to President Bush's 2000 campaign: $623,000 Rank of Enron among Bush's biggest campaign contributors in 2000: 1 Out of 8 recommendations Enron made to Bush Adminisration's energy task force, number adopted: 7 Amount that Georgia state pension plan lost due to Enron's 2001 bankruptcy, in millions: $127 Amount that 20,000 Enron workers lost in retirement savings, in billions: $1.2 Amount that top Enron executives made in stock sales before the bankruptcy, in billions: $1.1 Amount that Enron Chairman Ken Lay personally made, in millions: $217 Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies. _ DATELINE: THE SOUTH * Top Stories Around the Region BUSH TIES PUT ENRON BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT The indictment of President Bush's one-time friend and financial backer Kenneth Lay put the spotlight back on Bush's ties to big corporate donors as he heads into the final months of the U.S. presidential campaign. (Reuters, 7/8) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNewsstoryID=5624062 NORTH CAROLINA MAY BECOME BATTLEGROUND STATE With U.S. Sen. John Edwards being selected Tuesday as the running mate for presumed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, North Carolina may become the state that swings both ways. A recent Mason-Dixon poll showed a Kerry/Edwards ticket narrowly beating Bush/Cheney. (Durham Herald-Sun, 7/6) http://heraldsun.com/durham/4-498254.html LATINO VOTE KEY IN 2004 The Latino community, the largest racial minority group in the United States, could be key in deciding whether Republican George W. Bush or Democrat John Kerry wins the November 2 presidential election. Of almost 40 million Latinos living in the United States, some seven million -- 6.1 percent of the US electorate, and one million more than in the last presidential election -- will be eligible to vote. (AFP, 7/5) http://tinyurl.com/3awa8 PROMISE OF 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT UNFULFILLED When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, it capped years of struggle to have Congress enact legislation that would explicitly outlaw discrimination. But the advent of school re-segregation and a persistent class divide between white and black Americans make the Act's goals elusive. (BlackPressUSA) http://tinyurl.com/2ordt BUSH OPPONENTS HANDCUFFED FOR WEARING T-SHIRTS On July 4, President Bush celebrated America's freedom in a rally in Charleston, West Virginia. But a couple from Texas, in town on business, were hauled away in handcuffs for wearing T-shirts saying, Love America, Hate Bush. (Charleston Gazette, 7/9) http://wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/2004070819 NEW ORLEANS IS CHEAPEST PLACE TO DATE New Orleans isn't just the home of Mardi Gras and good Cajun cooking. According to Match.com, it's also the cheapest place to take someone out on a date. The website's Cost of Dating Index ranked cities by six kinds of dates: Coffee Date, Drinks, Lunch, Movie (and ice cream), Romantic (dinner, theatre tickets and flowers) and Professional sporting event. (Match.com) http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=2357 -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Mike Ditka
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/14/04 11:51 AM Michael Hoover wrote: The Hall of Famer led the Bears to the 1986 Super Bowl and now spends most of his time on TV as a football analyst and pitchman for a casino and an anti-impotence drug. This would seem to qualify him to run as a Democrat, a party badly in need of some viagra. fwiw, ditka calls himself 'ultra-conservative', opposes abortion and thinks that marriage is between man woman...however, supports gun control... good for him that he lives in illinois should he decide to run, folks in louisiana likely have very different opinion given ditka's quite poor (disastrous really) time as coach of new orleans saints... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Cal Labor: End Occupation, Come Clean on Venezuela
Issued 7/13/04 11:45 p.m. PDT
For immediate release:
Contact: Michael Eisenscher, U.S. Labor Against the War
510-693-7314
Largest State Federation of Labor in U.S. Calls for Immediate End to
U.S. Occupation of Iraq
San Diego, CA: On Tuesday, July 13th at its 25th biennial convention,
the California Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, representing more than two
million members, voted overwhelmingly to call upon the AFL-CIO to
demand an immediate end to the US occupation of Iraq, and to support
the repeal of the Patriot Act and the reordering of national priorities
toward the human needs of our people. The California federation is the
largest in the AFL-CIO, with more than one-sixth of its members.
The action was inspired by a strong antiwar resolution submitted by the
San Francisco Labor Council, but as reported by the resolutions
committee to the convention, it called only for an expedient end to
the occupation. When debate opened, State Labor Federation Vice
President Nancy Wohlforth (who is also national Secretary-Treasurer of
the Office Professional Employees International Union and national
leader of Pride at Work), proposed to restore the original demand for
immediate end to the occupation. Her motion was seconded by Walter
Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council. On a
voice vote by the more than 400 delegates, an overwhelming majority
voted in favor of the stronger demand. The strength of that vote
appears to reflect the depth of anger which union members have toward
the Bush administration's pre-emptive war and occupation in Iraq where
more than 850 U.S. troops have been killed and more than 5000 have been
wounded since the invasion last year.
A second amendment was then introduced by John Dalrymple, Executive
Director of the Contra Costa County Central Labor Council, and Alan
Benjamin, Executive Board member of OPEIU Local 3 in San Francisco, to
affirm the California Labor Federation's intent to explore affiliation
with and help actively support and promote U.S. Labor Against the War
(USLAW) USLAW is a national network of labor organizations opposed
to U.S. policy in Iraq that has more than 80 affiliated national and
local unions, regional labor bodies, labor antiwar committees, and
allied labor organizations. This amendment was also adopted by an
overwhelming majority, and was followed by an even larger majority vote
for adoption of the resolution as amended.
The California federation also adopted without modification a
resolution demanding transparency and accountability by the AFL-CIO in
its international programs. It urged the AFL-CIO and its Solidarity
Center to exercise extreme caution in seeking or accepting funding from
the U.S. government, its agencies and any other institutions which it
funds, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), for its work
in Iraq or elsewhere. It warned that doing so could give the
appearance, if not the effect, of making the AFL-CIO appear to be an
agent of the U.S. government and its foreign policies, which, it
warned, may taint the good reputation of the Federation in the eyes of
the labor movements in other countries and draw into question the
motivation and true independence of the Federation in its international
affairs.
The convention called upon the AFL-CIO to fully account for what was
done in Chile, Venezuela and other countries where the AFL-CIO funneled
NED funds to opponents of the elected government. In the case of Chile,
that led to the military coup and overthrow of the democratically
elected government of Salvador Allende in the 1973, which brought to
power the Pinochet dictatorship, and in the case of Venezuela, to the
attempted but unsuccessful overthrow of the government of Hugo Chavez in
2003. It called upon the federation to give a country by country
accounting of its activities and to renounce any ... tie that could
compromise our authentic credibility and the trust of workers here and
abroad that would make us paid agents of government or of the forces of
corporate economic globalization.
The convention called upon the AFL-CIO to fund its international
programs and activities, whenever possible, with funds generated
directly from its affiliates and their members.
That resolution had been submitted by the central labor councils of San
Francisco, Monterey Bay, the South Bay and Plumbers and Fitters Local
393, in San Jose.
The two-day convention resumes and will conclude on Wednesday.
Issued by U.S. Labor Against the War
1718 M Street, NW, #153
Washington, DC 20036
U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)
www.uslaboragainstwar.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
{{{}}}
Bob Muehlenkamp and Gene Bruskin, Co-convenors
Amy Newell, National Organizer
Michael Eisenscher, Organizer Web Coordinator
Erin McGrath, Administrative Staff
Sam McAfee and Angelina Grab, Radical Fusion - Website Design
--
Robert Naiman
Senior Policy Analyst
Venezuela Information Office
733 15th Street, NW
Re: Hegel Marx
Jim Blaut wrote: Think of the way we vilify or ignore Dewey. Russell. Whitehead. Mead. The positivists. Etc. These folks represent the main line of thinking in philosophies that are friendly to science and are to one degree or another materialist (although the word of course scared them). Nor are these philosophers somehow anti-humanist and anti-subjective. This misinterprets Whitehead. Like Marx's, his ontology is alternative to and radically inconsistent with the materialist ontology that has dominated science since the 17th century. In elaborating it, he provides a systematic critique of this scientific materialism in all its forms (including the Darwinian form embraced by Lewontin, Levins and Gould). Scientific materialism is anti-humanist and anti-subjective where we mean by an ontology that is humanist and subjective one having logical space for the conception of human being as a being capable of the kind of self-determination expressible by Hegel's ideas of a will proper and a universal will. Specifically Whitehead is, as I've many times indicated, an adherent of the doctrine of relations as internal. Among other things he points to the implications of this doctrine for logic and language mentioned in my previous e-mail. In all this his ontological beliefs contrast sharply with Russell's (as Russell himself indicates). Here are some passages from the two of them which include consideration of the implications of the doctrine for language, logic, arithmetic and counting. So far, this lecture has proceeded in the form of dogmatic statement. What is the evidence to which it appeals? The only answer is the reaction of our own nature to the general aspect of life in the Universe. This answer involves complete disagreement with a widespread tradition of philosophic thought. This erroneous tradition presupposes independent existences; and this presupposition involves the possibility of an adequate description of finite fact. The result is the presupposition of adequate separate premises from which argument can proceed. For example, much philosophic thought is based upon the faked adequacy of some account of various modes of human experience. Thence we reach some simple conclusion as to the essential character of human knowledge, and of its essential limitation. Namely, we know what we cannot know. Understand that I am not denying the importance of the analysis of experience: far from it. The progress of human thought is derived from the progressive enlightenment produced thereby. What I am objecting to is the absurd trust in the adequacy of our knowledge. The self-confidence of learned people is the comic tragedy of civilization. There is not a sentence which adequately states its own meaning. There is always a background of presupposition which defies analysis by reason of its infinitude. Let us take the simplest case; for example, the sentence, 'One and one makes two.' Obviously this sentence omits a necessary limitation. For one thing and itself make one thing. So we ought to say, 'One thing and another thing make two things.' This must mean the togetherness of one thing with another thing issues in a group of two things. At this stage all sorts of difficulties arise. There must be the proper sort of things in the proper sort of togetherness. The togetherness of a spark and gunpowder produces an explosion, which is very unlike two things. Thus we should say, 'The proper sort of togetherness of one thing and another thing produces the sort of group which we call two things.' Common sense at once tells you what is meant. But unfortunately there is no adequate analysis of common sense, because it involves our relation to the infinity of the Universe. Also there is another difficulty. When anything is placed in another situation, it changes. Every hostess takes account of this truth when she invites suitable guests to a dinner party; and every cook presupposes it as she proceeds to cook the dinner. Of course, the statement, 'One and one make two' assumes that the changes in the shift of circumstances are unimportant. But it is impossible for us to analyse this notion of 'unimportant change.' We have to rely upon common sense. In fact, there is not a sentence, or a word, with a meaning which is independent of the circumstances under which it is uttered. The essence of unscholarly thought consists in a neglect of this truth. Also it is equally the essence of common sense to neglect these differences of background when they are irrelevant to the immediate purpose. My point is that we cannot rely upon any adequate explicit analysis. The conclusion is that Logic, conceived as an adequate analysis of the advance of thought, is a fake. It is a superb instrument, but it requires a background of common sense. ... My point
Re: Query from a correspondent
The Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 1972 - gently at first, but more aggressively in 1973. The fed funds rate broke 10% in July 1973 for the first time ever. Inflation had been rising - from under 3% in mid-1972 to 6% a year later - and the monthly inflation rate was hitting an 8-10% annualized range in some months in 1973. So clearly the Fed wanted a recession, which officially began in November 1973. The oil shock no doubt made it worse, but the dynamics were already underway beforehand. Doug
Re: The End Of Management?
I love it! Total Information Awareness meets ParEcon. Robin Hanson, may I introduce you to Robin Hahnel... Charles Brown wrote, TIME.com: The End Of Management? -- Jul. 12, 2004 http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1101040712-660965,00.html Tom Walker 604 255 4812
Re: The End Of Management?
this is such crap. Note that the closer than the official forecast 75% of the time number shows up twice in different contexts. Note also that you would do better than the official forecast 50% of the time by simply flipping a coin, so 75% seems a pretty low bar (if your playing a coin flipping game, heads versus tails, the side that's ahead after three flips will be the eventual winner 75% of the time). And finally note that problems like forecasting chip sales would have to be judged against a very complicated and asymmetric loss function; underestimates are much less harmful than overestimates. Hanson put out a press release last year saying that the revised Policy Analysis Market would be up and trading by March 2004. I emailed him offering to bet $500 that it wouldn't, but I never got a reply. dd -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Tom Walker Sent: 14 July 2004 23:43 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: The End Of Management? I love it! Total Information Awareness meets ParEcon. Robin Hanson, may I introduce you to Robin Hahnel... Charles Brown wrote, TIME.com: The End Of Management? -- Jul. 12, 2004 http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1101040712-660965,00.html Tom Walker 604 255 4812
Re: Coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon
speaking of the Saudis, they regularly behead murderers, etc. So the beheading of captives by Iraqi insurgents isn't as shocking to people in the Middle East as it might be to us Amurricans. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Michael Hoover Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 8:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/14/04 8:51 AM coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon. of course... saudi gov't is among top ten buyers of u.s. arms, human rights abuses in saudi arabia include use of u.s. made restraining belts and chairs, saudis also use electro-shock devices of which u.s. is leading developer of technology... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Kucinich delegates fold like a cheap suitcase
kucinich folks have to make decision at some point re. that They should be told to leave the Democratic Party and joing the Green Party. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Mike Ditka
Jack Ryan should enter the race again. He's sleazy and hypocritical enough for the US Senate, perhaps even enough for the House. jd
equity in corporate crime?
I got this from Al Krebs' newsfeed. CREED OF GREED: STRANGE SENSE OF MISSING TARGETS PERSISTS DESPITE RECENT CORPORATE CONVICTIONS AND JAIL SENTENCES NICHOLAS E. HOLLIS, AGRIBUSINESS COUNCIL: Last week's long awaited indictment of former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay in Houston prompted new waves of indignation and calls for justice across a country fed up with stories of unpunished white collar criminals and practitioners of the Creed of Greed. But even as the righteous trumpets sounded, and another drum-roll began for the legal, processed march likely to result in more Enron convictions and jail sentences --- a strange sense of missing the target persists. You can count on high profile headlines, and great mudslinging when Lay's trial starts up --- but ask any white collar crime expert - if he/she believe Enron prosecutions will act as a deterrent for other, more shrouded (and serious) corporate felonies (i.e. price fixing, racketeering, extortion, money laundering) --- and you will quickly realize a deep level of skepticism and cynicism, even dismay. One need only compare how the the feds handled the investigation/prosecution of Archer Daniels Midland (and its top brass, including then chairman Dwayne O. Andreas) and Enron --- to see why. In the ADM pricefixing case, indictments came after more than four years with prosecutors provided extensive video and audio tapes by a top inside executive (Mark Whitacre) --- ADM top brass were caught red-handed in white collar's most capital crime --- with hundreds of millions stolen from farmers and consumers widewide through a sophisticated scheme using phony trade associations to rig feed/food ingredient prices through an ADM led cartel. But instead of working the time tested prosecutorial technique of pressuring lower level executives caught in the snares to provide info/roll against the bosses -in exchange for lighter sentences --- in the ADM case, the DOJ and its lawyers watched as Andreas was able to force a re-direction of the entire case -targetting the DOJ's prime informant --- while simultaneously buying complete immunity (even from questioning) for himself and his top lieutenant, James Randall in exchange for agreeing to pay a $100 million fine using shareholder funds. Later, it was learned that part of this deal included a USDA pledge-arranged by then Ag secretary Dan Glickman* --- enabling ADM to avoid debarment and maintain its government contracts, (including highly lucrative ethanol subsidies). DOJ officials who outlined this plea agreement failed to mention the USDA portion to the Federal judge (October 1996). Aside from vice chairman Mick Andreas (the chairman's son) and corn division president Terrence Wilson who were convicted and received three year sentences, and fines, few others received any serious time for price-fixing . But Mark Whitacre --- the ADM executive, who risked his life to provide insider tapes which virtually made the government case against ADM --- and which reportedly, featured discussions involving Andreas and Randall --- received nearly ten years without chance of parole, and was ordered to repay millions to ADM --- guaranteeing him a lifetime albatross around his neck. Whitacre is still serving time --- and his numerous, well-supported appeals for clemency and pardon have been sidestepped. In the Enron case --- albeit with its differences --- this would be equivalent to the accounting whistleblower who warned Ken Lay about fraud- being singled out for a targetted federal prosecution while many of the top perps of real crimes --- got to walk. Few will shed any tears for Enron's brigands. Their excesses, frauds and carefully constructed pyramid schemes, caused terrible damages to thousands of innocent people. Yet compared to the Supermark-up to the World - still run by the most successful crime family in America's corporate history --- the Ken Lay crowd are small time players. Enron was big, but as a corporation, it's inflated earnings and fabricated divisions were bogus. When the whistle blew, it collapsed like a sand castle at the beach. But in the ADM case, it was the government itself (and the Clinton Administration) which nearly went belly up. Key resignations were rife in Janet Reno's Justice Department --- and the FBI became demoralized, having to watch a strong case dissolving under orchestrated legal and political attack. The net had caught the big fish, but politics and pay-outs at the top enabled him to swim free. It was practically business as usual at ADM following the plea agreement. Just recently, in a holdover action from this mammoth price-fixing scandal , ADM agreed to pay $400 million to settle a civil case on high fructose corn syrup --- a byproduct of ethanol production which is substituted liberally for higher priced sugar in literally hundreds of drinks and snacks found in supermarkets across the country --- a key factor in the obesity crisis. So next time you hear a commentator chortling about
Re: The End Of Management?
In a message dated 7/14/2004 2:21:54 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: TIME.com: The End Of Management? -- Jul. 12, 2004 http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1101040712-660965,00.html The article states: The end of management just might look something like this. You show up for work, boot up your computer and log onto your company's Intranet to make a few trades before getting down to work. You see how your stocks did the day before and then execute a few new orders. You think your company should step up production next month, and you trade on that thought. Comment Industrial management and the industrial bureaucracy that permeates society is undergoing revolution as we pass deeper into the post industrial era. Industrial management and the industrial bureaucracy are not two separate categories of the economy or forms of organization of the industrial infrastructure and superstructure but interpenetrate one another. The above writer conceives the revolution in the technological regime and its material impact on who people are organized to utilize the material power of production from the standpoint of the interaction of the individual with financial - capital, markets. The layers of Industrial management and the industrial bureaucracy . . . which were once graphically illustrated by the General Motors building in Detroit (with its famous 14 floors of industrial management) and the management style of Alfred Sloan has gone the way of all flesh. Managing the flow of labor and resources through financial markets is a vision limited to the bourgeois property relations in my opinion. Tracking the moment of labor and resources through the prism of gambling in the market for financial reward is the vision of the bourgeoisie for post industrial society. This gambling in the financial market is not a thing in itself . . . non is compensation for excellence a bad word. Rather the larger question is who the new technology, labor and resources are to be deployed and on whose behalf as a property relations. Management as administration has no end . . . in human history . . . but management as administration is profoundly riveted to a distinct stage of development of the productivity forces . . . the system of communications and distributionand the property relations within. Here is what is missing. Yes, . . . the management system is undergoing revolutionary change and this changes expresses revolution in the mode of production on which sits the previous and pre existing management system. The previous and preexisting management system is part of the industrial mode of production . . . which seems not to be understood. I have some practical experience with this . . . Especially when the auto industry in American attempted to assimilate the advance production and management system of Japan . . . the Just In Time system and its corresponding management structure. This is not an abstract question but has profound theory implications that cannot be answered on the basis of ideology and democratic proclamations and protestations. Melvin P.
Poor nations back down on WTO
From the Financial Times from the NYT web sites. Poorer nations to soften trade stance By Guy de Jonquières in London and Frances Williams in Geneva Published: July 14, 2004 A last-minute diplomatic offensive by leading trade powers appeared last night to have beaten back moves by developing countries to adopt a hardline negotiating stance that threatened efforts to revive the Doha world trade round. Top trade officials from the US, the European Union, Brazil and India urged a meeting of ministers from the Group of 90 developing countries in Mauritius to back the drive to agree by the end of this month a negotiating framework for the round. Advertisement Their pleas led G90 ministers to set about re-drafting their planned communiqué, so as to drop or tone down earlier demands that other World Trade Organisation members had told them were unacceptable. The talks have produced greater realism about what is at stake. Key developing countries are looking at the issues much more pragmatically, one participant at the meeting said. Pascal Lamy, the EU trade commissioner, said the talks had produced some common ground and the G90 had indicated greater flexibility on some important issues. Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, said shortly before leaving Mauritius that he detected points of convergence, though the G90's mood was still fluid. The discussions appeared to have reduced the chances of a potentially explosive confrontation over complaints by African cotton-growing countries that they were being seriously harmed by US subsidies. A senior diplomat from Benin, representing the African cotton producers, told Reuters they might be prepared to negotiate on cotton as part of an overall agriculture package, rather than press for separate negotiations - a demand the US opposes. Mr Lamy sought to defuse controversy over his proposal to exempt G90 members from opening their markets in the round, saying it was only a political concept designed to reassure developing countries that they were not expected to make big concessions. However, Celso Amorim, Brazil's foreign minister, told the ministers there was no free ride and no free round - there is always a price to pay. Nonetheless, he suggested more advanced developing countries might offer special concessions to poorer ones. Trade officials said efforts by Mr Zoellick and Mr Lamy to persuade G90 ministers that negotiations on a WTO agreement to facilitate trade would be in poorer countries' interest also appeared to have won support. The US, EU and Brazilian officials said efforts by WTO members to assemble by the end of this month a package for cutting tariffs and subsidies in agricultural and industrial trade were inching along. But they stressed that important issues remained to be settled. Members will seek to agree a negotiating framework by the end of the month. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
IMF Strangulation, Tightening Debt Trap, and Lopsided Recovery
Sabri thought that this might be interesting. http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~yeldane/Turkey_June2004.pdf -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Newsweek: Medicine Without Doctors
[from Robert Weissman's Stop IMF list] [Long but interesting all the way through] call out quote The trouble is, few of the countries winning those grants are ready to absorb them. Their health systems have withered under austerity plans imposed by foreign creditors. Doctors and nurses have left in droves to take private-sector jobs or work in wealthier countries. And those left behind are overwhelmed and exhausted. End call out quote http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5412522/site/newsweek/ Medicine Without Doctors In Africa, just 2 percent of people with AIDS get the treatment they need. But drugs are cheap, access to them is improving and a new grass-roots effort gives reason to hope. By Geoffrey Cowley Newsweek July 19 issue - The first part of Nozuko Mavuka's story is nothing unusual in sub-Saharan Africa. A young woman comes down with aches and diarrhea, and her strong limbs wither into twigs. As she grows too weak to gather firewood for her family, she makes her way to a provincial hospital, where she is promptly diagnosed with tuberculosis and AIDS. Six weeks of treatment will cure the TB, a medical officer explains, but there is little to be done for her HIV infection. It is destroying her immune system and will soon take her life. Mavuka becomes a pariah as word of her condition gets around the community. Reviled by her parents and ridiculed by her neighbors, she flees with her children to a shack in the weeds beyond the village, where she settles down to die. In the usual version of this tragedy, the young mother perishes at 35, leaving her kids to beg or steal. But Mavuka's story doesn't end that way. While waiting to die last year, she started visiting a two-room clinic in Mpoza, a scruffy village near her home in South Africa's rural Eastern Cape. Health activists were setting up support groups for HIV-positive villagers, and Medecins sans Frontieres (also known as MSF or Doctors Without Borders) was spearheading a plan to bring lifesaving AIDS drugs to a dozen villages around the impoverished Lusikisiki district. Mavuka could hardly swallow water by the time she got her first dose of anti-HIV medicine in late January. But when I met her at the same clinic in May, I couldn't tell she had ever been sick. The clinic itself felt more like a social club than a medical facility. Patients from the surrounding hills had packed the place for an afternoon meeting, and their spirits and voices were soaring. As they stomped and clapped and sang about hope and survival, Mavuka thumbed through her treatment diary to show me how faithfully she'd taken the medicine and how much it had done for her. Her weight had shot from 104 pounds to 124, and her energy was high. I feel strong, she said, eyes beaming. I can fetch water, wash clothes-everything. My sons are glad to see me well again. My parents no longer shun me. I would like to find a job. It would be rash to call Nozuko Mavuka the new face of AIDS in Africa. The disease killed more than 2 million people on the continent last year, and it could kill 20 million more by the end of the decade. The treatments that have made HIV survivable in wealthier parts of the world still reach fewer than 2 percent of the Africans who need them. Yet mass salvation is no longer a fool's dream. The cost of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs has fallen by 98 percent in the past few years, with the result that a life can be saved for less than a dollar a day. The Bush administration and the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria are financing large international treatment initiatives, and the World Health Organization is orchestrating a global effort to get 3 million people onto ARVs by the end of 2005-an ambition on the scale of smallpox eradication. What will it take to make this hope a reality? Raising more money and buying more drugs are only first steps. The greater challenge is to mobilize millions of people to seek out testing and treatment, and to build health systems capable of delivering it. Those systems don't exist at the moment, and they won't be built in a year. But as I discovered on a recent journey through southern Africa, there's more than one way to get medicine to people who need it. This crisis may require a whole new approach-a grass-roots effort led not by doctors in high-tech hospitals but by nurses and peasants on bicycles. Until recently, mainstream health experts despaired at the thought of treating AIDS in Africa. The drugs seemed too costly, the regimens too hard to manage. Unlike meningitis or malaria, which can be cured with a short course of strong medicine, HIV stays with you. A three-drug cocktail can suppress the virus and protect the immune system-but only if you take the medicine on schedule, every day, for life. Used haphazardly, the drugs foster less treatable strains of HIV, which can then spread. Strict adherence is a challenge even in rich countries, the experts reasoned, and it might prove impossible in poor ones. In light of the
More Bush Hoover parallels
What has gotten Ms. Poller worked up is Mr. Bush's decision not to address the 95th annual convention of the N.A.A.C.P. this year, making him the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover not to meet with the group during an entire term in office, N.A.A.C.P. officials said. Full at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/politics/campaign/14naacp.html Michael
Re: The End Of Management?
Daniel Davies wrote, Hanson put out a press release last year saying that the revised Policy Analysis Market would be up and trading by March 2004. I emailed him offering to bet $500 that it wouldn't, but I never got a reply. However, had he accepted your wager, Daniel, he would have paid up: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg07948.html Tom Walker 604 255 4812
Greens for Nader!
Greens for Nader! (circulating a petition to protest the campaign against the voters by Democratic Party operatives trying to keep Ralph Nader Peter Miguel Camejo off the ballot): http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/07/greens-for-nader.html. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
July 14, 1789/1958
July 14, 1789/1958 Celebrate the French Revolution in 1789 and the 1958 Revolution in Iraq. http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/07/july-14-17891958.html -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
ditka
Alas he is registered in Florida -- see that Michael H. -- and will not run. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Coziness with the Saudis is a bipartisan phenomenon
speaking of the Saudis, they regularly behead murderers, etc. So the beheading of captives by Iraqi insurgents isn't as shocking to people in the Middle East as it might be to us Amurricans. If Halliburton collects enough of the nubs, should it be taxed for additional capital gains?
Re: Kucinich delegates fold like a cheap suitcase
kucinich folks have to make decision at some point re. that They should be told to leave the Democratic Party and joing the Green Party. -- Yoshie er, might you mean the Nader/Camejo campaign? Dan Scanlan -- --- IMPEACHMENT: BRING IT ON NOW! NOVEMBER COULD BE TOO LATE. -- END OF THE TRAIL SALOON Alternate Sundays 6-8am GMT (10pm-midnight PDT) http://www.kvmr.org I uke, therefore I am. -- Cool Hand Uke I log on, therefore I seem to be. -- Rodd Gnawkin I claim, therefore you believe. -- Dan Ratherthan Visit Cool Hand Uke's Lava Tube: http://www.coolhanduke.com
