The Wall Street Journal of 2/4/94 has an Op Ed by Labor Secretary Reich. In it
he takes on the critics of his and Clinton's initiatives on training the work
force. The critics have been asking "Where are the jobs for the retrained
workers?"
Reich's answer is that he doesn't
Recently, along with the President of the California
Public Utility Commission and Ralph Cavanagh of
NRDC, I was invited to address the Los Angeles City
Council on the subject of the future of electric
utility regulation. I would be happy to send a copy
of my speech to anyone interested. I can
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Marc, thanks for your interest. I hope the
transmission came thru ok. I'd be
interested it trying a version for Dollars
Sense if you are interested. Mark
Kitchner tried to get us together when you
were out here last year. Sorry we didn't
connect. Gene Coyle
Hugo Radice: I'll snail mail a copy of my electricity
regulation speech today. I just touched the English
p
privatisation issue. Our California Commissioners seem
quite taken with your "success" and have recently gone to
London to check it out. I think our emulation of that is
still a bit off
Jim, I can wait till June but if it is no trouble
e-mail your article on Health care reform.
Thanks. Gene Coyle
Thanks to Sally Lerner for the Futurework postings.
I hope we can all discuss this -- maybe relevance
and theory can satisfy everybody.
Today's Wall Street Journal quoted Robert Parry, the long-
term President of the SF Federal Reserve Bank as saying
"Slack in labor and product markets has all but
evaporated." This in a state where the unemployment rate is
substantially higher than the high national rate.
This remark is the
Yes, let's keep hearing from Henwood.
But also, more from Jim Craven.
I saw "Quiz Show" last night. This is a movie about the television
scandals of the 1950s. I recommend it for a couple of reasons. It is
entertaining. It also brings out class differences, starkly. The most
powerful part was the demonstration of the futility of Congressional --
or any
I think it is your local problem, I'm getting mail from PEN-L. Gene Coyle
I've been pondering the strategy of US electric utilities. One idea I am
theorizing about is that they are milking domestic service territories
and using the cash flow to invest in overseas powerplants, e. g. in China.
In the course of thinking about this I came across a Gary Becker,
Yes, Becker et al are saying that the tobacco companies -- or rather, in
their terminology, the monopolist in each period sets a price where
marginal revenue is below marginal cost, as long as consumption is
addictive and future prices tend to exceed future marginal costs due to
the monopoly
The Wall Street Journal of 2/4/94 has an Op Ed by Labor Secretary Reich. In it
he takes on the critics of his and Clinton's initiatives on training the work
force. The critics have been asking "Where are the jobs for the retrained
workers?"
Reich's answer is that he doesn't
Hi Blair. You left out Korea. When is the next Lorax meeting, and
where?
Hope you got a plush job in DC. I handed in my resignation at TURN,
effective 2/28. Time to get on with life. I don't think there's a job
there, though. They'll replace me with a lawyer. Gene.
I understand that minorities are at the end of the quee (how do
you spell that?) And I emphatically agree that we should be running
a high pressure economy to raise all boats or get to the end of the
-- line.
But here's why I expressed disbelief in the report that Black unemployment
was suddenly
Bob Fitch may write well on New York City but his thesis that
big money deliberately drove industrial jobs out of NYC so as to
provide space for office towers is absurd. Big Money wants both, it
doesn't discard one profitable thing to make room for another.
I asked a question about Greenspan's motives re the CPI debate.
Maybe it doesn't matter unless you are in the bond market this
week. The experts are betting on the Fed raising interest rates soon.
But Mexico is a probelem. So my question is this: Did Greenspan float his
attack on the
I was contrasting a period in the past -- e. g. the 1960's, when
when the Fed was able to absolute stop the availibility of funds
to the banks, because they put a ceiling on the rates banks could
pay to depositors. Thus the banks would turn away borrowers.
The actual process at a bank
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Doug Henwood)
Subject: [PEN-L:3970] Re: inflation
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment: Progressive Economics List
At 4:26 PM 1/27/95, Eugene Coyle wrote:
Doug, I have trouble reading your position on what economists should be
favoring with respect to unemployment rates. Let me state what I infer
your position to be to give you a chance to clarify.
As I read your posts I have formed the following impression of
your view: Yes, it might
The major sector labor and multi-factor productivity database in
LABSTAT, the BLS data base -- the database containing productivty and
costs measures is identified by the two-character survey names, PR and MP.
You can get help with the data base by addressing e-mail to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
He didn't use the word story, but Paul Samuelson, in
conceding defeat in the Cambridge controversey, called
neo-classical marginalism a parable. I think it was in
the QJE but don't recall what year. Early '70s I think.
Parable is a good word for it. Gene Coyle
Trond, a journalist to interview on telecommuting, in California:
John Gilles, Marin Independent Journal, P. O. Box 6150, Novato, CA
94948-6150.
Telephone: (415) 382-7385. His Fax (415) 883-5458.
He is doing a series on home office work and telecommuting.
Sorry to put this on the list but
Doug Dowd has written a RAVE review about this book. Not sure if Doug's thing
is published yet but I have read it.
Gene Coyle
alfredo antonio saad filho wrote:
One possibility is Hugh Stretton's new textbook 'Economics' (Pluto Press) - a
good critical analysis, mainly from an
Why is the 30 year bond yield going down and mortgage rates going up? I'll
check back in this space in 12-18 months.
Gene
Doug Henwood wrote:
Jim Devine wrote:
Right: The finance types are telling jokes about Greenspan and
questioning authority, while the National Association of
Jim Devine wrote:
Monopoly power encourages inflationary persistence,
as when inflation
continued in the face of the early 1970s recession (that's just the
clearest case). However, the US economy has become much more competitive
during the last 20 years.
Interesting contrast with the
Specter
The airlines are highly concentrated. Deregulation caused a temporary dip in
concentration which has now been overcome. They fix prices
oligopolistically.
Jim Devine wrote:
My casual impression is that the US economy has and is becoming more
concentrated. What's yours?
it depends on
In a 1990 article in Scientific American, Brian Arthur says:
"Moveover, if one or a few firms came to dominate a market, the
assumption that no firm is large enough to affect market prices on its
own (which makes economic problems easy to analyze) would also
collapse. When John R. Hicks
Actually they'll be able to sail across Nicaragua once the oceans rise. But
all the major ports will be under water. What do we do then? Albany, at
tide water, will outstrip the city of NY.
Gene Coyle
Jim Devine wrote:
Now that Panama owns its canal, there's news that because of global
Pretty soon we are going to learn that the drug trafficers are headquarted in
Venezuela and we need to send military aid there to stamp them out.
Gene Coyle
Louis Proyect wrote:
New York Times, April 7, 2000
Venezuelan Calls Tune in OPEC's Price Tactics
By LARRY ROHTER
CARACAS,
Equilibrium might have been a central concept with Marshall but he was aware
that there might not be one under certain cost conditions. Telser says of
Marshall: "This conclusion, together with Marshall's well-known statement that
a seller might not lower his price 'for fear of spoiling the
Michael, I have it on my calendar and if I'm not traveling I'm looking forward to
hearing you. I already own your book, so don't dream of a sale.
And thanks for the quick response re Hicks -- very appreciated.
Gene
Michael Perelman wrote:
I'm going to be giving a discussion of my book,
Michael,
Max noticed a typographical slip in your post, one I read right by without
noticing. Read your original post carefully and you'll get Max' joke.
Gene
Michael Perelman wrote:
I did not think that it was presumptious. I very much enjoy it when I get to
meet people from the lists
Yeah, Joe, but what about the World Bank?
Gene Coyle
Jim Devine wrote:
Have people seen the article by Stiglitz in the NEW REPUBLIC?
What I learned at the world economic crisis.
The Insider
By JOSEPH STIGLITZ
Issue date: 04.17.00
Post date: 04.06.00
Next week's meeting of
Going to buy an SUV?
Gene Coyle
Rod Hay wrote:
And with every fall, wealth distribution becomes more equal, and I am
relatively better off.
Rod
Timework Web wrote:
Did I say 5%? Make that 9% now. The Hang Seng is down 8% as the wave
sweeps around the globe.
Tom Walker
--
Rod
Better than the lottery:
In the past week there have been two reports of how the CEO's who make
the tough downsizing decisions have a different set of rules for
themselves:
And finally tonight, a severance package that is leaving every failed
executive in America salivating, and may leave
Why would we make clothes if we are going to walk around naked?
Louis Proyect wrote:
Wait a second. I didn't know this at all. My understanding of socialism is
that we'd all go live in the country and make our own clothes from hemp
fiber, eat tofu, shoot squirrels with bows and arrows and
I did read the section on virtual materialism -- is that to which you refer?
Gene Coyle
Louis Proyect wrote:
At 10:39 AM 5/9/00 -0700, you wrote:
Why would we make clothes if we are going to walk around naked?
Pish-posh. Clearly you haven't read Stalin's lectures on dialectical
No, they were headed for Mexico, for the next invasion there.
Jim Devine wrote:
At 11:46 AM 05/12/2000 +, you wrote:
At the University of Texas the South Mall is full of confederate statues
none of which face north.
is that so that we Northern Aggressors can sneak up and shoot them in
Brad De Long wrote:
I think that removing quotas on U.S. imports of African-made textiles
will make the world a better place: more better jobs at better wages
for Africans. It isn't "bogus."
If there are going to be better jobs at better wages in Africa, where
are the folks who lose their
A founder of the Blackstone Group is Pete Peterson, a rabid attacker of
Social Security.
Gene Coyle
Tom Lehman wrote:
If anyone has come across anything interesting on the Blackstone Group
a/k/a Blackstone Capital Partners II or a Veritas Capital and their
interest in the steel industry,
I've had good luck with
http://www.bookfinder.com/
Tom Kruse wrote:
Dear Friends:
I need to get used copies of out-of-print books (like Buroway's Politics of
Production) sent down to Bolivia. I do my book buying through email with
the Seminary Co-op in Chicago, but they don't deal in
Dean Rusk's son (of all people) has a book out on this. Also, Urban Habitat in
San Francisco has some publications on it, and a political initiative to pull
multicultural groups together on it. (415) 561-.
Also, a Minnesota legislator, Myron Orfield has written about this, and is
HTML
Tom Walker has posted several things on his discovery of some sleight-of-hand
in neo-classical economics.nbsp; Unless I've missed it, there has been
little or no response to him.nbsp; Although I find his posts on the subject
of working hours vis a vis neo-classical economics quite
Max, Make it a short vacation.
Gene Coyle
Max Sawicky wrote:
Hi all.
I'm taking a vacation from PEN-L LBO.
For info on EPI doings, check http://epinet.org
My occasional journalism is posted at http://tap.epn.org/sawicky
All complaints about Clinton Administration policy and the
Did anyone else notice the compliment paid in yesterday's Wall Street
Journal to PEN-l's Terry McDonough? Of course he wasn't mentioned, and
the conclusion of his work got turned on its head, but what the hell.
Robert J. Barro (Harvard Hoover) had an Op Ed attack on Card
and Krueger.
ATT has a long history of buying economists. I have heard what I
believe is reliable gossip about this but I haven't seen the cancelled
checks.
Alfred Kahn is said to have been on the ATT payroll while at
Cornell in the Econ Department. His colleagues did not know he was
getting a
There is an interesting movement in Minnesota which asks the question
"Is Minnesota creating enough jobs that pay a livable wage. The group
is the JOBS NOW COALITION. It is doing research and publishing results.
The JOB GAP STUDY started when they observed that the state had
low
Lisa Rogers listed all the possible wars to fight except the one we
never fought: the war on poverty. Or was that the one we won, and I
wasn't at the victory parade?
In Wednesday's NY Times, Krugman had an Op Ed on the Supply-Siders.
He said the essence of "supply-sideism" is the belief that cutting
taxes raises government revenues. I think that is wrong. I think
the essence of Supply Side is the belief that there is a lot of slack
in the economy.
I'm glad Maggie is back from where ever it was she was.
Let's see. If we save up our money and buy out the Capitalists, won't
the capitalists then have our money and be able to buy us out?
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Feb 17 19:44:22 1996
Reply-To: [EMAIL
I want to disagree with Maggie's second point and -- what is the same
thing -- agree with an earlier poster, I think it was Michael M.
Maggie wrote:
2. While it sounds like splitting hairs, I do think there is a
difference in
result between the government investing social security and the
Yes, de-regulation leads to cutting costs, then cutting corners, and then
crashes. Value Jet into the Everglades is one example. It is happening in
the electric power industry, where regional and local black-outs are more
frequent, and forest fires start because tree trimming budgets have been
Kennedy may have been influeced by Stephen Bryer, now on the Supreme Court,
who wrote a 1982 book called "Regulation and Its Reform." I think Bryer was a
staffer for a Kennedy Senate Committe on de-regulation back then. The book
is dumbed-down Alfred Kahn, which was just MC applied to
The airlines MUST discriminate -- i. e. must screw business flyers. That's the
only reason for "A Saturday Night Stay is required." If the airlines couldn't
enforce that profits would drop sharply, followed by a shrinkage of capacity, and
then a cut-back of the discounted tickets.
The
Yes, Brad, the airline execs don't want to have an accident, and they hope they
won't if they cut corners, but they are sure profits will benefit if they do
cut corners.
gene Coyle
Brad De Long wrote:
G'day Brad,
And we have gone from having one serious commercial aviation accident
per
Yes, and de-regulated airfare has gone up much faster than electric
power in the CPI.\
Gene
Doug Henwood wrote:
Michael Perelman wrote:
Don't fly to Chico from San Francisco. Going to New York is
cheaper. It wasn't
before dereg. So it was not beneficial to all consumers.
The airfare
If only they'd de-regulate prayer! (Or is it schools they need to deregulate
so we can pray in them?)
Doug Henwood wrote:
[Gore has the answer to airplane safety - prayer!]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Vice President
When I made the query about a progressive tax I had in mind that the fundamental
idea behind it is that after its imposition, the dollar income disparity
between low and high income taxees would be reduced.
Take two persons, one paid $10,000 and one paid $100,000.
A $90,000 spread. Even a flat
Roger, when you wrote:
Eugene Coyle wrote:
When I made the query about a progressive tax I had in mind that the
fundamental idea behind it is that after its imposition, the dollar
income disparity between low and high income taxees would be reduced.
Take two persons, one paid
Tom, don't go!
Behind the original question I posed about "progressive taxation" was a
motive. In preparation for someday attacking the analysis that is going to
defend the California de-regulation as a form of "progressive taxation." I
wanted to check to see if there was any basis for
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Commodities giant Cargill Inc, the largest privately held company in
the United States, and John Deere Credit said they will offer a new program this year to
finance farmer expenses and cash flow.
The program, called Performance Finance, will offer straight loans and a
I have recently finished a paper titled "Price Discrimination,
Electronic Redlining, and Price Fixing in de-regulated electric power."
I feel shameless not only for calling attention to the paper but
because I have more than once announced -- long ago -- that it was
imminent.
Done for
Actually McCain's plan has worked well in the past. Winston Churchill was
dead for several years before it became public. They had strings running
to his hand and they would pull it up to make his famous V sign, V for
Victory. (See National Security document L-261, Section 8.A.)
Gene Coyle
I would like to make two points in the CPI discussion.
First, we should not lose sight of the political origin of the national
examination of this issue. It seems clear that it surfaced as part of
the attack on Social Security. The story was that the elderly have
been doing much better than
Dave Richardson posted the following bit:
Among the books reviewed by Business Week (April 22, page l5) is "The Case
Against Immigration" by Roy Beck, Washington editor of "The Social
Contract", a quarterly that deals with immigration issues. Aaron
Bernstein's review (Bernstein covers workplace
Gosh, I thought Texas grew because of oil, now I realize it grew because it
created wealth through its school system. These Slate cliches validate
other cliches, and are validated by them.
Gene Coyle
Jim Devine wrote:
This article is interesting. Any pen-l comments?
SLATE MONEY: Wed.,
Go to:
www.appanet.org
Once you are on the site, look on the left and click on the box "Public
Power News"
Then look under Feb 14th -- it looks like a press release item but
it has the paper in PDF.
Edwin Dickens wrote:
How do we get copies?
"Max B. Sawicky" wrote:
So
There is a marvelous book that fits Dale's needs. It is "A History of
Banks and Banking from the Revolution to the Civil War." Author is
Bray Hammond and it won a prize when published. I think it was
published around 1958 or 1959.
It is very readable and it should be a book read by
I am about to forward a message from the consumer organization, TURN,
where I (sometimes) work.
The message appeals for help in stopping "geographical rate
de-averaging" which is regulatory-speak for introducing rate
discrimination between geographical areas. TURN sees this as a
X-Old-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Robin Kane" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Organization: TURN
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 1996 16:57:47 +
Subject: Rural Phone Rate Hike Alert
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Jim, are you thinking of the second film of the same name?
Gene Coyle
Jim Devine wrote:
At 03:11 PM 3/1/00 -0500, you wrote:
Last night I watched "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on video. It was the
first time I had seen it since its original theater appearance in 1951. It
is one of the
-- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment: Progressive Economics
At 12:43 AM 4/25/96, Eugene Coyle wrote:
I would like to make two points in the CPI discussion.
First, we should not lose sight of the political origin of the national
examination of this issue. It seems clear
Clinton's went on and on in his San Francisco speech yesterday. I was
running errands and was in and out of my car, but he was still talking
every time I turned the radio on.
Today's paper reports that the speech was about his vision of
foreign affairs. But I heard other things deeply
I'm only a year behind. Wish I had short work time.
The 1997 Annual Report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas just came
into my hands.
I presume it is available free from the bank at 2200 N. Pearl St.,
Dallas Texas 75201.
The issue is titled TIME WELL SPENT.
The thrust of it, undisguised,
Tom, can you steer me to info on Gen Vernon Walters history in Brazil and
elsewhere in Latin America?
Gene Coyle
Tom Kruse wrote:
Stephen:
Sounds like a good class. How about also tacking on the "vietnam syndrom"
on the end, as that thing that had to be overcome so "the US" could once
PARIS, Jan. 14 (UPI) _ With the legal workweek in France soon to be 35
hours, a Versailles court case beginning in March has suddenly taken on
significance.
At issue is the French job inspectorate, whose huge staff is using a law
originally framed to close sweatshops employing illegal workers
Bill Lear throws out some good ideas, but much more important is the sweetness and
comradeship in his post. Sweetness for Michael Yates and for the students as
well.
Thank you Bill.
Gene Coyle
William S. Lear wrote:
On Wed, February 10, 1999 at 19:14:12 (-0500) Michael Yates writes:
He's in Canada.
Brad De Long wrote:
The manner in which collective ownership can often provide cheap
and simple solutions to problems is illustrated by the water
supply systems in the small town in which I live.
The town was settled in stages. At first there were not enough
people to set
Typo, or is that a lump of sex phallacy?
Ken Hanly wrote:
Only legal beagles know that ! Not many dumb males..Maybe she is
a cross-dresser or transexual. Did u know valis..? :) Tom and
I are guilty of the lump of sex fallacy, lumping together blonds
and blondes...
Cheers, Ken
Hardin had the Tragedy of the Commons backwards. The enclosure movement in
England actually harmed the environment, rather than saving it by privatizing
it. Oliver Goldsmith wrote
from The Deserted Village
Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled, and all thy
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Larry Summers has discovered "the new natural monopolies" -- where monopoly
profits are required to motivate investment. See his speech
in early May --
"The New Wealth of Nations"
Remarks by Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers
Hambrecht Quist Technology Conference
San Francisco, CA
Brad
Doug Henwood wrote:
Timework Web wrote:
That is unless one wants to go all the way back to 1946 and the very
trenchant observation that the fashion for Hayek has nothing to do with
objections to planning per se -- corporations do it all the time -- it is
selectively an objection to
wrote:
Eugene Coyle wrote:
Both ends of this marvelous corporate decision-making totally missed the
mark.
Low prices led to no orders. Now high prices lead to voluminous orders.
Odd. So much for the market and the taking into account of prices and
demand.
Gosh, I don't know how capitalism
I think it was corporal punishment.
Gene Coyle
Tom Walker wrote:
Walesa replied:
But as you know,
the rank I acquired in the army is corporal, so this is the strategy of a
corporal. However, some corporals prove to be very good commanders
Any informatin on which _particular_
Rob Schaap wrote:
G'day all,
Two thoughts:
(1) I reproduce three very short articles from *The Australian* public web
site below - is this the sort of thing we should be trying to avoid on
PEN-L? That'd be daft, imho, (all fully attributed, and from a publicly
accessible page, too)
Maybe not on point, but the Federal regulation of the railroads seems
clearly created with the support of the railroads. See Gabriel Kolko's
book of 1965, RAILROADS AND REGULATION. They wanted to be protected
from each other, and from cutthroat competition. It appears that
electric
This unnamed correspondent thinks we, the workers, are expressing preferences
for long hours?
Gene Coyle
Tom Walker wrote:
Rob Schaap wrote:
For what it's worth, Tom, I think your essay on neo-classical assumptions,
measures and prescriptions as the miserable multiplication of misery
Yeah, but keep away from Rocky Flats.
Gene Coyle
Tom Walker wrote:
Doug Henwood wrote,
Since the Trenchcoat Mafia acted on Hitler's birthday, and since they
reportedly subscribed to some sort of Naziism, perhaps NATO should bomb
Littleton before it's too late.
Just to be safe, better
We should be a little careful about accepting the phone companies claim
that long distance service subsidizes (or did subsidize) local
service. I think a powerful argument can be made that the subsidy
flows the other way. And I believe that argument.
Think of the way the
I should add to my last post that rural areas may be subsidized -- but
possibly by other local and/or long distance.
When the massive tax cuts for business went through in the
1960s-- first as changes in depreciation and then as "tax cuts" some US
state regulators required that the
I've recently left my job with TURN (Toward Utility Rate Normalization).
The job is open and they seek a progressive economist or analyst to
work on energy issues in the context of regulated monopolies. TURN
(the name is meaningless any more, the acroynm survives) is a
state-wide consumer
Today's Wall Street Journal (3/29) had two interesting features. On
the front page was "Middle Class's Fears About Coming Years Might Be
Misguided." It argues that there is good reason to believe that living
standards will get better over the next two decades. "Technology,
Global Markets
The classic on joint production is Clark's Studies in the Economics of
Overhead Costs. Clark was writing in the 1920s but it is still good
stuff. Even earlier was Dyonisious Lardner, with a study of the
Belgian railroad industry @ 1848. That was the first study of joint
costs that I'm
Bob Haas was just named the Poet Laureate of the United
States. I used to occasionally car-pool to work with him
in the early 1970s. He said then that he was a Marxist.
He kept his head down when I was getting fired. I guess
one needs some political savvy to become Poet Laureate.
Gene Coyle
Henry George came close to this, starting a school of economics still
hanging on today. Maybe those folks can spearhead this drive. Gene Coyle
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon May 15 10:51:31 1995
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