Re: [PEN-L] oil dollars Guthrie and Verga

Thank you very much for this piece from Woody Guthrie, I have found that this song is in the album 'the ballad of Sacco e Vanzetti' and I will try to get a copy of it. Giovanni Verga wrote that only artists can properly address social issues. I don't know if that specific text was ever

[PEN-L] Richard Levins on Larry Summers/Harvard

(This was posted to the Science for the People mailing list. Levins is a Harvard professor who works closely with Cuban scientists. He is the co-author of The Dialectical Biologist with Richard Lewontin, another Harvard professor and leftist.) On Sommers' theory: 1. comparative data to Scandanavia

Re: [PEN-L] [Marxism] chavez once again on building a 21st Century socialism

Hi Patrick, I simply don't know. My sense is that his international priority at this time is on strengthening a multi-polar alliance to give some space in the context of the principal contradiction with US imperialism. (Things could easily get overwhelming here.) Even if he makes some

Re: [PEN-L] article on oil dollars

The economy's performance in the second half of the decade [the 1990s] was considerably better, but much of the acceleration in growth was simply due to increased depreciation-the output needed to replace worn out or obsolete equipment and software. Net domestic product (NDP)-the Commerce

Re: [PEN-L] article on oil dollars

Nordhaus http://www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/homepage/prod_092402.pdf and Gordon http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/economics/gordon/Productivity-Brookings.pdf see several tech-using industries as major contributors to the productivity acceleration, notably retail (i.e., Wal-Mart) and finance

Re: [PEN-L] article on oil dollars

Massimo Portolani [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm not sure what you mean, but do you believe that USD preeminence in world trade is a key *determinant* of the US economic power? I think it certainly allows a level of indebtness that others can't have, it allows inflating the world rather

Re: [PEN-L] article on oil dollars

John Exdell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The first war created a serious crisis for Britain, and the second finished off the empire. But it's important to note that the U.S. bankrolled the British-French war effort in 1914-18. Even at that point Britain was in a state of serious relative

[PEN-L] Oil dollars

I normally don't like second-guessing the masters of empire, since they run the world and I'm just carping from the margins, but it may be that the Bush gang is stuck in some 19th century model of empire, and they may wildly overestimate the returns of controlling real estate and resources. Doug

Re: [PEN-L] Oil dollars

--- Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: CB: Has there been an actually existing empire ( since the 19th Century or otherwise)gaining returns without controlling territory ? -- Hi Charles, Isn't controlling territory part of the definition of empire? (Maybe you just mean powerful state.)

[PEN-L] New EPI book

Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: Labor Markets and Informal Work in Egypt, El Salvador, India, Russia, and South Africa eds Tony Avirgan, L. Josh Bivens, Sarah Gammage Global Policy Network/Economic Policy Institute 500 pp. (!) http://www.gpn.org/ http://epinet.org

[PEN-L] Oil dollars

Devine, James wrote: so far, the Bushwhackers have succeeded in steering most of the benefits of empire in the direction of their fraction of the capitalists, while costs are borne by the vast majority. In the longer run, that may not be true. I think the costs and benefits of empire

[PEN-L] Fwd: Dark Night Press article sent by Jim Craven

The Dark Night Press article: Free Peltier! A Position Statement from Carter Camp was referred to you by Jim Craven on February 28, 2005. To see it, click on the link below. If that does not, then highlight the URL and copy it (ctrl+c). Open your browser and paste it (ctrl+v) into the location

[PEN-L] Fwd: White Paper on Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China

Hi Louis, Would you please post this to the lists? Thanks, Jim http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200502/28/eng20050228_174941.htmlhttp://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200502/28/eng20050228_174941.html James M. Craven Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo-i'poyi Professor/Consultant,Economics;Business

Re: [PEN-L] Fwd: White Paper on Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China

This article claims that both the GDP and the average income of the ethnic minority areas has increased significantly. Does anyone know how the Chinese claim to counteract the centripetal tendencies of a massive market to leave peripheral areas, often inhabited by ethnic minorities, in *relative*

[PEN-L] Robert Reich on consumer interests vs. worker/citizen interests

February 28, 2005/New York TIMES OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Don't Blame Wal-Mart By ROBERT B. REICH Berkeley, Calif. - BOWING to intense pressure from neighborhood and labor groups, a real estate developer has just given up plans to include a Wal-Mart store in a mall in Queens, thereby blocking

Re: [PEN-L] Robert Reich on consumer interests vs. worker/citizen interests

February 28, 2005/New York TIMES OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Don't Blame Wal-Mart By ROBERT B. REICH Berkeley, Calif. - BOWING to intense pressure from neighborhood and labor groups, a real estate developer has just given up plans to include a Wal-Mart store in a mall in Queens, thereby blocking Wal-Mart's

Re: [PEN-L] Robert Reich on consumer interests vs. worker/citizen interests

This is such nonsense. It's as if Walmart is nothing more than a purveyor of cheap goods, as if it has no political clout and does nothing to structure our society outside of the transactions it conducts with consumers. Bill

Re: [PEN-L] Robert Reich on consumer interests vs. worker/citizen interests

You could blame people who wore cotton clothing for slavery by the same logic. Montesquieu wrote It must be said that slavery is against nature, though in certain countries it is founded upon natural reason. One may distinguish between such countries and those in which natural reasons reject

Re: [PEN-L] Robert Reich on consumer interests vs. worker/citizen interests

I think this misses Reich's point, i.e., that the citizen/worker inside our heads would and should rebel against slavery even though the consumer of sugar would favor its existence. Bill's point is more germane: the slave-owners had a lot of political power -- enough to keep slavery going for

[PEN-L] The economics of incarceration

Donohue, John J. 2005. Fighting Crime: An Economist's View. The Milken Institute Review, 7: 1 (First Quarter): pp. 46-58. 48: Between 1933 and 1973, incarceration in the United States varied within a narrow band of roughly 100 to 120 prisoners per 100,000 population. Since then, this rate has

[PEN-L] What a Rich Nation Should Really Be Doing About Social Security

What A Rich Nation Should Really Be Doing About Social Security Published on Monday, February 28, 2005 by Gar Alperovitz http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0228-29.htm Listening to the debate between the Administration and even its most adventurous critics one would imagine that only an

[PEN-L] new frontiers of sheer lunacy

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6be27ed0-89da-11d9-aa18-0e2511c8.html Wolfowitz on shortlist for World Bank top post By Andrew Balls and Edward Alden in Washington Published: March 1 2005 00:43 | Last updated: March 1 2005 00:43 Paul WolfowitzPaul Wolfowitz, US deputy secretary of defence, has

[PEN-L] ignorant question on international finance

What would the relative size of stocks of gold be relative to the supply of dollars? How much does the use of gold as a standard/store of value add to the price of gold? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at