en-us http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/ Fri, 21 Feb 2020 15:38:33 GMT Fri, 21 Feb 2020 15:38:33 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20200217/000462.html I recall Carrol Cox, one of the larger personalities on the list during its heyday, quoting Marx s last words as Struggle. Google says they actually were, shouted at his housekeeper from his deathbed, when asked if he had any last words: Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't sai]]> Fri, 18 Oct 2019 12:08:39 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20191014/000443.html On Oct 17, 2019, at 11:13 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > > "Those sockless people in Top-Siders, ..."]]> Fri, 12 Jul 2019 21:53:52 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20190708/000428.html On Jul 12, 2019, at 5:32 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > > > > Writing in the preface to the 1888 English edition of the Communist Manifesto, Frederick Engels explained why he and Marx did not call their pamphlet the Socialist Manifesto. According to Engels, socialism was identified with utopian dreamers and reformers who wanted to eliminate social abuses through their various universal panaceas and all kinds of patch-work, without hurting capital and profit in the least. In contrast to socialists, communists were considered dangerous to the ruling class since they stood for working-class revolution and the radical reconstruction of society that would end all exploitation and oppression. In other words, Marx and Engels were co]]> Thu, 09 May 2019 21:00:52 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20190506/000410.html On May 9, 2019, at 4:58 PM, David Fernández-Duport wrote: > > In this context, it should be clear that independent union leader = not a > member of the state's labor bureaucracy. This is what is annoying about Trots. Venezuela is under attack by the U.S. government, and you all are going on about the state s labor bureaucracy.]]> Thu, 09 May 2019 20:05:01 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20190506/000408.html On May 9, 2019, at 3:51 PM, David Fernández-Duport wrote: > > independent union leaders like José Bodas I.e., a member of the mighty Fourth International.]]> Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:11:27 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20190211/000372.html On Feb 13, 2019, at 3:58 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: > > Michael Roberts has a recent three-part criticism of MMT from a Marxist perspective: It all seems rather formulaic. I ve got a long critique of MMT coming out in the next issue of Jacobin, due at the end of February. It should be on the web soon afterwards. Doug]]> Sat, 11 Aug 2018 19:21:52 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20180806/000324.html died. We fought a lot over the years he could be a cantankerous SOB but I always liked the guy. Smart and principled and unrelenting. One of the stars of my old listserv, lbo-talk. It was always a treat when he'd depart from denouncing others' deviationism for a reading of Milton or Pound. We met a few times in person and it was my first and still most extreme example of how a real-life personality can differ from online: he was always friendly, gracious, even giggly in real life. Anyway, RIP, Carrol. I'll miss you."]]> Thu, 02 Aug 2018 16:54:06 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20180730/000320.html On Aug 2, 2018, at 12:43 PM, JOANNA A. BUJES <123hop at comcast.net> wrote: > > This is the one book of Graeber's that I have a lot of problems with. Why?]]> Wed, 30 May 2018 13:02:23 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20180528/000299.html Fri, 23 Feb 2018 15:51:55 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20180219/000252.html On Feb 23, 2018, at 10:47 AM, Marv Gandall wrote: > > The six part review is a thorough refutation of the line held by some on the Marxist left at the time that Syriza had no alternative but to bow to the troika and accept continued harsh austerity. Toussaint, who on behalf of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt was an active participant in the process, shows otherwise. Who on the Marxist left held that position? I read Toussaint s review when I was writing mine and found it a bunch of unimpressive ultra posturing.]]> Thu, 22 Feb 2018 19:52:28 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20180219/000246.html On Feb 22, 2018, at 2:48 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: > > Worth reading in the latest New York Review of Books - economic historian Adam Tooze on Yanis Varoufakis account of Syriza s capitulation to the troika. I interviewed YV about the book here (my 18th interview with him!): October 12, 2017 and reviewed the book here: https://thebaffler.com/latest/varoufakis-henwood Doug]]> Sat, 03 Feb 2018 21:24:20 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20180129/000228.html On Feb 3, 2018, at 1:48 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > On the other hand, the book does include a piece by Henry Wallich, who was an economist who would later serve on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, under Nixon. His piece, Economic freedom versus Organization , from his own book, Cost of Freedom, seems a bit more intelligent than some of the other pieces in this book. I took monetary economics from him in college. He was deeply boring. Doug]]> Sat, 20 May 2017 17:41:20 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20170515/000108.html On May 19, 2017, at 7:11 PM, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote: > > LBO-News ? Has Doug resumed publishing it ? Not the newsletter, the blog, lbo-news.com.]]> Thu, 04 May 2017 11:52:56 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20170501/000099.html On May 4, 2017, at 1:17 AM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > > Looks like he went home. Good.]]> Thu, 23 Mar 2017 20:43:56 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20170320/000073.html On Mar 23, 2017, at 4:36 PM, Eugene Coyle wrote: > > I just listened to Behind The News on KPFA. The second half of the program was an > interview with James Livingston, the author of No More Work. I gathered from the program that Livingston s book > advocates a Universal Basic Income, to free people from unneeded, useless, and poorly paid work. > If there is more in the book I didn t hear about it. > > Livingston was shallow and unprepared for a discussion of his ideas. He was unable to respond to Henwood s > antagonistic questions. And he didn t seem to pick up on the disdain and > antagonism that I heard from Henwood. > > Henwood, on the other hand, was unable to sharpen his inquires to bring out > either fatal flaws in Livingston s argument or]]> Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:13:04 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20170130/000023.html On Jan 31, 2017, at 4:07 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > > Doug elides (and I don't think you mean to) these with managers, and I don't. Managers are just like cops: street-level enforcers of the boss' will. But the essence of the p.b. is to be between classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. They vacillate, and are politically unreliable. I m talking middle managers, engineers, etc.]]> Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:02:49 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20170130/000021.html On Jan 31, 2017, at 3:49 PM, James Creegan wrote: > > The above groups conform to the classical definition, i.e. small property owners. I would also include doctors and lawyers in private practice. Perhaps more controversially, I would include people like professors, journalists and skilled workers at the high end of IT. True, such people do have to sell their labor power, but have sufficient income, social status and control over their conditions of employment to make them more individualist than collectivist in their habits and lifestyles, i.e. more like petty bourgeois than proletarians. Of course, the "new petty bourgeois" groups I have named tend to be urban-cosmopolitan, and thus more likely to have voted for Clinton than, say, Midwestern used car dealers and grocery store owners, who probably leaned toward Trump. There are petty bourgeois and petty bourgeois, in other words. Professional-managerial class seems like an upscale cousin of the petty bourgeois]]> Wed, 09 Nov 2016 15:45:53 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-November/000762.html On Nov 9, 2016, at 10:44 AM, Eugene Coyle wrote: > > Obama can pardon Chelsea Manning. A thumb in the eye to Trump. He s more likely to pardon Hillary.]]> Sun, 04 Sep 2016 02:16:57 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-September/000686.html On Sep 3, 2016, at 8:30 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > Browsing through old threads I came across a discussion of NYC DAN. What is a DAN? I believe it was Direct Action Network, but that's ancient history.]]> Sat, 25 Jun 2016 17:29:01 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-June/000603.html On Jun 25, 2016, at 4:16 AM, Wendy Lyon wrote: > > Speaking as someone who has always identified with the Eurosceptic left, I > cannot see anything good coming out of this for the English and Welsh > working class. Me either. It was sad to see people like Tariq Ali celebrating Leave's victory. The campaign was, from the start, dominated by a xenophobic right. Sure, a lot of the supporters are marginalized people in the sticks, much like Trump supporters here, but that doesn't mean there's anything noble about their consciousness, nor is there a way to imagine that they're going to benefit from Britain leaving the EU. I was going to say they just wanted to get rid of that Polish guy down the block, but most of the Leave voters live in areas with few immigrants (immigrants congregate in prosperous areas, not backwaters), so the wanted to get rid of that Polish guy in London. Doug]]> Thu, 26 May 2016 15:36:27 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-May/000546.html On May 26, 2016, at 10:22 AM, Charles Brown wrote: > > Why I no longer hate TERFs Take this horseshit somewhere else please.]]> Sun, 10 Apr 2016 16:39:24 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-April/000415.html On Apr 10, 2016, at 9:21 AM, Charles Brown wrote: > > > Solipsism is subjective idealism. The notion that an individual can determine their own gender is substituting subjective determination for objective determination. > > Social rules are just as much an objective reality for individuals (subjects ) as the physical world is . To claim that one can as an individual change the customs and culture , objective reality, is solipsism ; with respect to SOCIAL objective reality. An individual cannot change the rules of a culture any more than they can change the laws of thermodynamics . Society is an objective reality for individuals; that's materialism. > > > ___________________________________ > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk]]> Sat, 02 Apr 2016 16:32:40 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-April/000390.html On Apr 2, 2016, at 10:13 AM, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > Has Summer's read those people but is too embarrassed to mention them, or has he arrived at these positions independently of them? I really doubt Summers read the MR school. Interesting that his argument doesn't focus on the capital-labor relation, i.e., the mighty strength of capital and the deep weakness of labor. It's all about relations between capitalists. Doug]]> Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:41:57 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-March/000369.html On Mar 27, 2016, at 3:23 PM, Charles Brown wrote: > > http://leftwingnation.org/nate-silver-predicts-a-massive-clinton-win-against-trump/ > > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > pen-l at lists.csuchico.edu > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l]]> Wed, 09 Mar 2016 21:56:28 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-March/000329.html On Mar 9, 2016, at 4:37 PM, William Dobbs wrote: > > Have you heard the latest wisecrack about Harvard? People are calling it a > hedge fund with a university attached. Not to be proprietary or anything, but I made that joke about Yale years ago.]]> Fri, 04 Mar 2016 12:41:01 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-March/000312.html Tue, 09 Feb 2016 02:32:24 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-February/000187.html On Feb 8, 2016, at 6:09 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > Median income would soar by more than $22,000. Nearly 26 million jobs would > be created. The unemployment rate would fall to 3.8%. > > Those are just a few of the things that would happen if Bernie Sanders > became president and his ambitious economic program were put into effect, > according to an analysis given exclusively to CNNMoney. The first > comprehensive look at the impact of all of Sanders' spending and tax > proposals on the economy was done by Gerald Friedman, a University of > Massachusetts Amherst economics professor. > > [...] > http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/08/news/economy/sanders-income-jobs > > === > > Robert Naiman > Policy Director > Just Foreign Policy > www.justforeignpolicy.org > naiman at justforeignpolicy.org > (202) 448-2898 x1 > ___________________________________ > http://mailman.lbo-talk.o]]> Sat, 06 Feb 2016 18:58:53 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-February/000165.html On Feb 6, 2016, at 1:21 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote: > > Under capitalism, wouldn't a guaranteed income have a tendency to inflate prices? No but it might cause the working class to develop an attitude problem.]]> Mon, 25 Jan 2016 20:06:17 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-January/000085.html On Jan 25, 2016, at 3:03 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > In other words, when you are talking about popular interest, elections by themselves are pointless without a strong non-electoral movement to enforce what the nice-guy president wants to do but won't do unless he/she is forced to do it. You do know that Sanders is saying exactly that, right?]]> Mon, 25 Jan 2016 15:23:56 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-January/000076.html On Jan 24, 2016, at 9:02 PM, Nick Manley wrote: > > I've been reading a collection of speeches and whatnot on the Vietnam War > as it relates to American foreign policy. I was especially struck by the > speeches of Kennedy esque Cold War liberals. They give the impression of > really believing American power was successfully remaking South Vietnam > into some liberal democratic paradise. They even cite figures which if true > show greater economic progress and whatnot in the South than the North. I > am not saying I think they are true. I've no idea due to no sources > provided. > > So my question is: do people think these "best and brightest" types really > thought American power was salvaging liberty in Vietnam and elsewhere? This > book has me wonder about that.]]> Sun, 24 Jan 2016 02:07:24 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-January/000058.html On Jan 23, 2016, at 5:52 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote: > > Land, Peace, Bread! That has obvious appeal. Ending prisons is a rare taste.]]> Sat, 23 Jan 2016 16:37:26 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2016/2016-January/000054.html On Jan 22, 2016, at 11:35 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > Some years ago when I proposed the slogan, Abolish the Prison System, among > the 'rebuttals' was one citing Davis as proposing reforms rather than > abolishing. > > Well. She spoke here tonight, and her first word on prisons was that they > could not be reformed; we had to demand their abolition. > > Ditto for Police. That sounds very militant. Did she have any more to say about how it would work? Because she didn't in her book on the topic.]]> Thu, 24 Dec 2015 17:56:56 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000898.html On Dec 24, 2015, at 12:33 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > When in 2004, when everyone was drooling over Obama's Convention speech, Carl Estabrook and I were called purists for our dubts. I never liked Obama from the first. So this critique doesn t apply to me.]]> Thu, 24 Dec 2015 17:09:46 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000892.html On Dec 23, 2015, at 12:13 PM, Shane Mage wrote: > > If they overrode the primary voters it might well be to choose Frau Clinton, which would be the best possible outcome since it would unleash a Green Wave in the actual election and put an end to the Demoncrudic gang. No it wouldn t. Loyal Dems will jump and shout stop the fascist threat! Vote for Hillary! Charles Brown is doing that already.]]> Thu, 24 Dec 2015 17:08:47 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000891.html On Dec 22, 2015, at 7:54 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > He is an unqualified scoundrel and a perfect exemplum of The More Effective > Evil. Actually he s a qualified scoundrel. Why can t you see him as somewhat better than nothing right now, and his support as something to work with over the longer term?]]> Wed, 23 Dec 2015 13:57:47 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000854.html On Dec 22, 2015, at 7:10 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote: > > So, is it the case that Sanders can't win because Hillary has the super delegates all sewn up? Not really. They're a problem, but not an insuperable obstacle. Historically, pundits say, they've always gone with the primary winner, though Bernie may be an exception.]]> Thu, 17 Dec 2015 22:44:50 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000813.html On Dec 17, 2015, at 5:20 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote: > > Thanks all... don't jinx it!]]> Tue, 15 Dec 2015 13:42:39 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000770.html On Dec 14, 2015, at 5:43 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: > > It s called LOB Alum. Kelley started it. It s more active than the list is right now. That's pretty funny, given that her annoying behavior was half the reason I seriously lost interest in the list. I've blocked her on Facebook so this is the first I've learned of it. Doug]]> Sun, 13 Dec 2015 16:35:30 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000753.html On Dec 13, 2015, at 9:57 AM, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > What ever happed to Lestor Thurow? I remember back in the 1980's, he was ubiquitous. He was always on TV, he always had op-ed pieces in the NY Times, his books were on the bestseller's lists. During those days, he was one of the Democrats' leading point men on economic policy. > > Nowadays, you hardly ever hear a peep from him or about him. What happened? I've wondered the same thing myself. He's still listed on the MIT Sloan website https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=41073 but the latest publication on their list is from 1999. Wikipedia has some more recent stuff, but not much. He's no youth, for sure. Doug]]> Sat, 12 Dec 2015 22:21:19 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-December/000735.html Wed, 25 Nov 2015 20:12:12 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-November/000704.html On Nov 25, 2015, at 2:50 PM, Joseph Catron wrote: > > I remember an article from several years ago that critically examined how > much of the economy and its workforce are now dedicated to the protection > of property, from security companies to cashiers. I'm pretty sure it was > posted to one of these lists. David Gordon did work on this years ago - he called it "guard labor." Google "David Gordon guard labor" and you'll get some hits.]]> Tue, 10 Nov 2015 21:21:36 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-November/000696.html On Nov 10, 2015, at 2:26 PM, Sean Andrews wrote: > > Some fact checking is clearly needed here. AFAIK, Doug Henwood has only > cats, and at least one of them he rarely gets close enough to beat > properly. exactly correct]]> Tue, 10 Nov 2015 18:35:59 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-November/000694.html On Nov 10, 2015, at 12:03 PM, James Creegan wrote: > > Charles Brown wrote:Doug Henwood said : "Are you going to spend the > next year shilling for Hillary, Charles ?" > > Charles responds : When did you > stop beating your dog , Doug Henwood ? > > ********************** > These two questions are in no way similar, comparable, parallel, analogous or homologous. I think the answer is clearly "yes."]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2015 12:25:36 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-October/000661.html On Oct 12, 2015, at 7:15 AM, Marv Gandall wrote: > > The Times report correctly notes that the US electoral system serves to check the demographic forces that have been nudging the electorate toward support for the Democratic Party and its economic policies . The major donors are overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male, in a nation that is being remade by the young, by women, and by black and brown voters. They just can't talk about class without color-coding it.]]> Wed, 07 Oct 2015 01:47:34 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-October/000649.html On Oct 6, 2015, at 7:51 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote: > > But the only thing anybody remembers about that movie was the "I could have been a contender" scene between Brando and Rod Steiger. And the union stuff drops away. Was that true when it came out?]]> Sat, 12 Sep 2015 00:57:30 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-September/000612.html On Sep 11, 2015, at 7:16 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > > As an aside, I feel like, as a society, we Americans have lost our sense of what's Good in the world. You know what I'm talking about: yes, vermouth. Thank you for this excellent rant.]]> Fri, 28 Aug 2015 13:59:04 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-August/000579.html Tue, 04 Aug 2015 18:52:51 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-August/000550.html On Aug 4, 2015, at 2:20 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > > Can someone provide me with the email address for the editor of Jacobin. I forwarded your email to him.]]> Thu, 16 Jul 2015 01:46:31 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-July/000508.html On Jul 15, 2015, at 8:59 PM, James Creegan wrote: > > Am I to take this as an ironic comment on Proyect's idiot posts, or an implicit apology for the horrendous betrayal that has just taken place? You really think it's all a matter of political will, don't you?]]> Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:45:28 GMT http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2015/2015-July/000502.html On Jul 15, 2015, at 9:33 AM, James Creegan wrote: > > The only purpose of planning would have been to cope with this situation, and prepare a transition to the drachma. Which, of course, would be a piece of cake.]]>