Search LBO-Talk Archives

106 California -- rank: 1000

Congratulations. Interest on this side of the Atlantic in the Californian decision to impose tighter anti-pollution measures on automobiles. This is seen as congruent with Tokyo, and undermining of Bush. Chris Burford London

Document Size:	4609
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jul 23 00:53:22 PDT 2002

107 The Guardian: In Face of Corporate Corruption, Strange Silence from the Left -- rank: 1000

At 17/07/02 12:31 -0400, you wrote: >Chris Kromm wrote: > >>This is article is right-on. I fear that the left isn't strong enough to >>sieze the opportunity presented by present crisis and "smite our undeniably >>vulnerable foes." > >Yup, but isn't this time drippingly rich with possibility? The bourgeoisie >fucked up bigtime, and lots of people - including many of the bourgies - >know it. Opportunities like this don't come often. I'm feeling energiz ...

Document Size:	6209
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jul 22 00:49:36 PDT 2002

108 The Guardian: In Face of Corporate Corruption, Strange Silence from the Left -- rank: 1000

> >Imagine if you can a scandal -At 15/07/02 20:55 -0400, you wrote: >This is article is right-on. I fear that the left isn't strong enough to >sieze the opportunity presented by present crisis and "smite our undeniably >vulnerable foes." >CK > >Published on Monday, July 15, 2002 in the Guardian of London > >This Strange Silence From the Left >Free Enterprise Flaunts Its Failings and Social Democrats Say Nothing > >by Roy Hattersley Arguably Gordo ...

Document Size:	6287
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jul 16 17:42:06 PDT 2002

109 "the Cheney question" -- rank: 1000

Many would sympathise with Chuck's reaction, and his warning about an attack on Iraq, but I think his comments underestimate the extent to which the leaders of US society are going to have to bring in reforms. They are scrambling over this, and the consequential implications of different proposals are not clear to them. The worst scenario for them is that Cheney is not actually a crook, but a hard player according to inherently unstable rules. The scrambled debates, despite themselves, pose the ...

Document Size:	7608
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 11 23:57:51 PDT 2002

110 U.S. Backs Off Court Immunity Demand -- rank: 1000

The first retreat. Chris Burford At 11/07/02 11:36 -0400, you wrote: >U.S. Backs Off Court Immunity Demand >Thu Jul 11, 8:38 AM ET >By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer > >UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Facing worldwide opposition, the United States has >retreated from its demand that American peacekeepers be permanently immune >from the new war crimes tribunal. U.S. diplomats are instead proposing a >yearlong ban on any investigation. > >The compromise proposal made ...

Document Size:	10839
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 11 17:56:26 PDT 2002

111 Breaking story on "the Cheney question" -- rank: 1000

London 7:30 Local time In appreciation of the robust and critical forum that Doug has fostered on LBO talk, I am forwarding this story for the breakfast contemplation of all left business observers. In well-choreographed newsmanagement on both sides of the Atlantic, BBC2's Newsnight progamme last night was able to go on from discussion of Bush's call for business ethics and executive who falsify accounts to be prosecuted, note that Wall street was underwhelmed, and commented that it now raises & ...

Document Size:	8672
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jul 9 23:46:41 PDT 2002

112 Putin vs. the oligarchs -- rank: 1000

Presumably with the dollar as a weak way to store value now, Putin's move is well timed. It is a sort of populist national finance capital initiative initiative, it seems, not accidentally linked with a restriction of bourgeois democratic rights. Chris Burford At 02/07/02 18:30 +0400, you wrote: >Business Week Online >JULY 8, 2002 >Commentary: This Time, Putin May Really Tame the Oligarchs >By Paul Starobin >Starobin covers Russian economics and politics from Moscow. > >It's ...

Document Size:	5198
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 4 16:54:11 PDT 2002

113 hunted gatherers -- rank: 1000

re the humans as prey thread, it is quite plausible that much earlier, over several millions of years of human evolution, humanoids were much more hunted than hunter gatherers. It is an artefact of 19th century European triumphalism to privilege the particular ascent to that society. Most primate species became extinct. Our own would have had to learn skills of cooperation even more than aggressive dominant skills in order to reach our present glorious position. It is just worth remembering this ...

Document Size:	5086
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jul 2 17:10:08 PDT 2002

114 slogans -- rank: 1000

At 28/01/02 22:20 -0800, you wrote: >On Tue, 29 Jan 2002, Michael Pollak wrote: > > > Personally I incline to the belief that the most creative thing protesters > > could have done was skip this meeting without making a statement and hit > > the next one. > >I know what you mean, but I can't help but think that the time for >standing down has passed (or maybe I'm just getting theological in my old >age). The global Left has got to show some maturity, and move ...

Document Size:	6489
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jan 28 23:32:37 PST 2002

115 German firm avoided Enron -- rank: 1000

Pricewaterhouse consultants apparently (report leaked from their sources?) helped a German firm steer clear of Enron in 1999: >But VEBA also became concerned about the level of Enron's debt burden and >with what a senior executive said were Enron's "aggressive accounting >practices." Consultants from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP told VEBA that >Enron, through complex accounting and deal-making, had swept tens of >millions of dollars in debt off its books, making its balanc ...

Document Size:	5534
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 27 23:08:01 PST 2002

116 Fight Club: Psychosis -- rank: 1000

At 26/01/02 17:22 -0500, you wrote: >Just watched the DVD "Special Edition" of the brilliant film "Fight Club," >and wondered, what with all the anti-capitalist/consumerist, >pseudo-nihilist dialogue and imagery, capped with the final shot of >several large commercial buildings being blown up (to erase credit card >debt everywhere) and the base of operations called Ground Zero, why no one >has pointed to this as irresponsible or worse? I mean, doesn't Andrew ...

Document Size:	6281
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 27 23:23:22 PST 2002

117 Revolution at Deutsche Bank -- rank: 1000

Deutsche Bank is about to shake up not only the personelle but the style of leadership. The board is to be reduced from 8 to 4 members and much more power for quick decision making is going to be given to a CEO, significantly coming from the investment section of the bank. This is seen, almost certainly correctly, as a move to Anglo-Saxon methods of managing finance capital. It is a switch from the collegiate stability of German banks and their interconnected holdings in German industry, to a mu ...

Document Size:	5617
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 27 23:05:07 PST 2002

118 success of former communist parties -- rank: 1000

At 22/01/02 18:00 +0300, you wrote: >Wow, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland and now Berlin. The old communist parties are >doing swimmingly. > >I note also that the communists have 72 of 75 seats in the Mongolian >parliament. > >Chris Doss >Ths Russia Journal >--------------------------- These parties have abjured open political repression by the state and are really social democratic parties. But their strong showing is more than a folk memory of times when the cash nexus and ...

Document Size:	5886
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jan 22 23:21:31 PST 2002

119 Marconi crash -- rank: 1000

The former finance director of Marconi (formerly GEC) in the UK has broken his silence and is the lead story on the front page of the Financial Times. Among various self-serving remarks directed against other board members especially the new CEO, he suggests no scandal, but a major liquidity problem in the spring of last year: >"What is not widely realised is that the US acquisitions had to be made >for cash, as GEC was not compliant with the US Foreign Corrupt Practices >Act and s ...

Document Size:	5909
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jan 17 23:14:26 PST 2002

120 new global juridical forms -- rank: 1000

Two major areas of controversy this week confirm the prediction at the beginning of "Empire" that new juridical forms for a global capitalist system, are at stake. 1) The major WTO ruling against the USA about subsidies to its largest capitalist companies, opens the door to a programme of retaliatory measures by the European Union. Interestingly although the EU is by far the smaller economy in turnover, it is larger in population and appears to have the political will to carry this str ...

Document Size:	5845
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jan 16 23:59:15 PST 2002