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1081 Krugman backs Hong Kong step -- rank: 1000

I see from the latest issue of Fortune (28th Sept, not yet on their web site www.fortune.com) that Paul Krugman, prof of economics at MIT, is less embarrassed at the effect of his article advocating exchange controls for the Asian Economies, in the case of Hong Kong, than of Malaysia. The manner of his argument is interesting. He not only stresses the ultra-respectability of technocrat Joseph Lam as chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He points out "if I conspire against th ...

Document Size:	5568
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Sep 20 14:37:32 PDT 1998

1082 In Response to Jim Devine's Question -- rank: 1000

At 08:04 PM 9/18/98 -0700, you wrote: >Jim asked if I could elaborate on what I meant about the contradictions within >Keynesian economic policy. I am pressed for time, but I can lay out a very >rough outline. > >Increasing government spending or the money supply relieves business, to some >extent, the pressures of competition. Competition is supposedly what makes >business efficient. The absence of competition allowance inefficiencies to >accumulate and fictitious cap ...

Document Size:	9226
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Sep 20 04:30:11 PDT 1998

1083 Promoting mass purchasing power -- rank: 1000

At 12:30 PM 9/19/98 -0400, you wrote: >if we're going to continue to discuss this topic, I wish people would be >precise about what we/they mean by "Keynes" and "Keynesian" - the writings >of JMK himself, the various schools (neo-, post-, New) that have borrowed >his name, or the popular version of "Keynes" which boils down to deficit >spending. And if we're talking about the writings of JMK himself, which >Keynes - the Treatise? the General Theory ...

Document Size:	8282
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Sep 20 01:44:55 PDT 1998

1084 Quotes from Pipes -- rank: 1000

I just use a book like this for reference. The most interesting document is one that suggests at the time of writing Trotsky held the view that the Party should keep out of economics. The blurb on the inside jacket cover of the Unknown Lenin quotes two passages, presumably chosen because of their particularly damning character. "It is precisely now and only now, when in the starving regions people are eating human flesh, and hundreds if not thousands of corpses are littering the roads, that ...

Document Size:	8436
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Sep 19 15:50:38 PDT 1998

1085 Refuting Pipes -- rank: 1000

At 11:54 PM 9/17/98 +0000, you wrote: >Can anyone recommend any articles or writings that refute Richard Pipes' >book "The Unknown Lenin?" I know the subject is bound to come up in >any discussions I have with people about Marxism and I'd like to be >well prepared. > >Thanks > > The book is likely to be highly selective. But what bits do you want to refute? Chris Burford

Document Size:	4882
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Sep 18 15:52:08 PDT 1998

1086 Promoting mass purchasing power -- rank: 1000

At 11:44 AM 9/18/98 -0400, Charles wrote: > >I have to support again my comrade Lou in his continuing >agitation against the merger of Marxism >and Keynesianism. The latter makes no >claim for abolishing the capitalist system. Therefore >all of its reform proposals are ultimately aimed >at preserving the capitalist system by >partially and temporarily ameliorating SOME > of its horrors. But reforms that are not >part of a revolutionary program are >the cruelest , ...

Document Size:	6584
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Sep 18 15:49:17 PDT 1998

1087 Promoting mass purchasing power -- rank: 1000

At 09:09 AM 9/17/98 -0400, >Michael Cohen wrote: > >It seems to me that the major problem in not addressed by this is the shortage >ofaggregate demand in the third world caused by inadequate wages. If wage rates >were increased then demand would not be a problem. If the profit rates were >too low the corporations could simply be nationalized and run if necessaryily >inefficiently by the state. >It seems to me that in the midst of world wide depression one needs to maint ...

Document Size:	8470
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Sep 17 23:33:38 PDT 1998

1088 Deflation -- rank: 1000

At 08:17 AM 9/17/98 -0700, Jim D wrote: >Chris writes: >My understanding is that these hints, which Greenspan cannot >confirm, are significant for the strategy I quoted from the Financial Times >a week or two ago: a lower dollar interest rate implies an acceptance of a >larger dollar trade deficit, and the generous willingness of the US to >import billions of dollars worth of goods free produced by the rest of the >world, in return for printing less valuable dollars. < &g ...

Document Size:	6668
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Sep 17 14:57:11 PDT 1998

1089 Deflation -- rank: 1000

At 07:21 PM 9/16/98 PDT, you wrote: > >In re all this deflation stuff, I had an interesting conversation >yesterday with a friend who's a civil engineer. He does a lot of >inspections for refinancing, etc. and he was telling me that even though >interest rates are low, banks aren't lending money because they can't >make a spread on the loans. Even if the almighty Greenspan does lower >short-term rates, could we be in for a credit squeeze if long term rates >continue to ...

Document Size:	6178
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Sep 17 00:10:53 PDT 1998

1090 Secular global inflation -- rank: 1000

Marxists and capitalists all agree that the world is an economic system, but it is hard to get a handle on the dynamics globally. If the law of value is relevant at the highest level of generalisation, one problem is how to understand its manifestation in prices. Am I right in thinking that there has been an invisible inflation of currencies relative to value over the century? I caught a UN report on consumption that gave an estimate for global consumption in 1900 at just over 1 trillion US doll ...

Document Size:	5361
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Sep 16 23:58:45 PDT 1998

1091 Recovery plans for world capitalism -- rank: 1000

The statement today by George Soros to the Banking Committee of the House of Representatives was remarkable for its frankness and the range of its solutions (omitting only, not surprisingly, currency boards and a currency trading tax). "The global capitalist system is coming apart at the seams." Judging by the fact that the day before Clinton had announced his recovery plan involving lifting literally billions of people around the world to the status of members of the "middle clas ...

Document Size:	13217
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Sep 15 16:27:35 PDT 1998

1092 The state (was Gore) -- rank: 1000

At 01:43 PM 9/14/98 -0400, you wrote: >Lenin concentrates all of Marx's teachings >on the state in one place in _The State >and Revolution_ > > >Charles Brown > Detroit without bending the wand? Chris Burford

Document Size:	4693
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Sep 14 15:56:57 PDT 1998

1093 European banking integration -- rank: 1000

Not dramatic but probably important. Last week ended with the European Central Bank allowing four countries outside the Euro, one of them Britain, to participate in an important subcommittee, coordinating banking supervision and ensuring financial stability. The other countries are Greece, Denmark and Sweden, but clearly the significance is in including London as Europe's largest financial centre. This decision has no doubt been sharpened by anxieties about instability in Asia and Russia, but it ...

Document Size:	6099
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Sep 14 11:20:44 PDT 1998

1094 Unregulated Capital Is The Problem -- rank: 1000

At 10:44 PM 9/13/98 -0700, Michael Eisenscher wrote: >Sunday, September 13, 1998 > > PERSPECTIVE ON ASIAN ECONOMIES > Culprit Is Unregulated Capital > A 'Tobin Tax,' rather than misguided austerity, will avert > greater upheavals. > By JONATHAN KIRSHNER > > > The world's great financial powers and institutions > continue to scramble in an effort to contain the >Asian financial crisis. But the one-size-f ...

Document Size:	7625
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Sep 14 00:17:33 PDT 1998

1095 Primakov - victory against neo-liberalism -- rank: 1000

At 08:35 AM 9/12/98 -0800, you wrote: >Re: >> >>His appointment of Geraschenko to head the central bank appears to signal a >>willingness to print roubles. Other likely appointments from the former >>Gosplan suggest a readiness to abandon laissez faire economics and make use >>of a significant state sector. >> >>In what appeared to be a very authoritative analysis by Martin McCauley >>from the LSE on Sky News, the scenario is likely to be the i ...

Document Size:	6883
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Sep 13 16:02:00 PDT 1998