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1141 Ormerod on LTCM -- rank: 1000

Yes my reaction too would be to answer Charles's question with a straight "no" - chaos is not another name for anarchy of production under capitalism. As Mike points out, in actual conditions it is very difficult to distinguish a multitude of possible interacting chaotic processes from noise. I am sure Ormerod will publish theoretically the scientific reasons for his schadenfreude over the fate of LTCM and its Nobel Prize winners. Perhaps he has already. But my recollection of "Th ...

Document Size:	7695
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Oct 16 00:08:08 PDT 1998

1142 Hang Seng over 9000 -- rank: 1000

For the second time this week the Hang Seng has gone over 9000. This time by a substantial margin. Through the Hong Kong thread over the last couple of months, we have seen a crunch confrontation in defiance of the power of short term capital market flows. The Hong Kong authorities appear to have kept together a larger concentration of capital in Hong Kong than would otherwise have been. (Chang is not correct that the Honk Kong government bought stock in order to raise the value of the stock exc ...

Document Size:	5650
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 15 23:51:57 PDT 1998

1143 Ormerod on LTCM -- rank: 1000

I have just caught Paul Ormerod presenting an interesting crtique of events at LTCM. He argued that it is in the nature of economic models that they can work well repeatedly and then suddenly go awry. This would explain why LTCM was not protected by the presence of Nobel prize winners in finance. Ormerod has emphasised the relevance of chaos theory in his book entitled, (I think I recall correctly) The Death of Economics. Although the occurence of occasional chaotic phenomena is a strong incenti ...

Document Size:	5463
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Oct 13 23:24:08 PDT 1998

1144 enough = enough? -- rank: 1000

At 11:51 PM 10/13/98 -0400, you wrote: >michael at ecst.csuchico.edu wrote: > >>I suspect that Monica et al is doing us a favor. By distracting Congress, >>they are doing less damage. Also, since Clinton's only support is from >>the liberals, he is behaving a bit more like a liberal. > >I have very mixed feelings about this. I hate Clinton, hate hate hate, but >persecuting a guy for a blow job is a very bad precedent. The people behind >it are horrid snoops ...

Document Size:	5653
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Oct 13 23:14:31 PDT 1998

1145 Friedman's 1954 article -- rank: 1000

This week's New Statesman has an article by Paul Ormerod cheerfully citing an article by Milton Friedman in 1954 entitled "Why the American Economy is Depression Proof". This considers how to avoid a repeat of the collapse of the early 1930's . Ormerod claims Friedman argues that if a major recession seems imminent, policy makers should forget their fear of inflation and simply print money. Ormerod claims that the paper is not some aberration on Friedman's part which he now hopes no on ...

Document Size:	5068
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Oct 13 00:23:33 PDT 1998

1146 Jubilee 2000 South Africa Launched -- rank: 1000

At 07:39 AM 11/30/98 +0000, Patrick Bond wrote: >The superprofit repatriations by TNCs are now being looked into, >particularly in relation to the Swiss and German firms. There are >excellent researchers in those countries, but US and British comrades >(and French and Japanese and Dutch) are yet to join this leg of the >work. I can't suggest anyone myself, but it would be disappointing if no one on this lists has any connections. Isn't some left pride at stake here? >Am off to ...

Document Size:	5817
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 29 23:56:56 PST 1998

1147 Pinochet and bourgeois democratic right -- rank: 1000

Louis Proyect: >Okay. Maybe on that occasion you can explain why the Socialist Foreign >Minister of Chile is urging that Pinochet be set free. I think Tom Kruse has demonstrated why simply denouncing revisionism, opportunism, or social democracy without concretely looking at the balance of forces in a country is not a serious approach. The implication seems to me to be that the criticism of social democracy, revisionism, or opportunism must not be divorced from the concrete situation that ...

Document Size:	7828
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 29 01:15:58 PST 1998

1148 Jubilee 2000 South Africa Launched -- rank: 1000

Interesting report: >International Campaign against Apartheid Foreign Debt and >Apartheid-caused Debt > >Research just completed indicates that the debt South Africa >accumulated as Apartheid foreign debt is larger than previously >thought and is well in excess of R100 billion [$18 bn]. I would have thought that figure was low. How was it calculated? I suppose there is no way of calculated the extraction of superprofits by US and British companies from the superexploitation of ...

Document Size:	7162
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 29 01:03:19 PST 1998

1149 Guardian - legal article on Pinochet -- rank: 1000

Hope this wraps OK. Thanks to several subscribers who sent me tips. "Geoffrey Robertson QC is author of The Justice Game, and the forthcoming Crimes Against Humanity" QC is a Queen's Councillor (sp?), an eminent advocate. Chris Burford >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Friday November 27, 1998 Straw's hands are tied. Pinochet must be tre ...

Document Size:	10571
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Nov 28 01:10:12 PST 1998

1150 Pinochet and bourgeois democratic right -- rank: 1000

Sounds like LP and I have gone as far as we can at present in drawing clear and definite lines of demarcation. I hope the next round when it comes will be better than this one. Chris Burford London. At 08:36 PM 11/27/98 -0500, you wrote: >Chris Burford: >>Above another typical opportunist evasion by LP of the main points of his >>opponents argument, especially the arguments by Lenin against his >>left-revisionist distortions of marxism. > >I thought that Lenin died of ...

Document Size:	6404
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Nov 28 01:05:14 PST 1998

1151 Pinochet and bourgeois democratic right -- rank: 1000

At 08:51 AM 11/27/98 -0500, you wrote: >Chris Burford: >>Juan has now posted on marxism-unmoderated a report on the detention of >>Pinochet which gives further detail, which LP so confidently asserted on >>19th October, did not exist: >> >>"This petition was the court's answer to the extended complaint >>filed on October 15, 1998, by the Human Rights Secretariat of >>Izquierda Unida (second largest left hand political party in >>Spain) as P ...

Document Size:	9636
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Nov 27 15:52:05 PST 1998

1152 Pinochet and bourgeois democratic right -- rank: 1000

Delighted though I am to think of LP screaming like the famous Munch painting for being challenged as a left-revisionist, let us concentrate on essential lines of demarcation. By which I do not include value judgements like Tom is nice reformist and Chris is nasty grovelling one. After all, perhaps that makes Tom a more dangerous one, if he is out there partying and open to accusations that he is encouraging people to put their faith in a social-democratic representative of capitalism called the ...

Document Size:	13869
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Nov 27 00:16:48 PST 1998

1153 chaos, economics, and arms races -- rank: 1000

At 05:21 PM 11/25/98 -0800, Paul Rosenberg wrote: some interesting comments. (I will reserve my position on what is conveyed by his signature line about reason and democracy, because I do not think they exist in abstract, but that would be another thread title.) >> Why not file it under, that's-probably-true? > >Because of a simple observation: there are very few (hundreds at most) >examples of arms races. Far too little data to support such abstract >models. Good point but I ...

Document Size:	8056
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Nov 26 00:23:16 PST 1998

1154 Pinochet and bourgeois democratic right -- rank: 1000

At 12:19 AM 11/26/98 -0400, Tom Kruse wrote: "That the Pinochet situation also provides opportunities for entrenching juridical neo-imperialism such as it is today should concern us. But let's also stay in touch with people fighting for justice on the ground." Tom is right that one of the touchstones for leftists and marxists orientating themselves in such a complex moment is whether they can identify with and unite with the feelings of the people fighting for justice. I suggest any s ...

Document Size:	9710
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Nov 26 00:21:44 PST 1998

1155 Pinochet: eating words -- rank: 1000

To punish Louis Proyect, I shall repeat his words of 19th October. Chris Burford London. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 08:55:26 -0400 To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com From: Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> Subject: Re: good news? The arrest of Pinochet has nothing to do with "global governance" or "third ways" or any other reformist schema that Burford would cover with Leninist-jargon wallpaper. You are deali ...

Document Size:	5211
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Nov 25 14:53:31 PST 1998