Search LBO-Talk Archives

361 Undervalued poor countries exchange rates -- rank: 1000

At 17/08/01 09:30 -0700, Brad DeLong wrote: Responding to a thread entitled >Re: A long way to go still .... started off by Ian with an article from the FT of the previous day which said: >The champions of liberal markets are in full retreat. There is only one >way they can make themselves heard again over the angry shouts of the >protesters. They must stop making the case for globalisation - and start >fighting the cause of better globalisation. Brad: >The world structure of r ...

Document Size:	5853
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Aug 26 07:41:27 PDT 2001

362 TNR Online | The Passion of Joschka Fischer by Paul Berman -- rank: 1000

At 23/08/01 18:20 -0700, Michael Pugliese wrote: >http://www.thenewrepublic.com/082701/berman_partone082701.html It is puzzling that Fischer remains consistently the most popular German politician with approval ratings over 70% in the regular opinion polls. Any idea why he has not been hurt by these revelations? Is Germany no longer the deeply conservative country I assume it to be? Chris Burford London

Document Size:	5232
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Aug 24 23:07:42 PDT 2001

363 "Corporate Responsibility" - BAT -- rank: 1000

Amid new allegations that Britsh American Tobacco has been colluding in cigarette smuggling, it is interesting to visit their attractive website. There we see the modern face of global finance capital. Under "Corporate Citizenship" we read >As part of this commitment, we have accepted a request from Nottingham >University in the UK to help finance and support a new International >Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at the University's Business >School. The Centre wil ...

Document Size:	6023
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Aug 22 22:46:29 PDT 2001

364 Fed goes for 25, surprising no one.... -- rank: 1000

Interesting that they note growth abroad is slowing too. The nearest to an admission that the USA cannot be the "engine of growth" for the world economy on this occasion. A stock market fall on the news was I understand expected. "Buy on the rumour, sell on the fact". But this emphasises that Greenspan is no longer believed to be a magician. And what of the argument that the market would have rather seen sort of a shift to neutral, maybe signaling the end of the rate cuts, bu ...

Document Size:	6430
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Aug 21 14:25:05 PDT 2001

365 Grandfathers and hazing -- rank: 1000

An extensive Channel 4 tv programme in the UK has just given a virtually sociological description, with graphic human interest presentation, of how the Russian army relies on a brutal system of hierarchical bullying to indoctrinate and unify its conscripts. The system is dominated by those waiting to leave their two year stint, called "grandfathers". New recruits are routinely beaten and humilated. Later they graduate and in turn perform similar brutal rituals. Partly pure selfishness, ...

Document Size:	5762
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Aug 21 00:11:49 PDT 2001

366 World Bank/IMF to parley with "civil society" -- rank: 1000

The actual open letter interestingly, perhaps a little desparately, refers to their desire to have exchanges with global "civil society". Have those Gramscians got everywhere? http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/openletter.htm August 17, 2001 Dear Messrs. Dahaner, Azcarate, Ambrose and Weissman: On behalf of World Bank President James Wolfensohn and IMF Managing Director Horst Kšhler, thank you for your letter dated August 8. We welcome your interest, as you state in your letter, in &q ...

Document Size:	7833
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Aug 20 16:03:48 PDT 2001

367 The $ -- rank: 1000

At 19/08/01 20:49 -0700, Ian wrote: >Dollar needs a soft landing, say economists > >Special report: global recession > >Charlotte Denny and Heather Stewart >Monday August 20, 2001 >The Guardian > >Central banks must intervene to steady the dollar's decline against >other currencies to prevent a meltdown that could threaten the global >economy, two leading City economists warn today. Another very interesting article. Couched in gentle, constructive terms, it sugge ...

Document Size:	5643
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Aug 19 22:55:39 PDT 2001

368 A L’ATTAQUE -- rank: 1000

"Only two things matter: class struggle and sex." Director: Robert Guediguian The film shifts backwards and forwards from the playwrights to their imaginary plot. The setting of their imaginary creation is a decaying garage in Estaque (near Marseilles) run by an Italian family. Gigi and Jean-Do are the mechanic cousins. They fight against closure by the bank. Characters are tried out and then erased by the playwrights and we are allowed to see how the plot develops in the minds of the ...

Document Size:	5341
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Aug 19 05:16:20 PDT 2001

369 dollar -- rank: 1000

At 17/08/01 10:02 -0400, Doug wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>Any comments? Do we expect the fall of the dollar to be exponential as a >>result of some feedback mechanism reinforcing its demise, or will it just >>adjust a little more to the euro? > >If we knew the answer to that question, we'd be trading futures, instead >of posting to left-wing mailing lists. > >This is one of those questions that Keynes was talking about in this >classic passage: > ...

Document Size:	10120
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Aug 18 12:17:50 PDT 2001

370 BoycottBush.net [was Re: WB on its critics] -- rank: 1000

At 18/08/01 09:33 -0500, you wrote: >Doug Henwood wrote: > > > > and, holding > > contradictory thoughts firmly in mind, also point, a la Empire, to > > the good things hidden within it, like cosmpolitanism, fascinating > > cultural cross-pollination, etc. > > > >Bullshit. Capitalism brought those, in part, and in part suppressed >them. Your Empire hasn't added a single goodie to the list that wasn't >already there. It's pure daydreaming to kee ...

Document Size:	5614
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Aug 18 07:48:13 PDT 2001

371 dollar -- rank: 1000

At 16/08/01 19:28 -0400, you wrote: >All you connoisseurs of chaos: <http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/US/91>. > >Doug That includes me, and the just departed Barkley, of course, and with much more justification. But the issue is perhaps now that the dollar no longer looks a safe store of value over at least the coming six months relative to the euro, will that bring into play amplifying factors, which will intensify the fall of the dollar? One commentary I have heard which s ...

Document Size:	5645
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Aug 16 23:27:22 PDT 2001

372 PDS on the Berlin Wall - and present walls! -- rank: 1000

At 16/08/01 18:29 -0400, you wrote: >At 11:41 PM 8/16/01 +0200, Johannes wrote: > >J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote: > > > > > >> Calling the former GDR a "developing country" > >> is a bit of a stretch. Actually, in 1939 it was probably > >> slightly ahead of the West in per capita income and > >> in its level of industrialization. > > > >Do you have a source for this? > > >I think Barkley has a point, re ...

Document Size:	9747
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Aug 16 23:15:55 PDT 2001

373 PDS on the Berlin Wall - and present walls! -- rank: 1000

At 14/08/01 12:34 +0200, you wrote: >James Heartfield wrote: > > > Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org> writes: > > >Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the erection of the Berlin wall. > > > > > >PDS spokespersons have taken part in a series of debates in Germany. > > > > > > > Carolyn Eisenberg's book Dividing Germany explains that it was the > > British and Americans who started the drive to divide Germany. > > ...

Document Size:	8066
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Aug 15 23:39:22 PDT 2001

374 Lay off men - Lessing -- rank: 1000

Even in the silly season when newspapers are short of news, it is remarkable for a national daily newspaper to have as its main story a statement by a writer. But perhaps we English are becoming more genuinely cultured. Perhaps it is genuinely out of respect for a remarkably courageous and honest writer (as an experiment she deprived herself of sleep until she started hallucinating). Perhaps it will be misrepresented as proof that feminism was all wrong. Nevertheless it is an important correctiv ...

Document Size:	6388
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Aug 14 16:06:24 PDT 2001

375 PDS on the Berlin Wall - and present walls! -- rank: 1000

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the erection of the Berlin wall. PDS spokespersons have taken part in a series of debates in Germany. Here is the English language translation from the PDS site. http://www.pds-online.de/international/dokumente/englisch/0107/pv_13august.htm Extract: >Explaining the events of August 13, 1961 against their historic background >must not mean justifying politically or morally the erection of the wall . > >The National Executive has with interest take ...

Document Size:	8525
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Aug 13 23:35:28 PDT 2001