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466 Deutsche - Dresdner banks merge -- rank: 1000

At 02:35 11/03/00 -0800, you wrote: >On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Chris Burford wrote: > >> This "releases share-holder value" and is the decisive switch to the >> domination of a pure anglo-saxon type of finance capital dominated economy. > >I don't buy this. There's not a great deal of evidence that Eurocapital is >going down the US road to rentier ruin and foreign indebtedness; many of >the alleged spin-offs are actually reallocations of capital, i.e. >cros ...

Document Size:	12304
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 12 05:57:35 PST 2000

467 Wallerstein on US, PRC Conflict -- rank: 1000

At 19:59 08/03/00 -0500, Rakesh wrote: {In response to the quote I myself supplied - >>Capital Vol 1 Chap 15 Machinery and Modern Industry, Section 3b >>Prolongation of Working Day. > >>Machinery produces relative surplus-value; not only by directly >>depreciating the value of labour-power, and by indirectly cheapening the >>same through cheapening the commodities that enter into its reproduction, >>but also, when it is first introduced sporadically into an ...

Document Size:	13023
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Mar 10 23:25:02 PST 2000

468 Deutsche, Dresdner banks in merger talks -- rank: 1000

At 19:55 09/03/00 +0530, you wrote: >8 March 2000 > >Deutsche, Dresdner banks in merger talks This merger presumes that from 2002 German companies will not have to pay a capital gains tax when they sell stock. This will allow the selling off of many interconnecting components of the German system of the interprenetration of finance and industrial capital. This "releases share-holder value" and is the decisive switch to the domination of a pure anglo-saxon type of finance capit ...

Document Size:	5274
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 9 16:12:16 PST 2000

469 K-W out -- rank: 1000

I am mystified too. It's neither English nor German. I think it must be a new international language for the elite of the world, from whom alone, can the head to the IMF be selected. How many languages do you know, Hinrich? Are you offering yourself? A German is apparently absolutely necessary if the consensus of international relations is not to fall apart. Would you do any worse? Chris Burford London At 20:58 08/03/00 +1100, you wrote: >C'mon Hinrich'n'Daniel. > >I just know you bloke ...

Document Size:	6412
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 9 00:08:17 PST 2000

470 Wallerstein on US, PRC Conflict -- rank: 1000

At 22:27 07/03/00 -0500, Rakesh wrote: >Quoting Wallerstein, Chris Burford noted: >>> it is by no means >>>certain that the U.S. will be able to corner more quasi-monopolies of the >>>new leading industries than its rivals. >>A fine marxist analysis. > >Yes, it's a step forward to recognize that it's the cornering of those >quasi monopolies and not trade balances per se, as Arrighi had it, that >matters, though no one seriously maintains that the U ...

Document Size:	6567
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Mar 8 15:49:29 PST 2000

471 Margins of Being "Human" (was Re: Peter Singer & Vegetarian Dogs) -- rank: 1000

At 00:08 08/03/00 -0600, you wrote: > > >>We need to reframe the concept of consciousness as not peculiarly human but >>as the focus of attention. The non-conscious is not some mysterious other >>realm of an individual psyche but is the basic fabric of engaged >>interaction by someone within a *social* network. >> >>Chris Burford >> >> >Traditionally "consciousness" is used to distinguish people from animals. >If we define it ...

Document Size:	6616
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Mar 7 23:14:58 PST 2000

472 "Red Ken" defies Blair to run for London mayor -- rank: 1000

At 21:37 07/03/00 -0600, you wrote: > >How "red" Ken is (and maybe even how expert he was at running the GLC) may >be open to some question: e.g., unlike some on the Labour left such as >Tony Benn, he supported the US/NATO war on Yugoslavia. > --C. G. Estabrook Ken Livingstone supported military intervention in support of the Kosovans but like many on the left he was not an enthusiastic supporter of the war that NATO waged. He would probably have been more openly critica ...

Document Size:	6154
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Mar 7 23:08:50 PST 2000

473 Margins of Being "Human" (was Re: Peter Singer & Vegetarian Dogs) -- rank: 1000

At 11:22 07/03/00 -0500, Yoshie wrote >The same argument based upon the premise that some humans are only >"marginally" human is used by Peter Singer. The problem stems from the >fact that, despite their arguments against "speciesism," both Singer and >Tom Regan are (paradoxical as it may sound) deeply committed to the >traditional humanist question: "what is human?" Both of them think that >what defines a "normal" human being (in Singe ...

Document Size:	7764
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Mar 7 15:33:54 PST 2000

474 Wallerstein on US, PRC Conflict -- rank: 1000

At 18:00 06/03/00 -0800, you wrote: >Comment No. 35, Mar. 1, 2000 > The primary economic problem of >the United States for the next 20-30 years is how to maintain its central >role as a locus of capital accumulation in a "triadic" world-economy in >which it is engaged in very keen competition with western Europe and Japan. >It will not be easy. > it is by no means >certain that the U.S. will be able to corner more quasi-monopolies of the >new leading industri ...

Document Size:	5281
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Mar 7 15:17:54 PST 2000

475 "Red Ken" defies Blair to run for London mayor -- rank: 1000

> >So Blair is developing opposition and it is appearing on his Left. That is >a very nice turn of events. >-- Nathan Newman That the opposition comes from the left is a sign that the New Labour approach to setting up almost a government of national unity, does diffuse right-wing opposition and provides a context in which opposition can come from the left. This I suggest over a five or ten year period is one of the tests we should apply to third way politics. Chris Burford London

Document Size:	5244
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Mar 7 15:00:44 PST 2000

476 Germany: CDU/CSU search for right wing leader -- rank: 1000

At 14:35 01/03/00 +0100, Johannes wrote: >> The IHT sketches the line up, that Ruehe is representing the more >> conservative wing of the CDU, and enjoying the rightist support of Stoiber >> and the CSU of Bavaria. Angela Merkel from the former DDR is seen as >> without the traditional CDU network connections, and symbolising the >> possibility of splitting the CDU on gender, generational and ideological >> lines. >Before the governor of the state of Hesse, ...

Document Size:	7543
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 2 23:46:26 PST 2000

477 Psychology: [Fwd: Re: Samir Amin: "Pure economics is a parascience"] -- rank: 1000

At 00:40 29/06/00 -0500, you wrote: > >Religion used to be the opiate of the people, but nowadays it's > >psychology. > > > >Roland Chrisjohn > >Psychology and economics (as parasciences) do indeed share the fallacy of >pure individualism, but they're also fundamentally at odds. Economics boils >down to the assertion that the individual is sovereign. There are no limits >to this sovereignty, either from nature or society. In this sense it's >quite Chr ...

Document Size:	6896
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jun 29 23:54:31 PDT 2000

478 Soaring US budget surplus -- rank: 1000

At 14:28 28/06/00 -0400, you wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>I gather that the trend for the US government to run a budget surplus is >>so strong that it may be possible to pay off the national debt by 2012. >> >>I understand the USA is still running a substantial trade deficit. >> >>Could someone spell out if there is any relation at all between a budget >>surplus in the accounts of a national government and, on the other hand, >>a trade de ...

Document Size:	6315
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jun 28 16:34:55 PDT 2000

479 e-government -- rank: 1000

Power without guns? The withering away of the state? Extract from article in the Economist below Chris Burford London SURVEY GOVERNMENT AND THE INTERNET IN DOWNTOWN Phoenix, Arizona, people are queuing in a grubby municipal office to renew their car and truck registrations. They are visibly bored and frustrated, but what can they do? All over the world, people dealing with government departments and agencies are having to engage in dreary and time-consuming activities they would much rather avo ...

Document Size:	6308
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jun 28 16:01:06 PDT 2000

480 Soaring US budget surplus -- rank: 1000

I gather that the trend for the US government to run a budget surplus is so strong that it may be possible to pay off the national debt by 2012. I understand the USA is still running a substantial trade deficit. Could someone spell out if there is any relation at all between a budget surplus in the accounts of a national government and, on the other hand, a trade deficit. Chris Burford London

Document Size:	4852
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jun 27 23:31:59 PDT 2000