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796 Clinton: IMF to sell gold -- rank: 1000

Clinton's statement yesterday marks an important shift towards the likelihood that IMF will sell gold reserves and perhaps even for the benefit of developing countries, as he suggested. As a result the price of gold dropped to $283 per ounce. It followed similar remarks on Monday by Jacques Chirac and Gordon Brown. This sounds coordinated. The G7 summit in June may discuss the idea further. The IMF executive board would still need an 85% majority vote at its meeting later this year. But since F ...

Document Size:	7038
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Mar 17 15:35:07 PST 1999

797 Clinton Medicare Plan -- rank: 1000

The following news item looks to me like a major political and class battle. Clinton, as with tobacco, is prepared to take on a small but powerful section of capital, for the better management of capitalist society as a whole. He is progressive in this regard. One of the battle lines is about control of the vast finance involved. Am I not right that Greenspan has unusually specifically criticised the idea that such large sums of money invested on the stock exchange should be managed by state fu ...

Document Size:	12439
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Mar 16 23:59:41 PST 1999

798 Currency paradox -- rank: 1000

Why does an economy like Europe find the relative value of its currency falling simply because it is going through a recession? Why is the value of the dollar relatively high although it is running a massive trade deficit? Is it purely that its interests rates are lower in Europe, in order to stimulate the economy again, and still relatively higher in the US to avoid the economy getting out of control? Or is there some other mechanism at work? It seems paradoxical from the point of view of simpl ...

Document Size:	5140
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Mar 15 15:20:14 PST 1999

799 Post Oskar Scenario -- rank: 1000

At 08:32 15/03/99 +0100, Johannes wrote: > Chris Burford wrote >>That the new finance minister comes from Hesse also seems to be a signal of >>Schroeders determination to pay attention to electability in view of the >>recent SPD losses there. And for that, it is necessary to be cautious >>about what parts of capital can be taken on at any one time. >> > >There is another thing to be kept in mind with Eichel. Actually he is one of >Lafontaines boys. What ...

Document Size:	6035
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Mar 15 15:25:54 PST 1999

800 Germany to the Neue Mitte -- rank: 1000

Like John Taber, I too had the feeling that things either did not add up, or the workings of German politics remain hidden to the likes of him and me. The press release of Lafontaine that was forwarded however I think confirms the fault lines. Experienced politicians can usually manage the personal animosities and rivalries if they can find a way of working on the fundamentals. However the modern media will look for every crack, expose it, and widen it by amplifying it. Even if the senior politi ...

Document Size:	10379
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 14 22:44:45 PST 1999

801 Just In: Red Oskar's Out -- rank: 1000

Useful discussion, and further websites. One commentary on CNN tonight from a German source seemed to the point. He said it was not finance but industrial capital that pushed Lafontaine out - that a group of leading industrialists had written a collective letter a few days earlier effectively targetting what he stands for. And he went. That the new finance minister comes from Hesse also seems to be a signal of Schroeders determination to pay attention to electability in view of the recent SPD lo ...

Document Size:	5075
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Mar 12 15:26:55 PST 1999

802 Frances Bolton in Science & Society -- rank: 1000

Are extracts possible here? I would be extremely interested. Chris Burford London At 16:09 11/03/99 -0500, you wrote: >Congratulations to Frances on her review of Steven Rose's >_Lifelines: Biology Beyond Determinism_ in the Spring 1999 >issue of Science & Society. > > > Jim Farmelant > >___________________________________________________________________ >You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. >Get completely free e-mail from Juno a ...

Document Size:	5293
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 11 17:06:30 PST 1999

803 Just In: Red Oskar's Out -- rank: 1000

Rather weak reporting in the English language media tonight on the web and on television and my German is not good enough to pick up the subtleties, but Green spokespersons sounded disappointed and terse about implications for the coalition. There appears to have been a standoff at a cabinet meeting yesterday. The exact wording is presumably confidential but I guess it was on a formula that would have summed up a whole number of things, but most likely that cabinet members should not make statem ...

Document Size:	15576
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 11 16:14:37 PST 1999

804 Kapital & Krime -- rank: 1000

Thought-provoking paragraphs shrewdly selected. Even allowing for the effects of revolutionary solidarity in the fifth passage about the Paris Commune, some of the fundamental contradictions of Communism remain dauntingly difficult in these passages. The early quote from 1845 >>In order to protect itself against crime, against direct acts of >>violence, society requires an extensive, complicated system of >>administrative and judicial bodies which requires an immense labour > ...

Document Size:	9636
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Mar 10 14:48:20 PST 1999

805 Fw: THE DIALECTIC OF MARX'S C A P I T A L AND TODAY'S GLOBAL CRISIS -- rank: 1000

I would agree about the deeply dialectical nature of Marx's analysis. However I suggest the term "The Dialectic", in the singular, is a Hegelian usage and not a usage common in orthodox marxism, and may have misleadingly idealist implications. Chris Burford London At 23:09 08/03/99 -0500, Andrew Kliman wrote: >Announcing a new series of discussions beginning in March... > > > THE DIALECTIC OF MARX'S C A P I T A L AND TODAY'S GLOBAL >CRISIS > > >AT EACH NEW ...

Document Size:	15229
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Mar 10 00:05:48 PST 1999

806 Jiang criticizes Soros by name. -- rank: 1000

I salute Henry Liu's passionate and reasoned post. It suggests to me that there is the potential material base in the people of East Asia, at least a 1 1/2 billion of them, coordinating pressure for a better managed world economy. The article I posted today on the banana wars also has material about how the IMF has been run to benefit the USA. Britain looks increasingly exposed over a 5 year period if there is intensified economic friction between the USA and Europe, since if the euro falls in v ...

Document Size:	8962
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 7 11:09:38 PST 1999

807 Just bananas??? -- rank: 1000

Growing inter-imperialist rivalry between the main blocks: >From Guardian/Observer website, by influential editor of the Observer, and former economics editor of the Guardian, Will Hutton: Chris Burford London ____________________________________________________________________ Bananas to the US: Blair must join the EU bunch By Will Hutton Saturday March 06 1999 The Guardian The last 48 hours must have been acutely sobering for Tony Blair. The US, which he has backed through thick and thin, h ...

Document Size:	11505
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 7 10:01:16 PST 1999

808 Euro to fall below dollar? -- rank: 1000

In the interests of theoretical integrity, but because of the importance of the question, I want to forward this article from the Observer this morning. The unification of the euro this January was a triumph of electronic and political coordination, but its weakness towards the dollar now looks financially critical. Are these analyses to be believed? Will the euro fall before the US "bubble" bursts? Chris Burford London ________________________________________________________ 'Euro to ...

Document Size:	8228
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 7 04:01:00 PST 1999

809 Jiang criticizes Soros by name. -- rank: 1000

At 10:31 05/03/99 -0500, Henry Liu wrote: >The economic "fundamentals" all over Asia are down in the pits and will stay there until after the inevitable, yet incredibly resilient, deflationary boom on Wall Street. The reason is that the "fundamentals" of the Asian economies had been predicated on a trade/finance globalization regime that hit a killer reef in 1997. Wall Street is living on borrowed time from two sources: 1) from the repatriated flight capital from Asia, a ...

Document Size:	7376
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Mar 6 00:30:18 PST 1999

810 Jiang criticizes Soros by name. -- rank: 1000

At 19:49 04/03/99 -0500, you wrote: >The Hong Kong press reports that President Jiang Zemin of China >criticized George Soros by name for the first time during a reception >today for delgates from HK to the National Politcal Consultative >Conference. Jiang was reported as calling Soros a financial raider and >saying Soros would never be allowed to operate inside China. >A Soros owned US company holds a 21% interest in a regional airline >operating out of Shanghai that has b ...

Document Size:	6156
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 4 23:37:34 PST 1999