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10201 [lbo-talk] State Expansion -- rank: 1000

On Nov 28, 2007, at 9:28 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > This also holds true for the US, where public social spending > increased from > 13.3% in 1980 to 16.2% in 2003. During the first two years of Bush > administration, public social spending jumped 1.6 percentage points > (from > 14.6 in 2000 to 16.2 in 2003). Under Clinton administration it > went up from > 13.4 in 1990 to 15.4 in 1995 (2.1 percent point increase) and then > slightly > down to 14.6 in 2000 - m ...

Document Size:	5389
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Nov 28 06:54:37 PST 2007

10202 [lbo-talk] Mailer's prizewinning writing -- rank: 1000

<http://gawker.com/news/the-naked-and-the-dead/norman-mailer-even-in- death-an-award+winning-perv-327128.php> the naked and the dead Norman Mailer: Even in Death, An Award-Winning Perv Now that he's up and died, Norman Mailer will like Kafka, Borges, and Anna Nicole before him forever be denied his Nobel, a prize reserved for alive people only. But, no matter! London's Literary Review has just named Mailer's pulp Hitler novel The Castle in the Forest winner of its annual Bad Sex in Fic ...

Document Size:	6641
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 19:38:15 PST 2007

10203 [lbo-talk] top 10 on Conservapedia -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 8:28 PM, bitch at pulpculture.org wrote: > isn't travolta bi? His religion is reputed to be some sort of organized closet.

Document Size:	4720
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 19:07:33 PST 2007

10204 [lbo-talk] top 10 on Conservapedia -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 5:59 PM, Chris Doss wrote: > It's not something I think of often. Just tried to > think of something suitably revolting. Mounting a dog? these are all very interesting associations - perhaps we should talk some more about them

Document Size:	4776
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 15:11:27 PST 2007

10205 [lbo-talk] Kliman on Marx -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 3:14 AM, Tahir Wood wrote: > Yeah. Doug wants something from Marx that he would never ask of > Derrida > or Foucault. Not sure what I'd ever ask of Derrida - I'm not much of a fan. I do like Foucault, and one of the things he offers is a theoretically informed and materialist interpretation of history. He had a lot in common with Marx, his protests to the contrary notwithstanding. Theory illuminating observation, and vice versa. Marx is full of empiricism. Capit ...

Document Size:	6558
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 14:39:00 PST 2007

10206 [lbo-talk] counter-tendencies -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 5:02 PM, bhandari at berkeley.edu wrote: > True to dialectics, Grossman, the theorist of breakdown, actually > did more > to develop the theory of counter-tendencies than anyone since Marx > or JS > Mill (from whom Marx stole it). You can see what an advance Grossman's > chapter is over the one Marx himself wrote. I hope you read more > than the > last sentence. I did, and the greatness of the chapter eludes me. Recessions and competitive pressures dr ...

Document Size:	6012
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 14:23:30 PST 2007

10207 [lbo-talk] counter-tendencies -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 12:52 PM, bhandari at berkeley.edu wrote: > http://www.marxists.org/archive/grossman/1929/breakdown/index.htm > > see chapter 3 > "The historical tendency of capital is not the creation of a central bank which dominates the whole economy through a general cartel, but industrial concentration and growing accumulation of capital leading to the final breakdown due to overaccumulation."

Document Size:	5082
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 13:24:13 PST 2007

10208 [lbo-talk] top 10 on Conservapedia -- rank: 1000

<http://agonist.org/ian_welsh/20071120/ what_do_conservatives_spend_their_time_thinking_about> What Do Conservatives Spend Their Time Thinking About? One answer is provided by Conservapedia's most viewed list: <http://www.conservapedia.com/Special:Statistics> 1. Main Page [1,897,388] 2. Homosexuality [1,488,013] 3. Homosexuality and Hepatitis [516,193] 4. Homosexuality and Promiscuity [416,767] 5. Homosexuality and Parasites [387,438] 6. Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [328,045] 7. ...

Document Size:	5530
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 09:09:38 PST 2007

10209 [lbo-talk] more on ADIA-C -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 11:23 AM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Doug then asks: > >> When do all these (growing) foreign claims on the U.S. become >> a sign of weakening rather than evidence of imperial strength? > > Well, if you're talking about this current deal, it's not a claim at > all: it's non-voting, non-control insider sweet deal. It's just some > cash at a critical time (in the news, not actually in the boardroom) > that will be seen as a smart move later. By bot ...

Document Size:	5651
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 08:53:00 PST 2007

10210 [lbo-talk] Marx on profits -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 12:35 PM, Eric wrote: >> Yeah. Countervailing tendencies. Increased exploitation, cheapening >> of capital goods, foreign trade, growth in stock capital. It's mostly >> worked, at least until now. > > Yes. This is more or less Deleuze and Guattari's reading of Marx's > FROP, in Anti-Oedipus, which is why it is superior to the work of a > thousand and one econobots. They saw the FROP as the expression of > capital's endless ability to go beyond ...

Document Size:	6611
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 08:46:44 PST 2007

10211 [lbo-talk] more on ADIA-C -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 10:05 AM, ulisse mangialaio wrote: > well, yeah, kind of repaying the favour (maybe not personally to > the Bush Gov, but to the US more generally) and helping to the > Empire's stability, of which they are no minor pillars and > beneficiaries, by buying big chunks of US capital IN TROUBLE. When do all these (growing) foreign claims on the U.S. become a sign of weakening rather than evidence of imperial strength? Doug

Document Size:	4926
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 07:23:01 PST 2007

10212 [lbo-talk] Marx on profit -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 3:39 AM, Tahir Wood wrote: > crumbling infrastructure in the principal > capitalist country Galbraith characterized the U.S. as a place of "private wealth and public squalor" in the 1950s!

Document Size:	4665
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 07:06:05 PST 2007

10213 [lbo-talk] more on ADIA-C -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 9:40 AM, ulisse mangialaio wrote: > Can we concede to the Bush Government that it has managed to shore > up ME regimes against local social malaise by flushing them with > petrodollars? this may well have been one of its major aims. And their sovereign wealth funds repay the favor buy buying big chunks of U.S. capital? Doug

Document Size:	4818
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 06:51:43 PST 2007

10214 [lbo-talk] subprime lives! -- rank: 1000

[from USA Today via Ed Hyman] Nov 27 (USA Today) - Direct mailings of subprime credit cards - which offer only a little credit but charge steep fees - are up 41% y/y as the credit crunch has made it harder to get loans, especially for people with bad credit.

Document Size:	4678
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 06:46:42 PST 2007

10215 [lbo-talk] Marx on profits -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2007, at 3:50 AM, Tahir Wood wrote: > Our empiricists don't get that because the imagination has been > trained > out of them. Hmm, so not only do we have to adjust bourgeois accounting categories, we have to re-train our imaginations to see the crisis? Poverty and other forms of social misery have been capital's constant companions from the first. I only have to walk out the door right here in a comfy neighborhood in Manhattan to see a shoeless guy poking around the tras ...

Document Size:	5210
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Nov 27 06:18:10 PST 2007