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11386 [lbo-talk] 14,000 reasons to be skeptical -- rank: 1000

On Jul 20, 2007, at 9:43 PM, Robert Wrubel wrote: > As a pure amateur in financial matters, I still think > the best explanation for rising markets was the > observation that there's a lot of money around that > has to be invested somewhere. In fact, this fits with > other left views, like Harry Shutt's, that the > underlying fact of the last three decades -- driving > all kinds of things like privatization, globalization, > financialization and hedge funds -- is the scar ...

Document Size:	6306
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 21 08:23:57 PDT 2007

11387 [lbo-talk] Marxism and Justice -- rank: 1000

On Jul 21, 2007, at 10:52 AM, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > to what extent are buyouts pursued due to > tax advantages from writing off debt, not just because cash is cheap > and available? The tax angle helps, but it's always true. It's just when financing is cheap and the manic psychology predominates that you get a wave of buyouts like we've had. And I don't know exactly what this means, but it struck me the other day that asset-stripping buyouts were popular under Republicans Reagan ...

Document Size:	5139
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 21 08:17:34 PDT 2007

11388 [lbo-talk] Moore's Sicko Analysis -- rank: 1000

On Jul 21, 2007, at 2:20 AM, Russell Grinker wrote: > Doesn't even Doug's explanation presume a bit too much organised > self-consciousness of the US ruling class? How much do you know about the U.S.? The anti-government, anti- entitlement position is so much a part of the received common sense of the American elite (and a good bit of the broad population too) that you don't need much conscious organization to propagate it. Social Darwinism is almost in the drinking water around here, e ...

Document Size:	5104
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 21 08:07:10 PDT 2007

11389 [lbo-talk] Moore's Sicko Analysis -- rank: 1000

On Jul 21, 2007, at 1:56 AM, Chuck wrote: > I want to suggest that we take this thread in a different direction. > > How about we talk about what the radical American Left can do on the > issue of health care reform. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Because I really don't understand what you advocate. We - the radical left - are few and weak. The anarchist subset of the radical left is fewer and weaker. Sometimes you sound as if all we need is more militant rhetoric and some str ...

Document Size:	5274
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 21 08:02:15 PDT 2007

11390 [lbo-talk] Moore's Sicko Analysis -- rank: 1000

On Jul 20, 2007, at 9:01 PM, Auguste Blanqui wrote: > What do you think is holding them up? The head of Starbucks has > also been > making a lot of comments about how upset he is over his high employee > premiums. I think it's a broader class interest in keeping American workers weak, scared, and dependent. Trying to find literal things like interlocking board memberships seems like vulgar Marxism (in the debased sense). Doug

Document Size:	4989
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 19:15:33 PDT 2007

11391 [lbo-talk] Aetna board -- rank: 1000

Here's the Aetna board. Not an auto company among them - or an old- line manufacturer of any kind. Frank M. Clark Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Commonwealth Edison Company Betsy Z. Cohen Chairman RAIT Financial Trust Molly J. Coye, M.D. Chief Executive Officer Health Technology Center Roger N. Farah President, Chief Operating Officer and Director Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation Barbara Hackman Franklin President and Chief Executive Officer Barbara Franklin Enterprises Former U.S. Secretary ...

Document Size:	5598
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 17:58:46 PDT 2007

11392 [lbo-talk] GM board -- rank: 1000

Just looked at the GM board. Closest interlock is with Pfizer. One of a dozen or so boardmembers. Doug

Document Size:	4505
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 17:53:16 PDT 2007

11393 [lbo-talk] Moore's Sicko Analysis -- rank: 1000

On Jul 20, 2007, at 6:42 PM, Auguste Blanqui wrote: > I brought the Ford/GM issue up at the Left Forum panel on health > insurance, > and someone in the audience said that big business doesn't want NHI > because > of interlocking capital. The guy said that Ford/GM/et. al have > investments > in funds that invest in insurance companies (or direct stock) or > sit on > boards of such companies. Probably true, but would be interesting > to see > the extent and then ...

Document Size:	5611
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 17:47:06 PDT 2007

11394 [lbo-talk] Moore's Sicko Analysis -- rank: 1000

On Jul 20, 2007, at 3:26 PM, BklynMagus wrote: > Also, such an advance may serve to help radicalize people by > demonstrating to them that there is another way and embolden them > to demand more. Clearly the bourgeoisie agrees, becaues it'd make business sense for Ford and GM to promote national health insurance, and they haven't. Doug

Document Size:	4876
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 12:37:41 PDT 2007

11395 [lbo-talk] The Economist on Iran: The Big Squeeze + Khomeini's Children -- rank: 1000

On Jul 20, 2007, at 11:40 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > You'd never know that by listening to most liberals and leftists <yawn> Could you find a new obsession? This one's getting real old. > but Iran's economy is structurally more socialistic than Venezuela's. And since when is an economy with rising unemployment, rising inflation, and massive corruption some kind of socialist model? Doug

Document Size:	5322
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 09:09:38 PDT 2007

11396 [lbo-talk] RMN, one of the boys -- rank: 1000

New York Post [Page Six] - July 20, 2007 Ear Overload RICHARD Milhous Nixon, the socially awkward 37th president, tried being jocular with David Frost as they prepared for their famous 1977 TV interviews, which inspired the smash Broadway show. "Mr. Nixon turned to me and quite casually asked, 'Well, did you do any fornicating this weekend?' For a moment I could not believe the evidence of my own ears. Richard Nixon didn't say that, did he? He couldn't have," Frost writes in &quo ...

Document Size:	5154
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 08:26:18 PDT 2007

11397 [lbo-talk] Moore's Sicko Analysis -- rank: 1000

On Jul 20, 2007, at 11:07 AM, Chuck wrote: > Shit. It really sounds around here like the American Left is settling > for table scraps instead of something more substantial and radical. Who's settling for anything? Moore's movie isn't a substitute for more radical action, or its enemy, or its dilution. If this were a time of revolutionary ferment, you could see it that way. But it's not. It's a way of getting perhaps millions of people to see things a little differently. Anarchists, soc ...

Document Size:	5172
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 08:22:27 PDT 2007

11398 [lbo-talk] Moore's Sicko Analysis -- rank: 1000

On Jul 20, 2007, at 2:09 AM, Chuck wrote: > Michael Moore was pretty funny tonight on the Colbert Report. But I > have > to admit that I'm not all that excited about seeing Sicko. I was > disappointed with Moore's last movie and I'm not that happy that Moore > decided to ignore those of us without health insurance. The film just > doesn't sound radical to me at all. Compared to what? The movie's in hundreds of theaters, released by a major distributor. Moore's all over the med ...

Document Size:	5307
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 20 07:43:54 PDT 2007

11399 [lbo-talk] Hillary on Iran -- rank: 1000

[yuck] THE ISRAEL PROJECT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 19, 2007 Contact: Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi: 202-857-6644, jenniferm at theisraelproject.org Jennifer Packer: 202-857-6657, jenniferp at theisraelproject.org www.theisraelproject.org The Israel Project regrets that it accidentally gave out the wrong statement for Senator Hillary Clinton, prepared for The Israel Project's press conference on Iran July 19. The correct statement is below. All statements from the press conference today can be fo ...

Document Size:	7863
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jul 19 18:34:02 PDT 2007

11400 [lbo-talk] from my travel blog -- rank: 1000

On Jul 16, 2007, at 2:35 PM, MICHAEL YATES wrote: > Most leftists have never heard of Art Bell I heard him spoken of - positively - at a WBAI book fair. His fan, who thought that the WTC was "wired to explode," also endorsed Art Bell's idea that "they" are playing with the weather. I'm afraid that's where a good part of the Pacifica audience is. Doug

Document Size:	4852
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jul 16 18:55:38 PDT 2007