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13336 [lbo-talk] Actual Economic Question -- rank: 1000

On Oct 11, 2006, at 2:11 PM, joanna wrote: > Doug Henwood wrote: > >> It's because they're so wonderfully skilled and the market is >> rewarding them appropriately, of course. > > That's right, and Henry Ford IV is just about a million times > smarter and harder working than I am. Economists have an answer for that: "unobserved characteristics."

Document Size:	4971
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Oct 11 11:26:15 PDT 2006

13337 [lbo-talk] OPEC reportedly agrees to production cut -- rank: 1000

On Oct 11, 2006, at 12:02 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote: > the Saudis' dithering over an OPEC > production cutback OPEC always has the damndest time engineering production cutbacks. And it's not clear that SA's interest would be in maintaining $70+ prices - high prices are bad for financial markets, where they invest a lot of their revenue; reduce demand by slowing economic grwoth; and encourage the development of alternatives. $50 might be a more agreeable long-term price. > - particu ...

Document Size:	5974
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Oct 11 09:25:31 PDT 2006

13338 [lbo-talk] Actual Economic Question -- rank: 1000

On Oct 11, 2006, at 11:25 AM, boddi satva wrote: > Do conservatives try to explain the concentration of wealth in the > U.S. with models that comport to the data or do they just talk a lot > of Laffer Curve nonsense and are never made to explain why the wealthy > are so wealthy? It's because they're so wonderfully skilled and the market is rewarding them appropriately, of course. Doug

Document Size:	4954
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Oct 11 08:39:15 PDT 2006

13339 [lbo-talk] cheap housing offset by higher transportation costs -- rank: 1000

Wall Street Journal - October 11, 2006 Relocating to Cheaper Housing May Not Help Low-Wage Families By JAMES R. HAGERTY Moving to an area with lower housing costs often doesn't pay off for low-income Americans, according to a study to be released today by the Center for Housing Policy, a nonprofit research group based in Washington. The study, which looks at families with low to moderate incomes in 28 metropolitan areas, found that transportation costs in places with cheaper housing are oft ...

Document Size:	7462
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Oct 11 08:18:24 PDT 2006

13340 [lbo-talk] Iraq death toll: 650,000 -- rank: 1000

Washington Post - October 11, 2006 Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000 By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred. The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other group ...

Document Size:	11076
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Oct 11 04:52:13 PDT 2006

13341 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading butNotforthe Reasons the Critics Have in Mind -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 10:38 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > I'm pretty pessimistic > about the probability of human survival or the achievement of > socialism > (the two are synonymous) -- but you are turning into a Richard II: Let > us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings. Actually I'm not pessimistic about human survival, just about socialist revolution, or even substantial social democracy, in the foreseeable future in the USA. Doug

Document Size:	5704
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 20:39:49 PDT 2006

13342 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading but Notfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 8:21 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > It's odd to be arguing against a movement -- in this case, an > anti-Semitic and anti-finance populist movement -- that does not exist > here now. Who's arguing against a movement? It's a comment on a system of thought. You do see traces of anti-Semitism in populist movements all over the place, not just the U.S. It's hard to deny it. Your Persian Prince is an exemplar, in fact. Doug

Document Size:	5677
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 18:00:58 PDT 2006

13343 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading.Huh? -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 6:53 PM, Jesse Lemisch wrote: > Oh, that's cute: He's good to his graduate students. And they return the favor. This is from an essay by his student Eric Foner - is he an enemy of the people too? - in the Columbia alum mag <http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Fall2005/Hofstadter.pdf>: Providing unity to the individual portraits was Hofstadter's insight that his subjects held essentially the same underlying beliefs. Instead of persistent conflict between ag ...

Document Size:	7556
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 16:27:06 PDT 2006

13344 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading.Huh? -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 3:10 PM, Jesse Lemisch wrote: > Hofstadter sided with Grayson Kirk at the 1968 Columbia > commencement, where > he spoke, after the bloody bust, while all honorable people were at > the > counter-commencement. His commencement speech was published in the > Columbia > Forum. Like many other liberal historians, including the > unspeakable Vann > Woodward, Hofstadter had a bad reaction to the 60s. This is from the Jon Weiner essay that set this off: &l ...

Document Size:	8802
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 15:22:56 PDT 2006

13345 [lbo-talk] Bush approval -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 5:28 PM, Charles Brown wrote: > Doug : > > > The average of all in this list pre-Bush is 54%; the average for all > presidents since FDR at all times is 56%. Bush's 37% is dismal. > > ^^^^^^ > CB: Too late. He can't run again. It means he's a lame duck. He'll have a very hard time getting anything through Congress. That's a lot of what approval ratings mean. Doug

Document Size:	4909
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 14:57:21 PDT 2006

13346 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 5:33 PM, Jesse Lemisch wrote: > What in the world does Doug think H's condemnation of "paranoia" > is, if not > an expression of disapproval of movements from below? I've lived in this country for all of my 53 years, and by god, I've encountered plenty of paranoia at every level of society. Conspiracism, xenophobia, you name it. Really, Jesse, do you read the papers? Listen to the radio? Travel around and talk to people? Doug

Document Size:	5223
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 14:55:13 PDT 2006

13347 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading butNotfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 5:23 PM, Jesse Lemisch wrote: > What those of us arguing > against Hofstadter are saying -- and I just don't think Doug is > listening -- > is that there was and is no truth to the idea of H and of so many > others > that popular movements are necessarily fascist, Let me try this again. I've just read five (5) of his books, and I didn't encounter anything like that. Could you please provide some cites for this rather extreme claim? > and that's what's t ...

Document Size:	6541
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 14:53:26 PDT 2006

13348 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 4:51 PM, Jesse Lemisch wrote: > This offers the > possibility that mass movements from below might be seen more > optimistically > than Hofstadter and his gang saw them. How did he view them? I've just read 5 of his books, and I didn't detect the kind of fear and loathing you're attributing to him. Please quote me some material. Doug

Document Size:	5132
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 14:06:42 PDT 2006

13349 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading but Notfor the Reasons the Critics Have in Mind -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 4:26 PM, Jerry Monaco wrote: > I accept Doug's defense of Hofstadter but I have to say in my > memory Hofstadter did not even try to comprehend the Populist > movement in the U.S. He was looking at Populism for roots of > intellectual-cultural trends. Poor guy seems to suffer from being characterized by people who remember their readings of him 20-30 years ago, filtered through his elitist/consensus reputation. He wrote about the deflation of the late 19th cen ...

Document Size:	7569
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 13:51:59 PDT 2006

13350 [lbo-talk] Why Richard Hofstadter Is Still Worth Reading -- rank: 1000

On Oct 10, 2006, at 4:23 PM, Jesse Lemisch wrote: > Well, I don't recall -- I'm sure Chip will -- whether it was > Democratic or > Republican elites Well, it's kind of important. Much of what we call "the grassroots" in American politics isn't made up of the toiling masses - it's local worthies, like small-town bankers, real-estate brokers, lawyers, doctors, etc. Those are elites relative to the working class, but next to a CEO or hedge fund manager, they're punks. Doug

Document Size:	5250
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Oct 10 13:37:47 PDT 2006