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17731 [lbo-talk] An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect dependence on organized labor is as >fruitless as dependence on Chuck0's anarchist comrades. So what's the answer then? Doug

Document Size:	4832
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 11:40:00 PDT 2005

17732 [lbo-talk] Marx on competition -- rank: 1000

Chris Brooke wrote: >In message <p0621020dbeabd4b2b6e8@[192.168.1.100]> >lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org writes: >> There's a passage in which Marx describes competition as the force >> that commands individual capitalists to "March! March!" Anyone know >> where it is? > >There's this bit of the Grundrisse, which might be the bit you're thinking of: > >http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch08.htm > >*** (In competition ...

Document Size:	5663
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 11:39:23 PDT 2005

17733 [lbo-talk] unemployment rate getting too low! -- rank: 1000

Mark S wrote: >What is Goldman trying to accomplish? Are you assuming that they >are signalling their preferences to the Fed on monetary policy? Or >are they simply warning their clients to expect higher short-term >rates, with rising labor costs as the reason? In other words, are >they practising normative or positive economics? I don't fully >understand the feedback mechanism among the Fed and market players. I think Goldman is doing both - the body of the report, for whi ...

Document Size:	6403
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 11:30:46 PDT 2005

17734 [lbo-talk] unemployment rate getting too low! -- rank: 1000

joanna wrote: >The other thing that's odd is the "pushing up wages." I have >definitely not seen that in my neck of the woods. Like I said, it's not showing up in direct pay - only in the broader measure of compensation in the productivity series that includes health insurance premiums. Doug

Document Size:	4922
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 10:00:18 PDT 2005

17735 [lbo-talk] Marx on competition -- rank: 1000

Offlist, someone pointed me to the source of the Marx quote on competition. I was thinking of it the other day in responding to Jonathan Tasini's claim in the Nation/Economist Wal-Mart debate, and amplified on his blog, that there's no such thing as a free market. That struck me as seriously underestimating the force of competition in capitalism, a point that a labor activist should take very seriously. Here's the passage <http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ch09.htm>, ...

Document Size:	7061
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 09:50:26 PDT 2005

17736 [lbo-talk] how the Frankfurt School corrupted America -- rank: 1000

...and how lesbians are running everything: <http://www.lesbianstudies.com/oldsite/frankfurt.htm>. Doug

Document Size:	4771
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 09:31:13 PDT 2005

17737 [lbo-talk] Marx on competition -- rank: 1000

There's a passage in which Marx describes competition as the force that commands individual capitalists to "March! March!" Anyone know where it is? Doug

Document Size:	4716
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 09:16:32 PDT 2005

17738 [lbo-talk] Rush tries to argue against SSM -- rank: 1000

[wow, for something billed as a how-to, he can't really make this argument very well] RushLimbaugh.com, May 13, 2005 <http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_051305/content/institute.guest.html> How To Argue Against Gay Marriage BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let's go to Pensacola, Florida. Hi, Debbie. Welcome to the program. Nice to have you with us. CALLER: Hi. I love your show. You always crack me up and give me stuff that I don't get anywhere else. I'm so happy to talk to you. RUSH: Thank ...

Document Size:	11126
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 08:57:30 PDT 2005

17739 [lbo-talk] Canadian grits -- rank: 1000

I just learned in an Ipsos poll: >Following Loss Of Confidence Vote, Tories (31%) Edge Into Lead Over >Grits (27%) - NDP (19%), Bloc (56% In Quebec), Green (6%) I'm guessing from context that "grits" are the Liberals, but where does that come from? Doug

Document Size:	4768
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 08:34:20 PDT 2005

17740 [lbo-talk] question for DanDav - or anyone else? -- rank: 1000

Seth Ackerman wrote: >The question isn't why some workers are seeing their productivity >falling. The question is - why is (total) labor productivity >*rising* yet (total) wages *aren't* rising? Mismatched skills, >according to the mainstream, causes inequality *among* wage-earners. >It doesn't cause capital to capture a higher share of national >income. It makes good sense if you think of productivity as the rate of exploitation. Both are up, and capital is pretty happy. Doug

Document Size:	5195
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 08:15:32 PDT 2005

17741 [lbo-talk] An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement -- rank: 1000

Autoplectic wrote: >How do you know, ex ante, that they're a waste of time? This is like a >lot of talk in early 1999 in Seattle; "don't even try to deal with the >WTO it's a waste of time yada yada." A lot of leftists do not seem to >understand self-fulfilling and *self-defeating* >prophecies................. There's an enormous difference between organizing demonstrations and trying to disrupt the war machine's supply chain. Doug

Document Size:	5145
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 08:13:38 PDT 2005

17742 [lbo-talk] unemployment rate getting too low! -- rank: 1000

Autoplectic wrote: >Slowing the pace of job creation is not the same as increasing the >level of unemployment............... Sure it is, as long as the population is increasing. The thinking behind this is that the labor market has become too taut - i.e., there's not enough slack, i.e., unemployment is too low - which is pushing up wages. One problem with this theory is that it's not direct pay that's pushing up unit labor costs (which are rising, and ULC lead inflation pretty reliably), b ...

Document Size:	5378
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat May 14 08:07:41 PDT 2005

17743 [lbo-talk] question for DanDav - or anyone else? -- rank: 1000

But isn't it amazing that the leading sector in the productivity acceleration was retail, where wages are low and stagnating? It challenges the whole concept of productivity, no? Doug Michael Perelman wrote: >I said you can punch holes in it. Seth did not ask for reality but >what we are supposed to >say. > >On Fri, May 13, 2005 at 08:03:51PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote: >> michael perelman wrote: >> >> >*The story that they tell is that many low-wage workers ...

Document Size:	6527
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 13 20:12:26 PDT 2005

17744 [lbo-talk] question for DanDav - or anyone else? -- rank: 1000

michael perelman wrote: >*The story that they tell is that many low-wage workers merely lack >the necessary skills for a modern economy. So that the >productivity of these workers declines because their skills are >obsolete. You can punch holes in this story pretty easily, but not >in 10 second sound bites.* But Nordhaus & Gordon & Triplett say that a quarter of the productivity acceleration came from retail, the ideal type of the low-wage sector - and that mainly came ...

Document Size:	5202
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 13 17:03:51 PDT 2005

17745 [lbo-talk] An Appeal to the U.S. Antiwar Movement -- rank: 1000

John Lacny wrote: >That's correct, except for the class characterization (and this is apart >from the fact that you misspelled bourgeois). I do not think you are petit >bourgeois. As I have pointed out numerous times, you are lumpen. Oh please. It's bad enough to insult Chuck, but to do it without any credibility to your social analysis should be embarrassing. Doug

Document Size:	5037
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri May 13 16:28:59 PDT 2005