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20086 [lbo-talk] socially irresponsible investment -- rank: 1000

John Adams wrote: >On Apr 16, 2005, at 9:19 AM, tully wrote: > >> On Friday 15 April 2005 06:08 pm, John Adams wrote: > >>>It was the theory of the late seventies and early eighties that we'd >>>be able to build the new society within the shell of the old, blah >>>blah blah, by building co-ops. Turned out people liked their >>>organically certified food more than they liked their democracy and >>>their worker-controlled businesses. > ...

Document Size:	7054
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Apr 16 07:24:13 PDT 2005

20087 [lbo-talk] socially irresponsible investment -- rank: 1000

tully wrote: >Free market chaos from mom and pop markets? In the macroeconomic sense, yes. That's one of the reasons the 19th century economy was so unstable. When there are a lot of small actors, there are more links between firms, meaning more opportunity for something to go wrong - a missed payment, for example, that can cascade through the system. And less financial strength among the small individual actors increases the likelihood that something can go wrong. Large firms internalize a l ...

Document Size:	5164
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Apr 16 06:33:32 PDT 2005

20088 [lbo-talk] Apres L'empire -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >You certainly have a point here. The question is whether we will live long >enough to witness the sun shining again after the storm. Was it Keynes who >said that in the long run, we are all dead? Yes, but don't forget the context, as many people who quote this line do: it was his response to those economists who argued that the high unemployment of the British 1920s would take care of itself "in the long run." I think it was Hayek who turned this in ...

Document Size:	5039
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Apr 15 14:32:42 PDT 2005

20089 [lbo-talk] Academic Efficiency at MIT -- rank: 1000

ravi wrote: >i hope this shuts the sokal crowd up for a bit, but its probably not >going to happen... <sokal at cmcl2.nyu.edu>

Document Size:	4731
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Apr 15 11:45:20 PDT 2005

20090 [lbo-talk] socially irresponsible investment -- rank: 1000

tully wrote: >I didn't say non-profit. I said worker-owned, a profit sharing >arrangement where the workers decide how much of the profit is plowed >back into the business and how much they share amongst themselves. >It may not be strict marxism, but isn't it alot closer than current >capital-owned business? Such a business will have to compete with capitalist enterprises, so all the pretty intentions of the founders of your enterprise will be under enormous pressure to shape up. ...

Document Size:	5305
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Apr 15 08:30:38 PDT 2005

20091 [lbo-talk] Peak Oil or Oil Bubble? -- rank: 1000

Jordan Hayes wrote: >You're right, I hadn't gotten around to it yet, but now that you mention >it, the graphs at least show the US at around 5,500 miles per year and >the UK (which of course isn't London, which would be higher, no?) about >4,000. That's 27% less, which ain't nuthin'. But aside from the pretty charts, there's prose in there too: >For more detail, we can turn to a recent study by Genevieve Giuliano >and Dhiraj Narayan of USC comparing the driving habits of Americ ...

Document Size:	6013
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Apr 15 07:48:25 PDT 2005

20092 [lbo-talk] new radio product -- rank: 1000

Just added to my radio archive <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>: April 14, 2005 Tariq Ali (latest book: a set of interviews done by David Barsamian) on empire, U.S. power, Israel, and the bellicose, pious, and ill-read Tony Blair * Matt Taibbi, author of Spanking the Donkey, on covering the 2004 campaign, and the dismal state of American politics and media it joins -------- April 7, 2005 Laura Flanders, author of Bushwomen (just out in paperback) on masculinity, femininity, ...

Document Size:	7534
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 17:12:56 PDT 2005

20093 [lbo-talk] Petrostate and labour -- rank: 1000

Tom Walker wrote: >It was about you being right because I made some kind of mistake. Not really, though I suspect you'll accuse me of compounding the offense by denying it. I think it's pretty big news that China is more energy-efficient than the US. Most Americans wouldn't believe it. And I think PPPs are the right exchange rate to use, since we're talking use value, not exchange value, and the market yuan-dollar rate is ridiculous. Doug

Document Size:	4888
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 16:24:07 PDT 2005

20094 [lbo-talk] socially irresponsible investment -- rank: 1000

jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net wrote: >I know this question will be met with snide comments and oh-so-clever lines >exposing my hubris but how does one hitch their retirement to stocks, and >therefore tie their fate in with the capitalist class, while simultaneously >opposing capitalism? Why expect snideness? It's a serious problem. But we live in a capitalist society - what's the alternative? Every time most of us work we make the boss richer, but we can't not work, can we? There's no wa ...

Document Size:	5318
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 16:22:04 PDT 2005

20095 [lbo-talk] Peak Oil or Oil Bubble? -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >The fact that US ers drive more is not just a result of land use and lack of >transportation alternatives - but also of their need for security and >control. And direction! Horkheimer wrote somewhere that the "freedom" of driving is only an illusion - you're constantly being told to Stop! Yield! Keep Left! (the last being very un-American). Doug

Document Size:	4915
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 13:10:59 PDT 2005

20096 [lbo-talk] Congress passes bankruptcy bill -- rank: 1000

[no surprise, but awful news] US Congress clears bankruptcy overhaul Thu Apr 14, 2005 03:53 PM ET (Recasts with passage of bill) By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - Bankruptcy legislation making it tougher for heavily indebted Americans to wipe out their obligations and start over won final congressional approval on Thursday. Sought for years by banks and credit card companies who say people are abusing bankruptcy to escape repayment, the measure cleared the House of Representativ ...

Document Size:	7176
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 13:00:51 PDT 2005

20097 [lbo-talk] Petrostate and labour -- rank: 1000

Tom Walker wrote: >For example, China has an atrocious ratio of energy consumption per >unit of GDP. Sez who? According to the World Bank <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/GDPPerEnergyUnit.gif> it's surpassed the US in energy efficiency. Doug

Document Size:	4905
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 12:39:15 PDT 2005

20098 [lbo-talk] Peak Oil or Oil Bubble? -- rank: 1000

Jordan Hayes wrote: > London has a similar grid, but we've heard here before >that car use in the greater London area has been growing at around the >same pace as seen here in the US. Brits drive a *lot* less than Americans. If you'd read "Driving Madness" <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/DrivingMadness.html>, you'd know this! Doug

Document Size:	4956
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 12:24:05 PDT 2005

20099 [lbo-talk] Peak Oil or Oil Bubble? -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >By a comparison, NYC which undoubtedly has the beast subway system in the US >is not as efficient (wait time can be as much as 20 minutes) Late at night, yes. During the day, the typical wait is 3-7 minutes. Doug

Document Size:	4754
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 11:34:06 PDT 2005

20100 [lbo-talk]Peak oil and Why can't you guys learn to quoteandattribute properly? -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >Organic farming probably needs as much if not more power than current >farming does. Organic requires lots more stoop labor, I'm told. Doug

Document Size:	5109
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Apr 14 11:33:06 PDT 2005