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24376 [lbo-talk] Re: Globalization popular -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >There are very few progressive narrative that see new technology and >globalization as an opportunity rather than a threat (e.g. Paul Hawken >et al., _Natural Capitalism_). Most of what see on this list is >globalization bashing in the utopian socialism style. Not from me, comrade. One of my favorite passages from H&N's Empire (p. 43): >[W]e insist on asserting that the construction of Empire is a step >forward in order to do away with any nostalg ...

Document Size:	5817
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 8 08:07:26 PDT 2003

24377 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Brad DeLong wrote: >> >>>And it does face the problem that the unemployment rate now is >>>lower than at any time from 1980 to 1993: how is Wal-Mart >>>accomplishing so much extra speedup now when its analogues could >>>not do so then? >> >>Kalecki's fear of the sack. The workers' psychological unemployment >>rate is a lot higher than 6.1%. > >The *measured* unemployment rate was at 7.6% in 1992--and back then >Bob Reich was ta ...

Document Size:	5500
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 8 08:02:55 PDT 2003

24378 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Brad DeLong wrote: >But higher levels of material welfare are every socialist's >dream--except for those in the "the worse, the better" crowd. >WalMart's profits are limited by Costco and Target breathing down >its neck. > >There used to be a line of argument that poor people didn't deserve >to shop at supermarkets--that the "community building" functions of >the local corner grocery store were *much* more important than the >actual prices of grocer ...

Document Size:	5573
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 8 08:01:35 PDT 2003

24379 [lbo-talk] productivity -- rank: 1000

Brad DeLong wrote: >>Oh yes, Brad, any ideas on why has the productivity per unit of >>capital (may Joan Robinson forgive me) in the MFP accounts >><ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/prod3.txt> been in a long >>downtrend, falling 8% between 1996 and 2001? >> >>Doug > >I'm surprised it hasn't fallen more. The incredible cheapness of IT >capital goods means it becomes profitable to use them in less and >less productive and valuable uses. My ne ...

Document Size:	5813
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Sep 8 07:56:15 PDT 2003

24380 [lbo-talk] productivity -- rank: 1000

Oh yes, Brad, any ideas on why has the productivity per unit of capital (may Joan Robinson forgive me) in the MFP accounts <ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/prod3.txt> been in a long downtrend, falling 8% between 1996 and 2001? Doug

Document Size:	4673
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 12:48:48 PDT 2003

24381 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Brad DeLong wrote: >Agreed. But overestimates in productivity growth in services that >are purchased by businesses and not sold to consumers induce >offsetting underestimates in productivity growth in industries that >produce goods and services that are actually part of final demand. > >>What does is mean, and, more importantly, how is it distributed? > >Oh, distribution is lousy and is getting a lot worse fast. No >argument from me on that. I don't mean distributed ...

Document Size:	7724
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 12:36:43 PDT 2003

24382 [lbo-talk] "globalization" is pretty popular -- rank: 1000

Eubulides wrote: >38,000 people on a planet of 6 billion is way too small a sample size. >Just how did Pew come up with those 38k people anyway. Underdetermination >problems are immense on polls like that. It was 44 countries, not the entire planet. And a sample of slmost 1000 per country isn't small - a routine Gallup poll of the U.S., a populous country, uses about 1000 people. It's not going to give you second-decimal-place precision, but it's good enough to determine trends. And the ...

Document Size:	5595
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 12:06:48 PDT 2003

24383 [lbo-talk] Fwd: Douglas Tottle, Fraud, Famine and Fascism -- rank: 1000

[Thanks to Grover Furr, the Marxist Literary Group's vigorous defender of Comrade Stalin.] Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2003 13:58:08 -0400 From: "Grover Furr,Fastmail" <furrg_nj at fastmail.fm> Subject: Douglas Tottle, Fraud, Famine and Fascism I've scanned the late Doug Tottle's book _Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard. Toronto: Progress Books, 1987, into PDF format. You can download it via FTP. Here are the details: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

Document Size:	5782
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 12:00:56 PDT 2003

24384 Fwd: [lbo-talk] "globalization" is pretty popular -- rank: 1000

[I sent this the other day hoping it would provoke some conversation, but it didn't. This contradicts a lot of "left" wisdom on "globalization." The concept, whatever it means exactly, is apparently popular even in Vietnam, Brazil, Nigeria, Mexico, and Old Europe. No reaction? Or would people rather not think about this? Too busy getting ready to protest Cancun?] [full release with charts: <http://people-press.org/commentary/display.php3?AnalysisID=68>] World Publics Ap ...

Document Size:	7115
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 10:15:41 PDT 2003

24385 [lbo-talk] Time/CNN Poll: 72% Say U.S. Doing "Good Job" In Iraq -- rank: 1000

So how does the "just the facts" brigade explain this one? You can't blame the media - they've been reporting pretty honestly on what a mess Iraq is. (Ok, I haven't been watching Fox, but not too many people do, compared with the viewership for the network news programs. Even though they're shrinking, they're still in the millions. And Michael Savage had a smaller viewership than SpongeBob SquarePants.) The Bush gang is clearly on the political defensive, too. So, if it's not media lie ...

Document Size:	5285
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 10:03:20 PDT 2003

24386 [lbo-talk] employment -- rank: 1000

Brad DeLong wrote: >His points on measuring white-collar service-sector productivity are >valid, but they have little impact on the measurement of >productivity for the economy as a whole. Almost all of final demand >is made up of goods and non-white-collar services. Errors in >overestimating white-collar service-sector productivity shift the >locus of value added from the assembly line floor and the shipping >warehouse to the office tower, but it's hard for me at least to s ...

Document Size:	6919
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 09:37:37 PDT 2003

24387 [lbo-talk] not the 70s -- rank: 1000

James Heartfield wrote: >the days of beer and sandwiches at Downing Street, when union barons >were supposed to have dictated public policy Beer & sandwiches sound pretty good to me. Is this opposed to something more upscale, say chablis and canapes? Doug

Document Size:	4695
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Sep 7 07:49:57 PDT 2003

24388 [lbo-talk] UN may demine Afghanistan in 10 years -- rank: 1000

DoreneFC at aol.com wrote: >In a message dated 9/6/2003 8:35:18 PM GMT Daylight Time, >dhenwood at panix.com writes: > >> >UN aims to clear Afghanistan of land mines in 10 years >> >>Damn imperialists. Kipling would have known what to say about them! >> > > >Huh? And in a non-imperialist world, what, land mines would get >cleaned up faster? Sorry, just having a bit of fun at Carrol's expense. I think it's a good thing the UN is doing, though it'd ...

Document Size:	5443
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 6 16:41:15 PDT 2003

24389 [lbo-talk] UN may demine Afghanistan in 10 years -- rank: 1000

uvj at vsnl.com wrote: >UN aims to clear Afghanistan of land mines in 10 years Damn imperialists. Kipling would have known what to say about them! Doug

Document Size:	4861
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 6 12:33:17 PDT 2003

24390 [lbo-talk] Sandbox Politics vs the American Anti-War Movement -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >it seems to me >that Doug, Joan, and others are indeed committed to the foreign policy >advocated a century ago by Kipling. I knew that you could often be a prick, but I never took you for thickheaded. I'm going to have to rethink that now. Either you are, or you're just making shit up, a la the Sparts. Doug

Document Size:	5117
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 6 10:18:52 PDT 2003