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2626 [lbo-talk] the CFR worries about decline -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 6:07 PM, SA wrote: >> Spending $5 trillion on pointless, inconclusive wars, much of it borrowed from the Chinese? > > Who is that a problem for? Us or the Chinese? That's not clear. I don't think it's a sign of long-term health that we're so in hock, though.

Document Size:	4882
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 15:18:33 PDT 2010

2627 [lbo-talk] the CFR worries about decline -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 5:35 PM, SA wrote: > On Iraq, the balance sheet for the US is ambiguous at best. For Saddam Hussein, though, it was a total loss, and that counts for something. In Iraq and Afghanistan combined we've lost 600 soldiers a year over nine years. In Korea we lost 12,000 a year over 3 years. Vietnam was much more of a clear loss for the US than Iraq was - and yet even there the damage was very temporary. Two more points: to much of the world, the U.S. military looks musclebound ...

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 14:47:54 PDT 2010

2628 [lbo-talk] the CFR worries about decline -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 5:35 PM, SA wrote: > On Iraq, the balance sheet for the US is ambiguous at best. For Saddam Hussein, though, it was a total loss, and that counts for something. In Iraq and Afghanistan combined we've lost 600 soldiers a year over nine years. In Korea we lost 12,000 a year over 3 years. Vietnam was much more of a clear loss for the US than Iraq was - and yet even there the damage was very temporary. > > If you think about the threats and challenges US policymakers fac ...

Document Size:	5633
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 14:44:54 PDT 2010

2629 [lbo-talk] the CFR worries about decline -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 4:29 PM, SA wrote: > To extend your analogy, the problem is how do you construct a consistent time-series for this? In 1945 the number of countries whose asses the US couldn't kick was 1. Now it's zero. Yet people still talk about decline. So it seems like there was a break in the series somewhere. Has the U.S. kicked the ass of Iraq or Afghanistan? We've fucked them up, but we haven't "won." Doug

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 13:43:52 PDT 2010

2630 [lbo-talk] the CFR worries about decline -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 3:30 PM, SA wrote: > People say this after every recession or stock-market crash. In the early 90s everyone was talking about Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. True, and then that receded in the dot.com mania. But maybe the long-term trend is down, obscured by the occasional bubble. Doug

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 12:38:04 PDT 2010

2631 [lbo-talk] the CFR worries about decline -- rank: 1000

<http://www.cfr.org/publication/22897/tricky_new_american_moment.html> But it remains unclear whether a diminished U.S. superpower widely perceived to be in relative decline, its global brand tarnished, its fiscal situation perilous, its body politic internally divided and exhausted from two wars can still aspire to lead.

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 11:44:58 PDT 2010

2632 [lbo-talk] job satisfaction -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 2:14 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Joanna writes: > >> What I'm saying is that all tasks and rewards defined in school >> and academia are based on the individual and that there is no >> concept of anything other than the individual in the context >> of learning and intellectual growth. > > Rubbish. Liza's experience at the Columbia Business School was full of "teamwork" exercises. Doug

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 11:26:49 PDT 2010

2633 [lbo-talk] Fidel on dolphins & the Cuban model -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 10:17 AM, Wojtek S wrote: > I would not use the GDP as the basis for measuring socialism, because > it reflects mainly the volume of market transactions and defines away all > non-market transactions as being "outside production boundaries." For sure, but these eminently bourgeois numbers show that the USSR made great material progress during the first decades of its existence - especially impressive considering the declining trends that pre- and postdated ...

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 07:39:42 PDT 2010

2634 [lbo-talk] Fidel on dolphins & the Cuban model -- rank: 1000

On Sep 10, 2010, at 9:24 AM, Wojtek S wrote: > And as far as i know, countries like Russia or Poland made far > greater progress during the first 10 years of socialism than during the 20+ > years of capitalism and privatization. For Russia, it was more than the first 10. According to Maddison, Russian incomes were 55% of U.S. levels in 1820. That fell steadily to 28% in 1913. It rose to 36% in 1973, then began to lag, falling to 30% in 1990. But then the undoing of the USSR kicked in, b ...

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 10 06:50:27 PDT 2010

2635 [lbo-talk] Technocrats vs. ideologues revisited -- rank: 1000

On Sep 8, 2010, at 9:10 PM, Mike Beggs wrote: > Now that the thesis is done Congrats! > I have to admit to still being surprised by the know-nothingness of > the likes of the Wall Street Journal I realize that the patronizing attitude that many Europeans take towards intellectual and political life in the U.S. might excite skepticism in some quarters, unless you spend some time here, you probably have no idea how stunningly idiotic the public discourse can be. Doug

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 8 18:53:15 PDT 2010

2636 [lbo-talk] the medical costs of obesity (CBO) -- rank: 1000

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11810 According to CBO s analysis of survey data, health care spending per adult grew substantially in all weight categories between 1987 and 2007, but the rate of growth was much more rapid among the obese (defined as those with a body-mass index greater than or equal to 30). Spending per capita for obese adults exceeded spending for adults of normal weight by about 8 percent in 1987 and by about 38 percent in 2007. That increasing gap in spending between the tw ...

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 8 12:24:11 PDT 2010

2637 [lbo-talk] Fidel on dolphins & the Cuban model -- rank: 1000

<http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/fidel-cuban-model-doesnt-even-work-for-us-anymore/62602/> > I've never seen someone enjoy a dolphin show as much as Fidel Castro enjoyed the dolphin show. That, and > The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," he said.

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 8 09:44:53 PDT 2010

2638 [lbo-talk] correction: 807!! -- rank: 1000

Correction! It was 807!!

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 8 08:07:20 PDT 2010

2639 [lbo-talk] 804! -- rank: 1000

An entertaining profile of one of the world's most prolific fuckers: http://www.buttmagazine.com/?p=9240

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 8 08:05:50 PDT 2010

2640 [lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness -- rank: 1000

On Sep 8, 2010, at 12:26 AM, Miles Jackson wrote: > Here's the problem with your argument: if propaganda is all-powerful and omnipresent, how does anyone escape its grip? How are people like you and me (and many LBOsters!) capable of critically assessing the propaganda? I suppose that you could argue that we're all superhumans insusceptible to the Siren charms of mass media, but I suggest a less hubristic explanation: TV and other forms of mass media propanganda on their own cannot "s ...

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Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Sep 7 20:35:55 PDT 2010