Search LBO-Talk Archives

2656 [lbo-talk] Michael Heinrich on Capitalism and the State -- rank: 1000

On Sep 3, 2010, at 11:34 AM, Eric Beck wrote: > Is it capitalist to point out that Keynesian arrangements depended on > a centralized and nationalized workforce? Yes, to a point (though of course Hayek liked to say this too). But Keynesian arrangements - by which I assume you mean a commitment to a full-employment policy combined with a decent welfare state - also increases the relative bargaining power of labor against capital. It's why capital hates Keynesian arrangements, and set out to ...

Document Size:	5381
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 3 08:59:02 PDT 2010

2657 [lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness -- rank: 1000

On Sep 3, 2010, at 9:46 AM, Marv Gandall wrote: > On 2010-09-03, at 2:32 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > >> You may say this is trivial, but surely one part of the challenge of >> generating an anti-capitalist narrative, is to alert people that crises >> are part and parcel of capitalism's laws of motion. So the LBO (and to >> some extent SR) arguments to the contrary have done some damage. > ===================================== > You anticipate correctly - this is ...

Document Size:	5789
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 3 06:55:40 PDT 2010

2658 [lbo-talk] Rahm: "fuck the UAW" -- rank: 1000

<http://jalopnik.com/5628547/rahm-emanuel-fuck-the-uaw> Rahm Emanuel: "Fuck the UAW" Rahm Emanuel, former Democratic congressman and President Obama's chief of staff, gave the UAW the Gettelfinger during the GM and Chrysler rescue debate, according to former auto czar Steve Rattner's new book. This could get messy. Especially because there's more. Huffington Post says Rattner's book "The Overhaul" will offer some unstinting takes on Obama's inner circle during the time ...

Document Size:	6579
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 18:59:44 PDT 2010

2659 [lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 9:18 PM, Mike Beggs wrote: > Arguing against an obsession > with crisis and stagnation is not the same as denying the possibility > or even inevitability of downturns. And it's still good advice. I've known Patrick for over 20 years, and he's been predicting it the entire time. Stopped clock, etc. But, more importantly than who's right or wrong about predicting crisis, what does it mean now that we've experienced a serious one? (Not you folks Down Under, yet.) It's n ...

Document Size:	5366
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 18:31:26 PDT 2010

2660 [lbo-talk] Michael Heinrich on Capitalism and the State -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 4:41 PM, Eric Beck wrote: > On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 2:55 PM, SA <s11131978 at gmail.com> wrote: >> On 9/2/2010 3:37 PM, Eric Beck wrote: > >> Here's another binary: From your posts it really does seem that > > Maybe you should learn to read. > > Asshole. SA can read very well and he's the furthest thing from an asshole. And the point he made is the same I was trying to make. You really do come off that way sometimes. Doug

Document Size:	5344
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 17:19:08 PDT 2010

2661 [lbo-talk] Michael Heinrich on Capitalism and the State -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 3:15 PM, Eric Beck wrote: > I haven't read the article yet, but I wonder if this also relates back > to the Vercellone article and to what others, mostly Europeans, have > noted about the last 30 years: capital's decreasing *direct* command > over labor. One of the many horrible things about the Keynesian > solutions to the crisis loved by the Anglo-American left is that they > would all mean an increasing direct control over labor. Regulation and > nation ...

Document Size:	5586
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 12:24:29 PDT 2010

2662 [lbo-talk] ciao, Dems -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 1:47 PM, SA wrote: > I think it would be better if Republicans won both the Senate and the House, rather than just the House. Better how? Funnier? (There will undoubtedly be some real doozies in a sweep.) Or more likely that the Dems would recover in 2012? Or some other way?

Document Size:	4687
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 10:52:35 PDT 2010

2663 [lbo-talk] Tea Party Numbers (and Chomsky's citation of polls) -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 10:52 AM, SA wrote: > This produces the classic political dynamic, where debates on critical issues play out with the right making broad ideological appeals and the left appealing to facts and pie charts. The right's ability to mobilize ideology is almost always what causes it to win these debates (when it wins). But I think the "ideology" taps into "common sense" - received wisdom, imprinted patterns, cultural/political instincts. That's why it's so eas ...

Document Size:	5341
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 10:27:29 PDT 2010

2664 [lbo-talk] ciao, Dems -- rank: 1000

[via Mike Allen] BREAKING - LARRY J. SABATO, Director, U.Va. Center for Politics, Sixty Days to Go: The Crystal Ball's Labor Day Predictions: Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net [39 needed for control]. This is a 'net' number since the GOP will probably lose several of its own congressional districts in Delaware, Hawaii, and Louisiana. If anything, we have been conservative in estimating the probable GOP House gains, if the election were bei ...

Document Size:	7160
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 10:24:35 PDT 2010

2665 [lbo-talk] Tea Party Numbers (and Chomsky's citation of polls) -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 9:57 AM, Marv Gandall wrote: > I agree with your conclusion that Chomsky - like Chuck, Carrol, and others on the left eager to outflank the Democratic party from the outside - read a little too much into these polls. While the polls show that Americans have liberal rather than conservative views on these issues when the questions are posed fairly "Posed fairly" = answers are very sensitive to how the questions are worded. Anyone who thinks that there isn't deep ho ...

Document Size:	5479
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 07:08:14 PDT 2010

2666 [lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 12:25 AM, Gar Lipow wrote: > Even subtracting that I > don't dispute that GDP increased. Also in spite of increased > inequality, the percent of people in absolute poverty decreased. But > more substantially a lot of that gain was made at the expense > ecological catastrophe. Yes, of course, I don't disagree. My only point was to reject Patrick's implication that a 250% increase in GDP is some sort of confidence trick. Doug

Document Size:	5118
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 05:43:26 PDT 2010

2667 [lbo-talk] Common patterns in recurrent capitalist crises -- rank: 1000

On Sep 2, 2010, at 8:09 AM, Marv Gandall wrote: > Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart Minor point - it's not Rogoff who's co-author, it's Carmen's husband, Vincent Reinhart. It's a very good paper. Bottom line: we're in for years of a crappy economy.

Document Size:	4978
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Sep 2 05:36:55 PDT 2010

2668 [lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness -- rank: 1000

On Sep 1, 2010, at 7:16 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > It just made the underlying tendencies to overaccumulation worse, through shifting-stalling-stealing... Gross world product increased by about 250% between 1980 and 2007. Is that all a sham? Doug

Document Size:	4861
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 1 17:25:19 PDT 2010

2669 [lbo-talk] reviews from the right -- rank: 1000

One of the few right-wingers on my Yale Class of '75 listserv writes: > I thought Pres Obama gave a great speech last nite. > > Hawkish, right-leaning, right on. > > A far cry from the candidate Obama > > Surprising. And I loved it. > > Which means I suspect that "true believers" were quite disappointed. Over to you, Charles. Doug

Document Size:	5042
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 1 16:59:35 PDT 2010

2670 [lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness -- rank: 1000

On Sep 1, 2010, at 5:50 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > Then you should pass those eyes of yours over some charts by Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O'Rourke - http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3421 - for they show how this one gathered, over its first year, far more downside momentum than did the 1929-30 crash, in all economic categories, thus requiring your taxes to bail out your banks with more speed (and less resistance) than the US and UK Treasuries managed 70 years ago. > > But going bl ...

Document Size:	11019
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Sep 1 15:04:34 PDT 2010