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26941 [lbo-talk] ascriptions of motive -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >I just don't like ascriptions of motive. At 9:10 PM -0500 10/17/01, Carrol Cox wrote: >I say that in fact nothing is being done or can be done about the WTC >attack, and therefore it is in bad faith to demand that I or anyone else >give what no one can give, an explanation of what should be done. At 10:04 AM -0500 10/19/01, Carrol Cox wrote: >If arguing for such solutions won't bring about an early >(virtually instant) cessation of bombing, they are in bad fa ...

Document Size:	6593
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 2 09:41:26 PST 2003

26942 [lbo-talk] Roach: Productivity in the New Economy -- rank: 1000

Michael Pollak wrote: >I'm not sure I understand the BLS's argument here. I mean, isn't tech >support the paradigmatic example of overseas outsourcing? Dell or whoever has to pay for it. It's an imported service, effectively, whether the payment is to Dell India or to a subcontractor. Imports are deductions from GDP. Doug

Document Size:	5007
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Dec 2 05:43:25 PST 2003

26943 [lbo-talk] RE: The postmodern prince -- rank: 1000

Kenneth Campbell wrote: >Doug wrote: > >>I admire Chomsky a lot, but things are nowhere near that >>simple. > >I agree with it's not that simple. > >But whether the "lightning rod of our times" (Noam) made the formulation >you are responding to, I dunno. Chomsky has said that theory is a waste of time. He told me personally that he's sympathetic with American anti-intellectualism (as if he weren't an intellectual). Doug

Document Size:	5079
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 19:24:36 PST 2003

26944 [lbo-talk] Re: Nike in Vietnam -- rank: 1000

Michael Perelman wrote: >Doug was correct in saying that wages paid by US companies tend to be >higher than local wage rates. That has been true for decades, but I have >been reading lately that things may be changing as the subcontractors are >getting squeezed. For example, Chinese workers, I am reading, are now >becoming very dissastisfied with the wages being offered. What my source said was the factory beat the rice paddy. I imagine native Vietnamese industry, such as it is, ...

Document Size:	5047
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 19:16:58 PST 2003

26945 [lbo-talk] RE: The postmodern prince -- rank: 1000

Michael Dawson -PSU wrote: >Chomsky argues, rightly I think, that understanding what we care about in >society is not nearly as complex as understanding what we care about in the >physical sciences. It's all about power structures, and those aren't really >super-complicated. Chomsky argues that knowing social theory, for instance, >is necessary but way over-rated. The task is to explain how elites organize >themselves to threaten, cajole, entice, and trick commoners. If we ...

Document Size:	5647
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 16:26:42 PST 2003

26946 [lbo-talk] signs of change -- rank: 1000

Brad Mayer wrote: >But what was easy to conclude with regard to South Africa seems >impossible with regards to something even more sinister - as in worse - >Israel. That is because an honest and rational discourse on _what to >do_ about Israel continues to be impossible in the US, including its >left. And yes, Doug, that is the problem. Otherwise, why isn't there a >strong boycott/sanction Israel movement, like there was with South >Africa? The ANC and SACP supported a b ...

Document Size:	15413
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 16:22:22 PST 2003

26947 [lbo-talk] me on Lopate -- rank: 1000

SergioL652 at aol.com wrote: >I heard you live and I thought you rocked. Thanks. > Lopate was terrible. I dont think he had read your book, which I >found incredible since he always soind so knowledgable when other >authors are his guests. Did he look as flabergasted as he sounded? He was reading from prepared questions, but I thought he was a pretty good interviewer. He's intelligent and articulate, adjectives that could rarely be applied to most radio hosts. Doug

Document Size:	5062
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 16:12:09 PST 2003

26948 [lbo-talk] re. free trade is popular (cont.) -- rank: 1000

Mark Rupert wrote: >Strikes me that this must have been a telephone survey. So I would >imagine that the Maquila shantytowns, colonias, favellas, and >marginal farmers are somewhat under-represented in this sample. In >other words, the people least likely to be enthusiastic about the >free trade aganda would have been least likely to have been asked. >Perhaps it would be more fair to suggest that among people with >telephones in the Western hemisphere, a majority are favora ...

Document Size:	5600
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 15:06:22 PST 2003

26949 [lbo-talk] Re: Nike in Vietnam -- rank: 1000

Daniel Davies wrote: >Note that, from a development point of view, it is much more >obnoxious to run a >sweatshop in China or Vietnam than in Indonesia or the Philippines. >Both China >and Vietnam have publicly provided education, so it's not even >possible for the >neoliberal argument "the children working in the factories are being given a >job that's better than scrounging for rubbish. etc" to go through. The young >employees of the Vietnamese and Chinese ...

Document Size:	5596
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 09:47:09 PST 2003

26950 [lbo-talk] Roach: Productivity in the New Economy -- rank: 1000

uvj at vsnl.com wrote: >Doug Henwood wrote: > >>from a social welfare POV Nike is a crime (though, as I've said >> before, I don't want to condemn the impulses to make or wear stylish >> shoes). But Nike is not a model of productivity even by conventional >> definitions. > >Nike used to be a target of anti-imperialist agit-prop on Net, so >long as it sourced its supplies from Indonesia. Now that Nike has >largely shifted its production bases to China ...

Document Size:	5660
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 09:03:16 PST 2003

26951 [lbo-talk] survey: Iraqis don't trust occupiers -- rank: 1000

raqis Do Not Trust U.S.-Led Forces - Survey 55 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Gideon Long LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly 80 percent of Iraqis have little or no trust in U.S.-led occupying forces and most place their faith in religious leaders instead, according to a major survey published in Britain on Monday. Nearly half regard the removal of former president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) as the best thing to have happened in the last 12 months while a third said the war, ...

Document Size:	7525
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 08:53:44 PST 2003

26952 [lbo-talk] Fwd: 12/4: Doug Henwood: After the New Economy @ Bluestockings -- rank: 1000

Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 11:41:57 -0500 Subject: 12/4: Doug Henwood: After the New Economy @ Bluestockings Join us for an evening with Doug Henwood -- as we celebrate the release of his latest book After the New Economy After the New Economy offers an accessible and entertaining account of a less-than lustrous reality beneath the gloss of the 1990s boom, stripping bare the extravagant pretension of unrestrained entrepreneurial hubris and revealing how it contributed to the making of a new anti-cap ...

Document Size:	5538
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 08:50:55 PST 2003

26953 [lbo-talk] more evidence of recovery -- rank: 1000

This morning's ISM manufacturing survey shows an accelerating rebound - and for the first time in ages the employment component went above 50, indicating expanding employment. People who've tuned their rhetoric to chronic stagnation or worse better re-tune, at least for the next few months. Doug

Document Size:	4896
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 08:40:10 PST 2003

26954 [lbo-talk] Roach: Productivity in the New Economy -- rank: 1000

Brad DeLong wrote: >Aren't you supposed to be the one saying that *all* of Nike's >marketing expenses and *most* of its distribution expenses are, from >a social welfare point of view, a complete waste? That the sports >stars in the commercials, the TV executives, the camera operators, >the script writers, et cetera, should be doing something productive >with their time like Serving the People rather than doing >"marketing" for Nike? > >Just because Nike's pr ...

Document Size:	5641
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 08:22:20 PST 2003

26955 [lbo-talk] Roach: Productivity in the New Economy -- rank: 1000

kelley at pulpculture.org wrote: >what are "normal" profits-- what's the benchmark? I'm just comparing it to some other stars. Take a look at: Nike: <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=NKE> Compare the profit numbers with Intel: <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=INTC> or the champ, Microsoft: <http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT>. NKE's good, but not great, and heading down. Doug

Document Size:	5310
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Dec 1 06:37:42 PST 2003