Search LBO-Talk Archives

29311 Dick Morris on gay marriage -- rank: 1000

Texas Triangle - July 3, 2002 <http://www.txtriangle.com> Capital Letters (excerpt) By Hastings Wyman Morris Regrets Advice to Clinton "One of the only things I regret about advice I gave Bill Clinton was to oppose gay marriage," political commentator Dick Morris, who was President Clinton's political advisor during his first term, told me at a recent Washington, D.C. appearance. "I believe we should do anything we can to promote stable families," he added. Appearing at ...

Document Size:	5461
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 6 13:26:53 PDT 2002

29312 Russia and booze -- rank: 1000

Michael Pugliese wrote: > This 'sez Russia is far from the top of being the most inebriated, >no? >http//www.hoboes.com/html/Politics/Prohibition/Notes/Alcoholism_Histor >y.html But these numbers are all from around 1984. Chris Doss already said that drinking in Russia now is much heavier than in the Soviet days. >1 >Luxemburg >1984 >18 (ca.) > >2 >France >1984 >13.5 >28 >USSR >1984 >6 etc.

Document Size:	5103
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 6 13:16:01 PDT 2002

29313 "Punishment"? Re: Centralization -- rank: 1000

Justin Schwartz wrote: >In the run-up to utopia, >>incentives and disincentives are just fine with me. > >Meaning? You know, material rewards or penalties. Bonuses or demotions. Not the point of eviction to the sidewalk, as under capitalism. >> >>How badly do senior execs suffer the consequences of bad decisions >>under American capitalism, anyway? It's mostly the workers who take >>the hits. >. >Well, their firms lose money and sometimes go out of bu ...

Document Size:	5737
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 6 13:11:57 PDT 2002

29314 the Russian auto industry -- rank: 1000

A Russian unknown to me writes: >Dear sirs, > >Automobile in Russia - this is not merely facility >of movement or adjuvant" on work and at home. It >became just like the cult. But Russian automotive >cult phenomenon off the beaten path and it is >impossible to compare with cults car in US, to >Europe or Japan. Automobile for Russian consumers >became scale, slat, as to which judge about the >economic well being of family buying au ...

Document Size:	6149
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 6 10:51:28 PDT 2002

29315 Centralization -- rank: 1000

Bradford DeLong wrote: >I just got four one-way tickets from Newport News, VA to Portland, >ME for $400 in August to close the third leg of our vacation. >Couldn't have done that before deregulation. Yup. And try to fly to Chicago tomorrow, and you'll discover it'll cost you $1,200. Here's what the CPI says for airfares. In the pre-dereg era, fares rose more slowly then overall inflation. In the post-dereg era, they rose more quickly - mainly because of purchase restrictions, more stops ...

Document Size:	5112
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jul 6 10:41:04 PDT 2002

29316 no accounting for taste -- rank: 1000

[from Jim Romenesko's Media News] Denver Post editor works on weekends to run Dowd before the Rocky <http://www.westword.com/issues/2002-07-04/message.html/1/index.html> Michael Roberts says the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News often run identical columns by New York Times pundits on the same day. However, Post editorial-page editor Sue O'Brien works extra hard to get Maureen Dowd's column in the paper first. "Dowd's column moves over the wire late in the day on Saturday, but neith ...

Document Size:	5161
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 14:35:23 PDT 2002

29317 "Punishment"? Re: Centralization -- rank: 1000

Justin Schwartz wrote: >How? Btw the profit motive is also an incentive to make good shoes. And to cut costs mercilessly. Just ask Phil Knight. In this debate, you rely most on textbook stories of capitalism and horror stories of the worst of Soviet planning. That's not very "liberal," is it? Doug

Document Size:	4870
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 12:36:00 PDT 2002

29318 "Punishment"? Re: Centralization -- rank: 1000

And I meant to say, Justin, that this whole plan v. market debate is politically irrelevant to anyone living under actually existing capitalism. It would make little more sense to smash existing market relations as it did to smash the Soviet planning system. You've got to work with what you've got. And what we've got is markets up the wazoo when we could use more planning, regulation, social control. Imagining some utopia and trying to make it happen doesn't make much sense. Doug

Document Size:	5021
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 12:33:09 PDT 2002

29319 Martin Amis: New Book on the attractions of Stalinism to certain intellectuals -- rank: 1000

Michael Pugliese wrote: >Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million >by Martin Amis > > > > > > >Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering. > > > > > > > >Get it for less! > > >1 buyer waiting! > > > > > > >- or - > >Don't have one? >We'll set one up for you. >Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million >by Martin Amis etc. Do we have to relive your whole Amazon experience? Can't you just copy and ...

Document Size:	5779
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 12:28:46 PDT 2002

29320 rent -- rank: 1000

That's net profit after taxes and everything. Their gross margin is 86% ($21.8 billion gross profit on $25.2 billion sales). Gannett <http://biz.yahoo.com/fin/l/g/gci_ai.html> had a gross profit of $3.0 billion on $6.3 billion sales, a margin of 48%, and net profit of $831 million, 13.1% of sales. Doug J Cullen wrote: >Not to soft-pedal MSFT's greed, but I believe the standard operating >margin for newspapers even with the current ad slump is 20% -- and >more like 30% in smaller m ...

Document Size:	5496
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 12:22:44 PDT 2002

29321 "Punishment"? Re: Centralization -- rank: 1000

Justin Schwartz wrote: >Depends on the kind of socialism. Under some people's conception of >planned socialism, there are no disincentives, because that's >negative, and negative is bad. Maybe social disapproval. Nasty >e-mails saying, your shoes suck. Why these caricatures? Why is it so hard to imagine an institutional structure where producers do market research, and if people don't like the stuff they stop making it? In the run-up to utopia, incentives and disincentives are just f ...

Document Size:	5260
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 12:17:23 PDT 2002

29322 Russia and booze -- rank: 1000

Justin Schwartz wrote: >Morbidity and Mortality Reporter, a former US govt publication Hardly former. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a delightful and essential publication, is available at <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/>. Doug

Document Size:	4628
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 12:08:15 PDT 2002

29323 Re; Centralization -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >He argued that there was a constant _tendency_ of the rate to >fall. And the following chapter was all about "countervailing tendencies." Doug

Document Size:	4529
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 12:06:54 PDT 2002

29324 Centralization -- rank: 1000

Justin Schwartz wrote: >That shows I have not expalined Hayek clwarly enough. Yes you have. I've heard all this a million times, though mostly from unreflective cheerleaders for capitalism. Repetition doesn't equal accuracy or finality, though. The price system tells lots of stories. Let's look at the oil market over the last 30 years. Prices zoomed after 1973 - fed ideas of scarcity. Another spike after 1979 - a panic over scarcity. Collapse after 1986 - complacency sets in. Drilling explode ...

Document Size:	5445
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 09:49:27 PDT 2002

29325 George Michael: I'm not Anti-American! -- rank: 1000

George Michael Says He's Not Anti-U.S. Fri Jul 5, 9:54 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - George Michael denied on Friday he was anti-American after his new single lampooning President Bush ( news - web sites) and the "War on Terror" provoked a storm of protest in the United States. "I am definitely not anti-American, how could I be?" the platinum-selling artist said in a statement. "I have been in love with a Texan for six years." Michael's boyfriend Kenny Goss is from Texas ...

Document Size:	5981
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jul 5 08:51:46 PDT 2002