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2971 [lbo-talk] Mike Whitney, The Road to Recession -- rank: 1000

On May 19, 2010, at 5:34 PM, SA wrote: > That's not what I've seen. In Q1, three-fourths of GDP growth came > from consumption growth, but roughly 100% of consumption growth was > financed by (1) growth in transfer income (i.e., the deficit); 53% of income growth in the first quarter came from transfers, and 43% from wages & salaries. > and (2) reduction in personal saving. Reduction in personal saving > can mean running down savings or taking on debt - the two have > equi ...

Document Size:	7022
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 19 18:37:58 PDT 2010

2972 [lbo-talk] Mike Whitney, The Road to Recession -- rank: 1000

On May 19, 2010, at 8:35 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > But what if this is part of a permanent (until the next) change in the > structure of capitalist economy, representing a more-or-less 'normal' > grinding poverty for up to 20% of the population, pins & needles for > another (say) 40%, and doing fine for the top 40. That's pretty much what I've been saying for a long time. The anomaly was 1950-73. > Why assume that capitalism's (projected) failure to "work" for a large ...

Document Size:	5553
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 19 18:08:41 PDT 2010

2973 [lbo-talk] Mike Whitney, The Road to Recession -- rank: 1000

On May 19, 2010, at 5:01 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote: > Okay. But a couple of points. It would help to know how much of the > consumer spending is coming from the richer and much smaller percent. Hard to say. There are no good figures available on this. But here are a couple of proxies. The International Council of Shopping Centers (yes, there is such a thing) tallies monthly chain-store sales figures into various composites and subindexes. Their overall sales index is up 4.5% over the last ...

Document Size:	7563
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 19 14:21:19 PDT 2010

2974 [lbo-talk] Mike Whitney, The Road to Recession -- rank: 1000

On May 19, 2010, at 3:24 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote: > This answers my question from the other day, how does a consumer > economy recover with no consumer? Credit. Not exactly true. Even with an unemployment rate of 10%, 90% of the labor force is employed, and that 90% - especially its richer half - has gone from pinching pennies to spending more. And it's coming out of current income, and maybe savings, but not credit. So far. Doug

Document Size:	5084
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 19 12:39:44 PDT 2010

2975 [lbo-talk] Noam 1, Israelo-apartheid 0 -- rank: 1000

On May 19, 2010, at 10:14 AM, Ted Winslow wrote: > It's possible to make ontological and philosophical anthropological > assumptions that constitute ethical principles as "universal" and > human being as the being able to develop the capabilities required > to know and actualize them, e.g. know and actualize such a principle > of "right" as: "From each according to his ability, to each > according to his needs!" > > Human history can then be ...

Document Size:	5683
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 19 07:23:32 PDT 2010

2976 [lbo-talk] publishing notes -- rank: 1000

[A press release just in from those fine folks at Regnery.] Ted Nugent's Take No Prisoners Plan of Attack New Paperback Now Available! America needs to send a message to Washington and Ted Nugent is holding the bull horn. In the newly-updated paperback edition of his New York Times bestseller, Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto, Uncle Ted rocks the truth as only he can. Featuring a new foreword by The Nuge himself, and completely updated throughout, Ted, White, and Blue offers a take ...

Document Size:	6598
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 19 07:08:40 PDT 2010

2977 [lbo-talk] Noam 1, Israelo-apartheid 0 -- rank: 1000

On May 19, 2010, at 2:09 AM, SA wrote: > In Chomsky's case it's especially unjustified (ha ha) since everyone > knows that he neither believes in god nor has ever posited any > metaphysical theory (in which justice is a property of the universe, > for example) - in other words, they know very well their accusations > about his alleged belief in "floating, transcendent" whatnot are, > strictly speaking, false. Well, not exactly. In their article on Chomsky's (largely u ...

Document Size:	6724
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 19 06:13:33 PDT 2010

2978 [lbo-talk] Dodd carries water for Wall St -- rank: 1000

<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37459.html> Dodd tries to gut derivatives bill By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 5/18/10 8:14 PM EDT With Sen. Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas fighting for her political life, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) quietly introduced an amendment Tuesday gutting her plan to crack down on derivatives trading. The Wall Street reform bill includes Lincoln s plan to ban banks from trading most derivatives, the complex financial instruments that ...

Document Size:	5782
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 18:41:57 PDT 2010

2979 [lbo-talk] Noam 1, Israelo-apartheid 0 -- rank: 1000

On May 18, 2010, at 5:42 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Chomsky was a > key figure in the early growth of the anti-war movement of the '60s, > many of his books (howver mistaken his theoretical perspective) are > treasures. When I first read The Fateful Triangle, it was like a revelation. I'd never seen things quite that way before. It's all old news to me by now, but there's a first time for everyone. Doug

Document Size:	5000
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 14:49:49 PDT 2010

2980 [lbo-talk] Teabaggers query -- rank: 1000

On May 18, 2010, at 5:27 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > There's been a lot of head-scratching on the > left about the teabagger folks. I'm curious: does > anybody on this list actually *know* anyone who's > involved in this fad? Of course not. I think I'd have to travel to Staten Island to find some, and I'm not about to do that! > Is it just the old John Birch/Joe Pyne > thing, or is there anything new about it? Well, from what I've read, it's pretty much the same old crap, just ...

Document Size:	5048
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 14:47:28 PDT 2010

2981 [lbo-talk] Noam 1, Israelo-apartheid 0 -- rank: 1000

On May 18, 2010, at 4:47 PM, Somebody Somebody wrote: > Or is being antistatist (or libertarian socialist or anarchist or > whatever) simply a matter of maintaining one's ritual purity - a > kind of left-wing Shintoism? It does seem to require an almost unsustainable commitment to purity. Another corrupting fact: Noam draws a paycheck from MIT, which gets gobs of money from the Pentagon. Therefore, Noam is a tool of the war machine? I dunno. Given Chomsky's great distinction as a lin ...

Document Size:	5267
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 13:54:49 PDT 2010

2982 [lbo-talk] Noam 1, Israelo-apartheid 0 -- rank: 1000

On May 18, 2010, at 4:05 PM, Eric Beck wrote: > What a ridiculous figure Chomsky has become Oh please. Allow the guy's ego a little room to stretch. Unlike me, he's not always right, but he's done so much good stuff over the last 40 years (American Power and the New Mandarins was pub'd in 1969) that I don't begrudge him a little grandiosity, even if it doesn't survive factchecking. Doug

Document Size:	4947
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 13:17:48 PDT 2010

2983 [lbo-talk] A $95, 000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in theUS? -- rank: 1000

On May 18, 2010, at 3:34 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > If it was "mostly" inheritance, you'd have to believe that the > difference between the two groups from start to finish is that the > White group had someone with some wealth die during the 20 year > period. Not just 20 years - it's a matter of generations. The best estimates I saw when researching Wall Street was that at least 50% of all personal wealth comes from inheritance or the appreciation of inherited property, a ...

Document Size:	5613
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 12:46:39 PDT 2010

2984 [lbo-talk] A $95, 000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in the US? -- rank: 1000

On May 18, 2010, at 2:54 PM, James Heartfield wrote: > 'A $95, 000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks > in the US?' > 'Inheritance' says Doug > 'Really?' asks Eric, pointing out that income differential had not > increased that much. > But income differential is enough to account for the difference in > ability to save and raise a mortgage on a house, the climbing value > of which, I would guess, is the reason for the difference in wealth > (i.e. fi ...

Document Size:	5852
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 12:08:03 PDT 2010

2985 [lbo-talk] Obama appoints climate denialist and proud homophobe to 'fix' Gulf oil spill disaster -- rank: 1000

On May 18, 2010, at 2:50 PM, James Heartfield wrote: > (BP, it should be said, was the oil firm that made great play of its > commitment to determination to go 'Beyond Petroleum', and promote > alternative energy sources - which did not seem to prevent them > doing the dirty deed.) BP was always full of shit on this.

Document Size:	5480
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue May 18 11:58:03 PDT 2010