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33046 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Mat - Investment has to equal savings, right? And if investment falls short of domestic savings, foreign savings have to be imported, right? While I don't think a thrift program (a la that excellent passage in Keynes's Treatise with the phrase "into this paradise comes a thrift program...") is a good idea, isn't it the least bit problematic that the U.S. has been importing foreign savings? It makes us vulnerable to a cutoff of capital inflows, and starves the rest of the world of inves ...

Document Size:	7289
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 16:02:47 PDT 2001

33047 WB on its critics -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >Doug, I got as far as "makes me feel" and stopped reading. When you have >something to say about the content of my posts, I'll read you. Only your >mother and your therapist tive a damn about how anything makes you feel. The fact that your posts make me want to run out and read an interview with Helen Hunt is a comment on your posts, which are mostly full of unearned certainty and sectarian bluster. I'd be offended or annoyed if they didn't make me laugh. Do ...

Document Size:	4865
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 12:19:04 PDT 2001

33048 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Lawrence wrote: >But isn't it important to get as many people as possible saving what they >can? Don't you want people to have the relative safety of a few months >income stored up somewhere? Or do you want to live in a country where >everyone is just one step away from the brink of disaster? Much better to have a civilized welfare state, with universal health insurance and comfortable income supports. Doug

Document Size:	4865
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 09:16:05 PDT 2001

33049 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Jordan Hayes wrote: > > it means that many >> individuals have little or no savings, leaving them extremely >> vulnerable to unemployment and social security privatization > >But wasn't this always the case? Or is it now only a big deal >because the middle quintile is doing it too? It's always been the case - it's just worse now than before. Doug

Document Size:	4855
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 08:41:27 PDT 2001

33050 WB meets its critics -- rank: 1000

[from the WB's daily clipping service] IMF AND WORLD BANK TO MEET ACTIVISTS. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have agreed to a public debate with leading anti-globalization activists during the organizations' annual meetings in Washington next month, reports the Financial Times (p.1). The debate, in the midst of demonstrations that are expected to bring tens of thousands of protesters to the US capital, could prove a defining moment in the intellectual battle over economic globaliz ...

Document Size:	9513
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 08:37:21 PDT 2001

33051 WB on its critics -- rank: 1000

Rob Schaap wrote: >Yeah, but it ain't *cross*-pollination until Merle Haggard plays Treaty on >the didgereedoo, is it? Does it have to be Merle Haggard? I've heard lots of American hipsters playing didgeridoo on my favorite radio station, WFMU. Doug

Document Size:	4603
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 08:29:47 PDT 2001

33052 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Jordan Hayes wrote: >Doug writes: > >> Capgains are purely fictitious ... > >But only in the large; in my individual account, they are quite real to >me. So psychologically, 401(k) "winners" are less likely, I think, to >worry about other kinds of savings. Stocks go up, stocks go down, but >over the last 10 years, nearly everyone who owned mutual funds in >401(k) accounts has "made" a ton of money. > >And those winnings feel like savings ...

Document Size:	5470
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 08:25:24 PDT 2001

33053 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Maria Gilmore wrote: >And what about matching contributions from employers? Are those figured in >as contributions also? Yup. Doug

Document Size:	4569
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 08:07:18 PDT 2001

33054 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Jordan Hayes wrote: >Opinions differ on whether this is a negative; mine is that tax policy >in the US has shifted what "national savings rate" means to the point >where it can't really be compared around the world. So it's one of >those misunderstood terms that people use to get their point across: MY >GOD, THE SAVINGS RATE IN THE US IS AT AN ALL-TIME LOW!!! > >I'm not sure what point they are trying to make. We've been through this before, but once again: it mea ...

Document Size:	5670
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 08:06:11 PDT 2001

33055 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Maria Gilmore wrote: >Are just the gains not included? Or both contributions and gains? Contributions are; gains aren't. Contributions come out of income; gains are money of the mind. Doug

Document Size:	4614
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 20 07:59:14 PDT 2001

33056 WB on its critics -- rank: 1000

David Hearne wrote: >Curiously enough, isn't it the perceived "cosmopolitanism" and >"cultural cross-pollination" (real or not) which partially drives >right-wingers like Pat Buchanan against NAFTA? Absolutely. He's written lurid stuff about Haitans playing the drums on the streets of his hometown, Washington. His pals at Chronicles write about all the animists and primitives invading our shores. This is what the paranoia about Mexican trucks is all about. On cross-p ...

Document Size:	5155
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 19 21:43:16 PDT 2001

33057 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Jordan Hayes wrote: >If you counted 401(k) unrealized gains as savings (i.e., if your $10k >contribution this year plus your $17k appreciation on the $150k you >already have counted as $27k of "savings" instead of only $10k of >"savings") then the "savings rate" would be "higher" ... > >All I'm saying is that it doesn't get counted the way people think of >it. It's probably "right" to count it the way it gets counted (I'm &g ...

Document Size:	5344
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 19 21:19:46 PDT 2001

33058 America's low savings rate -- rank: 1000

Jordan Hayes wrote: >Huh? The savings rate is going down because the have/have-not gap is >getting wider? How does that follow? The question I don't see being >addressed is who the used-to-be-savers-who-aren't-anymore are? I think >it's always been the haves who saved, and they save less now because >they think they have "enough" in savings; the official numbers are far >lower than the sum of the balances, but nevermind that. According to the consumer expenditure ...

Document Size:	5174
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 19 21:17:44 PDT 2001

33059 WB on its critics -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >Bullshit. Capitalism brought those, in part, and in part suppressed >them. Your Empire hasn't added a single goodie to the list that wasn't >already there. It's pure daydreaming to keep up with this >goodside/badside stuff. Back to Proudhon??? Nothing new under the sun. All is vanity. Marx is the old testament, Lenin the new, and the rest is apocrypha at best. Carrol, reading your posts often makes me lust after a copy of Entertainment Weekly, just for relief. Or m ...

Document Size:	5152
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 18 07:51:22 PDT 2001

33060 Fwd: <nettime> The Anti-DMCA Index -- rank: 1000

[from nettime] Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 21:41:14 -0700 From: "Jon O ." <jono at microshaft.org> The Anti-DMCA Index ___________________ August 2001 ___________________________________________________________ The most recent version of this document can be found here: http://www.anti-dmca.org/dmca-index.html ___________________________________________________________ 1. Amount Cornell University Library pays for subscription to "Journal of Applied Polymer Science": $12,49 ...

Document Size:	13203
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 18 07:43:55 PDT 2001