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5761 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 9:26 PM, Charles Brown wrote: > hy don't you > stop and think about it a little more ? Why do that? Didn't Lenin and Hilferding answer these questions almost 100 years ago? Doug

Document Size:	4671
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 20:34:56 PST 2009

5762 [lbo-talk] English on SEIU -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 8:57 PM, dredmond at efn.org wrote: > Critique is good, and critique of organizing strategies is needed. > But the > across-the-board slams on Big Labor confuse the symptom with the > ailment: > the US Left lacks the infrastructures which would enable useful > conversations to happen, e.g. Left parties, institutes, think-tanks, > etc. And one reason for this is that our labor movement is so braindead and anti-intellectual. Doug

Document Size:	5045
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 18:22:58 PST 2009

5763 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 5:24 PM, James Heartfield wrote: > But for the last fifteen to twenty years, capitalist investment in > labour has been high, and fixed capital investment, low; which > suggests that the 'organic composition of capital' (Marx's term) has > not been rising. And what's the OCC in manufacturing?

Document Size:	4810
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 14:32:34 PST 2009

5764 [lbo-talk] English on SEIU -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 3:37 PM, James Straub wrote: > But if your argument to the public for why you need the boss to sign > an organizing rights agreement is that without one, the boss can > print any old lies--- for instance, he can print out a bunch of > factually incorrect claims by Doug on lbo that SEIU was attempting > to become a company union in Ohio at the CHP hospital chain-- then > the public is likely to think that the new rules should go both ways. Factually incorrect ...

Document Size:	6065
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 14:18:42 PST 2009

5765 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 3:17 PM, John Gulick wrote: > Not all self-proclaimed Marxists argue this -- especially, so it > seems, > the Canadian/York University gang. McNally explicitly says that > profitability > was restored b/w 82-97. And don't Gindin & Panitch essentially imply > it? Yes, forgot about them. But I see pretty much eye to eye with that crew on almost everything, except the value of Canadian nationalism. Doug

Document Size:	4957
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 12:23:57 PST 2009

5766 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 2:34 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > SA wrote: > > in what way is the current crisis connected with the alleged > overcapacity problem? It isn't. > > Sure it is, SA. The effective demand problem is only one piece. The > other is rising organic composition of capital (Robert Brenner > unfortunately does not foreground this) and declining rates of > profit in value-producing activities, from the early 1970s onwards. > And hence from the early 1980s, a va ...

Document Size:	6611
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 11:51:41 PST 2009

5767 [lbo-talk] NYT RIP May 2009? -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 2:24 PM, Mark Bennett wrote: > In the pre-digital era Warren Buffet believed that predominant > newspapers > were an ultra-sound investment, and he would have snatched up The > NYT for a > mere billion or so in a heartbeat. I doubt that is the case now. > He claims > - or claimed - not to understand digital technology, but, even if > true, I > suppose someone has shown him Craigslist. "The Internet will destroy more businesses than it creates. ...

Document Size:	5084
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 11:38:04 PST 2009

5768 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 2:18 PM, SA wrote: > How is managerial pay a return to capital? What else is it? Especially now that most compensation comes from stock-related pay, rather than a straight salary, as it did way back when. > It's that neither in a NIPA/orthodox sense, nor in Marx's sense: > "The salary of the manager is, or should be, simply the wage of a > specific type of skilled labour, whose price is regulated in the > labour-market like that of any other labour" ...

Document Size:	6018
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 11:34:30 PST 2009

5769 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 2:10 PM, Matthias Wasser wrote: > Don't we want to be measuring private sector wages against profits, > not > total GDP? Fine. Production worker pay/corporate profits: 1974 451.5% 1980 455.8 1990 369.9 2000 335.6 2007 218.1

Document Size:	4730
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 11:29:30 PST 2009

5770 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 1:40 PM, SA wrote: > Plus, frankly, I was a little shocked that Brenner didn't seem to > know, or make the connection, that empirically, U.S. wages have not > been cut to the benefit of profits. Sure they have. There are some problems with using the wage & salary figures from the NIPAs. One is that the aggregate measure includes fringe benefits, which accrue mainly to the top half of the income distribution. And another is that they include managerial pay, mos ...

Document Size:	5723
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 11:02:11 PST 2009

5771 [lbo-talk] English on SEIU: avoid the disgruntled, recruit the shiny, happy ones -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 1:32 PM, James Straub wrote: > But Andy's claims about SEIU, and Doug's admission that they supply > much of his own perspective on the union I said no such thing. I said he passed along a lot of articles that I forwarded here. I've gotten my impression of SEIU from a lot of sources, including some present and former employees, and articles by many writers, including my beloved wife. Doug

Document Size:	5405
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 10:39:32 PST 2009

5772 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 23, 2009, at 1:01 PM, SA wrote: > Yeah, it does seem like shareholder activism has made investment > more procyclical and thus more volatile. (As opposed to simply > inducing a secular downshift). Well not exactly. The investment share declined for much of the 1980s expansion, and the 2000s as well - in both cases, despite high/rising profitability.

Document Size:	4842
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 10:17:32 PST 2009

5773 [lbo-talk] why Twitter? -- rank: 1000

Times (London) - February 22, 2009 <http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article5747308.ece > A load of Twitter Feel the need to tell everyone everything you're doing all of the time? Then tweeting is for you Andy Pemberton "Arse, poo and widdle. With this unholy trinity of coy expletives, Stephen Fry introduced us to the joys of Twitter earlier this month. Fry was stuck in a lift and posted a tweet about it. His naughty digital missive, toget ...

Document Size:	10756
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 09:38:00 PST 2009

5774 [lbo-talk] retire? get a job! (if you can find one) -- rank: 1000

Wall Street Journal - February 23, 2009 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123535088586444925.html> Elderly Emerge as a New Class of Workers -- and the Jobless By CLARE ANSBERRY AKRON, Ohio -- Mary Appleby, 76 years old, lost her job in January as a cashier at a courthouse cafeteria here. She is now looking for minimum-wage work. Mary Bennett, 80, began filling out applications for fast-food restaurants and convenience stores after she was laid off last March as a machinist. Fred Dase, 8 ...

Document Size:	17561
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 09:35:34 PST 2009

5775 [lbo-talk] Fitch and Brenner -- rank: 1000

On Feb 21, 2009, at 5:55 AM, SA wrote: > As for whether capital was shifted out of production, the proof is > in the pudding. Here are the numbers I got for private fixed non- > residential investment as a share of GDP: > > > Inv/GDP > 1930s 6.5% > 1940s 6.7% > 1950s 9.4% > 1960s 9.8% > 1970s 11.1% > 1980s 12.1% > 1990s 10.9% > 2000-2007 10.7% First off, a decline from 12.1% in the 1980s to 10.7% in the 2000s isn't trivial - it's about 12%. But these av ...

Document Size:	7916
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 23 09:18:33 PST 2009