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6901 [lbo-talk] Rubin: non, je ne regrette rien -- rank: 1000

Wall Street Journal - November 29, 2008 Rubin, Under Fire, Defends His Role at Citi 'Nobody Was Prepared' for Crisis of '08 By KEN BROWN and DAVID ENRICH Under fire for his role in the near-collapse of Citigroup Inc., Robert Rubin said its problems were due to the buckling financial system, not its own mistakes, and that his role was peripheral to the bank's main operations even though he was one of its highest-paid officials. "Nobody was prepared for this," Mr. Rubin said in an int ...

Document Size:	13693
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 29 07:25:07 PST 2008

6902 [lbo-talk] the Bush style of clemency: love your gun -- rank: 1000

Wall Street Journal - November 28, 2008 Seeking a Presidential Pardon? Try Praising the Right to Bear Arms Five Forgiven by Bush Share a Trait: They Really Missed Their Weapons By AMIR EFRATI A decade ago, Leslie Collier, a 50-year-old corn and soybean farmer in Charleston, Mo., pleaded guilty to poisoning bald eagles. He says the worst thing about his criminal record was that it meant he was barred by law from owning a gun. So, after George W. Bush, a strong defender of the Second Amendment, ...

Document Size:	13238
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 29 07:17:54 PST 2008

6903 [lbo-talk] profiles in courage -- rank: 1000

[so even if you don't get social democracy from the Dems, you were supposed to get gay marriage, right? no] New York Times - November 28, 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/nyregion/29marriage.html> N.Y. Democrats May Skip Gay Marriage Vote By JEREMY W. PETERS ALBANY After a pledge from New York Democratic leaders that their party would legalize same-sex marriage if they won control of the State Senate this year, money from gay rights supporters poured in from across the country ...

Document Size:	11990
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 29 06:42:09 PST 2008

6904 [lbo-talk] change we can believe in (cont.) -- rank: 1000

[from the NYT profile of Obama's pick for national security advisor, the retired Marine Corps and friend of Republicans, Gen. James Jones] <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/us/politics/29jones.html> "Friends say he is a fan of Toby Keith, the country-music singer and songwriter."

Document Size:	4999
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Nov 29 06:28:02 PST 2008

6905 [lbo-talk] SEIU's Andy Stern throws former protege to the wolves -- rank: 1000

On Nov 28, 2008, at 2:55 PM, Joseph Catron wrote: > You do realize that SEIU doesn't "manage" its locals because they're > autonomous bodies with their own elected leadership and organizational > structures, right? Unless they dissent, in which case they're trusteed. Doug

Document Size:	5122
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 28 13:58:44 PST 2008

6906 [lbo-talk] he died for your bargains -- rank: 1000

<http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_dies_at_long_island_walmart_after.html > Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede BY JOE GOULD DAILY NEWS WRITER Updated Friday, November 28th 2008, 2:26 PM A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said. The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried t ...

Document Size:	6953
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 28 11:50:04 PST 2008

6907 [lbo-talk] Christina Romer was once mean to Brad de Long -- rank: 1000

<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/16032.html> Who is Christina Romer? By LISA LERER | 11/28/08 7:06 AM EST Text Size: When Barack Obama selected Christina Romer to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, the response of many in Washington was Christina who? But in economic circles, Romer was an obvious pick. The University of California at Berkeley professor, one of the preeminent macro- economists in the country, specializes in the Great Depression. And for a new administrat ...

Document Size:	9653
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 28 10:53:45 PST 2008

6908 [lbo-talk] what'd Larry do for DE Shaw? dunno -- rank: 1000

<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15995.html> Summers has ties to prominent hedge fund By: Eamon Javers November 28, 2008 12:08 PM EST On the same day Lawrence Summers was announced as President-elect Barack Obama s top White House economics adviser, the veteran economist said he would resign as the part-time managing director of one of the nation s largest and most successful hedge funds, D.E. Shaw & Co. But even as Summers takes the lead of economic policy thinking for t ...

Document Size:	10947
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 28 10:49:38 PST 2008

6909 [lbo-talk] SEIU's Andy Stern throws former protege to the wolves -- rank: 1000

On Nov 28, 2008, at 12:43 AM, Mark Rickling wrote: > Do you honestly believe this? Last time I checked, not supporting > single payer to the exclusion of other kinds of healthcare reform and > uttering the word "partnership" weren't Federal crimes. I have no idea whether there's any chance of Federal interest, but you do have to wonder how much SEIU Central knew about the misdeeds of Freeman & Co. Fairly large sums over a fairly long time - it raises questions about man ...

Document Size:	5373
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Nov 28 05:42:14 PST 2008

6910 [lbo-talk] auto CEOs: my pay is fine -- rank: 1000

Wall Street Journal - November 27, 2008 Ford Resists Pressure to Cut CEO Compensation By MATTHEW DOLAN Ford Motor Co. is so far resisting pressure to cut the salary of its chief executive despite increasing scrutiny of top management at all three Detroit auto makers seeking emergency help from the federal government. In a statement Wednesday, Ford said that its board of directors' compensation committee regularly reviews pay packages, but the Dearborn, Mich., company didn't indicate any cha ...

Document Size:	9601
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Nov 27 14:15:30 PST 2008

6911 [lbo-talk] Matter and Antimatter: How to Create a Crisis:AThanksgiving Rant -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2008, at 4:54 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote: > id you read Barnanke's Helicopter speech Doug posted? He basically > says the Fed can force feed money into the financial system through a > variety of ways and stop the economy from falling into `deflation' aka > a Depression. > > I agree with you, I don't see how that will work. Two points before T'giving dinner. One, Bernanke also said that fiscal policy was important, so spending hundreds of billions will offset a large p ...

Document Size:	6317
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Nov 27 14:11:42 PST 2008

6912 [lbo-talk] helicopters -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2008, at 3:00 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote: > I just read it, and yes it does sound like the same approach. But > what's interesting to me is what these policies imply. Which is, we > are not headed into a down turn, a recession, deflation or some other > emphemism. It sounds to me like Bernanke et al. think we are headed > into that dispreferred expression, a Depression. My guess is that they fear that that's a real risk and they're doing everything they can to stop it. And ...

Document Size:	5089
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Nov 27 12:53:48 PST 2008

6913 [lbo-talk] Didion on the irony-free zone -- rank: 1000

<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22154> Obama: In the Irony-Free Zone Joan Didion Early in the primary season a certain number of Americans began to feel an almost inexpressible uneasiness about the direction events were taking. What made this uneasiness so hard to express was that it seemed to belie everything we officially claim through election cycle after election cycle that we want. We were getting what we said we wanted. For the first time in the memory of most of us a major poli ...

Document Size:	9073
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Nov 27 11:21:24 PST 2008

6914 [lbo-talk] SEIU's Andy Stern throws former protege to the wolves -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2008, at 11:00 AM, Mark Rickling wrote: > On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 10:34 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> > wrote: > >> Wasn't Freeman close to Stern, and the leader of the local that >> Stern wanted >> to absorb UHW into, to get rid of the troublesome Rosselli? In >> other words, >> to crush internal dissent, Stern picked a deputy who turned out to >> be deeply >> corrupt? > > Nope. When Stern installed Freeman at ...

Document Size:	7234
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Nov 27 09:09:41 PST 2008

6915 [lbo-talk] Question from La Botz interview on Behind the News -- rank: 1000

On Nov 27, 2008, at 11:41 AM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Ever since Jena I have been toying with a hypothesis: The "Ruling > Class" > is much larger than the core identified by either Domhoff & Mills > identify -- well over 2% of the population and encompassing local > elites > (small capitalists, substantial independent professionals . . .) I think the rank & file of the ruling class that you point to is the constituency for Congress, with the truly big boys expres ...

Document Size:	5737
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Nov 27 09:00:07 PST 2008