Search LBO-Talk Archives

7411 [lbo-talk] Fed: c'est tout, for now -- rank: 1000

On May 1, 2008, at 10:32 AM, Robert Wrubel wrote: > Thanks. In my simplistic understanding, the only weapon the Fed > has to fight inflation is raising interest rates, an almost > unthinkable act in the present. So I wondered why they mentioned > it at all. It was their way of saying "don't expect any more of these cuts for a while." Of course, if another bank hits a wall, then all bets are off. At some point, our foreign creditors may worry that we're going to inflate ...

Document Size:	5330
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 1 07:38:31 PDT 2008

7412 [lbo-talk] Fed: c'est tout, for now -- rank: 1000

On May 1, 2008, at 9:47 AM, Robert Wrubel wrote: > doug, please explain the worry about "inflation". Can commodity > prices alone create inflation? Can there be inflation during a > recession? Is inflation more of a poltical Issue (because ordinary > people are effected by it) than a financial one (loss of dollar > asset value, difficulty of making business decisions, etc.)? Sure commodity prices can create inflation, though to get a sustained uptrend going you need ...

Document Size:	6216
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 1 07:23:13 PDT 2008

7413 [lbo-talk] Longshore union strikes against war -- rank: 1000

On May 1, 2008, at 3:13 AM, Joseph Catron wrote: > On Thursday, May Day, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union > will declare an eight-hour strike to protest the war in Iraq. What makes them like this? And unlike every other union in the USA? Doug

Document Size:	4885
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 1 04:26:11 PDT 2008

7414 [lbo-talk] LBO #117: Obama (piece now on LBO website) -- rank: 1000

On Mar 31, 2008, at 4:21 PM, MEngel44 at aol.com wrote: > I appreciate the desire to kill off Obama Disease, and I agree with > much of > Doug Henwood s critique. But in a peculiar way, the polemic > ignores the > actual workings of history and politics including the lessons of > the article that > follows it! You're overlooking the last couple of paragraphs! I just posted the piece to <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Obama.html>. So let others judge. Doug

Document Size:	5354
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 31 17:47:17 PDT 2008

7415 [lbo-talk] Marx on the credit crunch? -- rank: 1000

On Mar 31, 2008, at 4:58 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > There is _nothing_ in his core analysis of capitalism which > _necessitates_ the claim that capitalism has an "historical task." I > tend to agree with Marx's historical or philosophical claim here, but > that is all it is, a historical claim, not anything which flows > _necessarily_ from the nature of capitalism No. But unlike you, Marx had some - dare I say - faith in the capacity of humans to act collectively to make a ...

Document Size:	5411
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 31 14:47:45 PDT 2008

7416 [lbo-talk] Marx on the credit crunch? -- rank: 1000

On Mar 31, 2008, at 11:31 AM, B. quoted : > "The credit system appears as the main lever of > overproduction and overspeculation in commerce solely > because the reproduction process, which is elastic by > nature, is here forced to its extreme limits, and is > so forced because a large part of the social capital > is employed by people who do not own it and who > consequently tackle things quite differently than the > owner, who anxiously weighs the limitations of hi ...

Document Size:	6627
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 31 12:53:49 PDT 2008

7417 [lbo-talk] Richard Mellon Scaife luvs Hillary -- rank: 1000

[this guy spent a fortune trying to destroy the Clintons, and now...] Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - March 31, 2008 <http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_559659.html> Hillary, reassessed By Richard M. Scaife Hillary Clinton walked into a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review conference room last Tuesday to meet with some of the newspaper's editors and reporters and declared, "It was so counterintuitive, I just thought it would be fun to do."The room erupted in laughter. H ...

Document Size:	8148
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 31 08:34:20 PDT 2008

7418 [lbo-talk] Gallup: people with TVs happier than those without -- rank: 1000

In most countries worldwide, Gallup finds that people who have a television in their homes also express higher well-being and optimism than do those without TVs in their homes. Read more at GALLUP.com. <http://www.gallup.com/poll/105850/Ownership-May-Good-WellBeing.aspx>

Document Size:	5086
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 31 06:12:16 PDT 2008

7419 [lbo-talk] More "populist eruption": CNN vid contrasts Bear bailout w/ homeowners' plight -- rank: 1000

On Mar 30, 2008, at 10:20 PM, Joseph Catron wrote: > On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 10:39 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> > wrote: > >> If you've got a >> better idea, please suggest one. > > Since you didn't qualify that with "in the realm of the possible," > I've got plenty. How about public works? Build affordable housing, > build new schools and hospitals, build public transportation, build > this clean energy infrastructure everyone' ...

Document Size:	5909
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Mar 30 19:35:56 PDT 2008

7420 [lbo-talk] First Unionized Hospital in Texas -- rank: 1000

On Mar 30, 2008, at 3:08 PM, Mark Rickling wrote: > -- No word about CNA's "back room deal" with Tenet that governed this > election? > -- No critique of the secret negotiations between CNA head Rose Ann > Demoro > and Tenet's CEO Trevor Fetter which excluded rank and file Tenet > workers at > Cypress Fairbanks? > -- Why were CNA organizers given exclusive access to break rooms > and other > areas inside the hospital to talk to workers, while other unions ...

Document Size:	6108
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Mar 30 18:03:28 PDT 2008

7421 [lbo-talk] ancient history -- rank: 1000

Matt Gonzalez quoted from this article in his anti-Obama piece so I thought I'd check out the full context. It's pretty stunning, given his present stance. "here's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute." Doug ---- Chicago Tribune - July 27, 2004 Obama says war to decide election David Mendell and Jeff Zeleny, Tribune staff reporters Barack Obama, who will deliver the keyno ...

Document Size:	9005
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Mar 29 14:59:26 PDT 2008

7422 [lbo-talk] Krugman on McCain, Obama, and Hillary's mortgage crisis proposals -- rank: 1000

On Mar 28, 2008, at 1:31 PM, Charles Brown wrote: > No, he's talking about "middle-class" tax cuts, as a way of dealing > with income stagnation. Not public spending, but tax cuts. That's > pure Republican ideology. Please keep your illusions straight. > > Doug > > ^^^^ > CB: The terminology "make permanent" would have to refer to some tax > cuts already in existence which are "temporary". There are no already > existing "middle c ...

Document Size:	6142
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Mar 29 13:01:03 PDT 2008

7423 [lbo-talk] Goldman on solving the mortgage mess -- rank: 1000

[from Goldman Sachs's US economics weekly] * US policymakers are contemplating more direct forms of intervention in the mortgage market as home prices continue to fall. The debate is bound to intensify when Congress returns to work on April 1 (no joke), with some action looking likely either in 2008 or under a new administration in 2009. Policymakers are apt to approach this problem from three angles. * The first and most likely approach is to facilitate or possibly force loan modification, in ...

Document Size:	6416
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Mar 29 11:46:55 PDT 2008

7424 [lbo-talk] why didn't Edwards endorse Obama -- rank: 1000

[from a NY Mag article by John Heilemann] <http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/45604/> n the days after John Edwards's withdrawal from the Democratic race, the political world expected his endorsement of Barack Obama would be forthcoming tout de suite. The neo-populist and the hopemonger had spent months tag-teaming Hillary Clinton, pillorying her as a creature of the status quo, not a champion of the kind of "big change" they both deem essential. So appalled was Edward ...

Document Size:	6697
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Mar 29 11:18:49 PDT 2008

7425 [lbo-talk] more on the Rev Wright -- rank: 1000

Chicago Tribune - March 28, 2008 <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-wright- sermon_29mar29,0,1943334,full.story> Wright's sermons fueled by complex mix of culture, religion By Manya A. Brachear Tribune reporter On the Sunday in 2003 when Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. shouted "God damn America" from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ, he defined damnation as God's way of holding humanity accountable for its actions. Rattling off a litany of injustices imposed on mino ...

Document Size:	13103
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Mar 29 08:09:27 PDT 2008