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8221 [lbo-talk] celebrity capital in Africa; Bono not involved -- rank: 1000

[Though Bono *is* on Capitol Hill today, fresh from Sundance, and on his way to Davos.] Financial Times - January 21, 2008 PepsiCo adds $8m sparkle to clean water drive PepsiCo will launch a partnership today with the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Matt Damon, the Hollywood actor, to bring clean water to communities in Africa, China, India and Brazil. The announcement is being made on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos as an example of the event's theme of "collabo ...

Document Size:	9098
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 22 09:54:39 PST 2008

8222 [lbo-talk] EuroStox recover -- rank: 1000

TOP EUROPEAN MARKETS NEWS from The Wall Street Journal EUROPEAN STOCKS ENDED HIGHER, after the largest inter-meeting interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve for many years. ________________________________ Market Indexes PRICE CHG %CHG Belgium 3548.65 56.17 1.61% U.K. 5740.10 161.90 2.90% France 4842.54 98.09 2.07% Germany 6769.47 -20.72 -0.31% Netherlands 433.27 10.82 2.56% Norway ...

Document Size:	5185
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 22 09:42:11 PST 2008

8223 [lbo-talk] indicator -- rank: 1000

Ok I'm starting to get calls from journalists about The Turmoil. In the past, this has been a sign that we're getting close to the end of a panic. We'll see if it works this time... I'm going to be on Al Jazeera this afternooon. I'm rather tickled. Doug

Document Size:	4661
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 22 09:34:29 PST 2008

8224 [lbo-talk] jottings on the current conjuncture... -- rank: 1000

...to steal a rather elevated subject heading from Perry Anderson. The Fed's 75 basis point cut in the funds rate a week before a regular policy meeting is extremely unusual. If it had been 50, it wouldn't have been quite so surprising - but 75 runs the risk of conveying panic more than reassurance. The U.S. stock market is now trying to find its footing, though the rest of the world had a seizure while our markets were closed yesterday. Watching that, I though - so much for decoupling. Th ...

Document Size:	6027
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 22 09:19:46 PST 2008

8225 [lbo-talk] let's all pray for a depression -- rank: 1000

On Jan 22, 2008, at 2:08 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > Yeah, please bring it on with more class > analysis/struggle on your side, and serious attempts to translate > financial volatility into a radical political discourse (as a > symptom of > systemic crisis the way Sweezy/Magdoff did so well, in contrast to our > friend Doug). I admired Sweezy & Magdoff a great deal, but just how did they do this well? How many Reviews of the Month did they write about "stagnation and t ...

Document Size:	6641
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 22 08:54:56 PST 2008

8226 [lbo-talk] "The Glorious Future that American Unions Walked Away From" -- rank: 1000

On Jan 21, 2008, at 10:20 PM, Joseph Catron wrote: > Interesting analysis, aside from the ludicrous title: > > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-welsh/the-glorious-future-that- > _b_82241.html Yeah, Liza & I have been discussing this over the last few days - what the fuck are the unions thinking? What payback would there have been for supporting the wrong guy in the primary? Whoever the eventual Dem nominee is will need union cash and phonebanks. Is it caution, like this piec ...

Document Size:	5664
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 21 20:22:25 PST 2008

8227 [lbo-talk] thoughts on CPI? -- rank: 1000

On Jan 21, 2008, at 5:37 PM, double bluff wrote: > I suggest you give a look here: > http://www.shadowstats.com/ This stuff is pretty questionable. I don't see any disclosure of his technique in the CPI primer. The BLS says in this paper: <http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/05/art2full.pdf> that geometric averages take only about a quarter point off the 1999-2004 average inflation rate - how does this guy manage to double the inflation rate? The BLS also tried applying the EU's pric ...

Document Size:	5556
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 21 19:12:16 PST 2008

8228 [lbo-talk] a different view of U.S. mfg -- rank: 1000

On Jan 21, 2008, at 10:49 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > where's your marxian gut instincts, to hunt down all the > partially devalorised constant K that could be returned to production > were there the will and the market (i.e. demand side) and protection > from competition? I'm not sure what kind of system you're talking about here - some sort of national protectionist capitalism, or some kind of autonomist collectivism, or what. Unmet human needs? Yeah, that's capitalism? System-thr ...

Document Size:	5134
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 21 08:13:25 PST 2008

8229 [lbo-talk] bipartisanship -- rank: 1000

[from The Note] "I want some Obama Republicans! 'Obamacans!' " -- Barack Obama, at his first campaign event in South Carolina Sunday night.

Document Size:	4598
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 21 06:46:47 PST 2008

8230 [lbo-talk] a different view of U.S. mfg -- rank: 1000

[no overcapacity problems here] Print | Close this window "Help Wanted" highlights skills drain in U.S. Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:09am EST By Joanne Morrison TRAFFORD, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Only half the machines are running at precision parts maker Hamill Manufacturing, nestled in the Allegheny Mountains just east of Pittsburgh, once the booming center of the U.S. steel industry. But the factory's overcapacity is the result not of a shortage of business -- it has more orders than it c ...

Document Size:	11225
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 21 06:15:46 PST 2008

8231 [lbo-talk] WGA shocked to discover DNC in bed with big biz -- rank: 1000

New York Post [Page Six] - January 21, 2008 Writers Call Dems Strike-shy THE striking members of the Writers Guild are disappointed they aren't getting more support from the supposedly pro-union Democratic presidential candidates. The bitter scribes say front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are afraid of alienating their well-heeled supporters in Hollywood, folks like Alan Horn (Warner Bros.), Peter Chernin (Fox) and Bob Iger (Disney). Plus, thousands of other workers and businesse ...

Document Size:	7004
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Jan 21 06:01:04 PST 2008

8232 [lbo-talk] wow! fat map -- rank: 1000

<http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/>

Document Size:	4604
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 20 18:25:23 PST 2008

8233 [lbo-talk] thoughts on CPI? -- rank: 1000

On Jan 20, 2008, at 2:47 PM, Andy F wrote: > Could any economists comment on whether the CPI is bogus? I'm > referring to its supposedly underestimating inflation due to > substitutions (steak/hamburger), hedonic tweaking, figuring increasing > home computer power offsets cost of health care, that kind of thing. There's a difference between "bogus" and "has some problems" - kinda like the difference between "crisis" and "trouble." Part of the ...

Document Size:	6038
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 20 12:05:11 PST 2008

8234 [lbo-talk] what a recession means for black Americans -- rank: 1000

<http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/ib241> January 18, 2008 | EPI Issue Brief #241 What a recession means for black America by Algernon Austin Recessions hurt. And they hurt the poor and socially marginalized populations the most. As we face the prospect of the second recession of the decade and consider the merits of various stimulus packages, it is useful to examine what a recession would mean for black America. The late 1990s produced a full employment economy and significant absolute a ...

Document Size:	13278
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 20 11:09:57 PST 2008

8235 [lbo-talk] Lenin's new book -- rank: 1000

On Jan 19, 2008, at 3:34 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > > The Liberal Defense of Murder > by Richard Seymour Not out until July, alas. He will, of course, be a guest on Behind the News when it's out. Doug

Document Size:	4693
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 20 07:11:05 PST 2008