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8251 [lbo-talk] the music of politics -- rank: 1000

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/ AR2008011604152_pf.html> Washington Post - January 17, 2008 Candidates' Tunes Hit A Few Sour Notes Lyrics in Campaign Theme Songs Can Be Hilariously Off-Key By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer If we can tell anything about the candidates from their campaign theme music, it may be this: They (or perhaps their aides) aren't paying much attention to the lyrics. If they were, they might change their tune. Hillary Clint ...

Document Size:	13193
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 17 06:37:15 PST 2008

8252 [lbo-talk] Patrick Bond responds on Chinese labor market -- rank: 1000

On Jan 17, 2008, at 12:20 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > Let's not mix things up here; the difference between waged and unwaged > is vast, so most of the 50% increase is informal sector (irregular > employment), as Marty and Paul point out. First you said employment declined, which proved not to be true. Then you selectively quoted them saying that only irregular employment increased, which is also not true. I don't know who edited that piece at MR, but it's standard practice to check tha ...

Document Size:	7343
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 17 06:08:38 PST 2008

8253 [lbo-talk] hmm, and I thought it was talk therapy that was ineffective! -- rank: 1000

NEWS ALERT from The Wall Street Journal Jan. 16, 2008 Doctors and patients are getting a distorted view of the effectiveness of blockbuster antidepressants, researchers asserted in this week's New England Journal of Medicine. Numerous unpublished studies submitted to the FDA by pharmaceutical companies have found that many popular antidepressants have little or no effect on patients, according to a new review of the previously hidden findings. For more information, see: http://online.wsj.co ...

Document Size:	5434
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 14:47:31 PST 2008

8254 [lbo-talk] Patrick Bond responds on Chinese labor market -- rank: 1000

On Jan 16, 2008, at 4:32 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > Doug Henwood wrote: >> [this bounced because the whole article was appended, bringing the >> length of the post to 50k, which is just too long - > > No it's not - if your only rebuttal is to refer to the Conference > Board. > Do I sense here a reluctance to let loyal LBO comrades have a little > fresh air from an alternative source of poli-econ, dear Doug? :-) A couple of points. The Conference Board is a reputable ...

Document Size:	6801
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 14:43:30 PST 2008

8255 [lbo-talk] Patrick Bond responds on Chinese labor market -- rank: 1000

[this bounced because the whole article was appended, bringing the length of the post to 50k, which is just too long - is there a URL? - needless to say, these stats are at odds with the Conference Board's, which show total employment up 14.4% from 1990-2002, or 1.1% a year - a 3% annual decline compounds to 43% over 12 years, which is just totally implausible - I don't see how you get 10% growth in GDP with a near-halving of employment] From: Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za> Date ...

Document Size:	6695
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 12:56:28 PST 2008

8256 [lbo-talk] more China stats -- rank: 1000

The Conference Board has a groovy database on employment, population, and productivity. Here are some stats on Chinese employment and population growth (average annual rate; the col marked "ratio" is employment growth divided by population growth): empl pop ratio 1950s 3.0% 2.0% 151.0% 1960s 2.6% 2.1% 127.4% 1970s 2.1% 1.8% 114.3% 1980s 2.8% 1.5% 190.6% 1990s 1.1% 1.1% 105.0% 2000s ...

Document Size:	5197
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 11:56:42 PST 2008

8257 [lbo-talk] Chinese factory jobs -- rank: 1000

This is from a new Conference Board report on global productivity trends: "For example, in China s industrial sector, there has been a net job loss of more than 5 percent per year on average between 1995-2003, which is the result of 11 per cent job creation and 16 percent job losses on an annual basis. This has gone together with a productivity growth of 20.4 per cent (in nominal terms) per year. Preliminary analysis of firm-level data through 2005 suggests that this process is conti ...

Document Size:	5187
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 11:14:40 PST 2008

8258 [lbo-talk] A Mac in my future -- rank: 1000

On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:42 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > I'm guessing he also says it wasn't always so and he'd be right. > > Last week I picked up a used copy of "Twentieth Century Design" from > the new Oxford History of Art series. That's a great series with > lots of illustrations. I was leafing through looking at all these > pictures of cool sound equipment and furniture, much of it designed > right here in the good ole USA. Then there's a section about > Lev ...

Document Size:	5896
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 11:03:39 PST 2008

8259 [lbo-talk] life expectancy gap widens -- rank: 1000

<http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20080116> Rich man, poor man: The life expectancy gap by Monique Morrissey New research on Social Security-covered males[1] indicates that the increase in longevity for older participants occurred mostly among those in the top half of the earnings distribution. Over the past century, life expectancy at birth increased dramatically, from 49 years for an American baby born in 1900, to 64 for one born in 1940, and 77 for one born in 20 ...

Document Size:	6739
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 09:48:31 PST 2008

8260 [lbo-talk] Bush reflects -- rank: 1000

[via Mike Allen's Politico Playbook - Bush's reflections on looking out at the Sea of Galilee] 'I reflected on the story in the New Testament about the calm and the rough seas - because on those very seas, the Lord was in the boat with the disciples. And they were worried about the waves and the wind. And the sea calmed. That's what I reflected on - the calm you can find in putting your faith in a higher power.'

Document Size:	4810
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 07:39:33 PST 2008

8261 [lbo-talk] A Mac in my future -- rank: 1000

On Jan 16, 2008, at 9:40 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > THat is my impression too - Mac seems to me an > overpriced gadget owing his reptation mainly too its > maketing of "coolness" rather than technology, which I > understand is on a par with a PC if not inferior. Where do you get this information from? A lot of ubergeeks are very impressed with Mac OS X, and none are impressed with Vista. And what's wrong with technology that looks and feels good? I can't believe how u ...

Document Size:	5782
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 16 07:16:25 PST 2008

8262 [lbo-talk] A Mac in my future -- rank: 1000

On Jan 15, 2008, at 7:24 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote: > b) Will I notice any difference in download time for the internet > or in > switching between programs? You shouldn't. > Doesn't the first depend on the ISP rather than > the machine or its operating system, and the second on the amount > of RAM? Yup to both. > d) I believe the Mac has something called Boot Camp which allows > you to also > work in Windows - but at additional cost and also more slowly, I've > hear ...

Document Size:	5769
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 15 18:05:34 PST 2008

8263 [lbo-talk] A Mac in my future -- rank: 1000

On Jan 15, 2008, at 6:59 PM, Julio Huato wrote: > People here are tech savvy. I'm planning to abandon the Win-PC ship > and buy a Mac for me for the first time in my life. The decision has > been complicated today by Jobs announcement of a newer line of > laptops. Just got an email announcement of them. Wow they're gorgeous. My poor MacBook - which I only got in November - looks so old and clunky now! > Anyway, since I bought my first computer -- in 1995! -- I've > had Win ...

Document Size:	5893
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 15 17:59:25 PST 2008

8264 [lbo-talk] [Marxism] Subprime crisis -- rank: 1000

On Jan 14, 2008, at 10:55 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > For Harvey, the Iraq > attack was partly about competitive position in relation to Chinese > access to oil. Meanwhile, China's signing resource deals all over Africa and Latin America. If this is the policy, it ain't working too well. Doug

Document Size:	4854
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 15 14:24:42 PST 2008

8265 [lbo-talk] [Marxism] Subprime crisis -- rank: 1000

On Jan 13, 2008, at 11:50 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > And so where are the *crucial* > factors that have pulled reinvestable resources out of value > circulation > and into financial speculation? Declining rates of profit in > manufacturing; the rise of inventories and general overaccumulation of > fixed capital; political power shifts that give higher rates of return > to finance via monetarism; stagnant wages that generate consumer > pressure for credit innovation; new u ...

Document Size:	6242
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 15 14:22:59 PST 2008