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8281 [lbo-talk] Rogoff & Reinhart on US banking crisis in historical context: Big Dip Ahead -- rank: 1000

On Jan 12, 2008, at 11:27 PM, Michael Pollak wrote: > They also have a nice quip in the conclusion, that the run-up to the > post-subprime banking crisis looks a lot like the petro-dollar > recycling > boom of the late 70s that led to the third-world debt banking > crisis of > the early 80s. The only difference is that this time we recycled the > money to a developing country in the US, namely the subprime > borrowers. > But the effect on the banks was the same. This ...

Document Size:	5844
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Jan 13 18:11:02 PST 2008

8282 [lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector -- rank: 1000

On Jan 12, 2008, at 5:39 PM, (Chuck Grimes) wrote: > So I would say for every statistic of US manufacture, start by > multiplying by something less than 1, like .7 or .6 and then use the > result. The rational is that only about 60 to 70% of what is listed as > US manufacture is US manufacture. The rest is simply outsourced and > comes in the factory off the back loading docks. The bean-counters do try their best to take all this into account. They're not perfect, and it's hard w ...

Document Size:	5085
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 12 14:52:29 PST 2008

8283 [lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector -- rank: 1000

On Jan 12, 2008, at 2:43 PM, Shane Taylor wrote: > http://www.bea.gov/industry/index.htm > (click the Interactive Tables for GDP by Industry) > > Value Added by Industry as a Percentage of Gross > Domestic Product > for Manufacturing > > 1993 : 15.6% > 1996 : 15.5% > 2003 : 12.4% That's where I got the nums I cited the other day. > The two sets of numbers for US manufacturing move > alike, but why are they different? Do the World Bank > numbers include som ...

Document Size:	5338
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 12 12:05:40 PST 2008

8284 [lbo-talk] me on Kuttner's latest -- rank: 1000

On Jan 12, 2008, at 12:38 PM, Charles Peterson wrote: > I see this review as a terrible example of "circular > firing squad of the left". Doug, from the far left, > is shooting down Kuttner, from the center left, > strangely, it appears, because of Kuttner's possibly > exaggerated rhetoric of what the center left had > accomplished before the Reagan Revolution. Some of > this review could have been written by Bill Bennett. I'm curious which part. Kuttner has a st ...

Document Size:	5865
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 12 11:27:20 PST 2008

8285 [lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector -- rank: 1000

On Jan 12, 2008, at 1:13 PM, James Heartfield wrote: > I found WB data on manufacturing value added going back to 1980, > which I > copied out of a report in the British Library. I put some of it > (1980-1998) > in this article in Critique (http://www.critiquejournal.net/ > jamesh35.pdf, > page 37). It seems to back up Seth Ackerman, showing that the US > did ok in > that period, though I would have to dig up the original excel file > to give > you the numbers. I ...

Document Size:	5313
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 12 11:19:12 PST 2008

8286 [lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector -- rank: 1000

On Jan 12, 2008, at 11:30 AM, Shane Mage wrote: > This assumption is more than dubious. Since most services are > nonproductive (neither increase nor decrease the total real output > of consumable and investible goods and services, representing merely > private or social overhead costs) "productivity" is not a meaningful > concept in relation to them. Why does this distinction matter? From the POV of a capitalist in retail, the more you squeeze out of a pants-folder's ...

Document Size:	6171
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 12 09:15:07 PST 2008

8287 [lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector -- rank: 1000

On Jan 12, 2008, at 2:08 AM, Seth Ackerman wrote: > Yeah, but as societies get richer, you'd expect more employment to > go to > services at the expense of factories, since productivity rises > faster in > mfg. The best metric to judge the accuracy of the notion that the US > doesn't do mfg anymore is the US share of world mfg output or value > added. According to the World Bank, it only fell from 24.6% in 1982 to > 23.8% in 2004. The EU has experienced a bigger decline. ...

Document Size:	5990
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Jan 12 06:07:06 PST 2008

8288 [lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector -- rank: 1000

On Jan 11, 2008, at 7:23 PM, Simon Ward wrote: > "I was exaggerating some for radio." > > Why do that? To amuse listeners. Reciting a litany of stats has limited appeal on the air. Everyone knows I don't really mean "we don't manufacturing anything anymore." Doug

Document Size:	4813
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 16:46:48 PST 2008

8289 [lbo-talk] the blogging revolution reaches its full potential -- rank: 1000

On Jan 11, 2008, at 6:08 PM, J T. Ramsay wrote: > Moe's her real name. Yeah, I was making a little joke. Short for Maureen. Tkacic, which makes her probably one of the most Google-unique names in the English- speaking world. > I sit next to the guy called 'Jezegay.' He's the > dude who wrote about Coulter as fag hag. It's too much inside > baseball personally, and Gawker Media is the sort of place that eats > its own young. FWIW, Gawker's flagship has gone downhill dramatically & ...

Document Size:	5811
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 15:30:18 PST 2008

8290 [lbo-talk] more foreign penetration - egads! -- rank: 1000

NEWS ALERT from The Wall Street Journal Jan. 11, 2008 Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is expected to be joined by other investors, including the China Development Bank, to invest in Citigroup, people familiar with the matter said. While it isn't clear how much Prince Alwaleed will invest, the Chinese entity is expected to invest roughly $2 billion, one person said. Prince Alwaleed's total stake in Citigroup is likely to remain below 5% in order to avoid regulatory scrutiny. The move would be at ...

Document Size:	5342
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 15:19:47 PST 2008

8291 [lbo-talk] US manufacturing sector -- rank: 1000

On Jan 11, 2008, at 9:56 AM, John Blazek wrote: > Towards the end of your Daily Mole interview, listing the underlying > problems of the US economy, you mentioned that it "has no > manufacturing > sector to speak of anymore". > > Just a few days ago, possibly on this list? (sorry, I'm on a lot of > lists, > and I can't recall where I saw it . . .) I was surprised to read > someone > saying that manufacturing hasn't in fact declined at all as a > sector ...

Document Size:	6822
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 14:33:35 PST 2008

8292 [lbo-talk] me on Kuttner's latest -- rank: 1000

On Jan 11, 2008, at 5:01 PM, Campaign for Peace and Democracy wrote: > IMHO, the question is not whether the Democrats are marginally > better than the Republicans: they generally are, and that's likely > to be > the case all the way to fascism. The issue is whether we, and > progressive > social movements generally, conclude from this "betterness" that we > should > back the Democrats. Adolph Reed finally settled the matter for me: if people want to vote for D ...

Document Size:	5414
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 14:13:06 PST 2008

8293 [lbo-talk] me on Kuttner's latest -- rank: 1000

On Jan 11, 2008, at 4:49 PM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > You need to keep things in a proper > perspective, Doug. Dems will not implement social > democracy in the US (not to mention socialism) not > because "they suck" or are otherwise unwilling to, but > because structural conditions do not permit it at this > moment in history. Yeah, I know. "They suck" is colloquial shorthand.

Document Size:	4967
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 13:59:51 PST 2008

8294 [lbo-talk] the blogging revolution reaches its full potential -- rank: 1000

On Jan 11, 2008, at 4:48 PM, berber carpet bomb wrote: > oh. it's jsut so wild though. i didn't realize that, when i saw all > these bloggers pointing at jezebel, it was a gawker platform. (i > didn't bother to click the link and read). so, now gawker can just do, > what is it?, vertical marketing -- drilling down in each online > demographic category. people orient themselves to the top dog and > they keep linking and linking and linking. top dogs make all the cash, > litt ...

Document Size:	5464
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 13:59:02 PST 2008

8295 [lbo-talk] me on Kuttner's latest -- rank: 1000

On Jan 11, 2008, at 3:58 PM, John Thornton wrote: > Doug Henwood wrote: >> >> I was never "infatuated" with them. The strongest statement I ever >> made was that >> some things are marginally better when a D is in the WH than an R. >> >> Doug >> > > > Isn't that the definition of infatuation among the far left? Evidently, because that's the way it was interpreted.

Document Size:	5032
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 11 13:12:15 PST 2008