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8611 [lbo-talk] Paulson on housing -- rank: 1000

CNBC reports that Treasury Secretary Henry "Hank" Paulson says that the financial markets have not yet fully digested the impact of the housing downturn. A Treasury Secretary isn't supposed to say things like this. Though I heard a few weeks ago that Goldman Sachs is still short financial stocks, because they think the credit problems still have a way to run. So maybe Hank is helping out his old friends. Doug

Document Size:	5025
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 13 07:32:45 PST 2008

8612 [lbo-talk] The Virginia verdict -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 11:26 PM, Shane Mage wrote: > Obama beats Frau Clinton by 9-5. The Dumbocrats outvote the > Repugnicons 2-1. In a very "red" very "conservative" Confederate > state. While you've got a point, Virginia isn't what it used to be. It's much more "diverse" and much less conservative than it was when I lived there in the late 1970s. And the most Dem part of the state is Northern Virginia, which is full of Obama types. As I recall, it has ...

Document Size:	6884
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 13 06:34:51 PST 2008

8613 [lbo-talk] Adolph Reed on the young BHO -- rank: 1000

[a friend sent me this comment from Adolph Reed, written some years ago] > In Chicago, for instance, we've gotten a foretaste of the new breed > of foundation-hatched black communitarian voices; one of them, a > smooth Harvard lawyer with impeccable do-good credentials and > vacuous-to-repressive neoliberal politics, has won a state senate > seat on a base mainly in the liberal foundation and development > worlds. His fundamentally bootstrap line was softened by a patina > o ...

Document Size:	5519
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 13 06:16:01 PST 2008

8614 [lbo-talk] Beltway Beatdown -- rank: 1000

[HRC is increasingly resembling toast - from Mike Allen's Politico Playbook] In what NYPost.com called the BELTWAY BEATDOWN, Sen. Obama bested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Clinton 64-35 in Virginia, 59-37 in Maryland and 75-24 in D.C. Senator Obama rewrote his narrative last night, easily winning WHITE MEN in Virginia and carrying every Old Dominion age, education, region and income category, including over 60 and less than $50,000, the Clinton strongholds. Clinton carried white women. ***I ...

Document Size:	6267
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Feb 13 05:26:16 PST 2008

8615 [lbo-talk] great moments in translation -- rank: 1000

[Mr Xu said through an interpreter: "That would be bullshit."] Financial Times - February 12, 2008 Huawei rails at security concerns over 3Com deal By Andrew Parker and Paul Taylor in Barcelona The Chinese company participating in the planned buy-out of a US telecoms equipment maker has angrily rounded on US politicians who claim the deal could endanger US national security. Xu Zhijun, chief marketing officer at Huawei Technologies, told the Financial Times that the concerns express ...

Document Size:	7471
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 14:53:02 PST 2008

8616 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 5:12 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > There is current debt and debt not yet incurred. Austerity > entailing less new debt favors current debt holders. O'Connor's > point implies no distinction, just capital seeking to increase its > hold on the Fisc by increased indebtedness. Which is it? Huh? Rising indebtedness is an easy way out for the short-term, and the fucking bond traders generally go along, but over the longer term, capital will eventually put the squeez ...

Document Size:	5330
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 14:48:11 PST 2008

8617 [lbo-talk] best of/to Carl -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 5:05 PM, Judith Remick wrote: > Thanks Eric for your wonderful compendium of Carl's typical posts. I > loved it, and it touches me so deeply to know that he was appreciated > by at least some of the LBO correspondents. "Some" is way too mild. "Many," "most," or "almost all" would be much more accurate. Doug

Document Size:	4923
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 14:18:38 PST 2008

8618 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 4:39 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > If holders of debt are powerful, wouldn't they prefer their > borrower -- the Gov -- borrow less? But then wouldn't that make > them less powerful? Why don't lenders call for higher taxes and > lower deficits, reducing interest rates and bringing capital gains > to bondholders? They're politically opposed to higher taxes. They want spending cuts. Wasn't Clinton's tightness on spending in part a reflection of creditor pressur ...

Document Size:	5031
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 14:01:01 PST 2008

8619 [lbo-talk] toxic fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 4:49 PM, ulisse mangialaio wrote: > you need not be a sub-saharian country to lapse into obedient > passivity under the heel of debt. > > much can be said about the last twenty years of italian politics, > but i have hunches that, if the burden of public debt, which is now > held at fifty percent by foreign investors, were not so heavy, the > centre-left governements would have managed to reform the country > for better. Yes. Italy is a perfect example ...

Document Size:	5242
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 13:59:08 PST 2008

8620 [lbo-talk] Back on the home front ... -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 3:51 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > The Berkeley home front that is. Protesters in the streets; City > Council Follies; megaphones; "shucks aren't they weird" articles in > the > NY Times. It's all a part of daily life here. > > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/us/12berkeley.html > > I just looked out my window and saw a plane circling overhead downtown > dragging a banner. It read: SEMPER FIDELIS. > > I wonder if it'll get shot down? ...

Document Size:	5273
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 13:08:57 PST 2008

8621 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 3:43 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > If time of payment never arrives, then borrowing is a free lunch. > If you insist on seeing the period of interest payments as > truncated (short of eternity), then the present value of interest > is less than the money borrowed and spent. That's a redistribution > from capital to the public sector. > > Public debt need not grow faster than GDP, and if did bump up from > 35 to 45, there would be no big deal. How about ...

Document Size:	5543
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 13:08:18 PST 2008

8622 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 3:01 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: >>> (Aren't you neglecting the value of what your deficit spending >>> got you over those 25 years?) >> >> What'd it get you? > > Re-elected? Oh yeah. That. Until capital decides it's time for a fiscal emergency. See: New York City, 1975. Doug

Document Size:	4812
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 12:13:33 PST 2008

8623 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 2:53 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > Borrowing is just displacement of tax payments to a different time > period. That never arrives, if you're always running deficits. And if you're running constant deficits, the debt and debt service burdens are going to rise inexorably. And as Jim O'Connor said somewhere, public debt increases capital's power over the state. Doug

Document Size:	4846
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 12:12:11 PST 2008

8624 [lbo-talk] 2008 Connecticut Democratic Primary Results Map -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 2:39 PM, shag at cleandraws.com wrote: > But > there's one exception to this egghead/lunchbucket divide. Northwest > Connecticut is less educated and has a lower average income than > the rest > of the state, but it's some of the strongest Obama territory there > is. I > have no good explanation for this. Really? NW Conn has Litchfield County, where the rich and powerful have their country houses. Doug

Document Size:	5253
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 11:57:10 PST 2008

8625 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 2:39 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: > Doug asks: > >> [ ... after 25 years ... ] >> Aren't there better uses for 1.5% of GDP? > > (Aren't you neglecting the value of what your deficit spending got you > over those 25 years?) What'd it get you? What would it get that fully funded spending wouldn't?

Document Size:	4829
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 11:55:07 PST 2008