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8626 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 1:55 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > I don't mind using debt to pay for grandma's gall bladder > operation. Even less to pay for public investment. Why not take some of Steve Schwarzman's money instead? >> There's a lot that sucked about Clinton, but it seems to me the >> message that you can balance the budget by raising taxes on the >> richest 1%, thereby lowering debt service and quite possibly >> interest rates, while doing no harm to the econo ...

Document Size:	5609
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 11:24:46 PST 2008

8627 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 1:53 PM, Julio Huato wrote: > Doug wrote: > >> What's so wonderful about chronic deficit spending, really? > > Think of it by analogy with an individual. But a society is not an individual. It doesn't have a life cycle like this: > If you are about to > retire, your income is going to be low, and you don't want to leave > debt to your children, then you have to adjust your spending, rather > than borrow. If you are young and about to graduate ...

Document Size:	6538
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 11:21:23 PST 2008

8628 [lbo-talk] Unproductive labor -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 12:39 PM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > --- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: > >> >> Minor point: it's not about the production of a >> physical object - >> services can be "productive" in this view. The >> transportation of >> vehicular components can be productive. The >> transportation of people >> to visit grandma isn't. >> > > [WS:] But what the operational criteria to > distinug ...

Document Size:	5533
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 10:03:17 PST 2008

8629 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 12:13 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > The big swing in the standardized deficit of 2.0% (of GDP) is after > 1996. In 1996 revenues were 18% and outlays were 20%. 2000 was the > height of the surplus (1.2%), with revenues of 19.3 and outlays of > 18.1. So outlays went down more than revenue went up (I suspect in > good part due to low interest rates hence lower cost of debt > service.) In 1996 revenues were 18% and outlays were 20%. 2000 > was the height o ...

Document Size:	7272
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 09:58:58 PST 2008

8630 [lbo-talk] Unproductive labor -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 11:42 AM, andie nachgeborenen wrote: > I got into a dispute at a recent Solidarity meeting > about "unproductive labor," whether labor that does > not involve production of physical object generates > surplus value and real profit as opposed to mere rent. Minor point: it's not about the production of a physical object - services can be "productive" in this view. The transportation of vehicular components can be productive. The transportation ...

Document Size:	5029
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 08:58:18 PST 2008

8631 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 12:17 PM, Michael Perelman wrote: > I am with Max here Clinton had eight years. What new initiatives > did he produce? > Remember how he ran promising to fix the infrastructure and then > backed down at the > Little Rock meeting when informed that the bond market would not > like it? That's another issue completely. Where I'm disagreeing with Max is that I think that the tax increases of 1993 had a lasting effect on the budget balance. Rich people were pa ...

Document Size:	5169
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 08:32:32 PST 2008

8632 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > It's been well established that legislative changes in the 90s were > a limited (well under 50%) factor in getting to surplus. I don't > deny that the initial push in the 93 budget was important, but it > was much less than 'all that.' > > Bob Pollin (Contours of Descent) is good on this. The big factors > in the latter 90s were the stock market bubble and Greasepan. How then do you account for the big swing in the CBO' ...

Document Size:	5207
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 08:29:57 PST 2008

8633 [lbo-talk] Toxic Fiscalism -- rank: 1000

On Feb 12, 2008, at 7:14 AM, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > Another straw in the wind. > > HRC: > > "So when I hear Senator Obama talk about that, I wonder which > fights he > wouldn't fight. Would he have not fought to get to a balanced > budget and > a surplus and help create 22 million new jobs?" > > a) Clinton did not balance the budget. He did reduce the deficit. > b) Neither the balanced budget nor Clinton "create(ed) 22 million new > jobs.&q ...

Document Size:	6077
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Feb 12 07:21:55 PST 2008

8634 [lbo-talk] Verso is hiring, from their new Dumbo U.S. HQ -- rank: 1000

Despite some sturm und drang over the years, I'm still very fond of Verso as an institution, as well as the books it publishes. They've just moved from lower Manhattan to Brooklyn, and they're making ambitious sounds about their plans for the U.S. Good luck to them. They're also hiring. From an email from Verso's Jacob Stevens, announcing the move etc.: > This move is part of a wider shift: an investment in Verso's US > operation that we think is a leap forward for the house, since we ...

Document Size:	6214
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 11 17:38:37 PST 2008

8635 [lbo-talk] Obama, community organizer -- rank: 1000

On Feb 11, 2008, at 5:58 PM, Charles A. Grimes wrote: > Of course it helped a lot to > start reading Marx and not interpretations. I rarely go that `old' > feeling from him. The reading often seemed almost as fresh as last > month. Last month? How about next month!

Document Size:	4840
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 11 15:24:33 PST 2008

8636 [lbo-talk] omigod! millions thrown onto their own devices!! -- rank: 1000

TECHNOLOGY ALERT from The Wall Street Journal. Feb. 11, 2008 A widespread service outage hit BlackBerry users Monday afternoon. AT&T said it has been told by Research In Motion that the problem is with RIM's infrastructure, and is affecting all wireless carriers in North America. The disruption follows an outage last April that left millions of customers without email access. FOR MORE INFORMATION, see: http://wsj.com/technology?mod=djemalertTECH

Document Size:	5214
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 11 14:35:40 PST 2008

8637 [lbo-talk] war costs: over $700b -- rank: 1000

On Feb 11, 2008, at 5:09 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Doug Henwood wrote: >> >> [Larry Lindsey got fired for saying that the Iraq war would cost >> $100b. He was wrong - it's costing many times that! - it works out to >> $6,500 per household so far (assuming the 2008 request is honored)] > > Who is Larry Lindsay and from what job did he get fired? He was Bush's top economic advisor in 2001-2002. In a September 2002 interview with the WSJ, he said that the Iraq war wo ...

Document Size:	5345
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 11 14:19:54 PST 2008

8638 [lbo-talk] war costs: over $700b -- rank: 1000

[Larry Lindsey got fired for saying that the Iraq war would cost $100b. He was wrong - it's costing many times that! - it works out to $6,500 per household so far (assuming the 2008 request is honored)] <http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/89xx/doc8971/02-11-WarCosts_Letter.pdf> [...] The United States began combat operations in Afghanistan in fiscal year 2002 and in Iraq in fiscal year 2003. To finance those operations (and other activities related to the war on terrorism), the Congress provi ...

Document Size:	5622
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 11 13:29:15 PST 2008

8639 [lbo-talk] subprime & gentrification -- rank: 1000

I emailed a pal who works on subprime and gentrification issues in NYC. His analysis is that in neighborhoods that were being gentrified before the bust (e.g., Clinton Hill in Brooklyn), foreclosure probably reinforces the process. In poorer neighbhoods (e.g. East New York, also in Brooklyn), it probably doesn't.

Document Size:	4867
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 11 13:00:24 PST 2008

8640 [lbo-talk] introducing the reverse Bradley effect -- rank: 1000

<http://pewresearch.org/pubs/727/super-tuesday-results-suggest-race- card-may-be-a-joker-in-the-primary-deck> Super Tuesday Results Suggest Race Card May Be A Joker in the Primary Deck By Anthony G. Greenwald, professor of psychology, University of Washington and Bethany Albertson, assistant professor of political science, University of Washington February 7, 2008 Sifting through overnight results after the Super Tuesday primaries, we have found that race still plays a role in American ...

Document Size:	7625
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Feb 11 12:17:41 PST 2008