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8881 [lbo-talk] Schumer -- rank: 1000

If there was ever any doubt - not that their should be - that Democrats were at least as responsible for the current financial mess as Republicans, this article from the NYT should take care of that. Wall Street's own dedicated Senator, Charles Schumer, did everything he could to forestall regulation. And Wall Street loved him for it! <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/business/14schumer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all >. Accompanying the article is a graphic showing Wall Street contribs ...

Document Size:	5333
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Dec 14 06:55:12 PST 2008

8882 [lbo-talk] maxim -- rank: 1000

<http://www.banksy.co.uk/manifesto/index.html> When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness. - Emo Philips

Document Size:	4640
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 18:58:24 PST 2008

8883 [lbo-talk] review of a very fine book by Richard Seymour -- rank: 1000

<http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/12/liberal-defence-seymour-murder > Persistent empire Owen Hatherley Published 11 December 2008 The Liberal Defence of Murder Richard Seymour Verso, 358pp, £16.99 Richard Seymour is a writer better known, through one of those pseudonyms that throw employers off the scent of those blogging in work time, as "Lenin". The gall of the name gives a hint of the sly wit of his blog, Lenin's Tomb, which has since 2003 been the online left's most ...

Document Size:	10728
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 14:08:00 PST 2008

8884 [lbo-talk] How about a NYC/NJ dinner next week? -- rank: 1000

[from list alum Ravi] Begin forwarded message: From: ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> Date: December 13, 2008 12:56:59 PM EST To: Progressive Economics <pen-l at lists.csuchico.edu> Hello all, how about a gathering of PEN-L and LBO east coast elite in the New York city area for a dinner say next Friday or Saturday (dec 19 or 20)? Julio can buy us drinks if Obama's next appointment is to the right of McCain. Sabri can collect the various dollar bills that are owed to him. I will eve ...

Document Size:	5924
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 12:56:43 PST 2008

8885 [lbo-talk] Catholicism, was Re: blacks about as morally conservative as Republicans -- rank: 1000

Sorry for the top posting...I mean I rather like aspects of capitalism's destruction of "culture" and "civil society," though I thought capitalism created civil society as a realm apart from state and market. On Dec 13, 2008, at 3:04 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Too many triple/quadruple negatives coiled about each other here for > me > to wholly decipher. > > Carrol > > Doug Henwood wrote: >> >> On Dec 13, 2008, at 10:45 AM, shag carpet bomb wr ...

Document Size:	6094
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 12:11:47 PST 2008

8886 [lbo-talk] "meatier" stimuli -- rank: 1000

Wall Street Journal - December 13, 2008 Meatier Stimulus Plan in Works Obama Team Considering Beefing Up Earlier Goals; $1 Trillion Is Possible By JONATHAN WEISMAN and DEBORAH SOLOMON President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is considering an economic-stimulus program that will be far larger than the two-year, half-trillion-dollar plan under consideration two weeks ago, according to people familiar with the team's thinking. The president-elect is expected to be briefed on the broad parame ...

Document Size:	8471
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 12:02:59 PST 2008

8887 [lbo-talk] Roubini/labor market stats -- rank: 1000

On Dec 13, 2008, at 2:37 PM, MICHAEL YATES wrote: > You can find almost anything labor market related at the BLS site (www.bls.gov > ) and many good articles > in Monthly Labor Review (online through the BLS site). You probably won't find anything about "underemployment" though. I once asked a BLS guy why they didn't collect that sort of data. His answer: say someone who thinks he's a violinist is working as a cab driver. Maybe he's not a very good violinist. Is he underemp ...

Document Size:	5131
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 11:46:37 PST 2008

8888 [lbo-talk] Catholicism, was Re: blacks about as morally conservative as Republicans -- rank: 1000

I don't think a debate on abortion would be enlightening, productive, mind-changing, or entertaining, so let's, um, nip this one in the bud. Doug

Document Size:	5120
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 11:33:20 PST 2008

8889 [lbo-talk] Catholicism, was Re: blacks about as morally conservative as Republicans -- rank: 1000

On Dec 13, 2008, at 10:45 AM, shag carpet bomb wrote: > there are lots of people sympathetic to a leftist, marxist economic > analysis who weep over the demise of "culture" and "civil society" > wrought by the destructive forces of capitalism. etc. Yeah. Myself, I'm not entirely unsympathetic to that destruction. Doug

Document Size:	5390
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 08:11:02 PST 2008

8890 [lbo-talk] Roubini -- rank: 1000

By the way, part of the problem in the U.S. labor market has been overwork, not underwork, because of stagnant wages and disappearing benefits.

Document Size:	4537
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 07:39:04 PST 2008

8891 [lbo-talk] Roubini -- rank: 1000

On Dec 13, 2008, at 10:00 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > But what about the changing nature of employment? Does its > degeneration and casualisation over the past quarter century get > adequately reduced to an unemployment #? I ask without a good sense > of how part-time jobs are counted, how underemployment may have > changed as a result, how informal sector activity is understood. The unemployment rate doesn't really capture that. There are good stats on part-timers, including count ...

Document Size:	5182
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 07:38:33 PST 2008

8892 [lbo-talk] Roubini -- rank: 1000

On Dec 13, 2008, at 12:24 AM, Patrick Bond wrote: > My imagination? Here it says there were two substantial series > breaks (1990, 1994): http://actrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/global/ilo/seura/usunemp.htm The break in 1990 is the result of the application of the decennial census data to the population controls used to inflate the monthly sample of 60,000 households into a national estimate. It happened again in 2000. The BLS reports estimates of the effect of the transition, ...

Document Size:	5490
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Dec 13 05:28:40 PST 2008

8893 [lbo-talk] Roubini -- rank: 1000

On Dec 12, 2008, at 10:33 PM, Patrick Bond wrote: > Doug Henwood wrote: >> A peak unemployment rate of 9% is ugly, but it's 2 points below the >> late-1982 peak. > > Wasn't that # constructed rather differently back then? Not really, no. Doug

Document Size:	4668
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Dec 12 20:17:42 PST 2008

8894 [lbo-talk] Roubini -- rank: 1000

On Dec 12, 2008, at 5:20 PM, SA wrote: > Doug, at the late-1982 peak, 85.2% of prime-age men (25-54) had > jobs. In November 2008, only 84.9% had jobs. If we lose another 2.5% > of employment, obviously that rate will go down even further. It > will probably be the lowest since the Depression. The EPR of prime-age men has been in decline for over 50 years. A trendline regression on the monthly series provided by Excel is: y = -0.0121x + 94.971 R2 = 0.7641 where x = the number of the ...

Document Size:	5331
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Dec 12 18:40:51 PST 2008

8895 [lbo-talk] Peggy Noonan: the new dispensation -- rank: 1000

On Dec 12, 2008, at 5:03 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:27:16 -0500 > Doug Henwood <DHENWOOD at panix.com> wrote: > >> <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122903389043599605.html> >> >> I am not including our newly famous Blago. Rarely has there been such >> a case in which the sin is perfectly represented by the physical >> presence of the sinner. I had never seen him until the news this >> week, >> and there he was, ...

Document Size:	6032
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Dec 12 14:16:15 PST 2008