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9571 [lbo-talk] Support Bloomberg and Rafsanjani? (was Re: Rafsanjani to lead key Iran body) -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 10:41 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >> Aren't you observing a posting moratorium for Ramadan? > > Maybe you think that Islam is not a major religion, which can interest > non-believers, but a contagious disease or something like that. Islam is a major religion? I had no idea! Thanks for the tip. > Speaking of Muslims, Tariq Ali said in an interview: "For socialists > the task is clear: the Muslim communities must be defended against > being made sca ...

Document Size:	9998
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 12:40:14 PDT 2007

9572 [lbo-talk] Bernanke -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 3:13 PM, Michael Perelman wrote: > Isn't it difficult to separate out goods & services? A good may > have incorporated > design from S. Korea or outsourced work to India. Those activities > may show > up as imported services and part of exported goods. Yeah, sure. So? Stats aren't perfect, but they're a lot better than nothing. Doug

Document Size:	4793
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 12:34:43 PDT 2007

9573 [lbo-talk] Graeber book -- rank: 1000

[David Graeber sent this around.] Indiana University Press is pleased to announce the recent publication of: LOST PEOPLE Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar David Graeber "Offers fascinating comparative material with other places where the wound of past injustices continues to fester and destroy... A brilliant waving together of history and the anthropology of participant observation. The style is limpid, funny, and a delight." --Maurice Bloch The political intrigue make ...

Document Size:	6171
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 12:16:22 PDT 2007

9574 [lbo-talk] real costs of adjustment -- rank: 1000

[Carl Remick sent me this query offlist but I think it's of general interest.] > On Sep 15, 2007, at 2:35 PM, Carl Remick wrote: > >> Doug, does that nececessarily mean increased investment to > "reindustrialize," as you said -- which I read as meaning more goods > producton -- or could Bernanke just mean more services trade > ("invisibles" like financial services, etc.)? Or realistically > speaking, is there no way services trade could do much to sh ...

Document Size:	7165
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 12:15:05 PDT 2007

9575 [lbo-talk] Bernanke -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 2:30 PM, Eubulides wrote: > Foreign investment in > 2003 was $130 billion compared to $115 billion here at home. So we > don't > have a huge amount of excess capacity and, if we were to cut the > current > account deficit by only 25 percent, our capacity utilization rate > would > increase from 79 to 86 percent. If we cut the deficit in half, the > utilization rate would go to 93 percent." David Hale: > > <http://www.levy.org/default.a ...

Document Size:	5221
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 12:07:26 PDT 2007

9576 [lbo-talk] Bernanke -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 2:24 PM, Robert Wrubel wrote: > What are "nontraded goods and services"? Everything > except manufacturing? Not quite - some services are tradable. Here's a selection from the balance of payments accounts: Travel Passenger fares Other transportation Freight Port services Royalties and license fees Other private services Education Financial services Insurance services Telecommunications Business, professional, and technical services Other unaffiliated service ...

Document Size:	5312
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 12:06:16 PDT 2007

9577 [lbo-talk] rentier punishment of invesment. -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 12:02 PM, bhandari at berkeley.edu wrote: > the rentier > punishment of investment What did you think of that stuff from Marx I quoted on finance representing the ownership function of capital? I don't think that many Marxists have paid much attention to this, but maybe I'm wrong; I'm no Marxologist. Doug

Document Size:	5013
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 09:33:12 PDT 2007

9578 [lbo-talk] Bernanke -- rank: 1000

[from the Bernanke speech] Ultimately, the necessary reduction in the trade and current account deficits will entail shifting resources out of sectors producing nontraded goods and services to those producing tradables. The greater the needed adjustment, the more potentially disruptive and costly these shifts may be.

Document Size:	4716
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 09:28:55 PDT 2007

9579 [lbo-talk] rentier punishment of invesment. -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 12:02 PM, bhandari at berkeley.edu wrote: > I have been really struck by Doug's pithy formulation of the rentier > punishment of investment. Always gratifying to be strikingly pithy! > I think that we need to explore the shareholder > revolution. Even when profits are retained, they are often not used > for > accumulation but paring down debt, buying back stock, and merging and > acquiring. That is, profits have often not been used for > accumulation ...

Document Size:	6294
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 09:27:40 PDT 2007

9580 [lbo-talk] Support Bloomberg and Rafsanjani? (was Re: Rafsanjani to lead key Iran body) -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 9:41 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >> This was the news hook for my interview with Ervand Abrahamian; I'll >> post the audio to the web sometime soon.... > > It looks like the demand is now not so much "oppose the US government > and the Iranian regime" as support the rich men of both countries who > are advertised as "moderates" by the corporate media, rooting for > Bloomberg* and Rafsanjani**. Support? Maybe you're trying to make ...

Document Size:	6098
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 07:05:35 PDT 2007

9581 [lbo-talk] house market bubble and and the fall of communism -- rank: 1000

On Sep 15, 2007, at 9:07 AM, ulisse mangialaio wrote: > I read on another site that Ali G has pinned the real estate > bubble on the fall of communism. > > can you explain that? No, but that's why I'm not making $250,000 a speech. > it's always nice to see the elite's bad faith and ressentiment... > > ulisse > > PS. as to your book on the elite, have you read or 5 reread > flaubert's education sentimentale and the extraordinary > descriptions on the po ...

Document Size:	5600
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Sep 15 06:40:58 PDT 2007

9582 [lbo-talk] 100-mile diet - Sure it's self-involvement, but is it also bullshit? -- rank: 1000

On Sep 14, 2007, at 9:05 PM, John Thornton wrote: > Someone forwarded something about NZ lamb having a smaller carbon > footprint that UK lamb for residents of the UK. > I didn't see the data behind it but I have my doubts. The papers are on the web. They seem serious. <http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/story_images/2328_rr285_s9760.pdf> <http://www.agrilink.co.nz/portals/agrilink/files/RR297.pdf>

Document Size:	5546
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 14 18:09:31 PDT 2007

9583 [lbo-talk] Rafsanjani to lead key Iran body -- rank: 1000

On Sep 14, 2007, at 8:33 PM, uvj at vsnl.com wrote: > BBC News > http://news.bbc.co.uk/ > > Last Updated: Tuesday, 4 September 2007 > > Rafsanjani to lead key Iran body > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6977451.stm > > [Rafsanjani is considered a rival to President Ahmadinejad] > > Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been elected > speaker > of a powerful clerical body responsible for supervising Iran's Supreme > Leader. > > ...

Document Size:	5859
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 14 17:58:09 PDT 2007

9584 [lbo-talk] voices from the real America -- rank: 1000

On Sep 14, 2007, at 7:27 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > What more can you tell us about this chap? Hindu, heathen, > Protestant, Jew? What business is he in? Who(m) does he > know? He's black, walks ramrod straight, dresses very nattily, good- looking, sales-y personality, slams doors. Listening to him today made me think he's ex-military - he's got the bearing. Spends a lot of time on the phone, speaking in a deep voice as if to a stadium. A thruster, I think the Brits say. > Oh -- a ...

Document Size:	5283
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 14 17:43:14 PDT 2007

9585 [lbo-talk] voices from the real America -- rank: 1000

My office neighbor develops "cell phone content," whatever that means exactly. He also has a booming voice. I'm listening to him arguing with a friend on the phone right now about Iraq, and I'm hearing every word quite clearly. Some highlights of his argument: "The surge is working...people are invested in failure...counterinsurgency takes 10 years...Anbar Province is showing progress...our oil is wrapped up in this...it's working." It's pretty amazing how you can graft ...

Document Size:	5059
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Sep 14 16:17:42 PDT 2007