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391 [lbo-talk] America's seven deadly sins -- rank: 1000

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Document Size:	4794
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Feb 16 06:04:07 PST 2010

392 [lbo-talk] The zen of marx -- rank: 1000

Chris: 'doesn't it mostly conceive of freedom in the Stoic sense, as doing what needs to be done, as making your desires coincide with necessity (of eliminating desire), whereas for Marx freedom os about overcoming necessity (which can't actually be done, but anyhoo).' I think what Marx meant is somewhere between what Joanna and Shane say he meant and what Chris says he meant. He says both (or Engels does) 'freedom is the recognition of necessity' (quietistic, comparable to Zen), but also 'freed ...

Document Size:	6145
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Feb 15 10:51:57 PST 2010

393 [lbo-talk] DC blizzard dooms cap and trade -- rank: 1000

Still, I don't remember anyone saying that it was daft to attribute the Paris heatwave or the Australian outback fires to global warming. The distinction between 'weather' and 'climate' seemed to get a bit lost then, too.

Document Size:	4778
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Feb 10 10:18:18 PST 2010

394 [lbo-talk] Weimar shadows -- rank: 1000

Marv writes: 'the teabaggers are an incipient fascist movement, though they hardly see or would describe themselves in those terms, casting another faint shadow of Weimar.' I would make the comparison with a more recent European political trend, the emergence of non-conventional, inchoate and fleeting political movements that have accelerated as conventional party politics has lost its grip. I wrote about this in International Politics: 'The 1990s saw millions march against child abuse in Belgiu ...

Document Size:	6914
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Feb 7 06:19:39 PST 2010

395 [lbo-talk] Weimar shadows -- rank: 1000

'Really, James, do you read anything about American politics before filing these observations?' No need to be so rude, Doug. I did not mean that the tea-baggers and the anti-war protestors were the same people, I meant that both movements were symptomatic of the decline of conventional political constituencies. Both movements - apart from the ostensible political issues that they appeal to - are carried by a popular disaffection with the political elite. I wouldn't go as far as Bob Morris (thoug ...

Document Size:	5100
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Feb 7 02:42:25 PST 2010

396 [lbo-talk] weimar shadows -- rank: 1000

Ok, though in the spirit of historical specificity is is not worth thinking about the differences between now and then as well as the historical precdents... ? The crisis of Weimar was the occasion of a great politicisation of German society, the polarisation of society with the parties of the extremes, Communists and Nazis becoming more weighty relative to the centre, the Social Democrats and Catholics. Is that like America right now? I am not so sure. The decisive trend, surely, is the depolit ...

Document Size:	5694
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Feb 6 17:50:00 PST 2010

397 [lbo-talk] Crisis of overaccumulation -- rank: 1000

Patrick, you are very kind about Grossman (I only did some proofing on the manuscript). I am grateful that you take the time to reand the article, but sometimes it seems to me that there is such a din of ideas in your head that it is hard to know where to start. Your approach is not scientific, but just heaps up evidence that 'capitalism is bad' as if that was a question that could be demonstrated on paper rather than in fact. You say you want to keep your thinking within those parameters that M ...

Document Size:	6700
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Feb 6 10:31:43 PST 2010

398 [lbo-talk] Crisis of overaccumulation? -- rank: 1000

Here's my article criticising contemporary Marxist crisis theory 'A Crisis of Underaccumulation Capitalist profits have been falling, but not for the reasons that Marx said they would, says James Heartfield: it is not the objective laws of capital accumulation that are a barrier to growth today, but the subjective retreat of the capitalist class from industrial growth' Read more: http://www.metamute.org/en/a_crisis_of_under_accumulation

Document Size:	5093
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Feb 6 07:59:51 PST 2010

399 [lbo-talk] lbo-talk Digest, Vol 1122, Issue 4 -- rank: 1000

Doug, to Michael: 'Michael, you devoted a few hundred words to a critique of how many/most Americans think and act. Then you say we should write as one of them. But you don't make membership in the group seem very attractive. Though this may sound blunt, I ask this with a great deal of admiration for what you do: how are you one of them? ' Is this not a familiar problem, I mean philosophically, at least. It is the similar to the approach Marx and Engels lay out in the Manifesto where they talk a ...

Document Size:	7026
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Feb 4 13:46:16 PST 2010

400 [lbo-talk] uh-oh! too much regulation!! -- rank: 1000

Andy, and Doug on whether it is ok to say America is crazier than the rest of the world. Andy: 'Well, I sort of did, but I was referring to clinical mental illness.' Doug: 'Well there's that too, but James doesn't want to believe the OECD's data.' Oh you Americans: you just have to be biggest and best at everything. But if you insist, then who am I to disagree? You are crazier than the rest of us.

Document Size:	4953
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Feb 4 05:35:37 PST 2010

401 [lbo-talk] uh-oh! too much regulation!! -- rank: 1000

Doug 'Does Britain have anything like our Senate, where a handful of thinly populated conservative states can block legislation? (Does the House of Lords even have any legislative function?) I thought that a common complaint against your parliamentary system was that it's something of an elective dictatorship where the party in power can do pretty much whatever it wants as long as it has a decent majority. The Chancellor can dictate fiscal policy. Our fiscal policy is an indescribable mess.' No, ...

Document Size:	6792
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Feb 3 15:51:00 PST 2010

402 [lbo-talk] uh-oh! too much regulation!! -- rank: 1000

There is nothing uniquely American about the right basing itself on over-represented small town and rural areas, as a counter-balance to the more social-democratic cities. It is the norm in Britain (where geographical constituencies are drawn to give rural voters extra weight) whose Tory party is largely elected by the suburban and rural parts of the country. It is true, I believe, also of most of Europe, and even Japan. Nor, for that matter is there anything uniquely American about the error of ...

Document Size:	5607
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Feb 3 13:36:49 PST 2010

403 [lbo-talk] uh-oh! too much regulation!! -- rank: 1000

'I get annoyed at people who have a truly lame view of radical prospects here but who don't know anything about the place. We should alll stick to what we know. ' Does that mean that LBO is really an American list, and that those of us not from there should be more circumspect? (This isn't meant as a complaint, or defensively: it often occurs to me.)

Document Size:	4950
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Feb 3 08:51:17 PST 2010

404 [lbo-talk] uh-oh! too much regulation!! -- rank: 1000

Doug writes that [the outrageous corruption of the European Carbon allocation scheme] "has nothing to do with what most people understand as the regulation of business" ... except perhaps to suggest that their scepticism towards government regulation might be a more justified than you think.

Document Size:	4859
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Feb 3 07:17:46 PST 2010

405 [lbo-talk] uh-oh! too much regulation!! -- rank: 1000

HOW CARBON-EMISSION REGULATION WORKS European Union Allocation (EUA) creates legal titles to emit a given amount of CO2 distributed to industry. These titles are transferable, creating a market in carbon trading rights. The European Union Allocation was overpriced at its initial offering, at ?30 a tonne. Within a year, the value of the market in EUAs doubled in value to ?205 billion. Unfortunately, 170 million too many were issued. Individual companies, particularly energy companies, soon notic ...

Document Size:	6187
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Feb 3 06:48:28 PST 2010