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11581 [lbo-talk] Edwards, populist -- rank: 1000

<http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105288&page=1> For Edwards, the questions have already begun mounting about how he squares his work for Fortress [hedge funds] with his campaign message of championing the poor. As ABC's David Muir points out, while Edwards distances himself from Fortress' sub-prime lending and Cayman Islands tax status, he's still got strong financial ties to the hedge fund, with as much as $7.5 million invested in various Fortress funds -- i ...

Document Size:	5283
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 17 08:03:47 PDT 2007

11582 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 9:01 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > They're smart enough about getting ahead in business, but that has a > very loose connection, if any, with making a good product. You can > see this > every day. Gone into a Duane Reade lately? Almost every day - where I've gotten Pampers, Crest, unscented Dove, Ivory dish detergent Duracell batteries - all of which work very well. I have stayed away from the $3 umbrellas, though, because they're crap. I don't see the point of t ...

Document Size:	5118
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu May 17 05:28:14 PDT 2007

11583 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 7:28 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote: >> Changing these kinds of practices takes a long time, apparently > > Don't tell that to the NUMMI folks! > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_United_Motors%2C_Inc. > > - Toyota/GM co-ownership > - Makes "US" and "Japanese" cars > - UAW represented > - Up and running for over 20 years GM was supposed to learn how to be Toyota from that experience. But the rest of GM still sucks. Doug

Document Size:	5175
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 16:49:10 PDT 2007

11584 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 7:06 PM, Mr. WD wrote: > FWIW, about a month ago, I put this question to an industrial engineer > who works for a company that produces parts for American and Japanese > automakers. He said the culture on the assembly lines in the American > automotive plants is totally different from the Japanese automotive > plants. The Japanese plants (i.e. those plants run by Toyota, Honda, > etc. but not necessarily located in Japan), he said, have carefully > chor ...

Document Size:	5724
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 16:21:05 PDT 2007

11585 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 4:40 PM, Michael Smith wrote: >> So why doesn't this apply to Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Apple, Hewlett- >> Packard, Nokia, Procter & Gamble....? > > Never worked in any of these places. I'm not 100% convinced that > they're all > equally on-the-ball Man, those capitalists are dumb, aren't they? How'd the ever end up running the world? Doug

Document Size:	4961
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 14:55:00 PDT 2007

11586 [lbo-talk] CFR: save the IMF! -- rank: 1000

<http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=c7q,s9pl,21q8,3jxw,4pky, 3pf4,eskj> View this newsletter as a web page on CFR.org U.S. Should Support Strong IMF, Urges New Report Developing Countries Need More Voting Power The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) legitimacy and status must be strengthened now so that it can be an effective manager when the next global crisis breaks out, urges a new Council Special Report. "Economic and financial conditions can change with alarming speed, ...

Document Size:	8011
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 14:40:18 PDT 2007

11587 [lbo-talk] Russia's economy -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 3:55 PM, Chris Doss wrote: > It's not that Russians CAN'T do it -- it's that > they're NOT SUPPOSED TO. :) Not according to me. Who says this? > Average incomes in Russia are almost twice those in > China and three times those in India, if that factors > into the matter anywhere. Found the answer to the question I couldn't get you to answer (or if you did, I missed it). Moscow incomes are three times those of the rest of Russia, and the top decile has an inco ...

Document Size:	11760
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 13:22:25 PDT 2007

11588 [lbo-talk] Chinese art has come a long way from the Cultural Revo -- rank: 1000

<http://fleshbot.com/sex/exhibitionism/hairong-tiantian-art-in-a-box- with-crotchless-fishnets-260996.php> Hairong Tiantian: Art In A Box (With Crotchless Fishnets!) Remember that female blogger in China who asked men to send her pictures of their flaccid penises? Yeah, us neither, but the Shanghaiist does and he checks in with an update on her latest saucy adventure. First of all, her name is Hairong Tiantian and for the last few weeks she's been living on the street in Beijing. Actua ...

Document Size:	6421
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 13:05:25 PDT 2007

11589 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 15, 2007, at 7:54 PM, Jim Straub wrote: > I think it is true that a fight directed at the larger financial > instiutions > involved might help (I recall reading that in the 76 NYC crisis the > powers > that be were most disturbed and agitated at some early raucous > demos that > happened on wall street and outside the banks themselves--- a > tactic that > was dropped by the union leadership) A march on Wall Street made more political sense in that situation bec ...

Document Size:	6082
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 12:38:39 PDT 2007

11590 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 12:23 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > On Wednesday 16 May 2007 07:42, Doug Henwood wrote: > >> Why have they been so unable to get their shit together? > >> From what I've seen of corporate executives, this is a little like >> asking why > the plague bacillus doesn't take better care of its host. > > People who are making their way on the inside of big established > companies > mostly have far more immediate and urgent worries than whether ...

Document Size:	5525
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 11:13:40 PDT 2007

11591 [lbo-talk] food prices rising -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 1:24 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > wtf? Isn't California the bread basket of the country or something? A lot of this has been attributed to pressure on grain prices because of demand for ethanol. Fidel was right on this one. Doug

Document Size:	4751
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 11:10:28 PDT 2007

11592 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 12:12 PM, Charles Brown wrote: > Why should the top exec's care or exert themselves ? They are pretty > much financially set for life personally. They can coast, rather than > march. Because they could make a shitload more money if the stock were rising 10-20% a year! To your average capitalist, being "set for life" isn't enough. You've got to be set for the hereafter too. Doug

Document Size:	4962
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 09:50:33 PDT 2007

11593 [lbo-talk] life maxim -- rank: 1000

Just saw this in a friend's sig line: The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theater, go dancing, go drinking, think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save and the greater will become that treasure which neither moths nor maggots can consume your capital. The less you are, the less you give expression to your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life ... So all passions and all activity are submerged in greed Karl Marx, notebooks, 1844

Document Size:	4951
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 08:59:30 PDT 2007

11594 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 11:38 AM, ravi wrote: > Look at what a horrible job even those with a > minimal and controlled platform like Apple do (poor keyboard > navigation support till 10.4, lack of support for data spread across > disks in apps like iPhoto, primitive to non-existent synchronisation > in applications like iCal, inconsistent, counter-intuitive and > crippled UI, application misbehaviour such as iTunes weirdness in its > new album cover UI, etc, etc). To each hir ow ...

Document Size:	5277
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 08:55:28 PDT 2007

11595 [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown -- rank: 1000

On May 16, 2007, at 10:37 AM, andie nachgeborenen wrote: > Fact of the matter is (and I guess I am > skirting dangerously close to certain waters where I > don't want to go), we need red business people, red > accountants, red MBAs, red engineers and red factory > and line managers. In some sense, yeah. I keep worrying that Chavez is going to crash and burn, in no small part because PdVSA is going to run into the ground. There's a real problem with distributing all the oil profi ...

Document Size:	5466
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed May 16 08:13:45 PDT 2007