This article from
Capital Research has several vignettes about families that sheltered
Katrina victims. Most experiences were good. One was shockingly bad.
The article also has a pr
Archive for December, 2005
Some Felt Blessed
Thursday, December 29th, 2005News You May Have Missed in 2005
Monday, December 26th, 2005At a new theme park in El Alberto,
Mexico (near Mexico City), wannabe migrants to the United States can
test their survival skills at an obstacle course that replicates the
rigors migrants must endure while sneaking across the border. Admission
price: about $13.50.
–Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 20
Yamaha Corp. introduced the MyRoom, a customizable, soundproof,
shed-like structure with 27 square feet of floor space, to install
inside notoriously crowded Japanese homes, for privacy (or to be exiled
to). The company expects a sales surge in 2006, when Japan’s first wave
of baby-boom salarymen retire and begin annoying their spouses at home.
–Times (London), May 27
Thirty-five Greenpeace activists rushed onto the floor of the
International Petroleum Exchange in London intending to paralyze oil
trading on the day the Kyoto environmental initiative took effect, but
several traders turned on them, punching and kicking the protesters
until they ran for their lives. (One activist was hospitalized with a
suspected broken jaw, another with a concussion.) Said one understated
Greenpeacer, “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our
point of view.”
–Associated Press, Feb. 16; Times (London), Feb. 17
Russian MPs pass key NGO measure
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005By Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, Moscow, Dec. 22, 2005
Russian MPs have approved a controversial bill that would tighten state
control over non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The lower house, the Duma, passed the bill in the second of the
three readings it needs to become law. The authorities argue the
changes are necessary to ensure the security of the Russian state. The
bill has been criticised by human rights groups and Western governments
as a threat to civil society.
‘Foreign spies’
It is one of the most controversial bills to be debated in the Russian
parliament since President Vladimir Putin came to power. There was
little doubt that it would pass its second reading. Russia’s parliament
is dominated by pro-Kremlin MPs and it is the
Kremlin which has been leading the call for tighter controls over the
activities and finances of non-governmental organisations. If adopted,
the new legislation would provide just that, making Russian and Western
NGOs more accountable to the state.
The authorities argue that NGOs are being used by Western governments
and foreign spies to fan revolution across the former Soviet Union. But
human rights groups accused the Kremlin of trying to strangle civil
society and of legislating to extend its own power. There has been
widespread criticism of the draft law in Russia and
abroad, including from the US Congress and the Council of Europe.
Earlier this month, President Putin proposed a number
of changes, but prominent Russian NGOs have complained that even in its
revised form, the bill would severely hamper their activities and
represents a danger to democracy.
In contrast to the critical tone of the above article, the lead-in in the Wall Street Journal is: Russian lawmakers agreed, at Putin’s behest, to soften much-criticized curbs on foreign funding of charities and nongovernmental rights groups.
U.S. Immigration Policy on the Table at the WTO
Thursday, December 15th, 2005By Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies, November 30, 2005
…
How did immigration wind up on the table at the WTO? Under the global
trade body’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), governments
can regulate the supply of services performed by foreigners. The
technical term for this type of service trade is Mode 4. Thus far, the
types of visas being discussed are those for executives and highly
skilled professionals, such as Indian software engineers who have come
to work in the Silicon Valley and other high-tech hubs in the United
States . Some developing countries are pushing for the Mode 4 talks to
cover less-skilled workers as well.
The wrangling over visas is just one more example of the WTO’s mission
creep. Global trade rules are no longer aimed merely at eliminating
tariffs on goods that cross borders. The ultimate goal of GATS, for
example, is to lift barriers to all manner of services by curbing
national and local government controls on the entry of global banks,
insurance companies, and other service providers into each country’s
markets. Other WTO rules limit government efforts to offer affordable
generic medicines or to protect native plants and traditional
handicrafts from being patented for profit by global businesses. And
any domestic law, including public interest regulations, can be
challenged under WTO rules as “an unfair barrier to trade.”
…
Richard Penn Kemble, A Tribute
Thursday, December 15th, 2005from Democracy Digest, Dec. 14, 2005
Many readers will be aware that Penn Kemble, co-editor of Democracy
Digest, recently passed away following a brave struggle with brain cancer.
Penn’s death generated some remarkable tributes and obituaries, marked not only
by sincerity of sentiment but a notable political diversity, attesting to a life
spent transcending sectarianism and building cross-party coalitions.
…
A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman,
of the next generation,” said James Freeman Clarke. Penn conceived a
recent conference on the legacy of Sidney Hook
at which it was noted that he shared Hook’s belief “in the power of ideas in the
political marketplace.” In a city overly preoccupied with daily headlines,
political fads and personal fortunes of the Who’s-in?-Who’s-out? variety, his
core conviction lay in building political movements around an intellectual
analysis and a set of values, and through a vision in which ego and ambition had
no place.
Penn personified the committed social democrat for whom democracy is a “way of life”
and, as Carl Gershman argues, who puts the democratic mission
above ego or self-interest, and is “prepared to recognize, analyze, and confront
honestly and with integrity every obstacle that lies in the way of its
advancement.”
Penn devoted his last energies developing Democracy Digest and this
trans-Atlantic network to connect American and European activists and
intellectuals, policy-formers and opinion-makers, in forging a common agenda for
democratic reform, particularly in the broader Middle East. Typically, at a time
when trans-Atlantic relations were at a nadir, he felt the urgency of promoting
dialogue and action around common values, and transcending ephemeral differences
by focusing on fundamentals, thinking strategically and confronting the next
frontier for expanding freedom and democracy. With a new generation of cynical
realists and isolationists emerging on both left and right, committing ourselves
to advance Penn’s legacy of progressive democratic solidarity is not only an
honorable vocation but a political and moral imperative.
See our previous blog (Oct. 24, 2005) on our friend, Penn Kemble.
Ecce Homo Oeconomicus: DOA
Thursday, December 8th, 2005
By John D. Mueller, Director, Program on Economics and Ethics, Ethics and Public Policy Center
… Starting in 1972,
economics departments at major American universities abolished the
requirement that students learn the history of economics before being
granted a degree. This accounts for much of the confusion in public
discussion of economic policy. Today’s neoclassical economic theory
rightly develops three elements that can be traced to Aristotle and
Augustine (the theories of utility, production and exchange). But it
neglects the most fundamental element (final distribution), and poses
models of economic behavior that fail to capture the realities of
personal, family, and political life. …
Personal economy. Modern
economic theory inaccurately posits individuals who always act
selfishly (even when being “altruistic”) and narrows all economic
choice to the means of self-gratification. …
Family economy. Modern
economic theory begins by inaccurately assuming hypothetical sexless
adult individuals who interact solely by means of explicit or implicit
exchanges. …
Political economy. …
Aristotle’s exploration of the two forms of justice, “justice in
exchange” and “distributive justice,” remains the indispensable
starting point for addressing basic questions of economic fairness. …
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is
a fairly accurate description of the family—but not the government, to
which Karl Marx mistakenly applied it.
Divine economy. While good
government is a blessing for saints and sinners alike, Augustine noted,
it must not be mistaken for the City of God, whose goal lies beyond
this life. Yet from Augustine’s “divine trace of equity stamped on the
business transactions of men” to Adam Smith’s famous “invisible hand”
of Stoic pantheism, economics has always been essentially a theory of
providence, divine as well as human. …
A Light Unto the Dismals. To be fair, even the Nobel awarders began to glimpse some of this 15 years ago.
The Death of a GM Dream
Thursday, December 8th, 2005From the International Herald Tribune, Dec. 1, 2005
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| By Jeremy W. Peters and Micheline Maynard |
… “The social contract was that if we build a quality product, we’re
going to have jobs, our kids are going to have jobs, and the plant will
still be in town,” he said. “Now, that idea is gone.” …
Next year, in a move that presages the end to GM’s grand experiment,
the company will shut down one of two assembly lines at what is
arguably the most famous factory in the country, where workers and
managers started out making decisions together at a sprawling complex
nestled in rolling farm country near Nashville.
GM’s short attention span prompted it to neglect Saturn just at the
point where it needed more investment. Instead, it poured money into
sport utility vehicles and pickups, hoping to outwit the Japanese –
only to see them invade those markets, too.
Missing the real Story of the Venezuelan “Election”
Thursday, December 8th, 2005Gauging the Wal-Mart Effect
Saturday, December 3rd, 2005From the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 3, 2005, p. A9
… An independent study done last month by the National
Bureau of Economic Research says Wal-Mart does adversely affect
employment and wages. Retail workers in a community with Wal-Mart earn
3.5% less, the study says, because Wal-Mart’s low prices force other
businesses to lower prices, and hence their wages. Wal-Mart pays its
employees on average about $9.68 an hour. NBER says it is possible that
lower wages, which result in decreased earnings, could result in a
strain on the tax base if lower-paid workers must seek food stamps and
Medicaid. The study also found that Wal-Mart’s presence reduces retail
employment by 2% to 4%, although there is some evidence that total
employment increases.
Wal-Mart counters with a study it funded from Global
Insight, an economic-forecasting firm. The study found that, since
1985, Wal-Mart’s openings around the country have cut consumer prices
about 3%, saving consumers $263 billion in 2004 alone. While nominal
wages go down about 2% on average nationwide, the study says, prices go
down even further, causing an increase in consumers’ real disposable
income…
Retail
workers earn 3.5% less, according to the first study. Even if they went
down only 2%, are the workers supposed to be happy because they spend
all their money at cheap Wal-Mart stores?