Magic Economics, Dress Sense and Body Language
Obama Proposes for New Financial Regulations
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Khabrein.info - 1 hour ago Galaxy: Samsung's Android Smartphone is among the host of smarthphones launched recently. LG too recently unveiled several smarthphones running of Google android. Nokia to Offer Life Tools for Rural Mobile Users
PC World - Jun 14, 2009 Nokia plans to roll out its Life Tools group of services to more emerging markets following a successful pilot program in India, a company executive said Monday. rrent Cricket Matches
Galaxy: Samsung's Android Smartphone
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Presto! Change-O! (magic economics) - 12:42 - May 17, 2008
PreText Productions
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a short student video on Economics by Roberto Verdecchia. Inspired by the humanist writings of Silo (Document of the Humanist Movement, Letters to My Friends).
www.amazon.ca/magic-Economics-Books/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Magic&rh=n%3A935606%2Ck%3AMagic&page=1 - Cached - Similar -
PM's tough talk on terror not to Pakistan's liking
Q+A-What might happen next in Iran
I used the theme in my Hindi short story,GIDDHA, Kutte, Chor aur PRADHANMANTRI. Means The Vultures, The Dogs, The Thieves and The Prime Minister!
"We live in times of rapid economic changes when the BRIC economies are a factor of stability and growth," Singh told accompanying journalists while returning from Yekaterinburg in Russia.
"India has borne the global economic crisis well, though we have not been unaffected," he said.
To a question, he said, "We (BRIC nations) are responsible for 40 per cent of the world GDP and if all the (member) nations join together, I think our voice will be heard in the global councils."
Finmin may dilute Fringe Benefit Tax in Budget
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Agencies
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1206 hrs IST
New Delhi The Finance Ministry is contemplating diluting provisions of Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT), by which companies may not have to pay taxes on certain perks and allowances availed of by employees.
Although industry has been pleading for a complete abolition of FBT in the forthcoming Budget, to be presented on July 6, sources said the finance ministry is against it because of revenue implications.
However, they added the ministry is looking at the possibility of diluting the provisions of FBT and may exclude expenses on various items which do not directly benefit employees.
The expenses related to marketing and sales promotion may go out of the purview of FBT as they do not benefit the employees directly, sources said.
"The best thing for the government would be to abolish FBT completely," said Satya Poddar, senior partner, Ernst and Young, adding that the realisation from FBT is less than Rs 10,000 crore, not even 3 per cent of the total direct tax collection.
FBT was introduced by the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the 2005-06 Budget to "tax many perquisites (which) are disguised as fringe benefits, and escape tax".
Under the current dispensation, an employer has to pay FBT at 30 per cent on the fringe benefit, the taxable value of which is determined in accordance with a formula.
In case the government is unable to completely abolish the FBT, Poddar said, "the government should at least rationalise the tax by limiting it to only those expenses which directly benefit the employees".
Under the present structure, fringe benefit goes "beyond taxing fringe benefits", he said, adding expenses incurred by companies on marketing and promotion cannot be construed as fringe benefits.
The FBT was introduced by the government in 2005 on expenses incurred by employers towards entertainment, festival celebrations, gift, use of club facilities, provision of hospitality, maintenance of guest houses, conferences, employee welfare, use of health club, maintenance of motor cars, telephone, sales promotion and publicity, etc.
Later in 2006-07, Chidambaram partly rationalised the FBT by excluding certain expenses from the purview of the tax net, like expenditure on distribution of free samples of medicines to doctors.
Besides, the Finance Act 2006 also specified that contribution of less than Rs one lakh in a year towards the approved retirement fund of an employee would not attract FBT.
Reds vs reds: It's war in Lalgarh17 Jun 2009, 2149 hrs IST, Caesar Mondal & Sukumar Mahato, TNN |
Maoist gunmen on Wednesday emerged from their stronghold in jungles along the Bengal-Jharkhand border for an audacious strike near Jhargram town, killing a local CPM leader and two activists in full public glare. As Trinamool Congress activists and Maoists have battled to capture turf from weakened CPM cadres, nearly 25 people have been killed, mostly CPM workers and supporters. At many places, the anti-CPM forces have been supported by locals who see the CPM as a receding force in the face of Mamata Banerjee's electoral surge.
The Naxalites want to create a "liberated zone" in the area and sensing a weakened state, seem to have moved in for the kill. A demoralized police force has vacated posts in many places and the fury of the attacks have stunned CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's administration.
Wednesday's sensational triple murder in a marketplace has left the entire area edgy and extended the Maoist threat to the doorstep of Jhargram town, one of the few bastions still held by CPM after its woeful show in the Lok Sabha polls.
Soon after the attack, members of the Maoist-led People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) attacked houses of local CPM leaders in a repeat of Tuesday. Around 1.30pm, a mob ransacked the house of CPM's Nachipur local committee secretary Chandi Karan and set it on fire. The mob did not stop here. It attacked the house of CPM leader Anuj Pandey's brother and Harina gram panchayat member Dalim Pandey with shovels. The house of the CPM's local peasant leader Alok Rakshit, too, didn't escape mob fury.
The killings and the arson sent an already nervous administration groping for response. The state government pleaded for more Central forces over and above the 1,100 CRPF men deployed in Lalgarh, the site of pitched battles earlier this week.
Security analysts view the strikes as a strategic move by Maoists to expand their territory before central forces dig in. "It's an attempt to secure a bigger territory to keep securitymen engaged across a huge area. This will also give the guerrillas more escape routes in case they have to beat a retreat," an analyst said.
Eyewitnesses who saw the brutal murders said that six men in their mid-20s rode up in motorcycles to Bankshole and pumped bullets into Abhijit Mahato at point-blank range. Bankshole, a hamlet along the busy Kolkata-Jamshedpur highway, is 80km from Jamshedpur and 195km from Kolkata.
Abhijit, a 23-year-old student of Manikpara college and a key member of the Maoist Resistance Force, was sipping tea with friends Niladri Sekhar Mahato and Dibakar Mahato when he was shot dead. The resistance force locally referred to as RG party has been formed by CPM to counter Naxalites.
His friend Niladri, secretary of the resistance force and a known CPM supporter who is locally known as Tinku, tried to run away but the two gunmen chased and shot him, said owner of Tapas tea stall.
Anil Mahato, the 45-year-old CPM Banksole branch secretary, was buying fish when the first shots fired at Abhijit alerted him. Sensing danger, Anil took to his heels. The Maoists spotted him, chased and shot him from behind.
"Anil, Tinku and Abhijit didn't stand a chance. The gunmen took them completely by surprise. They could not anticipate anything like this since the area is a CPM stronghold," said Panchanan Mahato, an eyewitness who was close to Tapas tea stall.
Locals said the role of the CPM men in the arrest of a PCPA leader could have been the immediate provocation, but also hinted at a wider game plan to cleanse the zone of any opposition before Central forces arrive.
Disbanding the 200-member force that guards the stretch of highway from dusk to dawn against bandits will make it easier for the Maoists to move between the jungles on either side.
US unveils financial regulatory overhaul17 Jun 2009, 2115 hrs IST, AP | |||||||
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| WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has unveiled a sweeping regulatory overhaul that it hopes will restore confidence in the US financial system The Obama plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the entire financial system and would also create a new consumer protection agency to guard against the types of abuses that played a big role in the current crisis. The 88-page white paper put foward by the administration will spark intense debate in Congress with opponents already charging that it imposes too many restrictions that will harm the ability of US financial companies to compete in the global economy. |
Aviation to account for $3.6 trillion of world GDP by 2026 16 Jun 2009, 1558 hrs IST, PTI
According to the report 'Aviation: The Real World Wide Web', limiting aviation's growth to one per cent below the current trend would cost six million aviation related jobs and the industry's GDP contribution by $600 billion.
"Close to 20 million jobs could be supported by the Asia-Pacific region's air transport sector in 20 years. Currently air transport contributes around $170 billion to the Asia Pacific region's GDP," it said.
The report said while reduced growth in aviation would have considerably impact on global employment, economic output and social development, it would not necessarily imply lower emissions when the impact of replacement activities and alternative transport were taken into account.
"Aviation currently contributes two per cent of worldwide man-made carbon dioxide emissions and will be no more than three per cent by 2050," it said.
"It does appear that global economic growth is correlated with and dependent on growth in aviation. We have reached the conclusion that aviation has a special role in raising living standards," Oxford Economics MD Adrian Cooper said.
MUMBAI: There was ruckus in Maharathra assembly on Tuesday as Ram Pradhan Action Taken Report was tabled on Mumbai attacks. The report lists out
The ATR was tabled amid protests by the opposition which insisted that the panel report should also be tabled. Maharashtra assembly was adjourned for 20 minutes over the report.
Justifying the decision not to table the main report, home minister Jayant Patil, who tabled the ATR, said "there are some confidential things in the Pradhan report which are very important from the point of view of security of Mumbai and Maharashtra."
"The government has taken a deliberate decision not to table the probe panel report... there are some confidential things in the report and it won't be alright to disclose them to the public," the minister said.
Earlier on Tuesday, a deeply divided Maharashtra Cabinet continued discussions on the report of the Ram Pradhan committee into the 26/11 terror attacks with some ministers proposing another panel to study it and others questioning why only former police commissioner Hasan Gafoor had been singled out for transfer.
The report was discussed threadbare at the Cabinet meeting on Monday evening. On Tuesday, the Cabinet met again for two hours to continue the debate, said official sources.
Worried by the possibility of an opposition onslaught on the ruling Democratic Front government over the report, some Cabinet members have proposed setting up another committee to study it in detail, an official said.
Referring to some reports that the Mumbai police was given a clean chit, it is learnt that some ministers wanted to know why former police commissioner Hasan Gafoor was the only one to be singled out for a transfer.
Others said the report had clearly spoken of "intelligence failure" and questioned the appointment of D. Shivananandan, commissioner of the State Intelligence Department at the time of the terror attacks, as city police chief, disclosed an official privy to the discussion.
The issue of the sudden transfer of 17 Indian Police Service officers last Saturday and the fate of then Maharashtra director general of police AN Roy also came up.
After the report was submitted last fortnight, the government had set up a two-member committee comprising Chief Secretary Johny Joseph and Additional Chief Secretary (home) Chandra Iyengar to prepare an action taken report (ATR).
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had said the Pradhan Committee Report and the ATR would be presented before the legislature simultaneously.
Tuesday is the last day of the legislature's monsoon-cum-Budget session. The government has already come under attack from the opposition for not allowing a discussion on the Pradhan Committee report by deliberately tabling it on the final day
US pleased with India-Pak reconnect17 Jun 2009, 2010 hrs IST, Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN |
| WASHINGTON: Glossing over a very public reprimand delivered to Pakistan by the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in front of television There is quiet satisfaction in Washington that New Delhi has finally relented and picked up the threads of the dialogue despite deep reservations about Pakistan's bonafides in the capping and rolling back terrorist activities directed against India, specifically its inaction on the Mumbai terrorist attack by Pakistani jihadis. "A resumption of such high-level engagement in the aftermath of the November Mumbai attacks is encouraging. We have aid before that India and Pakistan need to continue their dialogue to find joint solutions against terrorism and to promote regional stability," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Wednesday, hours after Prime Minister Singh upbraided Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari in their first meeting after the Mumbai attacks. Singh virtually called Pakistan a sponsor of terrorism in front of television cameras, forcing Zardari to plead that he could wait till the media disperse before starting the conversation. The reprimand has shocked Islamabad, which said on Thursday that such a public dressing down is "unacceptable." But as far as Washington is concerned, the mere fact that Singh met Zardari in Yekaterinberg, Russia, on the sidelines of the SCO summit, and the two agreed to meet again in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, where the Non-Aligned summit is taking place in July, is a minor victory for American diplomacy. "It did not matter if India insisted only on discussing terrorism or if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reprimanded President Zardari in front of the cameras. Resumption of dialogue it was for the US State Department and Pakistan, a gain after the dialogue had derailed following the Mumbai attacks. They did not want any credit for the new development, but they clearly relished it," observed T.P. Sreenivasan, a former Indian ambassador who is now a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. The Obama administration, notwithstanding the fact that the murder of six Americans and scores of other nationals (mostly Indians) killed in Mumbai is going unpunished, believes dialogue is the best way forward for India and Pakistan even if Islamabad is coming up short on curbing its jihadis. Administration officials typically shrug off Pakistan's continued shielding of jihadis with anti-India terrorist agenda, some of whom have been released from custody, while maintaining US and India need to help the civilian government in Islamabad in its war against Taliban and al-Qaida. Asked what the US doing with its ally (Pakistan) in the war on terror to make sure that it will deliver on the promises to end terrorism, spokesman Kelly's response was: "I'll refer you to their own spokesman to comment on that." However, in deference to India's residual anger at Pakistan's inaction, US officials have publicly invested New Delhi with a veto on the dialogue, which is what the formulation "how and when to approach that dialogue is something for them (India and Pakistan) to decide" amounts to. Consequent to that, India's foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon has said the only dialogue on the cards right now is about terrorism and whether Pakistan is meeting its obligations in this regard. Pakistan has made some perfunctory noises about not allowing its territory to be used for terrorist activities and how it is also a victims of terrorism, but except for the credulous, most seasoned US analysts have a better idea of Islamabad's tactical moves. Selig Harrison, a veteran South Asia expert, pointed out that it was Pakistan's failure to crackdown on Lashkar-e-Taiba and its release of two of its leaders jailed after the Mumbai attack that led to the usually unflappable Manmohan Singh's terse reprimand of Zardari in Yekaterinburg. "No new US aid commitments should be made to Islamabad until it takes decisive action to disarm Lashkar-e-Taiba in accordance with Article 256 of the Pakistan Constitution, which bars private militias," Harrison argued, warning that the danger of an Islamist takeover of Pakistan does not come from the Taliban but from a proliferating network of heavily armed Islamist militias in the Punjab heartland and major cities directed by Lashkar-e-Taiba. But the warning comes too late. With both the US House and Senate clearing bills this week facilitating billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan, the matter is expected to reach President Obama's desk shortly for his assent. | |
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/US-pleased-with-India-Pak-reconnect/articleshow/4668084.cms
Obama-backed bill on Pakistan passed by Senate panel
Called the 'Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009', the bill was passed yesterday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by 16 to zero votes.
It seems to have adopted a much lenient view with regard to accountability, transparency and oversight of the US aid on Pakistan and leaves the Obama Administration to take a final call on all those aspects.
This is unlike the House version of the bill, which imposes strict conditions on Pakistan both in terms of its fight against terrorism and non-proliferation. The House Bill passed last week, is not favoured by the Obama Administration, which believes imposition of strict conditions on Pakistan could backfire in the war against terrorism.
The Kerry-Lugar bill -- named for its authors, Democrat John Kerry and Republican Richard Lugar -- now goes to the Senate floor. Once the bill is passed by the Senate, the members of the two Chamber of the Congress -- the House of Representatives and the Senate -- would go into a conference to club both the versions of the bill into one.
"This bill will help empower Pakistanis fighting to turn their country toward a path of moderation and stability. It offers us a chance to begin a new chapter in our relations based upon accountability and a broad-based, durable commitment to Pakistan and its people," Senator John Kerry, said after the passage of the bill.
Kerry is the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"This legislation marks an important step toward sustained economic and political cooperation with Pakistan, while establishing mechanisms to help ensure that funds are spent efficiently," Senator Richard Lugar, the Ranking Member of the Committee said.
"The bill subjects our security assistance to a certification that the Pakistani government is using the money for its intended purpose, namely, to combat the Taliban and al-Qaeda," he said.
"The bill also calls for tangible progress in governance, including an independent judiciary, greater accountability by the central government, respect for human rights, and civilian control of the levers of power, including the military and the intelligence agencies," Lugar said.
Now that the bill has been passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry urged his colleagues in the US Senate for swift passage of the bill.
Jindal won attention - not all of it positive - in February for delivering the televised Republican response to a major speech by President Barack Obama to Congress. Jindal, who is Indian-American, also traveled to Iowa and several other states, fueling speculation that the first-term governor was exploring a run for the White House.
But Dan Kyle, an officer in the ``Jindal for President Draft Council,'' confirmed on Tuesday that the governor's organization has asked that the draft efforts be halted. The letter from campaign organization treasurer Robert Yarborough - and a later statement by Jindal communications director Melissa Sellers - said the presidential draft effort would distract from the governor's work.
Sellers said Jindal supports efforts to disband the organization. Asked specifically whether that means Jindal would not run for president, Sellers gave Jindal's oft-repeated answer.
``The governor has said repeatedly that he has the job he wants, and he hopes to be re-elected and serve the state for another term,'' she wrote in an e-mailed response.
Kyle said the group late on Tuesday had not immediately decided its next move. He said the draft effort involved about 150 supporters who hoped for a Jindal candidacy in the next presidential race or the one after that.
Ram Bhatia, an uncle of Jindal's wife, Supriya Jindal, is an officer in the draft group, but has agreed to step down, the governor's office said.
Though Jindal was tapped to deliver the Republican response in February, speculation on his future cooled after his speech was criticized by detractors as awkward and deficient. Yet his supporters insist the 38-year-old Jindal could rejuvenate the party after Republicans lost congressional seats and the presidency in last November's election.
Gagged BJP leader vents ire, quits RS seat
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The Associated Press Summit set to back Barroso's bid for second term at EU helm
IPO markets may turn around with Mahindra Holidays issue
Reuters India - 3 hours ago By Pallavi S (VCCircle.com) The firm raised Rs 120 crore from NYLIM Jacob Ballas Capital and SBI in a pre-IPO placement in January 2008. Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India IPO opens on June 23 Economic Times Sebi bats for retail investor
NDTV.com - 19 minutes ago Market regulator Sebi is currently considering a proposal that will make the commissions paid to distributors transparent. But the mutual fund industry is opposing the proposal since they fear it will make them less attractive as compared to insurance ... Mutual fund AUM likely to grow 15-25 pc over next 5 years Economic Times
IPO markets may turn around with Mahindra Holidays issue
Sebi bats for retail investor
No Sallu at Kat's b'day!
Times of India - 4 hours ago Remember the tamasha that Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan created at Katrina Kaif's birthday last July in a Bandra restaurant? How could anybody forget the incident that threatened to split Bollywood down the middle with that other Khan, Aamir, ... Salman had fun with Neil Bollywood Mantra New CEO for Sun Network!
Oneindia - 5 hours ago Sun TV Network, with a bunch of popular Channels has roped in former Star India content and media president Ajay Vidyasagar as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) with immediate effect. Sun TV appoints Ajay Vidyasagar as CEO Galatta.com Show more stories Show fewer stories 35 swine flu cases in India as virus spreads
Sify - 3 hours ago New Delhi/ Hyderabad/Jalandhar: Four people including a six-year-old boy tested positive for swine flu in the national capital, taking the total number of influenza A (H1N1) cases in India to 35, health officials said here Wednesday. Swine flu: Delhi reports 4 more positive cases, total 35 Press Trust of India Why govt hospitals make swine flu patients sick IBNLive.com Several Bangaloreans volunteer for A(H1N1) flu screening
Hindu - 6 hours ago Bangalore (IANS): Bangaloreans have become proactive in voluntarily getting themselves screened for the H1N1 influenza infection after two swine flu cases were reported in the city, health officials said on Wednesday.
No Sallu at Kat's b'day!
New CEO for Sun Network!
35 swine flu cases in India as virus spreads
Several Bangaloreans volunteer for A(H1N1) flu screening
India rest trio
The Press Association - 4 hours ago India's selectors have opted to rest Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Suresh Raina for the four-match one-day international series against West Indies starting later this month. Tendulkar, Zaheer rested; Nehra in for Caribbean tour Indian Express Is Kirsten fatigued too?
Daily News & Analysis - 20 minutes ago Listening to first Gary Kirsten and then MS Dhoni trotting out one excuse after another for the pathetic show in England would have you believe that this Indian team had no chance at all in the T20 World Cup. Crazy love CricInfo.com Jayawardene keeping calm
The Press Association - 3 hours ago Sri Lanka have set their sights on utilising their own style of unorthodox cricket to complete an emotional triumph in the World Twenty20 tournament. Sri Lankan Mendis from mystery man to plain magician Reuters India Telegraph.co.uk - Hindu - CricInfo.com - BBC Sport Order of law deteriorating in West Bengal: Chidambaram
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ANI
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1721 hrs IST
Sonia Gandhi's case transferred to division ...LTTE remnants regrouping?Dhoni booed by Indian fansMySpace to lay off 400 employees: ReportKareena Kapoor fumes on 'nude' queryI've apologized to Advani over pre-poll spee... WB govt blames Maoists from Jharkhand fo...Maoists put up 'human shield' to combat ...In Maoist violence against CPM, TMC & Co...
New Delhi Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the law and order situation in West Bengal is deteriorating fast because of the Maoists violence in that state's West Midnapore District. Stating that the Centre has dispatched enough paramilitary forces to the troubled areas, he lashed out at the Left Front government in the state for not acting in a timely manner.
"We are getting an impression that a section of the government wants to act while the rest doesn't, fearing the consequences," he said.
Responding to Chidambaram statements, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri said he hoped the Centre would give assistance to people in the affected areas.
He also said the Central government should co-ordinate efforts, as India is facing its biggest internal threat from the Maoists.
Earlier in the day, the Home Ministry had advised the West Bengal administration to deploy its own forces in full strength as "maintaining law and order is primarily the responsibility of the state government".
"The Central paramilitary forces have been sent only to assist the state police," an official had said.
The Centre advised the West Bengal government to deploy the East Frontier Rifles, Special Armed Police and the regular armed police to deal with the situation arising out of Maoists and tribals virtually taking over areas like Lalgarh.
Chidambaram's stern warning came as three CPI(M) workers were also shot dead in Banksole in West Midnapore district this morning.
Around 1,300 central paramilitary forces have already deployed in the troubled areas while 300 more are on their way.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has reportedly told the ruling Left Front partners that 500 Maoists - 100 of them fully trained in combat and 400 others semi-trained - had sneaked into Lalgarh from Jharkhand.
PM's wishlist: Peace with Pak, end of terrorism
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Agencies
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1608 hrs IST
Sonia Gandhi's case transferred to division ...LTTE remnants regrouping?Dhoni booed by Indian fansMySpace to lay off 400 employees: ReportKareena Kapoor fumes on 'nude' queryI've apologized to Advani over pre-poll spee... Resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue 'encoura...Manmohan maintains distance from Zardari...Pak might soon move troops from border w...
On Board Prime Minister's Special Aircraft Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that India wanted to try again to make peace with Pakistan but Islamabad should take "strong and effective" actions to end terrorism against his country like it has done with regard to Taliban.
A day after he met Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg, Singh said if the Pakistani leadership shows "courage, determination and statesmanship to take the high road to peace, India will meet it more than half the way".
Singh said Zardari had told him that he was sincere in fighting terrorism but he talked about difficulties his government is facing in tackling the menace and sought "some time" in this regard.
"I have spoken before also about my vision of a cooperative sub-continent and the vital interest people of the sub-continent have in peace. For this, we must try again to make peace with Pakistan. But for this, it is essential that strong and effective steps are taken by Pakistan against the enemies of peace," Singh told journalists accompanying him on his way back after attending two multilateral summits.
About his meeting with Zardari, Singh said they discussed Indo-Pak relations "which remain under considerable stress and strain, the primary cause of which is terrorist attacks against India emanating from Pakistani territory."
The Prime Minister said he had conveyed to Zardari "full extent of our expectation that the government of Pakistan take strong and effective action to prevent use of Pakistani territory for attacks against India and brings to justice perpetrators of past attacks, including those of Mumbai massacre and dismantle the infrastructure of terror in
Pakistan."
He said Zardari told him about Pakistan efforts to deal with the menace and the difficulties that they face.
Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will discuss what Pakistan is doing and can do to prevent terrorism from Pakistan against India and bring to justice those responsible for these attacks, he said.
WB govt blames Maoists from Jharkhand for Lalgarh trouble
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Agencies
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1808 hrs IST
Demand fall appears to have halted: TCSPM's wishlist: Peace with Pak, end of terror...Jobless man steals just for free prison lunc...I've apologized to Advani over pre-poll spee...Order of law deteriorating in West Bengal: C...Rajkot goes wi-fi as BSNL launches wireless ... Order of law deteriorating in West Benga...Maoists put up 'human shield' to combat ...In Maoist violence against CPM, TMC & Co...
Kolkata Grappling with a violent agitation by tribals in Lalgarh, the West Bengal Government on Wednesday alleged that a squad of 100 Maoists armed with sophisticated weapons had entered the troubled area in West Midnapore district from neighbouring Jharkhand. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had received the information from the Jharkhand government, a senior Left Front leader, who was present at a party meeting at which the chief minister said.
The chief minister told the meeting that he would take up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he would meet him in Delhi on June 19, according to the Left leader. The chief minister, who has not made any public comment on the intensified tribal agitation, said that central forces were needed for combing operations. The state had received one company of CRPF while it had requisitioned five.
RSP leader and the state PWD minister Kshiti Goswami, who attended the meeting, expressed disappointment over the chief minister repeatedly asserting that he would "look into the matter". "The morale of the police has completely broken down following the attacks on police camps," he said.
Goswami claimed that in the post-election scenario, police in the state were "apparently listening more to the opposition parties than the ruling combine as the winds of change had also affected them". He apprehended that Maoists would use the villagers as human shields and would flee to Jharkhand if the state government launches an offensive. He suggested that the chief minister take the matter up with the Jharkhand government so that West Bengal's border with that state could be sealed.
Pro-naxal tribals, protesting alleged police atrocities on them in the wake of a landmine blast at Salboni in which the Chief Minister and then union ministers including Ramvilas Paswan had a narrow escape in November, have virtually taken control of Lalgarh after forcing police and paramilitary personnel out of the area.
Is Kirsten fatigued too?
Jayawardene keeping calm
Order of law deteriorating in West Bengal: Chidambaram
| Font Size |
ANI
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1721 hrs IST New Delhi Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the law and order situation in West Bengal is deteriorating fast because of the Maoists violence in that state's West Midnapore District.
Stating that the Centre has dispatched enough paramilitary forces to the troubled areas, he lashed out at the Left Front government in the state for not acting in a timely manner.
"We are getting an impression that a section of the government wants to act while the rest doesn't, fearing the consequences," he said.
Responding to Chidambaram statements, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri said he hoped the Centre would give assistance to people in the affected areas.
He also said the Central government should co-ordinate efforts, as India is facing its biggest internal threat from the Maoists.
Earlier in the day, the Home Ministry had advised the West Bengal administration to deploy its own forces in full strength as "maintaining law and order is primarily the responsibility of the state government".
"The Central paramilitary forces have been sent only to assist the state police," an official had said.
The Centre advised the West Bengal government to deploy the East Frontier Rifles, Special Armed Police and the regular armed police to deal with the situation arising out of Maoists and tribals virtually taking over areas like Lalgarh.
Chidambaram's stern warning came as three CPI(M) workers were also shot dead in Banksole in West Midnapore district this morning.
Around 1,300 central paramilitary forces have already deployed in the troubled areas while 300 more are on their way.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has reportedly told the ruling Left Front partners that 500 Maoists - 100 of them fully trained in combat and 400 others semi-trained - had sneaked into Lalgarh from Jharkhand.
PM's wishlist: Peace with Pak, end of terrorism
| Font Size |
Agencies
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1608 hrs IST
On Board Prime Minister's Special Aircraft Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that India wanted to try again to make peace with Pakistan but Islamabad should take "strong and effective" actions to end terrorism against his country like it has done with regard to Taliban.
A day after he met Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg, Singh said if the Pakistani leadership shows "courage, determination and statesmanship to take the high road to peace, India will meet it more than half the way".
Singh said Zardari had told him that he was sincere in fighting terrorism but he talked about difficulties his government is facing in tackling the menace and sought "some time" in this regard.
"I have spoken before also about my vision of a cooperative sub-continent and the vital interest people of the sub-continent have in peace. For this, we must try again to make peace with Pakistan. But for this, it is essential that strong and effective steps are taken by Pakistan against the enemies of peace," Singh told journalists accompanying him on his way back after attending two multilateral summits.
About his meeting with Zardari, Singh said they discussed Indo-Pak relations "which remain under considerable stress and strain, the primary cause of which is terrorist attacks against India emanating from Pakistani territory."
The Prime Minister said he had conveyed to Zardari "full extent of our expectation that the government of Pakistan take strong and effective action to prevent use of Pakistani territory for attacks against India and brings to justice perpetrators of past attacks, including those of Mumbai massacre and dismantle the infrastructure of terror in
Pakistan."
He said Zardari told him about Pakistan efforts to deal with the menace and the difficulties that they face.
Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will discuss what Pakistan is doing and can do to prevent terrorism from Pakistan against India and bring to justice those responsible for these attacks, he said.
WB govt blames Maoists from Jharkhand for Lalgarh trouble
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Agencies
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1808 hrs IST
Kolkata Grappling with a violent agitation by tribals in Lalgarh, the West Bengal Government on Wednesday alleged that a squad of 100 Maoists armed with sophisticated weapons had entered the troubled area in West Midnapore district from neighbouring Jharkhand. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had received the information from the Jharkhand government, a senior Left Front leader, who was present at a party meeting at which the chief minister said.
The chief minister told the meeting that he would take up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he would meet him in Delhi on June 19, according to the Left leader. The chief minister, who has not made any public comment on the intensified tribal agitation, said that central forces were needed for combing operations. The state had received one company of CRPF while it had requisitioned five.
RSP leader and the state PWD minister Kshiti Goswami, who attended the meeting, expressed disappointment over the chief minister repeatedly asserting that he would "look into the matter". "The morale of the police has completely broken down following the attacks on police camps," he said.
Goswami claimed that in the post-election scenario, police in the state were "apparently listening more to the opposition parties than the ruling combine as the winds of change had also affected them". He apprehended that Maoists would use the villagers as human shields and would flee to Jharkhand if the state government launches an offensive. He suggested that the chief minister take the matter up with the Jharkhand government so that West Bengal's border with that state could be sealed.
Pro-naxal tribals, protesting alleged police atrocities on them in the wake of a landmine blast at Salboni in which the Chief Minister and then union ministers including Ramvilas Paswan had a narrow escape in November, have virtually taken control of Lalgarh after forcing police and paramilitary personnel out of the area.
economics based upon magic, cruelty, fatalism and greed
By Cage Innoye
In life we have the problem of self management. If we don't manage ourselves, then disaster occurs. Self control is a key trait of this behavior, taking calculated risks is another, a strategy of balance is another. Most people accept this.
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BREAKING NEWS
We know things shouldn't simply go out to extremes because disaster will occur, thus, we manage ourselves. We know that we cannot simply do one thing over and over, that we must do many things for a successful project. We know that we should not take big, foolish risks in our personal lives. Should economics be any different? But in conservative economic theory, economics is very different! A big exception is made, suddenly in the sphere of business and finance we have "magic". While in life we have self control, in economics we have the mysticism of automatic processes. Thus, life is so much easier in the economic sphere; it's like a big vacation from reality.
In conservative theory all things magically balance out. If real estate prices get too high, then they correct in a natural cycle. Eventually, all false value is removed; buyers lose equity and investors will lose too. So gains and losses exactly equal. The just invisible hand of Adam Smith creates equilibrium; the invisible hand of this invisible god corrects all. This god is all knowing, all powerful. All works out in a completely spontaneous process. Yes, in life you must worry, but in economics we have a great exception to life because here some unknown god is in control. Whereas in your own life or in education or coaching your child's soccer team or cooking a holiday dinner there is no god to make things work out automatically. Finally, we have a realm of our lives where all is easy and free of worry! What a relief!
All's well, but upon a second look, reality doesn't match our fairy tale. Damage is done just as in other human processes, personal or social -- when we let things go to one-sided extremes, when something is overdone, when we take stupid risks. The magical corrections of conservative theory involve catastrophic events. And the problem in the 2008 crash was not that home buyers or the mortgage makers or the purchasers of mortgage-backed "insecurities" were the only ones hurt. Everyone was slammed by the downturn. Even if you were to argue that those who got houses with poor financials were at fault (which is only partly true), still the vast majority of homeowners were not at fault. Millions of innocent people, the vast majority of the population that did NOT buy houses during the bubble; and the vast majority of businesses did NOT buy mortgage securities, yet they are hurt too. So we must ask, "What kind of invisible hand and magic is this?" A magic that meets out punishment for everyone, to the whole nation for the actions of a minority, this is hardly a just economic god.
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http://english.pravda.ru/business/finance/09-06-2009/107745-Conservative_economics-0
Monday, September 22, 2008
Economics as a voodoo science, written under the influence of a whole bottle of Lambrusco
I was reading two books at the same time this week.
One was "The Great Influenza" by John Barry (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Influenza-deadliest-pandemic-history/dp/0143036491) which among other things lays the history of medicine's transformation into science as it gradually happened throughout the 19th century, from a trade largely practiced by uneducated, unlicensed doctors some of whom could barely read (in the early 1800s there were no prerequisites for medical school, not even college education, no entrance exams, and no laboratory training) into the true scientific discipline which used statistics, biochemistry, and extensive experimentation.
The second was "Ahead of the Curve" by Philip Broughton (http://www.amazon.com/Ahead-Curve-Harvard-Business-School/dp/1594201757), documenting the author's experience at the Harvard Business School. This one nicely superimposed itself over the week of the economic turmoil, and brought back my own MBA memories.
Being reminded of what an actual scientific method looks like while listening to the solemn bullshit pronouncements about the economy that is overflowing the news, I could not help but compare these pronouncements to the writings of the medieval alchemists.
Compare, for example, the following quote from "The Revelations of Hermes"...
"But it is a skillful, perfect equation of all the Elements, a right commingling of natural forces, a most particular union of spiritual virtues, an indissoluble uniting of body and soul. It is the purest and noblest substance of an indestructible body, which cannot be destroyed nor harmed by the Elements, and is produced by Art. With this Aristotle prepared an apple prolonging life by its scent, when he, fifteen days before his death, could neither eat nor drink on account of old age." (http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/arr/arr27.htm)
...with the following citation from Alan Greenspan...
"We cannot be certain that this benign environment will persist and that there are not more deep-seated forces emerging as a consequence of prolonged monetary accommodation."
Or this amazing pearl from Greenspan circa 2000:
"This does not necessarily imply a decline in asset values - although that can happen at any time for any number of reasons - but these values will increase no faster than household income."
Wikipedia defined science as "the effort to discover, and increase human understanding of how the physical world works. Through controlled methods, scientists use observable physical evidence of natural phenomena to collect data, and analyze this information to explain what and how things work. Such methods include experimentation that tries to simulate natural phenomena under controlled conditions and thought experiments. Knowledge in science is gained through research."
A typical science - such as physics - starts with observing the natural phenomena, proceeds with deducing the basic laws that govern the system under examination, then uses these laws to create mathematical formulas to describe the behavior of the system, then use these formulas to predict some aspects of the behavior of the Universe.
A representative scientific formula might look like this...
...and lead to results that look like this:
Most importantly, the results are REPRODUCIBLE, can be used to produce NON-TRIVIAL predictions of system's behavior, and are considered TRUE by the scientific community within the limits of their applicability.
By contrast, let's examine a representative economic construct, a Laffer Curve.
Wikipedia says, "In economics, the Laffer curve is used to illustrate the idea that increases in the rate of taxation may sometimes decrease tax revenue. Since a 100 percent income tax will generate no revenue (as citizens will have no incentive to work), the optimal tax rate that maximizes government revenue must lie below 100 percent."
If you look closely at the picture above, you can notice several things. First, it contains only two numbers - 0 and 1. The Y axis is not marked at all. Its shape is deceptive - it resembles a parabola, but there is no mathematical proof that it really is one. Furthermore, the t0 point on the curve is deceptive - it appears to be exactly at the 0.5 coordinate (which might suggest a 50% income taxation as maximizing the government revenue), but there is no data that suggest that this is true.
If I were to produce a picture like this in any of my undergraduate classes, every one of my physics or math teachers would have given me an F on the spot. Doing it twice would have most likely resulted in premature termination of my college education.
Examining the "idea" that the Laffer curve illustrates, it becomes immediately obvious that it contains NO NON-TRIVIAL RESULTS. The claims that it makes is that at 0% and at 100% taxation rates the government income is 0. So what? The theory would only be USEFUL if it were to predict what the maximum is (or at least that there is only one).
What if the curve actually looks like this?
Or this?
Finally, did anybody prove that it is even a function?
There is no way of saying, of course - the theory behind the Laffer curve did not result from any statistical analysis - or any scientific analysis for that matter. It was based on a mental model, "common sense", and an ideology - much like Aristotle's derivations of the laws of nature. Only instead of 300BC, in economics this approach is practiced today.
Laffer curve happens to be a representative economic concept - a model that while sounding important can actually give one no useful information. Or, to use Greenspan's quote again...
"The fact that our econometric models at the Fed, the best in the world, have been wrong for 14 straight quarters, does not mean thay will not be right in the 15th quarter."
7 comments:
Thanks for that post, never ceases to amaze me how quickly and badly one's (mine) perception of what it means to act as a scientist really ought to degrades.
Economic models are notoriously hard to construct, especially to model the human society. Forgetting the complexity, I think part of the difficulty comes from the tendency of creating feedback in that the prediction also affects behaviour of what (who) it models; media surely plays a big part. Intuitively it seems to me that a very good model would have to make provisions for such effects. Begs the question if such a model can exist at all, hard to do for sure.
"...would require a proof that the curve is contiguous..."
I presume you meant to say "continuous"?
Anonymous said... But aren't you aware that the scientists at the Wall Street Journal editorial page have used actual data to reveal the true laffer curve:
http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2007/08/replicating-the.html
Anonymous said... First, great post.
Second, more formal scientific criteria is Falsifiability.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability — wikipedia article is worth reading.
Also it says «Aspects of economics have been accused of not being falsifiable …» (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability#Economics)
I can see your frustration with economics as a science.
Obviously it is not a science in the sense that you can assure 100% reproducibility. So, by your strict definition of science economics can never be a science.
However, it doesn't mean that a study of aggregate human behavior isn't worthwhile. We can make some predictions and we're sometimes right about them.
I thought your citations of Greenspan weakened your argument. Greenspan had a tremendous affect on the economy based on what he said. He *had* to cloak his comments in ambiguous terms or else anything he said would be a self fulfilling prophecy.
I think your use of the Laffer Curve is a little bit of a strawman. I don't think that the Laffer principle ever asserted anything about the shape of the curve between 0 and 1. It is obvious that the curve is only meant to demonstrate extremes.
An economy is all about confidence and faith. I can assure you that matters of faith will always be outside the realm of pure science.
July 22, 2007
The Economics of Magic
(Jimmy Akin)
I am not a fan of the Harry Potter novels. I know lots of people who are, including people who are serious Catholics, but I'm uncomfortable with them for a variety of reasons.
While they're not going to turn every kid who reads them into a practitioner of Wicca, at least some kids will be influenced by the novels into exploring the occult. That's a risk that is taken whenever magic is explored in fiction. Lord of the Rings did the same thing.
The thing about literature (fiction or non-fiction) is that somebody in the audience is always going to go off in some crazy direction based on what they read.
Want proof?
Let's take a very well-known piece of literature . . . the best-selling book in human history, in fact: The Bible.
Has anybody gone off in a crazy direction after reading that?
Well, let's see . . . Marcion, Sabellius, Montanus, Tertullian, Arius, . . . uh, the list might get a little long, so let's move on.
Authors can't let the fact that somebody in the audience is going to go nuts based on what they write stop them from writing. If they did, we wouldn't have the Bible. But authors can craft their work in a way that tries to minimize potential harmful effects, and I have sympathy for those who think that J.K. Rowling didn't do as good a job of this in writing the Harry Potter series as J.R.R. Tolkien did in the Lord of the Rings.
And the fact is that the vast majority of kids who read Harry Potter are not going to turn into neopagans, so I can't tell people that it's morally impermissible for any child to read them.
There is another reason I'm uncomfortable with them: I just don't like the way they're written.
Now, you know what they say about disputing about tastes, and if Harry Potter is something that you really enjoy and that doesn't challenge your faith then good for you. But I think that Rowling did not do a good job in several respects literarily, and here's why.
I read the first novel back when there was a huge controversy about it and whether it was healthy for children, and from the opening pages I found myself not liking it. The reason is that Rowling is just too ham fisted in how she sets the plot in motion.
Harry Potter--the character, not the book series--is the most important boy in the magical world, yet he doesn't know it.
Until chapter two. (Or whatever.)
Then, as soon as he's introduced into the magical world, he's suddently the center of attention, people are fawning all over him, privilege is lavished upon him, and a glorious new future is handed to him on a silver platter.
Too. Much. Wish. Fulfillment.
This is bad plotting. Harry Potter is catapulted out of ordinary life to the apex of magical society virtually instantaneously. There may be lots of interesting concepts that Rowling uses as tinsel to sparkle up her world--and this is what I think people really find attractive about the books (the tinsel, not the substance)--but you don't slather on the wish fulfillment in this way.
Not unless you're writing fan fic.
If you really want to have somebody be the most important boy in the world, you let this fact emerge piecemeal, a bit at a time, with the character paying his dues as his true identity becomes clear.
If you want to see that plot done right,
BTW, I recently gave this book to Steve and Janet Ray and they loved it.
Others have also commented on the ham fisted way Rowling writes--in fact the piece I'm about to link even uses the term "ham fisted."
It's a piece by an economics reporter who looks at the bad economics in the book--and she doesn't mean money. She means the magical economy:
If magic is too powerful then the characters will be omnipotent gods, and there won't be a plot. Magic must have rules and limits in order to leave the author enough room to tell a story. In economic terms, there must be scarcity: magical power must be a finite resource.
6/7/2005
Click to discuss this article!I'm Ophelia, an avid gamer and operator of the 3rd largest MTGO eBay store in existence. As such, the Business of Magic is at the core of my existence. What I mean by the "Business of Magic" is simply buying, selling, and/or trading cards for a profit. Let's be honest with ourselves. We ALL are truly involved in the Business of Magic. If you're a Pro Player, you're counting up the prize money to pay the various expenses. Serious local players want to build Uber-Elite Tier 1 decks while attempting to avoid bankruptcy. Casual players want to add to their collections without burning holes in their pockets. Dealers want to make some bucks, plain and simple.
Now, I've read an absolute ton of articles explaining trading specific "chase cards" and other such surface topics that say what you should do and not why. The why of things is very important. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." (Editor's Note: Lau Tzu, the father of Taoism, is most often credited with this quote.) My goal here is to point out a few specific concepts that will help you stay on top of the Business in what is hopefully the first installment of a series.
Knowledge is Power.
Know your stuff. Know the prices of your cards. Never be ashamed to walk around with the TCGplayer Magazine price guide. Walking around large events and watching people trade, I see people asking the person on the other end of the trade for values. This is a huge mistake. Asking the person you're trading with for values is like asking an opponent what the right play is in the finals of a tournament. The opponent may answer the question, but do you really want to trust him to tell you the truth? Do not do this.
Along the same lines, follow hot decks, cards, and current events. Lots of things effect the value or future value of cards. I cannot begin to tell you how many people I've seen fall into traps like this:
Random dealer has a gigantic inventory of Arcbound Ravagers that he stares at all night in mystified wonder instead of reading about what's going on in the game. Well, because the random dealer didn't keep up with current events, he didn't realize key elements of Ravager.dec were thrown out of Standard. Demand sunk. Prices sunk. The random dealer now has to give blood at Red Cross for free cookies.
Supply and Demand
This is the bread and butter of trading/dealing and I will lead off with another example to explain.
Jinxed Choker for the longest time was considered to be one of the most horrid crap rares. Well, it's not anymore. It is now a staple addition to many aggro decks, Mono Red for example, to give it an edge against Tooth and MUC. If you were paying attention to the environment and noticed how well it performed, you've just gained knowledge other people probably don't have. While everyone thinks Jinxed Choker is trash, you can pick them up CHEAP. Wait till the next big Standard tournament, Regionals *cough*, and then pick up your girlfriend in the Brand new car you just bought with Jinxed Choker money.
28 November 2008
opinion
Annar Cassam — Annar Cassam takes us through Reagonomics, the World Bank and IMF policies, and the equally bankrupt 'good governance' solutions to Africa's economic woes and the current global financial crisis. She cautions that the neoliberal invisible hand is synonymous with voodoo economics.
"In this world the follies of the rich pass for wise sayings." John Kenneth Galbraith in the The Culture of Contentment
The current financial disaster caused by the banking and housing sectors of the US has led to economic and social consequences which are spreading like cancer from America and Europe to other parts of the globe. In the ensuing panic, the sense of infallibility possessed by true believers in the "quiet theology of laisser-faire", to use Galbraith's expression in the book quoted above, has faded somewhat.
Great gurus such as Greenspan himself have expressed shock and distress at the way erstwhile monetary certitudes have so rapidly unravelled (more of him later). Even academics like Francis Fukayama, self-appointed guardian of cosmic clocks which tell him when human history ends, now offer brutally honest accounts of the reasons why things have fallen apart at the centre of the paradigm, the one and only available to earthlings.
In a severe article in Newsweek (13/10/2008) entitled, "The Fall of America Inc." Fukayma fumed thus:
"Between 2002 and 2007, while the world was enjoying an unprecedented period of growth, it was easy to ignore those European socialists and Latin American populists who denounced the US economic model as "cowboy capitalism." But now the engine of that growth, the American economy, has gone off the rails and threatens to drag the rest of the world down with it. Worse, the culprit is the American model itself: under the mantra of less government, Washington failed to adequately regulate the financial sector and allowed it to do tremendous harm to the rest of the society."
So what else is new, one is tempted to ask today, having observed the same Washington-made mantras produce the same harmful consequences in African countries in the 1980s.
This sense of deja vu is more acute than ever since the G20 Summit met in Washington on November 15 and agreed in principle to act in concert on a number of items; most of these will remain abstractions till the new Obama administration takes office-and the leadership-in January next year.
However, there is one subject which has already been seized upon for immediate action and this relates to the IMF's greatly strengthened position as the main lending agency. As result of the current financial crisis,the IMF is busy bailing out the long queue of developing countries that has already formed at his door, according to the Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
African and Third word countries generally will remember how they were treated by the arrogant gurus of the IMF and the World Bank 25 years ago during those heady days of reaganomics.
In those days, under the pretext of structural adjustment programmes, an ideological brew of monetarism, magical market forces, conditionalities and debt service were forced upon African countries seeking to borrow money from the World Bank and IMF. These programmes resulted in massive impoverishment for mainly rural populations all over the continent.
Massive cuts in education and health budgets and the removal of food and farming subsidies (puny compared to the amounts handed out then- and - now by the US State to the American agro-business sector) imposed as conditionalities led to "tremendous harm" in Africa. They also caused food riots, general strikes, civil strife and political instability.
A new phrase came into being in the early 1980s to describe this type of reaction to World Bank/IMF advice, "IMF riots" as citizens of Sudan,Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Nigeria took to the streets to protest against increased food prices and local currencies devalued overnight.
Another new expression also entered the development dictionary to denote the World Bank/IMF expert: "second-rate economists from first-rate universities." This phrase was invented by Joseph Stiglitz to describe his colleagues when he was Chief Economist at the World Bank and as such knew what he was talking about.
Endless expert missions were dispatched from Washington equipped with a checklist of dogmatic demands which never varied: instant currency de-valuation,increased producer prices, import liberalisation, privatisation, market deregulation, cuts in state spending in education and health and food subsidies and so on.
And the consequences everywhere of this pressure were always the same: children out of school,fragile health systems further weakened, workers out of work and the majority of the people living in the countryside more impoverished by the day.
Meanwhile, IMF riots everywhere they happened also produced the same reaction from the authorities: armed police and troops to control those demonstrating against increases in staple food prices.
Third World leaders who dared to question and disagree with these experts were punished, like Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica, "squeezed out like a wet rag" as the Guardian once put it or were treated as dimwits who "did not understand economics." President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, who argued consistently against IMF ideology and the injustice of debt service, was included in this club.
In October 1985, a few weeks before Nyerere retired from the presidency, the Guardian wrote on the subject of Tanzania's six-year battle with the IMF (18/10/1985):
"President Nyerere has said for years that if Tanzania were to implement a classic IMF programme it would mean putting the army on to the streets to control the anger of the population.....and the government and people have been squeezed progressively every year since 1980. Two successive devaluations, cuts in the state sector (18,000 civil servants sacked), a rise in producer prices and cuts in food subsidies have already been carried out gradually since 1981. But none of this has been enough to persuade countless IMF missions to Dar es Salaam to release the $200million stand-by credit already agreed by the IMF in August 1980. Most other donors have held back waiting for the IMF stamp of approval from Washington."
It should be pointed out here that during this same period,Tanzania's neighbour, Zaire, was being treated with the utmost generosity by the World Bank because of the special relationship that existed between President Mobutu and Washington.As Michaela Wrong explains in her excellent book on the subject "In the Footsteps of Mr.Kurtz", Mobutu could " borrow" as much as he wanted, with no conditionalities asked;where the money went is another story.
And this was not all; added to IMF obduracy and collateral ganging -up by the rest of the Western donors, there was the other sacrosanct demand.... of debt service. By the mid 1990s, African countries were net exporters of US dollars to the tune of 10 billion a year. (In Washington techno-speak, this massive outflow of funds from the poor to the rich was called "negative transfer", an interesting turn of phrase like "friendly fire.)
The situation became as absurd as it was tragic and by 1996, for example, a war-torn country like Mozambique was paying out 33% of its total export earnings to the West in debt service and spending just 3% on education and health.
How African countries were supposed to develop with this level of dis-investment in human resources, our experts could not explain initially. They pondered over this and eventually came up with another mantra: Good Governance and Democracy.
Today, in the year 2008, Washington's neo-liberal mantras have come home to roost, with dire results for ordinary folks yearning to be free.... and and gainfully employed and with health care and a roof over their families' heads. The magical market forces have evaporated, except in the case of those lucky few CEOs of the very same private banks which caused the crash in the first place.
Strangely enough, the hated state is bailing out these same institutions with taxpayers' money so that the fat-cats can still take home their fabulous salaries, bonuses, stock options,etc.
Confused?
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Obama's Magic Bubble Deflator
Comments (20)
- matt
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I like Homer Simpson's quote better:
"To alcohol! The cause of--and solution to--all of life's problems."
Homer for President!!!!!!!!!!! - ShedPlant
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Was this posted on LewRockwell a while ago? I've read it before.
Anyway, very funny, thanks :) .
- Tom Woods
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Matt, that's of course the inspiration for the title. "I for one welcome our new overlords," likewise, comes from Kent Brockman, who uses almost those very words when he thinks a race of giant ants has taken over the world.
- Tom Woods
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(I'm of course referring to the original title.)
- matt
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didn't catch that one Tom, thanks, can never go wrong with the Simpson's. btw, speaking of beer, anyone see any correlation to Cliff's buffalo story from cheers and our current bank environment? lol
- Tim Kern
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"In liberal times that could perhaps be modified to nobody may do anything without asking permission."
That's been the case for decades.
- Kevin Hall
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Tom, I first need to thank you for all your great work. As someone who came into the Austrian School within the last couple of years (and with very little economic education), I needed to find something that was simple and easy to understand to build my foundation, and your writings have done just that. More importantly, I need to say thank you for giving me my new favorite word, overlord. I had not heard that word since I was a kid and watched "Howard the Duck," and I could never have imagined that anything from that disaster of a film could possibly be applicable to our present day. But, you have proven that to be misguided (on my part) by so eloquently referring to our current power elites as overlords.
- Chris Nelson
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Who could accept being named "Bubble Czar", anyway? Silly question ... they'd be lined up three deep.
- Marco Costa
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Hah, the "I for one, welcome our new overlords" bit almost killed me.
I'm gonna try to post this on Slashdot. Test that Windows server of yours. ;-)
- dewind
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Fantastic, now I don't have to worry about anything. The government will sufficiently destroy its own monsters along with anything else it may deem as 'out of control'.
Thank goodness we have finally have a benevolent despotism. Plato would be so happy, a philosopher king has finally come.
- Eric
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Wasn't Anna co-author with Milton Friedman who together wrote that it was deflation that caused the great depression? Didn't they write that in the 1950's?
And which maestro was it that toasted Milton in his 90th year or so and promised never to let deflation cause another depression?
So, has Anna changed her tune or is this just another disconnect for her.
The trouble with Milton, at least, was he was always trying to make the government more efficient; his last idea was to replace it with a computer - as if this would hold back the creation of money.
Was Anna in agreement with this too? I can see it now: Obama to the Fed computer - Raise that rate now! Hey, what's this blue screen mean?
And if Milton was still alive and kicking, he'd be close to 100 - so how old is Anna? She must be an old buzzard by now too. - N. Joseph Potts
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The Pravda comparison is eerily apt - perhaps it's just my maladaptation to mainstream society that it seems that way.
The government is crazy like a fox. A predatory fox.
- Stephen Grossman
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Bubbles, acc/to Keynsian liberals, result from "animal spirits," not capitalism itself, as Marx thought. Thus human nature allegedly causes destructive "business" cycles.
This is an application of the religious conservative claim of Original Sin. For an objective economics, without corrupting mysticism or subjectivism, see Ayn Rand's _Capitalism_. Rand liked Mises' economics but not his philosophy of economics. See her criticism of _Human Action_ in _Ayn Rand's Marginalia_. - Jonathan Finegold Catalán
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Eric,
Anna Schwartz also wrote, with Milton Friedman, that deflation was not synonymous with recessions. Their research showed that there was economic growth during the late 19th century, despite deflation in prices.
- eternally damned
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Hey Tom,
More work for you to do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/business/economy/17view.html?_r=1After growing the money supply, the claim is now that "reducing the money supply will cause a depression". Wonder if they might at least agree to keep the money supply constant then!
- BioTube
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I like that guy - he thinks that Hoover was a freemarketeer. As for his remark about Republicans being hypocritics, even a heavy drinker can recognize a complete alcoholic.
- Jim Stewart
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In the article Thomas wrote "there would have to be an increasing supply of credit in order to fund it" [a mania-driven boom]. Credit is not money, so how can it fund anything? Credit is what we [including banks] give if we decide to let others have something before they pay for it. If we do not give credit, we do not let them have it. In the case of banks, they do not lend funds [definition: cash reserve]. They just pretend to lend!
This is the fraud proven in 1968 by the testimony of Lawrence V. Morgan, President of the First National Bank of Montgomery, in the case described here: http://www.lawlibrary.state.mn.us/CreditRiver/CreditRiver.html
That case has been suppressed for more than 40 years by our free media!
- Jim Stewart
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To clarify my above comment, the sentence "They just pretend to lend!" should have been "They give credit but just pretend to lend funds!"
I hope that makes the fraud, and its implications, clear.
- Stephen Grossman
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The Fed counterfeits money, credit and interest rates, shifting resources to less than the maximum productivity only available from markets. That's right, you read it here. The govt counterfeits money.
- gooddebate
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Thanks for the expert use of sarcasm, well worth the smile.
This comment from Anna Schwartz, "And then of course if monetary policy tightens, the boom collapses." strikes me as a little simplistic. It also made me consider that the collapse might not necessarily be because of an interruption but could simply be when the market just can't grow any more and everyone in the market realizes it.
I vaguely recall seeing some other comments on this so forgive me if this has been given enough debate already but isn't it more like a pyramid than a bubble? Because once the economy of a thing artificially grows then it requires a larger economy of the thing to keep it at the new rate. So, the next level of entrants into the economy must be larger than the previous to sustain the new growth. Then the next wave is larger still and so on.
| Hoodoo economics: white men's work and black men's magic in contemporary American film.
Publication: Camera Obscura Publication Date: 01-SEP-03 Author: Hicks, Heather J. | |||||
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COPYRIGHT 2003 Duke University Press In a November 2000 editorial in Time entitled "That Old Black Magic," columnist Christopher John Farley notes that a spate of recent US films, including The Legend of Bagger Vance (dir. Robert Redford, 2000), What Dreams May Come (dir. Vincent Ward, 1998), Family Man (dir: Brett Ratner, 2000), and The Green Mile (dir. Frank Darabont, 1999), have portrayed African Americans as magical figures. Nicknaming such figures Magical African American Friends (MAAFs), he reasons that blacks are represented in these terms out of a fundamental ignorance of African American life and culture. "MAAFs exist," he suggests, "because most Hollywood screenwriters don't know much about black people other than what they hear on records by white hip-hop star Eminem. So instead of getting life histories or love interests, black characters get magical powers. (1) In this essay I would like to think further about the association of blackness with magic in contemporary mainstream films--a phenomenon which, as Farley's article suggests, has been pronounced enough to receive attention in the popular press. Specifically, I'd like to explore how black men are associated with supernatural forces and to suggest that this phenomenon cannot be separated from certain contemporary crises surrounding white masculinity. (2)
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US panel fails to impose accountability conditions on Pak aid bill
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Agencies
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 at 1218 hrs IST
Washington A bill to triple non-military US aid to Pakistan by a whopping USD 1.5 billion was unanimously approved by a key Congressional committee, which stopped short of imposing strict accountability conditions but added amendments to ensure that the assistance was not misused and focused on defeating the Taliban insurgency.
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the 'Pakistan Enduring Assistance and Cooperation Act of 2009' (PEACE Act), already approved by the House of Representatives, proposing USD 1.5 billion per annum to Islamabad for the next five years by 16-0.
Unlike the House, it stopped short of imposing conditions on Pakistan with regard to action against Taliban and al Qaeda, leaving it to the Obama administration to take a call on this as and when required.
However, amendment to the original text of the Kerry-Lugar bill, accepted by the Senate Committee during its Markup Hearing, said: "US security assistance earmarked for Pakistan should be focused on counterinsurgency capabilities to defeat the Taliban insurgency and deny sanctuary to Al-Qaeda and other extremists."
The amendment in this regard was moved by Senator Tom Casey, who has been very critical of the US aid to Pakistan.
He moved three amendments, all of which were accepted by the Committee. Senator Casey's counterinsurgency amendment declares that the primary objective of security-related assistance to Pakistan should be to defeat the Taliban-backed insurgency. But unlike the House version of the Bill, it does not impose conditions on Pakistan in this regard.
His amendments also specify the need to facilitate political and legal reforms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan as one of the "uses of funds" spelled out in the legislation.
The Committee during its hearing also accepted three amendments from Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, who was very critical of the US aid and had entered into a verbal duel with Richard Holbrooke, Special US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, who briefed the Committee last month.
One of his three amendments accepted by the Committee directs the President to develop 'criteria and benchmarks' for Pakistan strategy, and consult appropriate Congressional committees on it, 15 days before obligating any assistance.
Further in order to provide greater accountability, it increases funds available for State and USAID Inspectors-General by USD 10 million over original bill draft, increasing funding level from USD 20 million to USD 30 million.
Another amendment moved by Senator Bob Crocker and accepted by the Committee mandates the administration to provide "a description of the steps taken, or to be taken, to ensure assistance provided under this (PEACE) Act is not awarded to individuals or entities affiliated with terrorist organisations."
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