Open Thread III - Long Weekend
The kids don't want to be here anymore
They say "We've got nothing to live for"
The Long Weekend, "Working Poor"
Posted by b on July 3, 2004 at 03:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)
President Bush hailed the report
Job growth disappoints
Job growth slowed dramatically in June, as employers added just 112,000 workers to payrolls last month, a number that came in well below forecasts by private economists.
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Average hourly wages rose 2 cents, or 0.1 percent, to a seasonally-adjusted $15.65.
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In Washington, President Bush hailed the report.
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Bush said the job report shows that 1.5 million jobs have been created since August. "To me that shows the steady growth"
Chief Econnomist of Morgan Stanley, Steve Roach, asks What About Us?
Services-driven development models, such as the one now at work in India, cast globalization in a very different light. Most importantly, they broaden the competitive playing field, thereby bringing new pressures to bear both on job creation and on real wages in the developed world. This is where the debate gets prickly. Protectionists scream, “foul!” — arguing that trade barriers are the appropriate answer.
So, what about us? As education and skill levels are raised around the world, and as the world itself is brought closer together through IT-enabled connectivity, the wealthy developed world must rise to the occasion.
So far, I have not seen an answer to what kind of politics could be implemented, that can protect the workers in the developed countries from globalization. In Europe the negotiations between unions and enterprises are now for lower wages and longer working hours or less jobs. The wage rise in the US is less than inflation. Quite a change from 50 years of generally rising wages and shorter working hours.
What is the answer from the political left ? How will the next president answer to the problem ?
Posted by b on July 2, 2004 at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
"Anonymous" strategy
The author of the coming book "Imperial Hybris" writing as "Anonymous" because the CIA didn´t want his name outed, has an OpEd in todays Los Angeles Times, Seeing Islam Through a Lens of U.S. Hubris. Suggesting that there is something like American hybris will allready upset some readers. But there is more:
Al Qaeda actually is more dangerous today than it was before what Osama bin Laden calls the "blessed attacks" of 11 September.
To say the least, Americans are getting mixed and confusing messages from their leaders. Are we headed toward a victory parade, Cold War bomb shelters or simply straight to the graveyard?
I believe the answer lies in the way we see and interpret people and events outside North America, which is heavily clouded by arrogance and self-centeredness amounting to what I called "imperial hubris." This is not a genetic flaw in Americans that has been present since the Pilgrims splashed ashore at Plymouth Rock, but rather a way of thinking that America's elites acquired after the end of World War II. It is a process of interpreting the world so it makes sense to us, a process yielding a world in which few events seem alien because we Americanize their components.
Our political leaders contend that America's astoundingly low approval ratings in polls taken in major Islamic countries do not reflect our unquestioning support of Israel and, as such, its "targeted killings" and other lethal high jinks. Nor, they say, are the ratings due to our relentless support for tyrannical and corrupt Islamic regimes that are systematically dissipating the Islamic world's energy resources for family fun and profit, while imprisoning, torturing and executing domestic dissenters.
Thus, because of the pervasive imperial hubris that dominates the minds of our political, academic, social, media and military elites, America is able and content to believe that the Islamic world fails to understand the benign intent of U.S. foreign policy.
I'm saying that when Americans — the leaders and the led — process incoming information to make it intelligible in American terms, many not only fail to clearly understand what is going on abroad but, more ominous, fail to accurately gauge the severity of the danger that these foreign events, organizations, attitudes and personalities pose to U.S. national security and our society's welfare and lifestyle.
I have long experience analyzing and attacking Bin Laden and Islamists. I believe they are a growing threat to the United States — there is no greater threat — and that we are being defeated not because the evidence of the threat is unavailable but because we refuse to accept it at face value and without Americanizing the data. This must change, or our way of life will be unrecognizably altered.
The last sentence is the essence and the problem. If the evidence would be accepted at face value and not Americanized, would not this in itself alter the American way of life unrecognizably?
Posted by b on July 2, 2004 at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Rising Moon
All internal links on this site have now switched to www.MoonOfAlabama.org. Some more design elements from Billmons site have been added. Left to do for the rest of the day are the "About" page and a "Search" facility.
Many members of the Billmon community are discussing how to set up what kind of site over at the Whiskey Annex. I propose to use this site as the starting point of implementing something better suited. It´s running, it´s payed for and it "feels" familar to Billmons site.
There is no personal interest of mine to run this site, other than to discuss Billmons posts and current political/economic/philosophical issues. Authoring and moderation on this site will be shared.
Please leave your opinion on where to go from here and please suggest corrections and improvements for this site.
Thanks
Posted by b on July 2, 2004 at 07:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Billmon: Down But Not Out
Billmon writes:
"In case you're wondering, Whiskey Bar isn't going entirely out of business - at least, not yet. But the first two weeks of every quarter are..."
Posted by b on July 1, 2004 at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
Open Thread II
While Billlmon recharges his batteries...
Posted by b on July 1, 2004 at 02:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)