Thursday, April 25, 2002

Marx in the marketplace Michael Prowse reviews Marx's Revenge by Meghnad Desai. "Many people imagine that markets and democracy represent a final destination, the highest imaginable development of social organisation. After the Berlin Wall collapsed, Francis Fukuyama expressed this insight pithily with his claim that "history had ended". But if Marx was right, capitalism, like feudalism, will go under once it has exhausted its potential. And the irony about recent efforts to deregulate economies is that they will hasten rather than retard this process." "So long as capitalism was shackled - by high taxes, tariff barriers, capital controls and so forth - its development was stymied. The truest friends of socialism, Desai thus hints, are the conservative leaders who liberalised markets. They restarted the historical process that will lead, ineluctably, to a socialism that is genuine because spontaneous rather than imposed by revolutionary upstarts." 1:27:02 PM  Google It!  comment  []

Tyco Abandons Break-Up Plan [cuts 7,100 jobs] "Tyco International Inc. on Thursday abandoned a sweeping plan to split into four companies, saying it was a mistake to tout that as its best long- term strategy, and posted a $1.9 billion quarterly loss on big charges for flopped technology investments." "The company also slashed its fiscal 2002 earnings forecast on Thursday, and said it would cut about 7,100 jobs, or about 3 percent of its work force." 11:26:02 AM  Google It!  comment  []

Declines on Homes and Durable Goods "Orders for durable goods and sales of new houses fell in March, reports from the Commerce Department showed today, indicating that the pace of economic growth was slowing." "Orders for typically expensive items like automobiles, computers and machinery declined 0.6 percent, to $173.4 billion, after a 2.7 percent increase in February." "Purchases of new single-family homes fell 3.1 percent, to an annual pace of 878,000, a separate report said. It was the second decline this year." 9:06:34 AM  Google It!  comment  []

Workers' Wages Rise 0.8 Percent " U.S. workers' wages and benefits rose in the first quarter at the slowest pace in three years as the spotty economic recovery translated into less generous compensation packages." "The employment cost index, a closely watched gauge of inflation, rose 0.8 percent in the January- March quarter, down from a seasonally adjusted 1 percent rise in the previous quarter, the Labor Department reported Thursday." "The first-quarter increase in compensation was the smallest since a 0.4 percent gain posted in the first quarter of 1999." "The wages and salaries component of the index, viewed by economists as the best measure of changes in workers' compensation, grew 0.8 percent in the first quarter, slightly slower than the 0.9 percent rise recorded in the fourth quarter." 9:01:23 AM  Google It!  comment  []