World People's Blog

William Jack Baumol (born February 26, 1922) is a New York University economics professor (although he is also affiliated with Princeton University) who has written extensively about labor market and other economic factors that affect the economy. He also made valuable contributions to the history of economic thought. He is among the 500 best economists in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc. Among his better-known contributions are the theory of contestable markets, the Baumol-Tobin model of transactions demand for money, Baumol’s cost disease, which discusses the rising costs associated with service industries, and Pigou taxes [Baumol, W.J. (1972), ‘On Taxation and the Control of Externalities’, American Economic Review, 62 (3), 307-322]. The 2006 Annual Meetings of the American Economic Association held a special session in his name, and honoring his many years of work, where 12 papers on entrepreneurship were presented (AEA Annual Meeting Papers). The British magazine, The Economist published an article about William Baumol and his lifelong work to develop a place in economic theory for the entrepreneur (March 11, 2006, pp 68), much of which owes its genesis to Joseph Schumpeter. They note that traditional microeconomic theory holds a place for ‘prices’ and ‘firms’ but not for that (seemingly) important engine of innovation, the entrepreneur. Baumol is given credit for helping to remedy this shortcoming: Thanks to Mr. Baumol’s own painstaking efforts, economists now have a bit more room for entrepreneurs in their theories. Baumol is a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security … (full long text).

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William Jack Baumol – USA

His Video: William Baumol, conversation with Harold Channer, originally aired 06-12-99, 59 min, added on web March 19, 2008.

He says: … “It is true that in money terms our productivity will be slowed down by the shift in labor from agriculture, manufacturing and services like telecommunications into services like health care and education, but if you count the number of students who have graduated or the number of people who have been taken care of after a heart malfunction, that is not going down” … (full text, August 13, 2007).

Absurd remedies to cost disease.

… When Mozart composed his String Quintet in G Minor (K. 516), in 1787, you needed five people to perform it—two violinists, two violists, and a cellist. Today, you still need five people, and, unless they play really fast, they take about as long to perform it as musicians did two centuries ago. So much for progress. An economist would say that the productivity of classical musicians has not improved over time, and in this regard the musicians aren’t alone. In a number of industries, workers produce about as much per hour as they did a decade or two ago. The average college professor can’t grade papers or give lectures any faster today than he did in the early nineties. It takes a waiter just as long to serve a meal, and a car-repair guy just as long to fix a radiator hose. The rest of the American economy functions differently … The result is that in industries where productivity is flat costs and prices keep going up. Economists call this phenomenon “Baumol’s cost disease” … (full text, July 7, 2003).

Find his CV/Bio: on his own homepage at econ.nyu.edu; on Pioneers of Industrial Organization; on all biographies.com; encyclopedia.farles.com … etc etc …

William Baumol and his co-authors have analyzed the impact of differential productivity growth on the health of different sectors and on the overall economy. They argued that technologically stagnant sectors experience above average cost and price increases, take a rising share of national output, and slow aggregate productivity growth. Using industry data for the period 1948-2001, the present study investigates Baumol’s diseases for the overall economy … (full text).

Citations of William Baumol.

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Linked with Women’s World, and with Women’s Voices.

Meredith Tax was born in Wisconsin and educated in the Milwaukee public school system. She attended Brandeis University, where she majored in English and graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson fellowships, both of which she took at the University of London. In London, she became involved in the antiwar movement and decided she wanted to become an activist rather than an academic. Returning to the US in 1968, she continued her antiwar work and was one of the initiators of Bread and Roses, an early socialist-feminist organization in Boston. Her first important piece of writing, “Women and Her Mind: the Story of Everyday Life,” (1970) is considered a founding document of the women’s movement. She has described her early women’s movement experiences in an essay in The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women’s Liberation (Crown, 1998) … (full biography).

She is also Board member of Women’s World.

She reads in her book: Jewish womens and the feminist revolution, an audio.

download her books: Rivington Street, 2001, 432 pages; and Union Square, 2001, 437 pages.

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Meredith Tax – USA

Familias, Families in the feminist press.

She says on Stereotypes about Women: « We have to imagine what we could have been if we had not been taught from birth that we are stupid, unable to analyze anything, intuitive, passive, physically weak, hysterical, overemotional, dependent by nature, incapable of defending against any attack, fit only to be the housekeeper, sex object, and emotional service center for some man or men and children. And then only if we’re lucky – otherwise we must act out a commerical mockery of those roles as someone else’s secretary ». (colorado.edu).

In the Year of Harry Potter, Enter the Dragon, by Meredith Tax, January 10, 2002.

Because most children’s books are written by women, a large majority of the authors they have targeted are female, among them Meredith Tax, President of Women’s WORLD. Archive/Library of Women’s World.

… Although Christian fundamentalists in the United States usually attack feminists through legal means rather than death threats (except in the case of anti-abortionists, who are responsible for a number of murders), they are no less virulent than fundamentalists of other faiths. Many of their campaigns are coordinated through the Christian Coalition, which has been particularly active in trying to censor children’s literature in schools and public libraries, concentrating on books with gay or anti-authoritarian characters, or magical themes. Christian fundamentalists have led campaigns against sex education in the schools; persecuted women’s studies and gay studies programs at the university level; and institutionalized the « gag rule, » which prevents abortion counseling in connection with any US-funded health programs. Because most children’s books are written by women, a large majority of the authors they have targeted are female, among them Meredith Tax, President of Women’s WORLD … (full text).

Continuer la lecture de « Meredith Tax – USA »

Linked with post-autistic economics, with the Natural Economic Order, with die natürliche Wirtschaftsordnung, with AIRLEAP, with Real World Economics; with Die Verantwortung der ökonomischen Theorien; and, concerning an analogue treathment of Wilhelm Reich and Silvio Gesell by the elites, also with Eric Breteau – France. Then with Manufacturing a Food Crisis, with Speculation and collapse: enough, with debitism and other economics, with Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and with G. Edward Griffin – USA, and his book: The Creature from Jekyll Island, a second look at the Federal Reserve.

And added March 15, 2009: Linked with Matthias Chang – Malaysia.

Bernd Senf (* 1944) ist seit 1973 Professor für Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft Berlin… (Full text) / (he is professor for economy in Berlin).

Er sagt: « Die Lösung der Blockierung ist die Lösung. Behutsam, nicht gewaltsam » …  » und: « Das, was als Wissenschaft erscheint, ist von Grund auf ein Glaubenssystem. Die Neoklassik ist ein Glaubenssystem im Gewand von Wissenschaft und sie hat sich mittlerweile den Rahmen einer neuen Weltreligion erarbeitet » … und: « Es ist verständlich: Wenn man sich erstmal auf den Baum der Wissenschaft hochgearbeitet hat, erst im Studium, dann macht man das Diplom und die Doktorprüfung, die Habilitation und man kriegt tatsälich eine Prof-Stelle … und: « Man versucht sich einen guten Ruf zu erwerben, national und auch international » … und: « Dann sitzt man da oben und plötzlich kommt so’ne Flegel an, rüttelt unten am Stamm und zeigen einfach nur auf: Guck mal, der Stamm, die Wurzel ist doch völlig morsch und faul! Ja, die Wenigsten werden mit Begeisterung darauf reagieren und sagen: Nagut, dann komm ich mal von da oben wieder runter. Die meisten werden die Leute, die sie da oben neben sich haben, nehmen, und denen da unten über Kopf hauen. Das ist ganz grob bildlich angedeutet die Struktur des Wissenschaftsbetriebs im Bereich der Wirtschaftswissenschaften » … (Systemfehler.de).

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Bernd Senf – Germany

Bernd Senf’s Hauptartikel in german /auf deutsch: auf seiner Webseite; bei amazon; bei BestBookBuys; bei Google Video-search; bei Google Book-search; bei Google Scholar-search.

Seine Bücher, Videos und Artikel: The Political Economy of Silvio Gesell: A Century of Activism, Oct. 2000; Index zu seinem Buch: Der Nebel um das Geld; Zinssystem und Staatsbankrott; « Wachsende Schulden – wachsende Geldvermögen – wachsende Spannungen« 16. August 2005; Die destruktiven Gesetzmäßigkeiten des Zinssystems und Wege zu seiner Überwindung; Sein Video: Teil 1/2, Probleme des Geldsystems, 1.22 Minuten; .

Er sagt auch: Angenommen zu Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung wäre ein Pfennig mit fünf Prozent Zinsen angelegt worden und hätte, unberührt von Inflationen, Steuern oder Währungsreformen, ungehindert wachsen können – sein Wert hätte 1990 bereits 134 Milliarden Goldkugeln vom Gewicht der Erde entsprochen, allein durch Zins und Zinseszins. Es sind die Zinsen, die unsere Wirtschaft zu fortwährendem Wachstum – und damit zwangsläufig immer wieder in den Zusammenbruch – treiben, sagt Bernd Senf, Professor für Volkswirtschaft an der Berliner Wirtschafts-Fachhochschule im Interview mit P.M. MAGAZIN … (full text, 15. Februar 2008).

I found no texts and articles of Bernd Senf in english, but as he speaks mainly on Wilhelm Reich, Victor Schauenberger and Silvio Gesell, please find here their main texts in english:

Continuer la lecture de « Bernd Senf – Germany »

Linked with Anti-War.US, and with some newest anti-war articles.

David Harris (born 1946 in Fresno, California) is an American journalist and author. He is known chiefly for his role as an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War, most notably as a leading opponent of the Draft … He has written several other books, as well as many articles for the Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine and other periodicals. On October 27, 2004, Harris published a new book which draws on rare interviews with American, Iranian, and European participants in the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, called The Crisis: The President, the Prophet, and the Shah – 1979 and the Coming of Militant Islam (see rewievs below). In it, Harris tells the story of the 444 days from an insider’s perspective. (full text and Biography).

He tells: … « I was transported, as federal prisoners are transported, in leg irons with a chain through my belt loops and my hands shackled to the chain in my belt loops. With myself and two federal marshals, one on each side of me, we got on the elevator in Oakland; and we got up about three or four floors and stopped, and in steps a woman who had business up in the courthouse, I guess. She got in and the door closed, and she looked at me and I’d been in jail a month at this point and been on strike and hadn’t had a shower for almost that entire month. I’m all chained up and she looks at me and says, Boy, what did you do to get all chained up like that? You must be an awful bad man!’ I looked at her and I said, I didn’t kill anybody. And she said, Oh, you are a bad man » … (full text).

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David Harris (the protester) – USA, the Vietnam War draft resister David Harris addresses the AFSC peace event, « Remember the Draft », Lydia Gans photo.

Vietnam War overview.

His book: The Crisis: The President, the Prophet, and the Shah 1979 and the Coming of Militant Islam, 470 pages, October 27, 2004, ISBN:0316323942 – The conflict between militant Islam and the West was catalyzed in Iran in 1979, making this the best kind of history: a book that helps us understand not only the past, but the present. Harris traveled to Iran and Europe to interview participants whom previous books had ignored, so for the first time we also get the full, inside story of what happened. A few book reviews:

• … He barely discusses the origins of militant Islam as a political movement. His account is not so much about the three main actors cited in the title—President Jimmy Carter, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the shah—as about the maneuverings of their top aides … (Middle East Forum);
• … So when the embassy staff saw the Muslim Students running around the courtyard « like little kids in an amusement park, » in the words of one Marine, they assumed this would be a repeat of the Valentine’s Day seizure. Surely rescue would soon be on its way, … (Goliath);
• … In the coffee shops of the Middle East, where only conspiracies are believed and the simple truth is considered naivete or duplicity, America’s motives are invariably assumed to be malicious … (NY Times);
• the book on Google Scholar-research (but there are also other David Harris’);
• and on Google Book-search – schowing comments, references etc, (but there are also other David Harris’);
• Listen David Harris on this audio of WNYC-radio, March 2, 2005, telling about the 444 days.

Buy the book on amazon.

Continuer la lecture de « David Harris (the protester) – USA »

Linked with Zoe’s Ark, with Children do not belong to their parents, with Chad’s children, with Mes réactions concernant les enfants du Tchad, (yes, last year I believed what mass-medias told us), with Marc Garmirian – Lebanon and France, and with the betrayal on Darfour’s children.

Eric Breteau, the Chairmain of the notorious „The Ark of Zoe“, that Non-Governmental Organization that dominated the news some six months back in connection with alleged orphans from the Darfur region, spilt the beans the other day by claiming that French officials backed their endeavor to surreptitiously extricate 103 orphans from that region last fall and to convey them to France. A couple of days after receiving the presidential pardon of President Idriss Debi Itno from Chad, Eric Breteau at last has voiced and couched his side of the story. Breteau has opined that advisers to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France as well as officials of the French minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner were not only privy to and aware of their agenda but also gave them the go-ahead and the backing to take orphans from the Darfur region to foster families in France. It should be noted that president Debi grant the members of this organization presidential pardon because France staved off the overthrow of his regime some weeks ago. Breteau alleged that it was agreed on that the former first lady Cecilia Sarkozy and the French minister of Justice – Attorney General Rachida Dati would officially welcome the said children at an airport in Paris … (full text, April 17, 2008).

He says: in this french 3 minutes TV-interview (my translation):  » … they were orphans … the proces in N’Djamena showed after 5 minutes they came from Darfour, not from Chad … and that the so called families were not their parents … but then it was said: you are condemned in any way … (YouTube: Arche de Zoé, Eric Breteau: « c’étaient des orphelins », April 08, 2008.

Chad president pardons French charity workers, April 1, 2008.

He says also: … « One can not organize such an operation without the benefit of support in political high places, » Breteau was quoted as saying on the Le Figaro website … (full text) … and same in french: (Breteau, qui a repris des forces après avoir semblé très affaibli par ses cinq mois de détention, assure aujourd’hui encore que: « on ne peut pas organiser une telle opération sans bénéficier de soutiens politiques haut placés ») … (full text).

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Eric Breteau – France

Zoe’s Arch on wikipedia, last modified on 17 March 2008.

He says also: « the adoption was to be discussed later, it was as an option in the head of all French participants ». .. (full long text, in July 2007, thus BEFORE going to Darfur).

His fresh book in french « les dessous de l’affaire d’Etats » (the hidden part of the states affair), ISBN: 978-2-259-20922-9, Plon, 2008.

You knew this was coming, right? Eric Breteau, the leader of the Arche de Zoé, claims that he had the backing of the French government for his operation, that he received advice from « advisors of Nicolas Sarkozy and Bernard Kouchner, » and that Rachida Dati and Cécilia Sarkozy were set to welcome 103 « rescued children » personally at the Vatry airport. He has written a book in captivity and will be marketing it assiduously with a full media blitz. (on French Politics).

… « The presidential pardon is accorded to Eric Breteau, Emilie Lelouch, Dominique Aubry, Alain Peligat, Philippe Van Winkelberg and Nadia Merimi, » said a presidential decree, read on state radio in the former French colony. (full text, March 31, 2008 ).

Arche de Zoé: Éric Breteau contre-attaque, April 7, 2008.

Continuer la lecture de « Eric Breteau – France »

One of the most ingenious American crime and mystery writers, who published science fiction to overcome – as he said – the too real aspect of detective fiction. Brown also wrote television plays for Alfred Hitchcock series. Brown’s plots were inventive, he used often humour and paradoxes, and his sex scenes were gleefully provocative … (full long text).

He said: « Base your villain on someone you like. That’ll give him some sympathetic traits and make him much more believable ». Mouse, by Fredric Brown: Bill Wheeler was, as it happened, looking out of the window of his bachelor apartment on the fifth floor on the corner of 83rd Street and Central Park West when the spaceship from Somewhere landed … (full short story).

SOLIPSIST, a 5 minutes video, based on a Fredric Brown’s short story.

A Homepage dedicated to Fredric Brown’s life and work.

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Fredric William Brown – USA (1906 – 1972)

His writing career.

He said also: « There are no rules. You can write a story, if you wish, with no conflict, no suspense, no beginning, middle or end. Of course, you have to be regarded as a genius to get away with it, and that’s the hardest part – convincing everybody you’re a genius ». (thrillingdetective.com).

Books from 1955 with US copyright not renewed. (KingKongDemon).

… For anyone who only knows Brown’s writings by his vast number of humorous stories and novels, The Lights in the Sky Are Stars may come as a shock, for although optimistic, it is a serious novel, although a moment of levity occurs when Max describes an old science fiction novel which he is sure is now out of print and which turns out to be Brown’s own What Mad Universe, sadly currently, temporarily we can only hope, out of print. Although The Lights in the Sky Are Stars may not be as fun a read as What Mad Universe or Martians, Go Home, it does present a different side to Fredric Brown and should be more widely read than it is.
(SFsite.com).

The story is « Answer », from Angels and Spaceships, by FredricBrown (Dutton, 1954).

… Fredric Brown’s work continued in print after his death in1972. A decade later, his many stories written for magazines and anthologies earlier in his career were collected for the first time in a definitive edition. It ran to 16 volumes.

Continuer la lecture de « Fredric William Brown – USA (1906 – 1972) »

Linked with The Human Rights Education Associates HREA.

Felisa Tibbitts is director and co-founder of Human Rights Education Associates HREA, an international non-governmental organisation dedicated to education and learning about human rights. HREA was founded in 1996 in Amsterdam as the successor organisation to the human rights education programming that Ms. Tibbitts directed for the Netherlands Helsinki Committee from 1992 to 1996 … (International Network 1/2).

Watch her Blog from Darfur: Felisa Tibbitts, Executive Director of HREA, was in Sudan in June to evaluate the effectiveness of training for the African Union peacekeeping forces. She kept a blog while traveling to the various regions of Darfur, June 2007.

Building Human Rights Communties in Education.

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Felisa Tibbitts – USA

She works for HREA.

Service Learning, Lessons, Plans ans Projects, 134 pages.

She writes: … Another important dynamic is the interaction of order and culture. Human rights education affects both. An example can be found in the Pakistani law against blasphemy. In Pakistan, no one committed blasphemy until the government passed a law forbidding it. In other words, there was disorder, the government intervened, and this had an effect on culture. Another example can be drawn from the experience of Bhutan. The king declared that his decisions would be based not on his people’s rights but on their happiness. He then decided that people’s happiness would be improved by wearing particular clothes. In other words, the king introduced (dis)order, and this has an effect on culture. Human rights education must examine this interaction … (on page 3/5 of the full long text).

Testimony of Felisa Tibbitts before the Massachusetts Joint Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Human Rights for All Bill (HB706), June 7, 2005.

She says: « we have really built some kind of consensus over the last years about key features of human rights education.

• Education in and for HR belongs in the schooling sector
• We are talking about the full range of human rights
• It is the responsibility of governments to carry out HRE
• Participatory methodologies should be used
• Human rights education has to do with thinking, feeling and doing.

Continuer la lecture de « Felisa Tibbitts – USA »

Khalid al-Maaly, born in as-Samawa, Iraq in 1956 is a leading Arab writer, poet and publisher. He has published seven books of poetry in German, as well as in Arabic, and translated other Arab poets into German. From Cologne, Germany, where he currently lives, he wrote along with Mona Naggar in German a « Lexicon of Arab Authors in the 19th and 20th Centuries. » More recently, he gained attention for an essay in the Berliner Zeitung on the dual nature of Arab intellectuals, in which he suggests that many leading thinkers display differing attitudes on issues like human rights and foreign policy before Western and domestic audiences. (wikipedia).

His poems on geocities.

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Khalid al-Maaly – Iraq and Germany

The story of a daring publisher.

He says about himself: … First of all I would like to establish this: I am someone who loves to read. I am also a writer. And as an Arabic reader and writer I have soon found out that many works of the great thinkers of Europe have not been translated into Arabic and, if they have been, not from the original language. This is also the case with Nietzsche. Thus Spoke Zarathustra was, for a long time, the only book by Nietzsche that was translated into Arabic. This is really astonishing! And this translation of 1937, for example, was done from French. As it became clear to me, I began to translate and have translated those books that I myself have read and liked. Already early on Nietzsche counted as one of my favorite authors. Therefore it was obvious for me to translate his work into Arabic some day. Now this day has arrived. And of course I see myself in my activity as a publisher also as a mediator of culture, as a translator of cultures that begin to touch, cross over into, and intertwine with one another in the act of trans-lation » … (nietzsche circle.com).

Three poems, (from 21 Iraqi Poets).

He writes: … The Arab intellectual behaves like a despotic father. No internal family matter may be exposed to the outside world; regardless of what the reality may be, a façade of unbroken unity must be maintained. This is especially evident with respect to such matters as relations with Israel, the scandal over the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the attacks of 9/11, the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, or the recent war in Lebanon. In private talks with such people, one hears opinions that are radically different from what they publish in the newspapers the next day. It is as if the views propounded in the Arab media are not based on independent thinking, but formulated as opportunistic statements for public consumption … (full text).

Philosophy on stage#2.

Continuer la lecture de « Khalid al-Maaly – Iraq and Germany »