Fw: PH Economics (Atlas)

Jerry Atlas has another good post here from the PH List that I thought people should see.  Economics does matter, even though sometimes it seems preempted by other factors in our social experience.

In many cases, in fact, economics (or should I rather say systematic socioeconomic phenomena) is the driving force behind many of the world's developments. 

And while, Economics as we normally deal with it in our everyday lives or in the media-based sense of what we see on CNBC may not always be at the forefront of driving historical change (the Greenspan-Wall Street dance as I call it), nonetheless economics is important and does matter.

I leave it to the rest of you to judge for yourselves as to whether JA's other points hold water or not.  

Lists like WSN, Longwaves (closing on the 31st I believe), H-World, Consiliencep, and Psychohistory (PH) are good forums.  They, I really do think, (with their more high-tech cousins, the new message boards, chatrooms, & messaging forums) are at the forefront of our best academic ideas about everything from social commentary to hard scholarship.  As such, I believe, they're spearheading a new communications revolution in human thought and intellectual exchange.

I mean, think about it.  When it in any other period of history did today's potential exist allowing academics, political pundits, practical financial analysts, and so many other kinds of people to exchange ideas with each other and compare notes.

It's an awfully exciting prospect, which is why I started Consiliencep in the first place.  It's time we started more consciously taking advantage of such potential.  Well, I've harped-on long enough.  Let the discourse continue ...

Best!  (Luke R., The Consilience Projects)

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MESSAGE FROM: psychohistory@topica.com

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DOES ANYONE THINK ABOUT ECONOMIC MATTERS ANYMORE?
Do you think our former allies (now anti-US, anti-Bush) realize the
harm their efforts to retard the war rush or the current war will
rebound and lead them into economic recession?

Holland's Philips derives 40% of its profit from US sales --
Frence/Italian GDPs (w/Dutch/Germans, they constitute 66% of European
GDP) are already suffering a 6-7% collapse after years of decline.
The duration and nature of this Bush war has a price -- not just for
US market & economic data but for global impact.

So, as former allies carp, make silly human rights cases (the
Belgians have forgotten their crime-filled colonial history to now
become the self-appointed guardian of world transgressions, welcoming
war crimes cases against Bush-Rumsfeld-Powell- Cheney) or gleefully
claim all of US security concern and disarray as success for the
much-vanished UBL, they all forget "to mind their own stores". Any
dispassionate observer notes the terrible European economic crises
brought on by cradle-to-grave societies unable to afford these lavish
benefits, the enormous unemployment dragging down economic vitality,
the purchase of more European companies by US-led multi-nationals and
the huge corruption found in their buddy-system corporate world.

Not that their coming difficulties should gladden the hearts of
fantasy state Americans foolishly boycotting "enemies" or condemning
dissenting allies. European suffering strains US economic recovery,
causes price spikes and diminishes any relief favoring consumer
spending. All of this exacerbates a US economic recovery -- and then
there's the wobbly oil production cartels doing their best to screw
the public in an unsettled wartime.

While most of us on these Lists are/ were opposed to having this war,
we are also more globally aware than the trance state
group-fantasies. We (and 33-42% of Americans seem to poll against
this war) seek honesty from our leaders and their military "experts"
(something we know we're not getting right now), an end to this war
and minimizing human casualties (ours and theirs). This war seems to
be a "politically correct" one where politicians and military express
themselves in pc language and with pc cares while the media (claimed
by some to be in league with the state, w/o any independence of
thought or agenda) simply feed the group "official" news w/o any
investigative reportage or alternate views (some may recall the
variety of postings I've made to broaden our awareness).

That's why these Lists excite and inform most of us -- we're still
thinking and asking questions.
J ATLAS
Assoc. Dir.
Inst. for Psychohistory

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