Troubled Galaxy destroyed Dreams, Chapter 420
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
Capitalist Crisis Makes Socialism NecessaryBulatlat - - 3 hours ago JOSE MARIA SISON Since the fall of the Berlin wall on 9 November 1989, the world capitalist system has sunk deeper into crisis. ... SC Policy Council unleashes capitalismThe Palmetto Scoop - - 11 hours ago The South Carolina Policy Council kicked off their "Unleashing Capitalism" campaign in Columbia Thursday night. Guests including Gov. Mark Sanford, Sens. ... Capitalism, Unleashed FITSNews Unleashing Soap Operas FITSNews Memo to Michael Moore: Workplace Democracy and Capitalism Go TogetherU.S. News & World Report - - 19 hours ago I missed Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story when it was in theatres (and I wasn't alone, apparently, as it did not do nearly as well ... Film review - Capitalism: A Love Story Illawara Mercury Leverage Stinks, But "Capitalism Is Great" Says Bill GatesWall Street Journal (blog) - - Nov 12, 2009 But while both megabillionaires had upbeat comments about the strength of the US economy and, more broadly, capitalism, neither would say they expected a ... Buffett and Gates May Believe in Capitalism, But Obama Does Not RushLimbaugh.com (subscription) Gates, Buffett to biz students: We're still bullish on capitalism...Okay ... Daily Finance (blog) Buffett, Gates tell students worst is behind us The Associated Press Your Opinion: Left seeks to end capitalism, freedomBattle Creek Enquirer - 1 hour ago Leftist ideology exists to end capitalism and human freedom. It's about government power and wielding it to the advantage of a few elites. ... For cashmere capitalist, dignity is bottom lineReuters - - Nov 10, 2009 "I believe in real capitalism. The company has to make profits," he said in a sprawling, spotless office lined with shelves of spools of cashmere on one ... Fall of Berlin Wall aftermath: social and economic hardshipParty for Socialism and Liberation - - 4 hours ago Another poll, conducted by the BBC World Service, reported than only 11 percent of those questioned in 27 countries believed that capitalism was "working ... Chasing desire may prove our ultimate wall Irish Times mcdonald's and the Berlin Wall American Thinker Charles Schwab (NASDAQ:SCHW) Pressuring Competitors in New ETF Business ...American Banking News - 20 hours ago Anatomy of casino capitalism Pt.4Real News Network - 3 hours ago Jane D'Arista is an economist with the Financial Markets Center in Philomont, VA. She is a Research Associate with the Political Economy Research Institute ... |
Sachin Tendulkar: 20 years of memories- Part 2
First he was the fresh faced prodigy, barely old enough to shave, then he was the light that illuminated Indian cricket in the 1990's, and now he's the elder statesman in a team of talented, driven youngsters, yet one thing has always remained constant, and that is the adoration that Sachin Tendulkar has received.
Source : India Syndicate
Sachin Tendulkar: 20 years of memories-part one
T20: Tendulkar@Twenty
There will be no unique ID numbers, says Nilekani
Paying some extra money allows people to choose the number they want for their vehicles or cellphones. But there will be no such provision when it comes to the unique identification (UID) number which the government will implement soon. The unique ID numbers would be generated by the system randomly and could not be changed by any means, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman Nandan Nilekani asserted here today.
Speaking at the BangaloreIT.Biz 2009, Nilekani said the UID number would have no intelligence and there would not be any special provision to get a desired number.
UIDAI plans to come out with a manual which will provide detailed guidelines to the organisations that are planning to use the unique identity numbers to make them UID-ready. Nilekani said the manual which was expected to be made public in the next six months, would help the partners to modify the existing applications in their systems to make it compatible with the UIDAI software.
"If you are going to become our partners, and want to put the UID numbers in the database, then you will have to fit our enrolment software into your applications ... all these will come in a manual on how to become UID ready which will be out in about six months from now," Nilekani said.
On the progress of the unique ID project, Nilekani said two committees had been appointed to expedite the process. The first committee on biometric is being headed by National Informatics Centre Director General B K Gairola, while the data standards and verification committee which oversees the data enrollment and verification process, is being headed by N Vittal, the former chief vigilance commissioner of India.
Both the committees were expected to come out with their reports in the next couple of months, Nilekani added.
Besides, UIDAI is soon going to appoint a consultant who will help it in preparing the request for proposals and selecting the managed services provider who will manage the data centre.
The UID is a complex and ambitious project with technology sophistication and scale of 1.2 billion people. The department would work on private-public partnership (PPP) model for various tasks and process. The UIDAI will be the regulatory authority managing a central ID Data Repository (CIDR) which will issue UID numbers, update resident information and authenticate the identity of the residents as required.
Nilekani said that the first set of UID numbers was expected to be issued within the next 12 to 18 months from August 12 this year. In the first 5-6 years, UIDAI aims to provide unique identity numbers to at least 600 million residents. Even though UID has not been made mandatory in the beginning, the government would revisit the decision when the number becomes ubiquitous in the next 5-10 years, he added.
Source: Business Standard
Mag on sex, nudity, free speech changes hands
Los Angeles: Playboy founder Hugh Hefner changed American pop culture, one centerfold at a time.
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine and girlfriend, Playmate Holly Madison attend a party in Los Angeles California in this May 8, 2008 file photo. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner changed American pop culture, one centerfold at a time. Reuters
With his Playboy Enterprises Inc in talks to be sold for about $300 million, the 83 year-old Hefner will be giving up control over the iconic adult entertainment empire he founded that was instrumental in shaping society's opinions on nudity, sex and free speech.
With $600, Hefner in 1953 published the first Playboy magazine with a partially nude photo of Marilyn Monroe at its center. The magazine would become not only one of the most successful publications ever, but also a brand that led many Americans to think about sex in a more carefree way.
"Hef" turned Playboy and its bunny head logo into a symbol for a lifestyle he embodied as bachelor extraordinaire, living in a mansion surrounded by wealth and beautiful women.
"This guy was one of the major players in the transformation of American culture in the second half of the 20th century and not just because he had a magazine with naked women in it," said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.
In 1972, Playboy had a worldwide circulation of 7 million, but that has been in decline ever since, as the liberalization of sexual attitudes Hefner promoted became more mainstream -- and more competitive.
But even as it grew ever more popular, the magazine created rivals such as Penthouse and Hustler. In the 1980s, adult videos grew into a major business and by the late 1990s, the rise of the Internet and free pornography on the Web became Playboy's greatest rival for an audience.
Hefner remains in the limelight today, showing up at media events with numerous girlfriends by his side. He enjoyed a role in reality television show "The Girls Next Door" on cable network E! and his dating life and break-up with model Holly Madison made him a staple of celebrity magazines.
Hefner has said that growing up during the depression he always looked back wistfully to the 1920s age of flappers as an era of freedom he had missed.
He has described himself as having liberated America from its Puritan past and experts agree he did make sexual images and content more acceptable to Americans.
But Playboy magazine also showed men how to enjoy stylish clothing, good liquor, sports cars and other luxuries, and became a standard bearer for that lifestyle -- real or imagined.
"All that kind of stuff just piled up issue after issue -- promoting that idea of consumer abundance as being synonymous with the good life in this country -- and Hefner is very important in promoting that idea," said Steven Watts, author of "Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream."
But as Playboy's fortunes waned, some of the symbols of wealth that surrounded Hefner became harder for him to hang on to.
In the early 1980s, he had to give up a private jet plane with a bedroom, a miniature disco and a kitchen, Watts said.
Through the decades and despite the loss of business, Hefner continued to live the good life and made sure everyone knew it.
"Hefner really tries to completely disengage the notion of guilt and sin from having a good time and, the last couple of generations, that has pretty much prevailed," said Thompson, the Syracuse professor. "Certainly, when I talk to my students, I don't get a sense they're feeling guilty about the good deal of fun they're having."
Source: Reuters
Moon crash works; there is water there: NASA
Washington: Scientists who crashed two spacecraft into a crater on the moon said on Friday they found water in the dust they kicked up, just as they had hoped.
NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and its Centaur booster rocket are on course to crash into the moon in this artist's illustration released October 9, 2009. Scientists who crashed two spacecraft into a crater on the moon said on Friday they found water in the dust they kicked up.
The barely visible plume knocked into the air by NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS mission last month contained at least some water. Scientists are now working to find out more about it.
"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbour and, by extension, the solar system," Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA, said in a statement.
Water had already been found on the moon but the NASA scientists had hoped they could find significant deposits in the permanently shadowed regions of craters, in this case, a crater called Cabeus.
Coming soon: Harry Potter's invisibility cloak!
London: The dream of every Harry Potter fan of owning an "invisibility cloak" seems to be soon coming true, with British scientists developing such a garment which will render the wearer invisible to the human eye.
A team at Imperial College hopes to create a cloak from a new material that can manipulate light. Normally, when light hits an object, it bounces off the surface and into the eye, making the object visible.
According to the scientists, the invisibility cloak made from "meta-material" would work by "grabbing hold" of light waves and making them flow smoothly around an object, in the same way that water in a river flows round a stick.
Putting the cloak on will allow the wearer to move around unseen, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
Source: PTI
Capitalism Alive boom Boom!
600 mn to get Unique Identification number by 2014
Zionism, Global Hindutva, Fascism and US Corporate IMPERIALISM Go for the KILL!Capitalism is still alive and well, say the world's two richest men, despite lingering shocks from the longest, deepest recession since
``The financial panic is behind us,'' said famed investor Warren Buffett, who recently made what he called an ``all-in wager'' on the US economy by acquiring railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe. ``The bottom has come in stocks. Don't pass on something that's attractive today.''
Over 600 million people, about half of the country's 1.2 billion population, will get their unique identification (UID) numbers by the
The rollout of the 16-digit UID number will commence in 12 to 18 months. The second half of the work is likely to take more time to complete as coverage will be slow in remote areas where people don't even have a basic identity.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will soon appoint a consultant to help identify an external agency to manage a data centre for the project.
Speaking at BangaloreIT.biz 2009's Vision 2020 Leadership series here on Friday, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said the committees constituted for biometrics, data standards and verification will submit their reports in a couple of months.
Nilekani said a large eco-system will be created to plan, execute and support the UID project in the next few months. Enrolment agencies and registrars will be appointed to monitor the work of 1000s of enrolment points.
Data collection and enrolment can also happen when citizens walk into utility service outlets, banks, tax offices or any citizen service kiosks for other services. However, no smart card is proposed to be issued to people with the numbers.
The eco-system will comprise central/state government agencies, banks, insurance companies, utility companies, telecom firms, banks and tax departments. Some of these agencies also may make the UID number mandatory for their customers.
| Also Read |
Nilekani said the idea is to make the system work under a ubiquitous, low bandwidth, mobile-phone kind of environment. It will be supported by a massive security layer and fraud management. Technologies like cloud computing, virtualization andmassive memory management also could be used to run the system.
Sitting facing each other in an auditorium filled with nearly 1,000 cheering people at Columbia University in New York, Buffett, CEO of investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates fielded questions from Columbia Business School students on the recession, investing, mentors and what's the next Microsoft.
There were at first reassurances that the US economy had not collapsed since the last time the two sat in front of a student audience, in Nebraska in 2005. ``We proved that we can make mistakes,'' said Gates. ``The fundamentals of this system ... that's continued.'' Even in the country's ``darkest hour,'' he said, American businesses were still innovating.
``Last fall was really blindsiding,'' Buffett said later. Still, ``I did not worry about the overall survival of our economy.'' The two endeared themselves to the audience with tips. Buffett exhorted students to ``marry the right person'' and said, ``The worst investment
Gates, meanwhile, said he sees big opportunities in environmentally friendly energy and medicine.
``Capitalism is great,'' he said. Gates wore a suit and tie, flashing the inner red lining of his jacket as he walked to his chair. Buffett, who earned a master's degree from Columbia in 1951, wore a sweater with the Columbia insignia.
Students in the audience said they were glad the two were so confident about the economy. ``That probably weighs a lot to a lot of people to hear Buffett say we're out of the crisis,'' said Andrea Basche, an Earth Institute student at Columbia.
The government on Tuesday said it is looking at steps to cut subsidy on fertiliser and oil sale with an aim to cutting non-plan expenditure and contain fiscal deficit.
Addressing the economic editors' conference, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee [ Images ] said that the fiscal deficit would be rolled back to 5.5 per cent in the next financial year from 6.8 per cent in 2009-10. However, he said stimulus packages given to industry last year would continue.
He said a few more PSUs have been identified for disinvestment after the overwhelming response to NHPC and Oil India [ Images ] IPOs. Market capitalisation of both these companies increased significantly after the public offer.
The disinvestment department on Friday said it is in talks with administrative ministries of 60 CPSUs, including SAIL [ Get Quote ], BSNL, Coal India, for selling government stake.
In his first interactions with the media, Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitra said, "We are in interactions with the Ministry of Steel for SAIL, we are in interactions with the Coal Ministry on Coal India. On BSNL also, we are in interaction with the IT and Communication Ministry."
However, Mitra refused to set a time-frame for the process. A lot of factors have to be taken into consideration before the process is set in motion, he said.
The Government recently stated that profitable unlisted PSUs should hit capital markets and all profitable listed PSUs should increase their public holding to at least 10 per cent.
Mitra informed that there are 10 listed PSUs where the public holding is less than 10 per cent and around 50 state-run firms which are profitable but unlisted.
"We are in interaction on a large number of these 60 companies with their administrative ministries. We are in interaction with them but it does not mean that we are close to divesting them... All this is a function of a number of factors," he said.
To a query whether the opposition by Trinamool Congress [ Images ] chief Mamata Banerjee [ Images ] and DMK would mean that PSUs located in West Bengal [ Images ] and Tamil Nadu would not be on the priority list of disinvestment, Mitra said there was no such guidance from the government.
When pointed out that a section of analysts termed the NHPC and Oil India listing as "too aggressive", Mitra pointed out that all PSU shares listed in the past few years are ruling at above their listing prices, except for the hydel power major NHPC. He described NHPC as a long-term stock.
Oil India was listed on September 30 at Rs 1,050 but closed the day at a hefty premium of 8.62 per cent at Rs 1,140.55 on the BSE. Today its shares closed at Rs 1,189 on the BSE.
NHPC was listed on September 1 on an issue price of Rs 36, but it was a dampener with a just 1.94 per cent rise at Rs 36.70 on the BSE. NHPC closed at Rs 32.25.
To a query, whether the Government would adopt a mechanism to offer shares to qualified institutional investors at differential prices, Mitra said the Government would consider such options for the follow-on public offers.
He refused to name any companies that would be listed other than NTPC, REC and Satluj Vidyut Nigam, which have already been cleared by the Cabinet and would be listed this fiscal itself.
He also refused to put a figure to the amount to be realised by the Government from the divestment process.
The listed CPSUs that are making profits and have public holding of under 10 per cent include trading firm MMTC, mining major NMDC, Neyveli Lignite Corporation [ Get Quote ], Engineers India [ Get Quote ], State Trading Corporation, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, National Fertilisers [ Get Quote ] and Andrew Yule.
At present, the public holdings in these companies range from 0.67 per cent in MMTC to about 9.6 per cent in Engineers India.
Unlisted and profitable CPSUs include big names like the telecom behemoth BSNL and coal major Coal India among others.
The government on Friday said it is expecting to raise about Rs 8,100 crore (Rs 81 billion) from the five per cent stake sale in power PSU NTPC through a Follow-on Public Offer (FPO). "We anticipate more than three times what we got last time (at the time of IPO in 2004)," Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitra said.
In 2004, NTPC had raised about Rs 2,700 crore (Rs 27 billion) through the IPO when the government diluted 5.24 per cent of its stake, he said.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) last month had approved the stake sale in NTPC. After stake dilution, the government's holding in NTPC would come down to 84.5 per cent from the current 89.5 per cent.
Asian Development Bank [ Get Quote ] on Friday warned that hasty withdrawal of economic stimulus could derail the recovery process in the developing countries, even as India [ Images ] debates on timing of winding down incentives given to the industry to combat impact of global slowdown.
"As our region returns to the trend, exit strategies for fiscal stimulus must be carefully timed. If left too long, deficits will be unsustainable; if withdrawan too soon, the region's recovery could be derailed", ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said in a speech at Singapore.
ADB chief's statement comes at a time when India is debating over the timing of withdrawal of three stimulus packages provided to the industry to combat the impact of global slowdown.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] told India Inc last week, "we will take appropriate action next year to wind this (economic stimulus) down."
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee [ Images ], however, held the view that incentives needed to be continued till there was robust recovery in the developed world which account for bulk of India's exports.
RBI, on the other hand, started the process of withdrawing stimulus last month. "The balance of judgement at the current juncture is that it may be appropriate to sequence the exit in a calibrated way ... the exit process can began with the closure of some special liquidity support measures," Governor D Subbarao [ Images ] had said.
The monetary and fiscal stimulus measures taken by Asian economies appear to have worked with the region that is now showing signs of a V-shaped recovery, ADB President Kuroda said.
The regional development bank expects developing Asia's GDP growth to slow from 6.1 per cent last year to an estimated 3.9 per cent in 2009, returning to 6.4 per cent next year, ADB said in a statement.
Kuroda stressed that Asia must move forward on reforms that build on national priorities to bolster the regional agenda, while strengthening domestic demand as a more powerful source of economic growth.
He said the global financial crisis offers an opportunity for developing Asia to accelerate regional cooperation and integration, dialogue and institution-building. It is crucial to move forward on regional policy coordination, especially on exchange rates, he said.
Further, he said more action is needed on climate change, which poses a dire threat to the region's poor, food supplies and financial prosperity.
95 percent Indians wake up late to diabetes
India is becoming the diabetes capital of the world with over 50 million people affected by the lifestyle disease that is all too often discovered only in the advanced stages.A new study conducted by doctors at the Artemis Health Institute (AHI), Gurgaon, near here, found that close to 95 percent people got to know about the disease only at an advanced stage despite the fact that they had developed obvious symptoms much earlier.
The doctors tested the blood samples of 300 people who came for a routine checkup within a span of two years and found that 15 percent of them were in pre-diabetes stage.
"Most of them knew they had obvious symptoms like increased appetite, constant thirst and high urine formation for the last few years but they did not get themselves tested until their condition deteriorated," Ashutosh Shukla, head of internal medicine at AHI who conducted the study, told IANS.
According to Shukla, awareness and early detection are the key to managing diabetes.
"Those with risk factors like obesity, high work stress, sedentary lifestyle, faulty diet and family history of diabetes must undergo a health check-up at least once a year and those without risk factors should take it once in two years," Shukla said.
"Diabetes no longer remains an urban phenomenon or is restricted to adults," Nikhil Tandon, professor of endocrinology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), told IANS.
He said due to urbanisation and industrialisation, villages were now becoming towns. "Small towns have been industrialised. So the urban-rural divide has been blurred. And this means lifestyle changes," said the endocrinologist.
According to medicos, massive awareness campaigns should be launched by both government and educational institutions. Healthy eating habits should be taught from childhood to curb the growing threat of the lifestyle disease.
"We are seeing young children suffer from diabetes. It is only through education that we will be able to communicate the dangers of the chronic disease. Good habits start from childhood. Teachers and parents have to understand that physical exercise is important," said Shubhash Wangoo, a diabetologist with Apollo Hospital.
He said small steps such as not serving junk food in school cafeterias, parents sending wholesome food for lunch and teachers and parents ensuring time for children to play would make a difference.
The International Diabetic Federation report released last month warned that diabetes will impose a huge economic burden on India and other countries. Apart from losing billions in productivity, the report said, India will also be spending $2.8 billion annually on diabetes control measures by 2010.
There are estimated to be 285 million diabetic cases worldwide, accounting for seven percent of the world's population.
Diabetes, along with cardiovascular disease, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, accounts for 60 percent of all deaths worldwide.
10 doomsday predictions already gone amiss
The 21st century has begun in earnest! And despite the cries of doomsayers, psychics and prophets, the world has not come to an end! Is the idea that the End is near a recent phenomenon? Far from it. Indeed, Chicken Littles have crying doom since ancient times.
Predictions and superstions have a been a part of our lives since ages. Though all most all predcitons made by 'experts' have failed, people continue to believe in them. On the other had superstition is an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear. There are superstitions for almost all aspects of our daily lives and most have unknown origins. 10 doomsday predictions have already gone wrong.
We bring to you a list of doomdsday predictions that didn't pan out and 13 wierd superstions:
The Prophet Hen of Leeds, 1806
History has countless examples of people who have proclaimed that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent, but perhaps there has never been a stranger messenger than a hen in the English town of Leeds in 1806. It seems that a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase "Christ is coming" was written. As news of this miracle spread, many people became convinced that doomsday was at hand - until a curious local actually watched the hen laying one of the prophetic eggs and discovered someone had hatched a hoax.
The Millerites, April 23, 1843
A New England farmer named William Miller, after several years of very careful study of his Bible, concluded that God's chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strict literal interpretation of scripture. As he explained to anyone who would listen, the world would end some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (known as Millerites) who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed; though when April 23 arrived (but Jesus didn't) the group eventually disbanded-some of them forming what is now the Seventh Day Adventists.
Mormon Armageddon, 1891 or earlier
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, called a meeting of his church leaders in February 1835 to tell them that he had spoken to God recently, and during their conversation he learned that Jesus would return within the next 56 years, after which the End Times would begin promptly.
US needs to maintain strong dollar: Geithner
TOKYO: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday he believes strongly in the need to maintain a strong dollar and said the United
The dollar's decline has been a source of concern in the export-heavy region, especially since top exporter China keeps its currency's value closely managed against the US dollar and so felt less impact on prices for its exports than other Asian nations that let their currencies float freely.
"I believe deeply that it's very important to the United States, to the economic health of the United States, that we maintain a strong dollar," Geithner said in a meeting with Japanese reporters at the US embassy.
The Treasury chief was visiting Japan before heading on Wednesday night to Singapore to join a meeting of finance ministers from the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) on Thursday. It was his first trip to Japan since assuming the post in January.
The dollar index, which measures the dollar's value against a basket of six major currencies, has fallen 7.6 percent this year and hit a 15-month low of 74.889 on Wednesday. Geithner said the United States was well aware it must work to keep investors' confidence in US economic policymaking.
"We bear a special responsibility for trying to make sure that we are implementing policies in the United States that will sustain confidence ... in investors around the world that as growth recovers and growth strengthens that we're going to bring our fiscal position back to a sustainable balance," he said.
The US budget deficit soared to a record $1.4 trillion in the fiscal year that ended on September 30 and is expected to be about the same this fiscal year. Geithner talked with reporters after meeting Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and before a lunch meeting with Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa. He met Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii on Tuesday night.
In a separate interview with public broadcaster NHK on Wednesday, Geithner said that while the US economy was growing again, the recovery was still in the very early stages. "It's a very early stage of recovery, again this is a very tough economy," Geithner said.
"Unemployment is really very, very high, exceptionally higher in the United States. It's still rising. It's probably going to rise for a bit longer, until you see a longer period of growth take hold."
The US jobless rate jumped to a 26- year high of 10.2 percent in October and economists polled by Reuters expect it to hit 10.5 percent by the middle of next year.
LESS DRIVEN BY US CONSUMER
Geithner said he was encouraged by Tokyo's commitment to shift its policy toward growth that comes from more spending at home rather than from selling abroad, a policy that the Obama administration is encouraging throughout Asia. "Both the (finance) minister and the prime minister made it clear at the very beginning of our conversations that the basic objective of economic policy here is to make sure that future growth comes more from domestic demand," he said.
Market
Duration: 02:13
Posted: 13 Nov, 2009, 1616 hrs IST
Duration: 01:32
Posted: 13 Nov, 2009, 1339 hrs IST
Tata, Sikorsky JV to make aerospace components
Mumbai: Tata group company Tata Advanced Systems has formed a joint venture with US-based Sikorsky Aircraft to make aerospace components in India.
Sikorsky is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. The joint venture follows the long-term contract signed in June 2009 between the two companies to assemble Sikorsky S-92 helicopter cabins.
Components for the cabins of United Technologies' S-92 helicopters will be among those made by the joint venture, the companies said in a statement today.
"This is part of our strategy to participate meaningfully in this space, and to enhance India's capacities in this sector," Tata Advanced Systems CEO Gen Davinder Kumar said.
Both the joint venture agreement and the cabin assembly contract stem from a Memorandum of Understanding signed in February 2007 by the companies to explore the creation of aerospace operations in India.
Tata Advanced Systems is constructing its facility in Hyderabad, where the helicopter cabins will be assembled from 2010. The new facility for the components is expected to come up near this facility in 2011. This would also make components for other aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the production will start in 2012.
"Sikorsky's affiliation with Tata both strengthens our supply chain and extends our globalisation effort to establish significant operations in regions where the need for rotorcraft and support is great," Sikorsky Senior Vice-President (Operations) Mick Maurer said.
Source: Business Standard
India Inc gets into bear hug with Russian consumers
Mumbai: Russians may still be humming their all-time favourite song — mera joota hai japani — but they are now choosing to buy Hindustani in big numbers.
The Year of India in Russia -- as 2009 is officially known -- has helped India Inc get into a long bear hug with the Russian consumer. They are lapping up everything -- from Ratan Tata's marquee cars to Vijay Mallya's whisky. For Indian companies that's great news, since the annual disposable household income in Russia was over $6,500 in 2008 -- the highest among all emerging economies. It's about 10 times that of the $634 for Indians, according to Euromonitor data.
No wonder the Tata Group is, among many others, trying to tap Russia in a big way. Tata Motors, owner of marquee brands Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) acquired from Ford last year, is planning to launch new models of these luxury brands in Russia soon. That country is already one of the major markets for JLR.
"We are planning to aggressively expand base in the Russian market, which showed a growth of 12 per cent for JLR sales last year, while the UK, US and other European countries were showing declining sales," said a Tata Motors executive. Tata Motors already sells small, medium and heavy trucks and buses in Russia, which is the largest commercial vehicle market in Eurasia.
Tata Tea, another group company, plans to build a multi-million dollar business over the next three years through a combination of acquisitions and brand introductions. In March this year, the company acquired Grand, a packaging and distribution company and the second-largest tea importer in Russia.
"The Russian market is strategically important for Tata Tea's growth," Peter Unsworth, chief executive of Tata Tea's subsidiary Tetley, says. The reasons are obvious: Russia is the world's largest tea market by volume after the UK and India. While the tea market is growing at 12 or 13 per cent, beverages are showing a 20 per cent growth at a time when other export markets are growing in single digits.
In May, another Tata company, Tata Communications, partnered with RTComm, one of Russia's leading telecom players, to provide joint data services between carriers in Russia and the rest of the world.
India's largest private sector company, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is also eying Russia in a big way. It helps that RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani co-chairs the India-Russia CEO's Council, along with Vladimir Yevtushenkov, chief executive of Russian telecom major Systema, which is investing many billions of dollars in India in a joint venture with Shyam Telecom.
The CEO council to increase private sector cooperation between the two countries was set up in February last year.
Although an email sent to RIL on Ambani's involvement in the council did not elicit a response, sources familiar with the developments say RIL is looking to buy petrochemical assets in Russia, a country with over 40 oil refineries with a processing capacity of close to 5.5 million barrels a day. So far, RIL has not invested much in Russia, barring an unsuccessful attempt in 2004 via a consortium of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), RIL and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to acquire Sibneft, the country's fifth largest oil company for about $15 billion.
The land of vodka is also becoming a happy hunting ground for spirit makers. United Spirits, part of India's largest liquor company, UB Group, is expanding its presence in Russia through a marketing alliance with the country's leading vodka manufacturer, Russian Standard. The Russian company, which has a broad distribution network in Russia and other CIS markets, is marketing the premium whisky brands of United Spirits in Russia.
"While Russia is a virgin market for our whisky brands, the genuine Russian vodka manufactured and supplied by our partner is a real value addition to our Indian portfolio," UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya says.
Indian pharma companies are also eyeing Russia, which is a big market for anti-depressants, cough and cold products and lifestyle disorder drugs.
"In 2008-09, India exported drugs worth Rs 1,244 crore to Russia and that market is growing at about 18.5 per cent, one of the fastest growth rates among all drug exporting destinations," says K Appaji, executive director of Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil).
In Russia, the current per capita expenditure for drugs is much lower than most west European countries. "Going forward as the economy improves, pharma expenditure is expected to increase because of increase in government re-reimbursement and increased disposable income of people leading to increasing self-purchase," says M V Ramana, Head-Russia and CIS Operations of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, in an e-mail from Moscow.
Dr Reddy's Lab, currently the13th largest pharmaceutical company in Russia, saw its sales in that country grow 43 per cent to Rs 580 crore in 2008-09.
Ramana says until now investment from the pharmaceutical industry has been only through marketing and distribution offices. "Going forward, the industry might look at investments like setting up local production units," he adds.
Meanwhile, ONGC's overseas operations company, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), and the Indian government are involved in intense negotiations with the Russian government and Gazprom Neft, one of the largest refiners in Russia, to participate in the development of Sakhalin-3, one of the largest oil and gas development projects in the world.
OVL has a 20 per cent stake in Sakhalin-1, a large oil and gas field in Far East offshore in Russia. During 2008-09, OVL's share of production was 1.853 metric million tonnes (mmt) of oil and 0.372 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas. Last year, OVL acquired the UK- listed company Imperial Energy Corporation, an upstream oil exploration and production company that has its main activities in the Tomsk region of Western Siberia in Russia, for $2.1 billion. ONGC's investment in the hydrocarbon sector in Russia so far amounts to over $1.7 billion, say sources.
All this means things are moving again after a long gap. For the past two decades, Indo-Russian trade and investment has declined. In 1990, USSR used to be India's second-biggest trade partner, next to EU, with a 16 per cent share in trade. By 1996, this fell sharply to 2 per cent. Since then, both the countries have struggled to get their bilateral economic act together, and failed.
Observers say the renewed activity on the part of Indian companies shows that the initiative to reach $10 billion trade between the two countries by 2010, from close to $6.9 billion in 2008, may succeed.
But it's certainly not roses all the way. The extreme cold weather, red tape and cumbersome bureaucracy, rampant corruption in various provinces, loose banking systems and visa issues are the main hurdles that Indian companies face. Ramana, who has been living in Moscow for many years now, says language is also a prime hurdle at work and life in Russia. So finding talent is that much more difficult.
Source: Business Standard
Koda case: Union Bank says no violation of norms
New Delhi: Union Bank of India today said that all accounts at its Zaveri Bazar branch in Mumbai, where former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda and his associates allegedly parked crores of rupees, are compliant with the know-your- customer norms and there has not been any irregularity.
"All accounts at the Zaveri Bazar branch are KYC-compliant and there has not been any irregular transaction noticed so far," Union Bank of India sources said here.
Under the KYC norms, banks are required to verify the antecedents of the person at the time of opening an account.
The KYC norms include details such as address proof, annual income, etc.
The Zaveri Bazar branch of the Union Bank shot to picture after the CBI alleged that Koda and his associates had parked close to Rs 1,000 crore in the branch.
Source: PTI
| November 13, 2009 |
| NTPC stake sale: Govt to get Rs 8,100 cr |
| November 04, 2009 |
| Limited divestment in a few PSUs only: Pranab |
| November 02, 2009 |
| Coal India divestment in the offing |
| October 20, 2009 |
| SAIL divestment next in line; 20% FPO on cards |
| October 08, 2009 |
| Decision on NTPC divestment delayed |
| September 30, 2009 |
| Govt may divest NTPC, REC pie in 2 months |
| September 24, 2009 |
| Govt mulls SAIL FPO |
| August 31, 2009 |
| NTPC keen to raise more funds, plans FPO |
| August 24, 2009 |
| Asset sale fetched NTC Rs 4,034 cr: Maran |
| August 14, 2009 |
| Coal India talks stake-sale with divestment secy |
| July 28, 2009 |
| NHPC: First PSU IPO in 17 months |
| July 23, 2009 |
| Govt not to sell SBI stake |
| July 21, 2009 |
| Govt looks at listing of BSNL, TCIL; mulls 10% offloading |
| July 20, 2009 |
| Pranab rules out divestment in govt banks |
| July 16, 2009 |
| BHEL cash-rich; FPO likely next fiscal Anil Agarwal ready to buy govt stake in HZL, Balco |
| July 15, 2009 |
| Road map for PSU divestment in 3-4 weeks: Fin secy |
| June 19, 2009 |
| BHEL divestment under lens: Minister |
| June 12, 2009 |
| 'Competition Commission must look at PSUs' |
| June 09, 2009 |
| Divestment again faces roadblock from DMK |
| June 02, 2009 |
| Oil India may hit capital markets in September |
| June 01, 2009 |
| Markets waiting to lap up PSU IPOs BSNL advised to talk to union on listing |
| May 28, 2009 |
| PM hints at PSU disinvestment in Budget '09-'10 |
| May 26, 2009 |
| After the Left, it's TC's turn to block reforms |
| December 12, 2008 |
| Nalco in strategic deal with Rio Tinto Alcan |
| August 13, 2008 |
| India to push on with BSNL privatisation |
| July 21, 2008 |
| OIL, NHPC to test divestment waters |
| November 28, 2007 |
| Divestment is back on track |
| November 23, 2007 |
| Divestment: Govt gets Rs 51,600 crore |
| September 03, 2007 |
| Govt to net Rs 4,100 cr from divestment |
| June 05, 2007 |
| Govt told to divest 10% stake in OIL |
| March 16, 2007 |
| Choppy markets delay Maruti divestment |
| February 23, 2007 |
| GoM to look into HZL stake sale |
| February 08, 2007 |
| Govt restarts divestment, targets Rs 1500 cr |
| December 24, 2006 |
| Govt keen on PSU rejig, not divestment: PM |
| October 31, 2006 |
| SC upholds divestment of Hotel Agra Ashok |
| September 24, 2006 |
| Disinvestment put on hold, admits PM |
| August 31, 2006 |
| UPA not to sell 49% Balco pie; to return Rs 1098 crore to Sterlite |
| August 25, 2006 |
| CAG report blasts NDA on PSU privatisation |
| July 14, 2006 |
| Divestment: Govt to face new hurdles |
| July 13, 2006 |
| Divestment decision to hit FDI: Murthy |
| July 07, 2006 |
| 'Divestment freeze not to hit reforms' Neyveli Lignite limps back to normal |
| July 06, 2006 |
| BJP slams PM's divestment move Left welcomes divestment decision All divestment plans on hold: PM |
| July 05, 2006 |
| Neyveli strike hits mining, power generation |
| June 23, 2006 |
| 'Some pockets may underperform' Selloff increases market liquidity 'Divestment a positive move' Divestment to make Neyveli attractive |
| March 21, 2006 |
| No plan to divest stake in BSNL: DoT |
| January 25, 2006 |
| Only Balco may be divested by FY'06 |
| January 17, 2006 |
| Govt clears PFC IPO, divestment |
| January 12, 2006 |
| CCEA nods some divestment proposals |
| December 27, 2005 |
| Selloff likely in fertiliser PSUs |
| December 13, 2005 |
| No decision on SCI divestment India keeps selloff pot boiling |
United States President Barack Obama [ Images ] will host Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] at the White House on November 24 for the first official visit of his presidency, the White House has said.
"This visit will be the first state visit of the administration and will highlight the strong and growing strategic partnership between the United States and India [ Images ], and the friendship between the American and Indian people," the White House said in a statement yesterday.
During the visit, the Obama and Singh are expected to discuss a range of global, regional, and bilateral issues of shared interest and common concern. The two leaders will also likely discuss the strategic dialogue that was launched in July during the visit of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [ Images ] to India and review progress made in the dialogue.
Obama and the First Lady, Mitchelle, will also host Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur for an official state dinner on the night of November 24, it said.
"President Obama looks forward to welcoming Prime Minister Singh to Washington and working with him to strengthen and enhance their partnership for the benefit of the people of both nations, and the world," the White House said.
Vivekananda Statue, Delhi University
Speakers:
Madan Kashyap, Journalist Prashant Bhushan, Civil liberties lawyer
Saroj Giri, Dept. of Political Science, DU Gautam Navlakha, Civil liberties activist
Harish Dhawan, PUDR Dr. N. Bhattacharya, Jan Hastakshep
Poonam, Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan Sanjay Kumar, NSI
Sandeep Singh, AISA Banjyotsna, DSU
Abhinav, Disha Mayur Chetia, PSU
Representative of Peoples organisations form North Eastern states
--
Campaign Against War on People
India second worst terror-hit country, says NGO
"According to the report, terror attacks in India have increased in the past few years and claimed 3,674 lives, which is second to that of Iraq," NGO Chairman Narinder Nayar said yesterday at a security summit organised at Hotel Trident [ Images ], one of the sites hit by the terrorists in last November. Nayar said India, battling terrorism for nearly three decades now, has been attacked from outside and within.
The summit saw global security experts, including those from the US and United Kingdom, discussing various aspects of terrorism and sharing their experiences. "The 26/11 terror attacks, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] said, was an attack on the aspirations and dreams of making Mumbai [ Images ] a global city," Nayar said. He stressed the need to modernise the police and review the criminal judicial system. Besides Mumbai, Jaipur [ Images ], Ahmedabad [ Images ], Bengaluru [ Images ] and New Delhi [ Images ] were also among terror targets last year.
http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/nov/14/india-second-most-affeted-by-terror-ngo.htm
50 PSUs to be put on the block
The Centre has identified 50 new public sector undertakings (PSUs) to be put on the capital markets for selling 10 per cent of government stakes to raise funds for development programmes.
There will be also disinvestment in 10 other PSUs already listed on the stock exchanges to raise the public offer to 10 per cent. The new PSUs to go on the block include BSNL, SAIL [ Get Quote ], and Coal India.
The past experience of disinvestment through listing on the stock exchanges shows a "win-win" situation for all stakeholders, the government, the public as well as the staff, stressed new Disinvestment Secretary Sunil Mitra in his first 2-hour long interaction with the media here on Friday.
He did not see any political blockade of the disinvestment in West Bengal [ Images ] and Tamil Nadu because of Mamata Bannerjee's [ Images ] Trinamool Congress [ Images ] and the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [ Images ] respectively.
He, however, admitted bureaucratic hurdles to be cleared for listing the PSUs as clearances are required to be secured from their administrative ministries. Therefore, he cannot set any time frame for listing all profit-making PSUs on the stock market as decided by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on November 5.
Many factors have to be taken into consideration before the process is set in motion, he stressed.
"We are in interaction on a large number of these 60 companies with their administrative ministries. We are in interaction with them, but it does not mean that we are close to divesting them... All this is a function of a number of factors," he said.
He said the listing of the PSUs on the capital markets will unlock greater shareholder value and bring greater transparency and equity in operations with higher management accountability. Direct "people ownership" enforces higher levels of public scrutiny and the expectations of investors require management to perform efficiently, Mitra said.
He said availability of good quality PSU shares for trading provides depth and liquidity to market that has a stabilising influence, enabling the public to share prosperity of the government undertakings.
Besides, indirect "people ownership" is also achieved through mutual funds and insurance companies' participation in public offerings.
Mitra said the aggregate performance of large PSUs since after their earlier listing shows impressive growth in sales, assets and dividends – aspects that benefit government.
The disinvestment secretary also said that there had been substantial increase in profitability and market capitalisation of the PSUs listed so far, giving an advantage to investors while the government's shareholding in them also increased substantially.
He cited three instances in this case. The first sale of 5.25 per cent of equity in the National Thermal Power [ Get Quote ] Corporation (NTPC) resulted in an inflow of around Rs 2700 crore, while increasing the disinvestment to 10 per cent now is expected to raise more than three times the amount raised them.
The enterprise value of NHPC increased from a pre-IPO value of Rs 18,280 crore to Rs 37,702 crore and that means the value of the government share (94%) shot up to Rs 32,561 crore. The company's remaining 4 per cent shares are to be off-loaded to public to meet the SEBI condition that a listed company must have a minimum 10 per cent shares with the public.
Mitra said the enterprise value of India India nearly tripled from a pre-IPO value of Rs 9844 crore to Rs 27,219 crore.
He said his department is right now starting inter-ministerial consultations for the PSUs' disinvestment. He, however, stressed that the yardsticks for listing them on stock exchanges will vary from PSU to PSU as each has different capital structures, financial strength and differing status in compliance with mandatory listing requirements.
http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/nov/13/fifty-psus-to-be-put-on-the-block.htm
Independent Citizens Fact Finding Mission to Manipur
Imphal,
7th November, '09
PRESS RELEASE
A team of concerned citizens comprising Dr. K.S. Subramanian, IPS (retd.), formerly of the Manipur-Tripura cadre and currently Visiting Professor, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, Sumit Chakravartty, Editor, Mainstream, Kavita Srivastava, PUCL National Secretary, and Vasundhara Jairath of Delhi Solidarity Group is on a fact finding mission to Manipur from 5th of November onwards in the wake of the heightened tensions in the State since July 2009. Shri. Prabhash Joshi, veteran Hindi journalist and a consistent voice against violation of human rights, who was to join the team on 6th of November and had expressed grave concern over the situation in Manipur, asking his doctor to allow him this visit, possibly his last to the state, sadly passed away due to a cardiac arrest on 5th night. We are left shocked and greatly saddened by this sudden loss. His undaunting commitment to justice, peace and free speech shall continue to inspire young and old, particularly in the field of journalism.
Our Terms of References are:
- Visit and interact with families of those killed in alleged fake encounters.
- Take account of the number of people killed, arrested, tortured, detained, etc by forces.
- Interact with those in jail or those released after detention/arrest.
- Meet the CM, and other officials concerned with the law and order situation.
- Prepare a narrative and photo documentation of the visit.
- Compile a comprehensive report of the facts collected with analysis and recommendations and present it to all the stakeholders and national/regional media.
In the last three days in Manipur we have met a cross-section of people here including the Chief Minister, DGP, IG Human Rights and Prisons, members of the civil society, citizens' groups, academics, mediapersons and families of the victims of State violence.
At the meeting with the CM, where the DGP was present, the general situation in the State was reviewed. The DGP confirmed that over 260 people have been killed since January 2009 and asserted that all of them were underground activists. When the committee expressed concern that more than a fourth of prisoners in Manipur were detained under the NSA and brought up the case of human rights defender Jiten Yumnam, the DGP defended his detention and said he too was connected with the underground. The CM said he was prepared for a second round of talks with those agitating over the 23rd July killings, after the first round on October 31, 2009 but several of their demands could never be met. Regarding the AFSPA, he said the matter rests with the Centre. The team members appealed to the government that in order to prevent further alienation of the citizens from the State, each killing must be properly investigated, the NSA cases reviewed and the family members of the deceased appropriately rehabilitated through a just rehabilitation policy. We also raised the issue of Irom Sharmila's health, accommodation and access in the hospital.
On the 6th of November the team was happy to meet Irom Sharmila Chanu, now on the 10th year of her heroic fast against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958. It calls upon the government to provide similar access to other civil society members. Her family members should be permitted to meet her on a regular basis. Being allowed only a limited number of visitors, she expressed her desire to meet, see and speak to more people more often. Her strength and courage in undertaking the longest satyagraha in the world, completely peaceful and non-violent, leaves us in awe of her struggle. Her demand for the repeal of the AFSPA should be actively considered in the light of several official recommendations.
Since Mahashweta Devi was denied permission to meet her the previous day, Sharmila handed over a letter to the team members for the respected Magsaysay Award winner. She further expressed her concern over the number of innocents that were dying everyday in Manipur due to the high degree of violence in the State.
Through our discussions in Imphal, we have come across repeated allegations against the security forces. The team expresses its deep concern over the deteriorating situation and the prevailing climate of impunity in Manipur. It conveys its solidarity with the victims of violence and calls for adequate recompense to the hapless women and children who have lost their husbands/fathers/sons/sole bread-winners and ensure employment opportunities to them.
Many have alleged these killings as fake encounters – as killings of innocents who perished either in custody or otherwise, but without legal sanction. Each of these allegations should be transparently investigated and the guilty punished. Further, there have been charges of using preventive detention laws to curb citizens' democratic rights to protest and freely express their views. The high degree and frequency of violation of human rights in the State is also cause for alarm. Restoration of peace and order must go hand in hand with the promotion of the rule of law and justice for the sustenance of democracy.
This is an interim report. The final report will follow. We hope to release the findings of the team on the 18th of November, 2009 in New Delhi.
The team feels that the consequences of continuing violence would be disastrous and adversely affect peace-building and reconciliation in society.
--
ARUN KHOTE
November,5,2009
Jamiatul-Ulema vis-à-vis Vande Matram
Let me clarify at the very outset three important issues related to 'Vande Matram' controversy which is raised at a time when it was not at all being discussed .Firstly that this song is completely Un-Islamic, secondly that Jamiatul-Ulema has always been the stooge of Congress, and thirdly the sound health of 'Hindutwa forces' is a pre-requisite condition for the so-called secular parties to entice Muslim community on emotional issues, so that it may throw its legitimate demands into oblivion. The stronger the Hindutwa forces, the greater prospects for Congress and other so-called secular outfits to capture Muslims through the false slogans of 'secularism'.
If our memory is not too weak, we may recollect that a few years back the then H.R.D. Minister Mr. Arjun Singh was the person who declared that the centenary of 'Vande Matram' would be celebrated with its singing in all institutions. As expected, the Muslims reacted aggressively, giving an opportunity to Hindutwa forces to spew venom against the community. Arjun Singh later on withdrew his circular, and emerged as secular figure in the eyes of Muslims. The purpose was served , i.e. to divert the community's attention from the basic issues of 'give and take'.
This time again, as the Muslims are showing tilt towards Congress, but with a rider of their demands, like the implementation of Sacher Committee report, which it cannot concede for the fear of losing Hindu support, the safest via media before it is to raise some emotional issue by which to reinvigorate the degenerating health of 'Hindutwa forces'. Using its old faithful stooges, it has succeed to a considerable extent. The so-called Deoband 'Fatwa' against Vande Matram has activated the dying cells of B.J.P. The unholy nexus between 'Hindutwa forces and the 'fictitious secularism' is the most effective instrument since independence to deceive Muslims, and the hypocrites with the community are always used as the tool in that mechanism.
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -----
Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani,LL. D.
Chairman, All India Muslim Forum
Sherwani Nagar, Sitapur Raod
Lucknow, U.P. India
E:mail: sherwanimk@yahoo. com
+91-9919777909
+91-522-2733715
*ACTION ALERT ! ACTION ALERT ! ACTION ALERT !*
Press Release
30th October 2009
**** PEACEFULLY PROTESTING NBA ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN KHANDWA IN AN
OUTRAGEOUS AND EXCESSIVE POLICE ACTION BY MADHYA PRADESH POLICE.*
* *
**** NBA OFFICES IN KHANDWA SEALED AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANT SEARCHED AND
INFORMATION STOLEN *
* *
**** PHONE / FAX / WRITE LETTERS TO CHIEF MINISTER, PRIME MINISTER AND KHANDWA
COLLECTORARE *
Following the demonstration by over ten thousand men and women affected by
the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar dams on the 28th of October 2009 in
Khandwa, Khandwa police in an unprecedented action has arrested all the key
activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan from their offices and the dharna site,
in front of the Khandwa Collectorate. From 29th October more than a thousand
adivasis had been protesting infront of the Khandwa Collectorate, since the
MP government refused to live up to the Jabalpur High Court order of giving
5 acres of land to elder son of each of the oustees.
On 29th evening Chttaroopa Palit and 18 other activists were arrested and
today without any provocation police came in large numbers and locked NBA's
office alleging anti-state activities. They arrested five of the activists,
including Alok Agarwal, present at the office around 5:15 pm and then locked
the office. After some time five police people came and without any search
warrant and copied files from the computer and taken some files from the
office.
After some protest they have released 4 people but kept Alok Agarwal in
custody though have not explained the charges under which he has been kept
in custody.
It is a clear case of violation of the rights of the activists and also an
attempt at breaking the peaceful protest by police action. Yesterday they
had lathi charged the protesters but even then the protest had continued,
innervating the district administration. This is a clear cut attempt at
breaking the morale of the thousands of protesting famers, adivasis and
workers.
NBA unequivocally condemns this action and also demands that the activists
be released unconditionally and action been taken against the responsible
police officers.
*Phone / Fax / email letters of protesting police action *on peacefully
protesting people affected from Indira Sagar, Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, Upper
Beda and Maan dams. Also write letters to Chief Minister and Chief Secretary
of Madhya Pradesh Government asking them to release activists immediately,
unseal NBA office, live up to High Court order and take action against the
police officers responsible for this high handedness and unlawful action.
*Prime Minster : *
Shri Manmohan Singh
Room No. 148 B, South Ablock, New Delhi
Office Nos : 91-11-23012312 Fax : 230116857
Residence : 91-11-23011166, 23018939. Fax : 23015603
Email : manmohan@sansad.nic.in |
*Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh *
Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Off – Phone : 91-755- 2441581, 2441033, 2441096, *Fax*: 91-755-2441781
Res – Phone : 91-755-2440241, 2440242 Fax : 91-755-2540501
email : cm@mp.nic.in
*MP Government, Chief Secretary*
Shri Rakesh Sahni
Off Phone : 91-755-2441848. Fax 2441751
Email : cs@mp.nic.in
*Khandwa Collectorate :*
91-733-2224153, 2223333
Email : dm@mpkhandwa.mp.nic.in
*Chairperson*, National Human Rights Commission of India
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110 001, Tel: +91 11 230 74448,
Fax: +91 11 2334 0016, Email: chairnhrc@nic.in
*Ramkuwar Rawat, Sangita, Kailash Chouhan, Rahmat, Kalu and others *
*Narmada** Bachao Andolan
*2, Sai Nagar, Mata Chowk,
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh.
Telefax : 0733 - 2228418/2270014
E-mail : nbakhandwa@gmail.com
<mailto:nbakhandwa@gmail.com><nbakhandwa@gmail.com>
Contact : Sangita 09425928007 Madhuresh 9818905316
Militant unity of workers and mounting public pressure forces Gorakhpur administration to retreat
Arrested leaders released, movement postponed after written assurance of implementing all worker's demands within 10 days
Dharna and hunger strike at DM office called off after 4 days
Dear friends,
Under mounting pressure from the workers and the general public the district administration of Gorakhpur had to finally bow down and yesterday night (22 October) the administration was compelled to enter a written agreement accepting all the demands of the workers. The night before that (on 21 Oct.), the administration had unconditionally released all the four arrested leaders.
In protest against the brutal assault and arrest of the four leaders a strike was called in five factories of the Bargadwa Industrial Area on October 20 and more than 1500 workers started a dharna and hunger strike at the DM office. The district administration was under tremendous pressure after the announcement of "Citizens' Satyagrah" in the city by the Citizens Front In Support of the Gorakhpur Worker's Movement organised under the leadership of social activist Katyayani. An overwhelming number of striking workers braved the huge deployment of police, PAC, RAF personnel surrounding them and showed no sign of relenting. After a strong demonstration in the city on October 21, and under pressure from various civilian groups and organisations the administration released all the four arrested leaders after daylong hectic negotiations. But the workers continued their dharna and hunger strike demanding quashing of all false cases, action against officials guilty of beating their leaders and to conclude a written agreement meeting all their demands.
On October 22, the workers of two more factories joined the strike at the DM offce. The mounting pressure forced the administration for a written agreement to take back all the false cases, send recommendation to the state government to take action against the guilty officers and to address all the demands of the workers within a period of 10 days and the senior officers of the administration themselves made these announcements in front of the striking workers. After this the workers decided to defer their movement.
Under prevailing circumstances when the workers have been facing defeat after defeat against the combined force of industrialists-state-politician nexus, this victory of the workers of Gorakhpur is very significant. It could not have been possible without the extensive support of intellectuals, human right activists and labour organisations all over the country.
Apart from whole-hearted supported of activists and intellectuals of Gorakhpur, large number of writers, journalists, peoples rights activists and mass organisations of Lucknow, Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Patna, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Badaun, Chhattisgarh, MP etc sent memorandums to the district and state administration, called the concerned officials to register their protest, issued statements and held meetings and demonstrations in our support. We have received hundreds of phone calls, emails and letters. We cannot reply to all of you individually right now, but we are grateful for your support and thank you on behalf of all the struggling workers.
However, we are not going to sit back and relax. We know by experience that despite the written agreement we will have to fight at each step with the administration and the factory owners to get the demands implemented. We will keep you posted about further developments. You can visit this blog for the news, reports and pictures of the workers movement: http://bigulakhbar.blogspot.com.
With revolutionary greetings,
Tapish Maindola,
On behalf of Steering Committee,
Joint Front for the Struggle for Workers Rights
Satyam: 9910462009, Sandeep: 9350457431
Caste and Land : Message from Chengara and Khagaria
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
At the United Nation's Human Rights Council the member countries, much to the dismay of the faithful Babus of the government of India, passed a resolution terming caste system as a discrimination and violation of human rights. This is an important event though the Human Rights Council off late has become victim of religious right wing elements working in the name of multiculturalism. We all know this council has passed many such resolutions which violate fundamental principal of secularism, freedom of ex-pression and life beyond religious values. However, in terms of issue of caste, one hopes that such resolution will at least force government of India not to oppose such things in future and accept the dark realities of castes in India.
We all know that UN resolutions do not work much. At the end the battle for dignity and equality has to be fought in India and by the people involved. Two important incidents happened in India with far reaching consequences. One was the killing of 16 farmers belonging to Kurmi community allegedly by the Mushahars in Khagaria, Bihar and second the 'successful' 'culmination' of Chengara land struggle in Kerala. Coming days would be important to understand the ramification of both the incidents.
Khagaria's killings have been highly unfortunate and need condemnation yet if the reports of radicalization of Mushahars are true then there is a need of introspection.
They remain one of the most isolated and ostracized community in India and there are many such communities who remain completely marginal. They neither have political representation nor know anything of governance structure. The bureaucracy dominated by the caste Hindus do not even consider them as human being. India was among the first countries to have enacted some of the 'change making' laws, a secular constitution, equal rights but Indian villages do not portray the same reality of life. In fact, they remain caged in 'different' nations where each caste is a nation as described by V.T.Rajshekar, the formidable editor of Dalit voice. These castes do not even talk to each other and the talks of Bahujan and broader Dalit alliance is actually a political construct because very little has been done to culturally integrate with each other. A number of people feel easier to assimilate themselves with caste Hindus then to siding with the other marginalized communities considered to be below them.
And in such a scenario the votaries of Bahujan should understand that their work is much bigger than what they think. By merely chanting anti brahmanical mantra would not work as it has not worked in the absence of discussion the differences between the different communities. One has to understand that in the absence of an ideological clarity no coming together would succeed and would be easily co-opted and misused by the powerful. A mere political coalition would meet the same fate as happened to Mulayam-Maywati coming together and later the efforts by Nitish Kumar in Bihar, who created term Mahadalit to forge a combination with his power community of Kurmis. One need to understand that these political terminologies are more for the consumption of the political class and do not mean anything beyond electoral politics. When the Samajawadi party and BSP came together, it never meant that the Dalits and backward communities particularly the chamars and Yadavs would socialize more. Some people felt but it was not possible unless the backward castes debrahminise themselves. Similar thing happened in Bihar where the Kurmis first thought of Mahadalit as a counter to Muslim-Yadav-Dusadh politics of Laloo and Ramvilas Paswan. In his zeal to divide the Dalits and reap a good harvest, Nitish Kumar appointed a commission to assess the need of the Mahadalits in Bihar. The commission headed by One senior bureaucrat Mr Bandhopadhyaya has submitted its recommendation but the government of Bihar is not keen to present the report in the assembly. Now, the worst things are emerging after Khagaria killings. Initially, the government blamed it on the Naxals but later reports coming in the Indian Express suggested it was an intern caste land dispute and the Mushahars had been demanding land redistribution. The dark fact from UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu are that most of the village land, which is called as government land or Panchayat land in different states, is illegally grabbed the local powerful communities. Hence, when we talk of land reform and implementation of ceiling laws, how the farming communities go jittery and the fictitious unity in the name of Bahujan breaks. The Kurmis have now warned chief Minister Nitish Kumar not to 'appease' the Mushahars. 'How dare they do it?' The fear among them is that if the Mushahars start questioning about the land ceiling and other acts, then it would be difficult to contain their anger. So for the vote bank the concept of Bahujan bite dust. At the end, it is your caste that matter so if you lose the caste support then the human rights values and all the concerns for the 'poor dalits' disappear.
While reports from Bihar suggests concern, another report is emerging from Chengara, in Kerala where the movement for the land rights of the people has culminated in an agreement between the government and Sadhujana Vimoc-hana Samyuktha Vedi led by Laha Gopalan and one can understand how the pink dailies of the country had a sigh of relief terming it one of the biggest victory through Ahimsa in recent years. Even we all know that Laha Gopalan and his organizations had nothing to do with Gandhi, the authors were ready to propagate his movement as that of Gandhian struggle. 'There is every chance of one getting carried away by the mannerisms of a loser expressed by Laha Gopalan after the discussion on Monday. But, in reality, it was the ex-pression of success in a very peculiar way. Chengara struggle was fought on Ahimsa and won by Ahimsa. The portraits of Buddha and Ambedkar that were seen everywhere in the Chengara struggle heartland were the real driving force behind Laha Gopalan and team. After living in penury for 795 days and sacrificing 13 precious lives, the Sadhhujana Vimoc-hana Samyuktha Vedi could make the Government of Kerala bite the dust. The biggest difference between the Muthanga struggle led by C.K.Janu and Geethanandan and the Chengara struggle led by Laha Gopalan is the result. The Muthanga agitators are still fighting for their promised piece of land while Chengara strikers could fetch a timebound assurance from the Chief Minister that the promises will be fulfilled in three months' wrote an 'expert' in 'Financial Express', yesterday.
Now, we all know the Dalits and tribal have been treated worst in the so called left governments whether it is West Bengal or Kerala because they say that they do not belive in caste system hence it does not exist. If people remember well, the way CPI(M) government in Kerala had gone overboard on this issue to avoid a replication of Nandigram. Discussion with activists and friends in Chengara suggest that the government and political parties have done every effort to divide the Dalit movement which was growing and Chengara's land struggle actually changed the entire situation. For the first time, we witness the Dalits, tribal and other community's landless people fighting together. They have been altogether these years but now the government's decision to distribute land has to be seen from a different angle. When everybody of the 1400 odd families fought together for their land right, why is that the compensation is different for different communities. Clear enough, the government and political parties in Kerala are afraid of an independent Dalit-tribal unity. The mainstream political parties always want the Dalits and tribal to be their tail-enders.
Laha Gopalan himself admitted that he was forced to compromise. One has to understand the psychology of the powerful communities in India. All the upper caste forces united under different names in Kerala against Chengara struggle. Even the Christian upper castes of Kottayam and Pathannamitththa were not interested in the struggle. Trade unions ( and our revolutionary friends are very much in owe with the dirty politics of trade unions) joined hand and created a blockade against the people of Chengara. If the Hindutva and Congress created a Salwajudam to get the tribal fight each others in Chhatishgarh, the government of Kerala used trade union of all political parties to create an unlawful blockade against the people of Chengara. One need to see the similar situation which existed in West Bengal when the Sweepers of Howrah municipal corporation, who used to live in 200 years old Belilius park, were thrown away by the state police and none of the political parties in Bengal came in support of these people. Over 7000 families are living in utter humiliation in West Bengal. Every time, one visit to such a state, it does not look different then Gujarat if you want to speak a language different than the CPM people.
Hence the newspapers may write about a victory of Chengara struggle but it is a careful manipulation by the government. It has already asked three months time to give the Dalits and tribal some land. Problem arise, when they are already occupying land which is actually government land as the state must redistribute the ceiling surplus land, where else they can send these people. The land supposed to be given to these people in lieu of leaving the Harrison Plantation would be abysmally low and will not alter any power equations in Kerala. Moreover, activists doubt the availability of land in Kerala. If government is really bothered it must redistribute land in Kerala. Lot of talks about redistribution and 'progressive' 'communist' government in Kerala but the fact of the matter is the Dalit-Adivasi assertion in Kerala has been successfully countered by the mainstream political parties. First they sidelined Gauri Amma, a powerful backward caste leader and now Laha Gopalan has been successfully brought to the so-called negotiation table to give them peanuts. Perhaps, the Marxists are full of new ideas where they can send these people to different locations and destroy the movement. Activists are fearing that a police action is eminent as there are different fractions in Chengara and not all would like to leave the place. Secondly, none of them know where they will get the plot of land. It is unlikely that people would leave the place without getting rehabilitation.
Both the Bihar and Kerala experience shows how the governments which are in power have used particular ideological formulations to build their own political empire and how they manipulate people's sentiments. Such stories are emerging from everywhere and they will always happen as long as the movements are not democratic and their leaders embedded with a particular formulation dictate their fancies to the people. The condition of both the Dalits and Adivasis remain a matter of concern in all these states whether they come to power in the name of social justice or Marxism.
When those who claim to stick to the values of social justice and power to proletariat find it difficult to implement land reform and succumb to big industrial houses, hand over state forest, land and water to these big companies without asking the local people and their Panchayats, the impact would be wider and people are not going to sit silently. Governments over the years, have flouted norms developed by them including famous Samatha Judgment where the Supreme Court fixed up guidelines to take permission from the local tribal Panchayats. Yet, the political class continues on selling spree without any shame.
India's power politics goes via land and participation in power. Land is the most important tool in bringing radical changes in our social structure based on hierarchical values. Historically Dalits have been denied right to own property and access to land. Adivasis had their land in the forest yet isolated and illegally grabbed by local feudal castes. Now the companies have their eyes on it. The political class is using the majoritarian parliamentary system for the benefit of its use, making leaders as messiah who distributes hard cash and liquor during the polls. The depressing scenario is that most of them have billions of rupees to use foul practices to get elected. The democratic system has failed resulting in utter chaos. If those in power use 'sama, dama, dand, bhed, to destroy people's movement, there will be further chaos as people are not going to leave their places and it will be a leaderless condition everywhere, very difficult to contain. Hopefully, those who believe in social justice and power to the people, would do the needful, at least justifying their ideology when they are in power. Both Bihar and Kerala need to act immediately, implement land ceiling laws fairly. There will be opposition to it by powerful communities, political interest groups but then international and national laws can not be circumvented to make a few communities and their political leaders happy at the cost of social justice and human rights.
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Vidya Bhushan Rawat
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Forgotten Hero: Dasharath Majhi
A legends family languishes in Hunger
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Almost three years after the death of legendary Dashrath Majhi, a visit to the landmark created by the 'Pahad purush' i.e. mountain man in Dashrath Nagar, Gehlaur (Gaya) in Bihar makes one wonder how the government's forgets their promises? The man who hailed from Mushahar community is today revered as Pahad baba. Those who have seen the primitive conditions of Mushahars and their persistent marginalization, they would certainly vouch that the recognition and acknowledgement of the work done by one among them, will go to rejuvenate the community and bring it to the life back. One does not know these facts but Dashrath Majhi's work might make a fascinating story for young minds and the importance of commitment for a cause.
On August 17th, 2007, when Dashrath Majhi, 70, died of a prolonged illness and the Nitish Kumar government of the time took care of his treatments in AIIMS, Delhi, it looked that they would honor the words given to Dashrath Majhi and his villagers. Not only this, Baba, as Dashrath Majhi, is reverently addressed in the entire area, was asked what should be done for him. 'Yes, we will provide 5 acres of land to your family', the chief minister had promised. Baba that time said he did not anything for him but 'build' a hospital for the village. After the death of Baba, the government named the road that Baba cut through the huge mountain as Dashrath Majhi Road and the village as Dasharath Nagar. A temple is being constructed in the name of Baba which is called as Ghat.
Born in a deeply poverty entrenched family of Mangaru Majhi and Pattiya Devi in the Gahlor Ghati which was surrounded by the mountains and no connectivity of roads to the nearest town, Baba saw the difficulties of people living in Gehlor Ghati. His wife would go along with others to get water mounting the difficult terrain. He saw tremendous pain of inability for those who needed medical aid and old folks who found it difficult to climb the hill to reach the other side. The other way to reach the nearest town was by road which was about 75 kilometer. It was nearly impossible. Baba decided himself that they need some one way to reduce this and it was only possible if he would cut through the mountain and will make way for every one. While the governance was absent in the village and there was no way for the community to speak to political class to provide them roads and infrastructure. And one can understand what would have been the situation in 1960 when there were not much money and political power was still in the hands of dominant communities. So Dasharath must have felt that the only way to overcome this hurdle was to take some initiative and do the work. Hence then one fine day in 1960 he started his work. The pains and agony of people strengthened his determination particularly as his wife too had to face tremendous problems during these days. With shovel in hand, he started digging the mountains. Actually, Mushahars of the region depended a lot on stone cutting as it is their main source of livelihood. But Baba was not much doing it for commercial gains as he was keen on reducing the difficulties of his fellow villagers. It was a herculean task. The family never liked, the villagers called him mad. 'How will this man cut such a rocky mountain? Has he gone mad? Does he has no other work to do? What is he doing", were the scornful questions thrown at Baba. But Dasharath Majhi was determined and just did not care for these remarks. It is not that he was cutting the mountain from morning till evening. Actually, for him it was an additional work, as he had to support his family and it would have been impossible if he was not working on land or cutting stone for his survival. Whenever, he was without work or holidays, he would start cutting the stones himself. No body came to support him. He did not have the tools to cut big rocky stones; neither had he had money, the only thing that was with him, 'courage and determination, against all the odds which exist in our communities. It was a complete madness towards his work and to relieve people from hardship.
Slowly some of the people realized that he was really into it, so they would help him with voluntary work for time to time. It is rather strange that the government and its authorities were completely unmindful of his work. It shows why a major part of India is still out of governance and people have to depend on their own self for their development. Such a major work was done by a man and his community and yet it remained unseen, unheard, unreported and unchecked. Yet, Baba completed his task by 1982 by cutting about 300 meter long and 25 ft wide mountain and therefore converting the distance of 75 kilometer to just 1 kilometer and it became easier particularly those on cycles and motor bikes to take their elderly people to the nearest town for medical aid. Today, you see streams of people using the way. Women going to forest, getting grass for their pets while motor bikers, cyclists and other villagers are using this path. And this has reduced their burden and pains. Today, Baba has slipped into folklore as a folk hero as people are constructing a temple for him. A local organization has painted the rock on the way saying that legendary Dashrath Majhi completed this herculean task of linking Ghivra mauja of Dashrath Nagar, in Gehlaur Ghati to Atara Prakhand, Wajirganj by reducing the distance from 75 kilometer to just one kilometer, in 22 years.
But after three years of death, none of the promises made by the Bihar government have been fulfilled. Baba's lonely son Bhagirath is a physically challenged man. His daughter in law, Basanti Devi suffers from physical disability. Baba's daughter Lavangi Devi too lives in the house along with others as they have a small semi constructed house. Daughter in law Basanti Devi cook mid day meal in the nearby primary school while her husband Bhagirath get Rs 200/- pension every month but not because of any love for Baba but for 'disability' reasons. The total land they got was about 1.5 acre which they got along with other villagers long back.
While the family now knows that their Baba was not just a useless mad man but did something for the society yet Basanti Devi was not amused, 'He did nothing for us. What have we got from his work? Our children are starving and no way to educate them. The government promised us 5 acre land but it never came'. One can understand the frustration of the family members as for them the issue of the survival of their children is more important. Though they know that Baba did wonder yet they feel that the government has not really honored its words. Somewhere they feel that Baba would have asked more from the government so that they could have lived a better life.
Their Indira Awas is still incomplete. The huts are not enough to keep the family better. In one side, the family keeps the photographs of Dasharath. His son and daughter and their children live together though cook separately. Yet, they are hoping against hope as people come and seek their interview.
The situation is pathetic and though the area is open and wide yet a community can not live on 'fresh air'. It needs work. The road network is now being developed in the area. But one wonder how long will it take. Not many efforts by the government to change the life of the people. No medical assistance, no proper school for the children.Baba's grand daughter Lakhsmi who is nearly 15 ( I could say less than that) is a married girl. She could not get admission to Kasturba Balika Vidyalaya. She does not know why but most of the children complained about that. She can just read and write and perhaps completed her Vth standard.
The children are hungry and asking for more. The mother beat them for lack of food and virtually annoying. The house is incomplete and in a mess. Tears rolls down from Basanti Devi as she starts talking about Baba and narrate their own plight.' People come here, ask about Baba, his work and passion, but we remain the same'. We have nothing to eat. I do not know what to tell people about Baba but if they want to see how government honors people, they can see our conditions.' Actually, after Nitish Kumar government honored Baba, a lot of media hype was created added with Maha Dalit slogan of Bihar government. Nitish had actually called Dashrath Majhi to Patna and asked him to sit in front of him said his son Bhagirath. They were elated at this respect shown by the most powerful man of Bihar but then little did they know that politicians will do everything to gain political gains. Mushahars may not matter as voters for them but honoring Dashrath Majhi gave tremendous good will of the Dalit communities in Bihar.
The village of Dashrath Majhi need a facelift. It need not only electricity and proper road network which is coming up but also development of the community. Often, social activists working among Mushahars, blame them for their laziness and social attitude, but a man called Dashrath Majhi has given example how legends can come from any community. It is time that Bihar government honor its promises made to Dashrath Majhi, take care of the entire Mushahar community, provide them alternative livelihood and make life of Dashrath Majhi as part of the school text books. If the government of Bihar is really sincere towards its promises, it should initiate special schemes for Mushahars in the name of Dashrath Majhi and create more schools with special reference for the poor children, apart from a full fledged government hospital. That would be the best tribute to the man who moved mountain for the benefit of fellow human being and epitomize the tremendous will of human spirit.
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Vidya Bhushan Rawat
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Crisis of ideology or war for fear from freedom
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
'You mother f….r, how dare you write about implementing ceiling laws in the Tarai region of Uttarakhand. We will take enough care if you dare to come here', came a response to my article on my blog written after the completion of the padyatra related to land issues in Uttarakhand.
Such responses are not new to me as they keep coming. ' I have not read an idiotic article like this', was a response to my review article on Telengana in mynews.in yesterday. Another one wrote, ' how much money are you getting in to divide Hindu society'.. you are fortunate enough that you are not born in China and Pakistan, he wrote, otherwise you would have seen what could have done to you..
Just a few years back during the anti Mandal agitation initiated by the caste Hindus in the AIIMS, Delhi, I got a number of hate mail at the CNN-IBN blogs as perhaps I was among very few to question their 'meritocracy'. 'You beggar quotawallah, go beg at Connaught place first, then seek a reserve job', wrote some one. Times of India mentioned it as 'apartheid' against 'poor' upper caste. It is a discrimination against the upper caste, it intended to say.
Is there a problem in our thinking process ? Are we not ready to accept diversent view point ? And whose divergent view point as at the end of the day, there are ideologies and perceptions which force us to act violently against those we disagree. Hence, a Taslima is unwelcome as she is threat to Islam, M.F. Hussein, at the age of 90, has become a 'threat' to our omnipotent-omnipresent gods. Children are killed when they dare to marry against their parental desires. Dalits are killed if their raise their head and claim to be equal national of the country.
Therefore it is important to understand as what is the attitudinal or ideological problem with Indians? Are they afraid of ideologies? Do they take shelter in fake ideological constructs and live in their own world. The biggest problem with them is that they live in double standard. They speak two languages, one for their children and different for outsider. So a majority of the high profile 'ideologues' could not sale Marxism and Maoism to their children, then why they are selling the same to the tribal, I debated. 'Oh no, our children are separate. We can not decide about them. They have their freedom, why do you want them to be controlled', they say. 'But then why you want to control others'. 'You give everything to your children's growth', look for Its, finding space for them in US and UK, why, I said. 'Oh, that is not to be debated. How can we do that? Mulayam Singh, the great disciple of Lohia wanted English to be boycotted so he sent his son Akhilesh to Doon school and then to Australia. Late Charan Singh condemned computer education and modern sciences as threat to agriculture, hence Ajit Singh went to United States to study computer sciences when computer was unheard thing in India. Clear enough, in this double standard, we sale Marxism, socialism, Hinduism, Christianity and Maoism to tribal and capitalism to our children. You see most of the Hindutva ideologues actually came from the best college of Delhi called St Stephens College.
Who were two biggest dissenters in Indian social system. The first was Buddha and thousands of years later it was Ambedkar. And since accepting dissent is not a part of any of these traditions which claims to revolutionary or uniting Hindus or political ideology of the day, we find attack against them in each and every form. Buddha Viharas were attacked and Buddhists were annihilated. Ambedkar was scorned at for 'dividing' Hindus and termed as a very 'ordinary' scholar.
' No, neither Buddha, nor Ambedkar can help the Dalits, only Marx can help them, wrote Rang Nayakamma, an old upper caste romantic of communism in Andhra Pradesh in her book 'For the solution of caste question'. How many of these revolutionaries staged a battle against social evils in India. If that is not important for them, then why they expect the Dalits to join them. Rang Nayakamma wrote passionately like Arun Shourie, against Ambedkar.
She blamed Ambedkar as why it took him so long for converting to Buddhism. Why Ambedkar attacks Marx and glorify Buddha. In the entire book, Rangnaykamma's brahmanical past is visible even when she can claim to be a Marxist and that has been the problem with most of the upper caste Marxists who remain arrogant to their brahmanical roots. For them, a shudra does not have the intellect. Even when the Hindutva's saffron brigade is busy in social engineering, the brahmanical Marxist have not been able to provide Dalits a space in their scheme of things. Writes Nayakamma in her chapter ' Caste Question : Ambedkar has changed religion ( page 407), ' The moment he start writing, there began a baseless confidence in Ambedkar that is a great intellectual. There emerged a kind of false logic namely, 'whatever, I wrote is logic'. This is the true story of brahmanical Marxists whose problem with Ambedkar is that he gave Dalits an understanding to assert themselves. Who knows Nayakammas and all those who have great appreciation for her 'radical' views can understand that her writings are pure brahmanical frustration because of growing Dalit assertion. That assertion is not really visible among the tribal and that is the reason the brahmanical revolutionaries are leading them. She goes on to condemn those who admire ambedkar saying that ' Biographers of Ambedkar glorified every aspect of his research, however inconsistent and haphazard it may have been. There is not a single instance where they raised the question namely, ; what is this argument'? what kind of research is this?
She further writes in Vartha, a Telugu daily (quoted in her book): Since Ambedkar was favorable to the exploitation of labour, all his Dalit disciples too took the same path and 'turned their faces away' from Marxism. It is such a stupid path that makes them incapable of knowing whether they are doing good or harm to themselves'.( page 421)
Many of us know how veteran Sharad Patil has been writing for long the theory of Buddha, Phule, Ambedkar Marx philosophy as a remedy to current situation in India. How do you do it with the current short of Marxists in India who do not want to share, who remain 'consistent' in their condemnation of Ambedkar. Why Arun Shourie and Rangnayakmma hate Ambedkar. Is it because, Ambedkar's Dalits have charted their path on their own and not through the farcical brahmanical revolution? And yes, it does not mean condemning Marx but they will simply not make a God of Marx like the Marxists have done. Ofcourse, Ambedkarite Dalits can not accept Gandhism and its so-called virtues as way to their salvation. Actually right from left, right, centre, Hindutva or missionary variety, in their action they did not have time to speak up against the exploitation of labour in the villages and caste dimension of it. Instead, Hindutva ideologue people like Shourie calls him a British supporter while so called Marxist like Rangnakamma blame him for supporting the exploiter. Can there be any truth in such vicious campaign and propaganda? Yes Ambedkar condemned three classes which he says British, Brahmin and Bania and the real meanings of these should be understood. By British he meant imperialist forces, Brahmin symbolizing brahmanical Hinduism and Bania, he meant capitalism. How can any one suggest that Ambedkar did not speak against capitalism. Those who have read him know that he wanted to nationalized land. Now was that a capitalist agenda? He formed Indian Labour party, Depressed Classes, Republic party of India.. where did he put caste identity in focus in these. Did he deny any class or caste entry in his movement ?
Marx has been a great revolutionary and his vision still stand for an equitable society. But why Marxist hate Buddha and then Ambedkar is beyond understanding. If Buddha waged relentless war against superstition and caste system, why should not Indian follow him? After all, Buddha was born much before Marx. How did the caste Hindus kill both Buddha and Marx together in their pursuit for power? One has to understand the tribal question deeply as why the tribal leadership is unable to emerge and in the name of tribal liberation it is the brahmanical forces which are dominant in the region. 'They can not fight their own battle, said a friend, so these revolutionaries are there. Why can not tribal fight their own battle when they had a Birsa Munda who revolted against the British.
The other day, an ideologue from Andhra said on Times Now,' the Maoists are like Bhagat Singh, fighting against state repression'. It is tragic to do such a comparison that easily. Bhagat singh had never justified violence and in fact wrote about the issue of untouchability as the biggest challenge to our society. Secondly, Bhagat Singh never lived in double standard. At the age of 23, he went to gallows and scolded his parents who wanted to get pardon from the British. Who had the courage to openly claim himself as an atheist and demolish all the religious symbolism from his body? In fact, that is the problem with our modern day Gandhian historians that they never considered anybody else for contributing to our freedom struggle, other than Gandhi and his followers. Bhagat Singh was just branded as gun trotting revolutionary and not an ideologue who defended freedom and secular values. They do not feel that Bhagat Singh while fighting against British imperialism concentrated on our own weaknesses of caste system, untouchability and communalism.
The other day, some human rights activists claimed that state is killings hundreds of people and we must speak against them. But who stops human rights activists to not to speak against those who are killing the innocent. 'No, in the war these things are justified, they say. Fine, in the war, the state will also use its might and that too is justified despite human rights activists like us asking the police and military to follow norms, but practically where have these norms followed in war? Redcross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, all know it well that human rights are violated heavily in arms conflict. Their pressure makes a lot of things during no war period but during war, only the gun speaks.
Problem is that brahminism in India has various roots to survive. It is monster and has different forms. Some where it survives through pure Manuwaad, we all know, the gangs of Hindutva and their cousins elsewhere. It comes through socialism, it come through communism, it come through all shorts of ism including the Dalits themselves. How is that every perception in India failed because of this. Reason is that India needed social revolution and we opted for political one. I do not say that only caste matter (Ofcourse it is the most important aspect) and class too matters. Why can not our friend take both as Ambedkar visualized in his famous work ' thought on Pakistan' when he said that 'Hindu Rastra would be a calamity'.
Problem is that in the human rights discourse, we are conveniently using ideological slants for our purposes. Hence those who are not with left leanings become a right wing. If you are not with RSS then you are seculars, communists and what not. I am proud to be a secular whether they want to use it in negative term or something else. The problem is that none of them appreciate freedom. Some keep conspicuous silence when Taslima speaks, while others want to raise the issue of MF Hussein and his paintings. The issue of Satanic verses would be raised by one set of freedom fighters while others would demand a ban on riddles of Hinduism written by Ambedkar. So, whenever the opportunity comes closed mind will not allow this freedom. That is why, Ambedkar is a problem for all the closed mind. Ambedkar was essentially a modern man, a liberal democrat who could not close his eyes to global changes. He was a free thinker who challenged the supremacy of the religious text books. He knew that Indian society has no respect for individual and he believed in it and perhaps these are things which were not liked by those people who lionize a particular ideology, do not believe in individual freedom and have nothing to offer to demolish the age old prejudices and our very indigenous capitalist order entirely based on your identities.
This article is not against a particular short of ideology. It is basically on issues that in the name of ideologies, we are justifying everything, human pain and agony. How can it be in a modern democracy where each life should be considered precious? For those in authorities, it is prudent that the ideology need a counter ideology. If development fail to reach to the people, if social justice is not there in our villages, if India still remain caged to feudal mindset, if our village resources, our rivers, our mountains are on sale on throw away prices then Mr Chidambaram and his team will have to do a lot of soul searching.
Step out side Raipur and you will see the big companies lining up in Chhatishgarh. Jindal tops the list with thousands of hectares of land being granted to them for mining. Hundreds others are there to 'develop' Chhatishgarh. Tribals remain sandwiched between the two. They have lost their land. Chhatishgarh is being colonized now by the non Chhatishgarhis, big companies and Babas and sadhus. And where are the poor? Mr Chidambaram would do well to take a round in the city of Raipur's famous Rajkumar college in the morning hours and watch the irony of large cue of people waiting to defecate in open even when there is a Sulabh Shauchalaya. It means that people can buy rice at one rupee kilogram but no money to defecate as the charges in the public toilet are higher then the price of rice in the state.
Where ever the political set up failed non democratic forces took up. The tribal who have been exploited for years gets new hope in those who give them 'instant' justice. There is a Vth schedule of constitution where you need permission of the village panchayat for starting any new private ventures? But how many times have the government cared to speak to them. So, the result is growing disenchantment among them. They have lost their habitat and without addressing the basic issue of land, forest and water, the government would not be able to tackle whole issue. Those who have isolated the tribal population must be made answerable to them. In the meanwhile, each one of the revolutionaries from Hindutva's saffron gangs to Christian Missionaries to Naxals, will sandwich tribal except from the tribal themselves. Each one of them consider themselves as 'protecting' tribal from 'outside' influence but at the end of day none of them actually belong to tribal themselves. It is time when we address the issues of the people's exploitation without being indulged in the 'greatness' of ideologies. Greatness of ideologies lies in the emancipation of human being and not on controlling their minds. Let us defend the human rights of all but let not human rights become instrument for those who spread hatred and violence.
On the other side which is equally darker, let not the 'threat' of terrorism become an instruments to violate human rights of the people. Let not every padyatra, slogan, publication which question the motives of the government become a target of security agencies in the name of 'fight against terror'. It is a very delicate battle and the responsibility on the state is higher as on the human rights activists too. The more you oppress the common man, the bigger will be the fascination for 'revolution'.
It is time we speak against oppression and for human rights. Let us condemn violence in unequivocal term. It is time we rise up against social injustice. The seeds of social democracy should reach each part of the civilization. Let ideologies not become bigger than the human liberty. Let human right discourse does not become good or bad because of a personal perception based on basic political principals and conditioning of our mind, after all, the movement for social justice, the principals of human rights too came from hard core struggles of the masses. It is time we accept criticism with open heart. Speak against the perception and not on individual. Those who believe that only ideology can counter ideology must come up with ideological arguments to spread their ideology. With a gun in hand to promote their 'democratic' ideas would not work and will definitely not do justice to millions of those whose name this entire battle is being fought.
--
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
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Obama to skip Tibet while talking about human rights in Asia
US President Barack Obama [ Images ] would skip the mention of Tibet [ Images ] when he talks about human rights situation in Asia and the countries he is visiting on his maiden Asia trip, a US official has said. "He (Obama) will not mention Tibet (in his speech). He will, of course, mention our commitment to the rights and freedoms that we believe all people should have, and I'll leave it at that," Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Advisor for Strategic Communications told reporters in Tokyo, where Obama is travelling right now.
Obama is scheduled to deliver a major policy speech on Asia when he addresses some 1500 people in Tokyo on Saturday. Myanmar would also figure prominently in his speech,Rhodes said. Traditionally Myanmar and Tibet have been the two major human rights issue for the US in the past several years. After Obama did not meet the Dalai Lama [ Images ], during the latter's recent visit to Washington, the first US President not to do so in more than a decade, his administration has been accused of downplaying the Tibet issue before his visit to China.
The White House, meanwhile, has denied this. "I mean, all I would say is that we remain committed to the rights of Tibetan people to achieve their own human rights and their cultural identity. Our position on that is very clear and very strong,"Rhodes said."The President will look forward to the opportunity to meet with the Dalai Lama to discuss this and he has said he will raise this issue as well as -- and attempting to make progress on this with the Chinese and Tibetans," Rhodes said.
Meanwhile, the International Campaign for Tibet today called on Obama to use the opportunity of next week's summit in China to focus on Tibet's future and to dismiss attempts by Beijing [ Images ] to manipulate US policy. On November 6, the South China Morning Post had reported that the Chinese government is asking the Obama Administration to state that "Tibet is part of China's territory and the US opposes Tibetan independence." "President Obama's engagement with Chinese leaders
should be consistent with established US policy and his desire for forward movement in the Tibetan-Chinese dialogue," vice
president of International Advocacy at the International Campaign for Tibet, Mary Beth Markey said.
It is the policy of the US that "the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan autonomous counties and prefectures are part of the People's Republic of China." "The request from the Chinese government is not a matter of semantics but part of a concerted Chinese strategy to deflect international support for a resolution to the Tibet issue by seeking legitimacy for its claim to Tibet," said Markey. "President Obama should urge Chinese leaders to look to the future, as the Dalai Lama has done, and work purposefully toward a resolution that meets the aspirations of both the Tibetan and Chinese peoples," Markey said.
The International Campaign for Tibet said an Obama Administration statement, that Tibet is a part of China's territory, could be interpreted as recognition of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet prior to the 17 Point Agreement between the Tibetan and People's Republic of China governments (1951). A statement that the US opposes Tibetan independence could be interpreted as foreclosing any question of the past or future independence of Tibet in principle, it said.
http://news.rediff.com/interview/2009/nov/14/obama-to-skip-tibet-in-speech.htm
'First comprehensive study of America's role in Kashmir'
'Obama administration can play a helpful role'
'There should be a considerable degree of autonomy'
'It takes two to tango'
'Independence for Kashmir is unworkable'
'US can make suggestions, not take over negotiations'
No book on South Asia published in recent years has received the kudos veteran diplomat Howard B Schaffer's The Limits of Influence: America's Role in Kashmir, published by Brookings Institution Press, elicited.
Schaffer, currently deputy director and director of studies of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University's Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service, is a 36-year veteran of the US Foreign Service and has served as ambassador to Bangladesh (1984 to 1987), and as political counselor in India (1977 to 1979) and Pakistan (1974 to 1977).
In an interview with rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa, he explains why the Barack Obama administration should intervene in resolving the contentious Kashmir issue.
What's new about another book on Kashmir?
What's new is that it's the first comprehensive study of America's role in Kashmir, which has ever been written. Kashmir has, of course, figured in books about US relations with India and Pakistan, and quite significantly in conflict resolution literature. But nobody -- and this has really surprised me --no one has ever tried to write an interpretation of America's role in Kashmir from the beginning -- that is, from 1947 when it first came on to the international stage to today.
I've long been very much fascinated by the Kashmir issue. This dates back to my time as a fairly junior officer at the American embassy in New Delhi, when I was sent up to Kashmir by the ambassador to find out what was happening at a time of considerable crisis. After that, Kashmir became part of my beat and I followed it closely, both when I was in India and when I came back to the State Department and worked on South Asia policy issues here in Washington.
I spent three to four years on this book, though I wasn't working full time on it. I did a great deal of research involving both archival research -- looking up the written record -- as well as talking to quite a number of surviving American diplomats and others who played a role in developing and implementing US policy on Kashmir.
Image: The book cover of 'The Limits of Influence: America's Role in Kashmir'
Photographs: Danish Ismail/Reuters
http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/nov/13/slide-show-1-interview-with-diplomat-howard-b-schaffer.htm
Why 'Kashmir's Obama' failed his state
After months of pro-independence protests, state crackdowns and curfews, Kashmir went to polls to elect a new state government last November. The poll participation was higher than usual. People rejected the separatist calls for boycott in most places, arguing that they needed roads, healthcare and employment -- a choice that came from two decades of living and dying in a conflict whose resolution seems as distant now as it did years ago.
The Jammu and Kashmir [ Images ] National Conference, led by its young, 39-year old president Omar Abdullah [ Images ], formed the new government with support from the Congress party. He was charismatic and articulate -- a new breed of politician who promised change. A storm of media celebration followed. Celebrity news-anchors interviewed Omar's father, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah [ Images ], who feverishly argued the case for the father not staking his claim and allowing the son to be the chief minister instead. Some pushed the hysteria further by calling him 'Kashmir's Obama' [ Images ].
A television channel asked me how young Kashmiris were reacting to their new chief minister. We were all supposed to get excited by his youth. It is the policy choices he makes that will make a difference in Kashmir, not his age, I insisted at the time. The wave of euphoria swept away all such dampeners.
A few months after he became the chief minister, I met Omar along with a bunch of Kashmiri journalists in Delhi [ Images ]. He wore an elegant grey salwar kameez and a sleeveless jacket; he was sure of himself, talking about his ideas of generating hydro power in Kashmir by engaging private corporations one moment, joking about something inconsequential the next. It was apparent that he could lobby well with the United Progressive Allaince government for funds and developmental schemes, that he could speak the language of corporate India [ Images ] and maybe convince a business mogul to invest in the state. Yet a question nagged me: Could he deliver on human rights? Would he be able to empathise with the people who voted him to power?
A few weeks after that meeting, news came of the rape and murder of two young women in the south Kashmir town of Shopian, allegedly by the security forces. It wasn't the first. Shock and anger spread throughout Kashmir -- on the streets, in cyberspace. Protesters created a Facebook page for Asiya Jan, the younger victim. Somebody had scanned her school identity card. She was 17 years old, a tender-faced girl. I fought back tears looking at her picture, miles away from Kashmir, on a reporting assignment in another country.
Back home, Omar Abdullah flew to Srinagar [ Images ] from Delhi. Briefed by his trusted police officers, he announced at a press conference that he did not believe the women were raped and murdered, but had in fact drowned in a stream. He ordered an inquiry by a retired J&K High Court judge, Justice Muzaffar Jan. Hundreds and thousands of Kashmiris came out on the streets, seeking justice for the murdered women. The anger against the failure of the state was articulated in that old slogan of independence from India: Aazadi The police responded with more curfews and crackdowns. Kashmir simmered with rage. Omar had failed his first big test. In a single incident, he had lost the trust and respect of many Kashmiris. But wasn't this the man who was going to bring in change? What had gone wrong?
Almost two months after the crime, the Justice Jan Commission gave its report. The judge blamed the police for destroying the evidence but shied of accusing anyone of the crime.
The J&K High Court ordered the arrest of several police officers posted in Shopian. Omar had finally woken up by this time and retracted his earlier statement. He ordered a shake-up of the police force, transferring most of his senior officers. However, a trial is still a long way off.
I have been thinking about the young, articulate and charming Omar Abdullah. Why did he act the way he did? Why was his trust in a much-maligned police force so complete? Why was he absolutely lacking in empathy for the victims? Why could he not feel anything, when almost every Kashmiri had tears in their eyes? Why did Mr Hope fail?
Shopian is barely a two-hour drive from Srinagar. Yet Abdullah didn't care to pay a visit to the family. Was it too dangerous for the most heavily-guarded individual in Kashmir to make that journey? Did it not occur to him that a half-an-hour visit to the house of a devastated family, a few words of comfort might be worth the effort? I had no answers for a long time. Then it struck me: Omar Abdullah has never lived in the Kashmir that ordinary Kashmiris live in. His apathy is a product of his class, though this is not true of all children of privilege. The Kashmir he lived and lives in is a secured, isolated castle. In his Kashmir, you don't stop at a check post; you don't raise your hands and show your identity card; you don't squat in an empty ground in a crackdown with the rest of your town; you don't feel the anger and fear when your classmates go missing and never return.
Asiya Jan lived in the Kashmir, where the head is not held high and the mind is full of fear. I have lived in that Kashmir. Millions of others have. Omar Abdullah has not. That is why he failed Kashmir. There is only one man, whose example Abdullah junior needs to consider and learn from: A poor shawl-weaver's son from Soura, Srinagar, who worked hard to get a Masters in chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University in the late 1920s, when few Kashmiris had access to modern education; a man who found his road to employment blocked by the prejudices of an oppressive monarchy; a man who stood up for the people of Kashmir and led their first modern battle for political rights, justice, and freedom from oppression; a man who became the first prime minister of Kashmir and risked much to create a new Kashmir by abolishing the inhuman feudal system and gave the poor peasants of Kashmir the right to own the land they cultivated with their blood and sweat; a man called Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
The author has won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2008, in the English Non-Fiction category for his book Curfewed Nights
Global recovery: Destination India?
Tiwari, amazingly, agreed and trotted up to the stage the next day to deliver the inaugural address. (He went on to become finance minister later and memorably saluted his "beloved sisters", the women of India, by slashing excise on bindi and kumkum.)
But today when the gathering, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ], recalled the first India Economic Summit, which was addressed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi [ Images ] 25 years ago, the feeling at IES was one of nostalgia, even of wonder: what a long way we've come.
Several participants noted that a prime minister was addressing the summit after a gap of three years. They also recalled that there were times when government officials were markedly reluctant even to participate, even after the much touted liberalisation years of the 1990s and officers of the rank of joint secretaries needed to be cajoled and petitioned to attend.
Today, the participation of anyone less than a secretary to the government of India is not permitted. The industries ministry is supporting the event.
Participants felt that Manmohan Singh had said what everyone desperately needed to hear about India: that financial sector reform were at least back on the agenda now, even if it was not going to be easy to push them through. "The previous United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] government had lowered the base so much (for reform) that we're happy at least the PM is talking about them" said one participant.
Others felt that with slowdown blues fading slowly, the world was looking to India for economic leadership, and felt India should embrace this role more readily - that this was the time to be bold, not tentative.
As part of this endeavour, many felt the Indian prime minister needed to attend the Davos meetings to address the global economic community. Not since the visit of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda [ Images ], has any Indian prime minister gone to Davos: not the least because Deve Gowda noted on file (and the file noting still exists in the Prime Minister's Office) that the Switzerland [ Images ] visit was a huge waste of time because "it is so cold there that no business can really be transacted".
The India Economic Summit has had its share of hits and misses. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee [ Images ] was Prime Minister, the inaugural meeting was held at the gracious Teen Murti House lawns. With seconds for the PM to arrive, the lights suddenly went out.
That was the longest 30 seconds in the life of the organisers. A stream of unparliamentary invective at the Indian government followed: the Central Public Works Department engineer had decided to test the power system at the very moment the PM stepped into Teen Murti House. That was also the last time Vajpayee attended the summit - because of a question asked by a member of the grouping then known as the Bombay Club.
This year, the India Economic Summit has more foreign companies attending than Indian ones. This is hailed for the interest foreign business is taking in India - but a simpler explanation is the cost of attending.
The overwhelming emotion at the meeting today was reassurance and hope. The drumbeats in the faint strains of Ravel's Bolero playing in the background in the lobby seemed to suggest a sense of purpose and recovering morale. 25 years on, all is not lost for the world. There's still India.
Aditi PhadnisThe cost of living in India
An average Indian is a hassled soul. He has no clue what will hit him hard next-unexpected price rise, heavy rains, power cuts, bus or train strike. Mental peace, stability and a bit of happiness is what he has longed for in his life and has been denied the same, discusses SS Kumar.
A few years back, when my nephew flew in from Toronto for a brief holiday with us in India [ Images ], the first question he asked me while we were at a mall was, "Why is there no smile on the face of any of the Indians that we see here or on the streets? Why does everyone look so gloomy?"
That set me thinking as to why the life for an average Indian is a real struggle right from morning till evening or even mid night as compared to his counterparts in the west.
My curiosity threw up several reasons as to why an average Indian feels sad, angry and insecure, all through his life.
Power supply problems:
He gets up early in the morning to check out his international messages on his laptop. Just as the laptop is warming up to say 'you are now connected', the power supply snaps, leaving him bewildered. Is there any prior announcement about this power snap? No. Is there any intimation, whether it will resume in the next 1, 2 or 4 hours. No.
In no other country is a citizen taken so much for granted. What a shame, 63 years after independence, and we still continue to suffer from a power deficit, with no solution in sight. What were our holy planners, architects of the grandiose multiple 5 year plans, doing all this while? One wonders as to why they drew their salaries at all, for all these years, if most of the cities are today suffering from 8 hour long daily power cuts.
Who cares about the small scale industrialist who took a hefty bank loan to get his industry started and is now faced with these power snaps each day?
Thanks to the inadequacy of the government planning, a multi-crore UPS industry has sprouted up in India, whose turnover is a direct reflection of governmental inefficiency and this incompetence is forcibly subsidised for, by the hapless Indian consumer, faced with zero options.
Unhealthy democracy:
Next, he turns to the newspaper that hits his courtyard around 6 am. If the newspaper reports some thing of a cricket victory by Team India, he feels motivated and upbeat. More often than not, the front page is a chronology of multiple rapes, robberies and murders or betrayal of one minister and his group by another group that was friendly until day before yesterday, or a former chief minister caught having illegally pocketed hundreds of crores of public money, or some other public scam.
He seriously wonders as to why the personal value systems that he follows and forces his wife and children to follow are just not followed by any of the better known figures in politics. Why is loot and cheating more often the norm rather than the exception?
He is also acutely dismayed by the fact that rich people are able to bend the legal rules and get themselves customized judgments. A fellow put in prison on murder charges is able to walk out on parole, enjoy at a night club and then, because of media exposure, quietly slips back to his cell. The common man asks why should there be one set of rules for me and another for the rich and famous, with the CM of the state, bending over backwards to defend an indefensible slip?
Again, the maturity shown by some of our netas (ministers) in making crude statements attacking fellow MPs or MLAs betray the fact that they missed elementary school level education while growing up. And their pettiness of outlook as echoed through their press statements keeps confounding the average reader, day after day, as to why he could not have elected somebody, a trifle more mature.
While a former ineffective prime minister almost proved that India can run by itself without the need for a PM's office, the present MPs and MLAs, with their childish hawkishness, are slowly proving that the country can run without a parliament or local legislative assembly; perhaps, better than at present.
Likewise, a cabinet minister responsible for showing vision and leadership for an important ministry at Delhi [ Images ] is more happy throwing mud at her political foe in Kolkata [ Images ]. If the newspapers report a rail accident once every two days, it is not her worry, but the country's bad luck. Planet Saturn was in the wrong position in India's horoscope!!
Does the word 'accountability' ever echo in the corridors of power at Delhi? What one finds is that in the name of democracy, we have abused all our rights profusely.
While more and more pilots are being sent home, the ones that remain in their jobs are getting more greedy about fleecing the top management for more perks rather than cooperate with them to tide over the present difficult conditions. Why has the word 'logic or reason' disappeared from personal dictionaries? Does this action stem from a basic feeling of insecurity?
Trek to the office and back:
Once the average Indian starts driving to towards office, he is confronted by the same usual traffic mess with the policemen on duty having no clue whatsoever on how to take control. It has been like this for the past 5 years or so, and is getting worse, day by day.
He is the most insecure of his species because he is driving in an arena where no body else other than him, follows the traffic rules. He has the auto rickshaws trying to overtake from the right and left simultaneously, like a bunch of gladiators, making his heart miss a beat. Plus he has these motorcyclists appearing out of nowhere like cockroaches, trying to overtake him by almost hitting and breaking his projecting rear view mirror on the right.
Since there is no police control, every one tries to move forward in a hurry, let the rules be damned. And the generous 'me-first' attitude of everyone results in no vehicle being able to move forward. Added to this agony is the bus driver who thinks it is his fundamental right to park his bus right in the center of the road, at bus stops.
The simple point in all of the above is the total absence of regulation. You ask for discipline from the drivers and you get it. The pity is that the police guys have not learnt the basics of demanding discipline from the erring drivers.
If this is not enough, half way through the drive, there is a loud siren announcing the arrival of a VIP and the entire traffic is brought to a halt. Can't this blessed VIP choose a time when the morning traffic has subsided? No, he is in a big hurry to inaugurate a brand new 20,000 rupee desktop by breaking a coconut!.
And until he breaks the coconut, even the ambulance carrying a near death patient to the hospital will have to wait. Doesn't the patient understand this is Indian style democracy where the MP is omnipotent, even if he is deficit in common sense? Even gods will have to wait in a queue, leave alone patients, who are in serious condition.
Office is a pleasant place so long as he has no dealings with the government:
At least within the precincts of his office, he is a happy soul interacting with his fellow colleagues and those overseas in near total sync. However, when it comes to seeking governmental approvals he is at a total loss to explain to his US counterparts, as to why a simple piece of governmental approval that takes just a day or two in the US should take more than 2 weeks here.
Why is there no minimum performance standards established in government offices, is the thought, that keeps gnawing him from inside.
Being a born optimist, I feel it is all within our reach to set right each of the above problems so long as we are open to new ideas and willing to walk that extra mile. For example, a post office is meant for the service of the people. For office goers to make use of the same, they can start functioning from 07:30 hrs in the morning till 11:30 hrs and later from 4 pm to 8 pm. If the bus driver obstructs the traffic, the roads can be redesigned so that the bus stop and the stopping bus are in a rectangular recess and the rest of the traffic is not blocked. Long term, do we need the traffic blocking autos at all on the roads with their slow speeds. If not, why don't we start planning to phase them out in the next 2 years?
Bottom line:
The average Indian is a hassled soul because no body has taken him seriously so far except perhaps at election time. He is hassled because he never knows what is going to hit him hard next -- unexpected price increases, heavy rains, power cuts, bus or trains on strike. Mental peace, stability and a bit of happiness is what he has longed for in his life and has been denied the same
He epitomizes the perennial underdog with unlimited patience and unshakeable faith in his favourite god, even if the god is able to do precious little, against the Indian bureaucracy!
http://business.rediff.com/column/2009/nov/13/cost-of-living-in-india.htm
Job losses, deep and enduring, especially for the young
NEW YORK: The rise in unemployment
The overall unemployment rate
The persistence of joblessness for so many people – 5.6 million Americans have been out of work for more than half a year even though they have continued to seek employment – may provide the greatest challenge for the Obama administration if it decides to seek a new economic stimulus programme.
The short-term unemployment rate – the proportion of the work force that has been jobless for less than 15 weeks – has begun to decline, however, and stood at 4.5 per cent in October after peaking at 4.9 per cent in May.
That decline is a signal that the recession, which officially began in December 2007, probably has ended. In past recessions since World War II, the National Bureau of Economic Research has always dated the end within two months of the peak in short-term joblessness.
Over the last three years – since October 2006 – the overall unemployment rate has risen by 5.8 percentage points. That is the largest such increase since the Great Depression, providing another indication of the rapidity and severity of the current downturn.
Before this cycle, the sharpest 36-month increase since World War II was a 4.9 percentage point rise in the period that ended November 1982.
A government household survey in October found 7.7 million fewer jobs than in December 2006, when the employment-to-population ratio reached its high for the current cycle. The declines during the two earlier cycles, from November 1973 to June 1975 and from December 1979 to March 1983, were 0.8 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively.
Women have held on to jobs better than men have during this downturn, reflecting a pattern that prevailed during the previous cycles.
One major difference is how older workers have fared. The number of jobs held by men over 55 is up 5.6 per cent since the cycle began, and the number of jobs held by women of that age has risen by 9.3 per cent.
There are fewer jobs for workers age 54-64 than when the cycle began, but that group has done much better than younger workers.
By contrast, younger workers were more likely to hold on to their jobs in the two previous downturns.
It is not clear why that pattern has changed. It is against federal law to discriminate against older workers, but that law was passed in 1967, before either of the previous downturns. It could be that the plunge in real estate and stock prices
The proportion of the work force out of work for more than 15 weeks reached 5.7 per cent in October, well above the 4.2 per cent figure reached in 1982. That had been the highest such figure since the government began calculating the number in 1948.
The proportion that has been out of work for at least 27 weeks – half a year – is now 3.6 per cent, also a record.
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Capitalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Part of the series on Capitalism | |
| Individualism | |
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (October 2009) |
Capitalism is an economic and social system in which capital, the non-labor factors of production (also known as the means of production), is privately controlled;[citation needed] labor, goods and capital are traded in markets; and profits distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries.
There is no consensus on capitalism nor how it should be used as an analytical category.[1] There are a variety of historical cases over which it is applied, varying in time, geography, politics and culture.[2] Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism. Scholars in the social sciences, including historians, economic sociologists, economists, anthropologists and philosophers have debated over how to define capitalism, however there is little controversy that private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit in a market, and prices and wages are elements of capitalism.[3]
Economists usually put emphasis on the market mechanism, degree of government control over markets (laissez faire), and property rights[4][5], while most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labor, and class.[6] There is a general agreement that capitalism encourages economic growth.[7] The extent to which different markets are "free", as well as the rules determining what may and may not be private property, is a matter of politics and policy and many states have what are termed "mixed economies."[6]
Capitalism as a system developed incrementally from the 16th century in Europe, although capitalist-like organizations existed in the ancient world, and early aspects of merchant capitalism flourished during the Late Middle Ages.[8][9][10] Capitalism became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism.[10] Capitalism gradually spread throughout Europe, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, it provided the main means of industrialization throughout much of the world.[2]
[edit] Etymology and early usage
| Other terms sometimes used for capitalism:
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 | Look up capitalism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Capital evolved from Capitale, a late Latin word based on proto-Indo-European kaput, meaning "head"—also the origin of chattel and cattle in the sense of movable property (only much later to refer only to livestock). Capitale emerged in the 12th to 13th centuries in the sense of funds, stock of merchandise, sum of money, or money carrying interest.[8][18][19] By 1283 it was used in the sense of the capital assets of a trading firm. It was frequently interchanged with a number of other words—wealth, money, funds, goods, principal, assets, property, patrimony.[8]
The term capitalist refers to an owner of capital rather than an economic system, but shows earlier recorded use than the term capitalism, dating back to the mid-seventeenth century. The Hollandische Mercurius uses it in 1633 and 1654 to refer to owners of capital.[8] Arthur Young was one of first to use capitalist in his work Travels in France (1792).[19][20] David Ricardo, in his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), referred to "the capitalist" many times.[21] Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet, used capitalist in his work Table Talk (1823).[22] Pierre-Joseph Proudhon used the term capitalist in his first work, What is Property? (1840) to refer to the owners of capital. Benjamin Disraeli used the term capitalist in his 1845 work Sybil.[19] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels used the term capitalist (Kapitalist) in The Communist Manifesto (1848) to refer to a private owner of capital.
The term capitalism appeared in 1753 in the Encyclopédia, with the narrow meaning of "The state of one who is rich".[8] However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the term capitalism was first used by novelist William Makepeace Thackeray in 1854, by which he meant having ownership of capital.[19] Also according to the OED, Carl Adolph Douai, a German-American socialist and abolitionist, used the term private capitalism in 1863.
The initial usage of the term capitalism in its modern sense has been attributed to Louis Blanc in 1850 and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1861.[23] Marx and Engels referred to the capitalistic system (kapitalistisches System)[24][25] and to the capitalist mode of production (kapitalistische Produktionsform) in Das Kapital (1867).[26] The use of the word "capitalism" in reference to an economic system appears twice in Volume I of Das Kapital, p. 124 (German edition), and in Theories of Surplus Value, tome II, p. 493 (German edition). Marx did not extensively use the term.
Marx's notion of the capitalist mode of production is characterised as a system of primarily private ownership of the means of production in a mainly market economy, with a legal framework on commerce and a physical infrastructure provided by the state.[27] Engels made more frequent use of the term capitalism; volumes II and III of Das Kapital, both edited by Engels after Marx's death, contain the word "capitalism" four and three times, respectively. The three combined volumes of Das Kapital (1867, 1885, 1894) contain the word capitalist more than 2,600 times.
An 1877 work entitled Better Times by Hugh Gabutt and an 1884 article in the Pall Mall Gazette also used the term capitalism.[19] A later use of the term capitalism to describe the production system was by the German economist Werner Sombart, in his 1902 book The Jews and Modern Capitalism (Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben). Sombart's close friend and colleague, Max Weber, also used capitalism in his 1904 book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus).
[edit] The Economic Elements of Capitalism
The economics of capitalism developed out of the interactions of the following five items:
1. Commodities: There are two types of commodities: capital goods and consumer goods. Capital goods are products not produced for immediate consumption (i.e. land, raw materials, tools machines and factories), but as the inputs of consumer goods (i.e. televisions, cars, computers, houses) to be sold to others.
2. Money: Money is primarily a standardized means of exchange which serves to reduce all goods and commodities to a standard value. It eliminates the cumbersome system of barter by separating the transactions involved in the exchange of products, thus greatly facilitating specialization and trade through encouraging the exchange of commodities.
3. Labour power: Labour includes all mental and physical human resources, including entrepreneurial capacity and management skills, which are needed to transform one type of commodity into another.
4. Means of production: Another term for capital goods – all manufactured aids to production such as tools, machinery, and buildings.
5. Production: The act of making goods or services through the combination of labour power and means of production.[28][29]
[edit] History
[edit] Greco-Roman capitalism
The origins of modern markets can be traced back to the Roman Empire [30], which re-emerged later in its Muslim form when early Syrian Muslims, known as Umayyad, triumphed.[31]
[edit] Islamic capitalism
The origins of capitalism and free markets can be traced back to the Islamic Golden Age and Muslim Agricultural Revolution,[32] where the first market economy and earliest forms of merchant capitalism took root between the 8th–12th centuries, which some refer to as "Islamic capitalism".[33] A vigorous monetary economy was created by Muslims on the basis of the expanding levels of circulation of a stable high-value currency (the dinar) and the integration of monetary areas that were previously independent. Innovative new business techniques and forms of business organisation were introduced by economists, merchants and traders during this time. Such innovations included the earliest trading companies, big businesses, contracts, bills of exchange, long-distance international trade, the first forms of partnership (mufawada) such as limited partnerships (mudaraba), and the earliest forms of credit, debt, profit, loss, capital (al-mal), capital accumulation (nama al-mal),[9] circulating capital, capital expenditure, revenue, cheques, promissory notes,[34] trusts (see Waqf), startup companies,[35] savings accounts, transactional accounts, pawning, loaning, exchange rates, bankers, money changers, ledgers, deposits, assignments, the double-entry bookkeeping system,[36] and lawsuits.[37] Organizational enterprises similar to corporations independent from the state also existed in the medieval Islamic world, while the agency institution was also introduced.[38][39] Many of these early capitalist concepts were adopted and further advanced in medieval Europe from the 13th century onwards.[9]
The systems of contract relied upon by merchants was very effective. Merchants would buy and sell on commission, with money loaned to them by wealthy investors, or a joint investment of several merchants, who were often Muslim, Christian and Jewish. Recently, a collection of documents was found in an Egyptian synagogue shedding a very detailed and human light on the life of medieval Middle Eastern merchants. Business partnerships would be made for many commercial ventures, and bonds of kinship enabled trade networks to form over huge distances. Networks developed during this time enabled a world in which money could be promised by a bank in Baghdad and cashed in Spain, creating the cheque system of today.[citation needed] Each time items passed through the cities along this extraordinary network, the city imposed a tax, resulting in high prices once reaching the final destination. These innovations made by Muslims and Jews laid the foundations for the modern economic system.
[edit] Mercantilism
The period between the 16th and 18th centuries is commonly described as mercantilism.[40] This period was associated with geographic discoveries by merchant overseas traders, especially from England and the Low Countries; the European colonization of the Americas; and the rapid growth in overseas trade. Mercantilism was a system of trade for profit, although commodities were still largely produced by non-capitalist production methods.[2] While some scholars see mercantilism as the earliest stage of modern capitalism, others argue that modern capitalism did not emerge until later. For example, Karl Polanyi, noted that "mercantilism, with all its tendency toward commercialization, never attacked the safeguards which protected [the] two basic elements of production - labor and land - from becoming the elements of commerce"; thus mercantilist attitudes towards economic regulation were closer to feudalist attitudes, "they disagreed only on the methods of regulation." Moreover Polanyi argued that the hallmark of capitalism is the establishment of generalized markets for what he referred to as the "fictitious commodities": land, labor, and money. Accordingly, "not until 1834 was a competitive labor market established in England, hence industrial capitalism as a social system cannot be said to have existed before that date."[41]
The earliest forms of mercantilism date back to the Roman Empire. When the Roman Empire expanded, the mercantilist economy expanded throughout Europe. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, most of the European economy became controlled by local feudal powers, and mercantilism collapsed there. However, mercantilism persisted in Arabia. Due to its proximity to neighboring countries, the Arabs established trade routes to Egypt, Persia, and Byzantium. As Islam spread in the 7th century, mercantilism spread rapidly to Spain, Portugal, Northern Africa, and Asia. Mercantilism finally revived in Europe in the 14th century, as mercantilism spread from Spain and Portugal.[42]
Among the major tenets of mercantilist theory was bullionism, a doctrine stressing the importance of accumulating precious metals. Mercantilists argued that a state should export more goods than it imported so that foreigners would have to pay the difference in precious metals. Mercantilists asserted that only raw materials that could not be extracted at home should be imported; and promoted government subsides, such as the granting of monopolies and protective tariffs, were necessary to encourage home production of manufactured goods. European merchants, backed by state controls, subsidies, and monopolies, made most of their profits from the buying and selling of goods. In the words of Francis Bacon, the purpose of mercantilism was "the opening and well-balancing of trade; the cherishing of manufacturers; the banishing of idleness; the repressing of waste and excess by sumptuary laws; the improvement and husbanding of the soil; the regulation of prices…"[43] Similar practices of economic regimentation had begun earlier in the medieval towns. However, under mercantilism, given the contemporaneous rise of the absolutism, the state superseded the local guilds as the regulator of the economy. During that time the guilds essentially functioned like cartels that monopolized the quantity of craftsmen to earn above-market wages.[44]
At the period from the 18th century, the commercial stage of capitalism originated from the start of the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company.[9][45] These companies were characterized by their colonial and expansionary powers given to them by nation-states.[9] During this era, merchants, who had traded under the previous stage of mercantilism, invested capital in the East India Companies and other colonies, seeking a return on investment. In his "History of Economic Analysis", Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter reduced mercantilist propositions to three main concerns: exchange controls, export monopolism and balance of trade.[46]
[edit] Industrialism
A new group of economic theorists, led by David Hume[47] and Adam Smith, in the mid 18th century, challenged fundamental mercantilist doctrines as the belief that the amount of the world's wealth remained constant and that a state could only increase its wealth at the expense of another state.
During the Industrial Revolution, the industrialist replaced the merchant as a dominant actor in the capitalist system and effected the decline of the traditional handicraft skills of artisans, guilds, and journeymen. Also during this period, the surplus generated by the rise of commercial agriculture encouraged increased mechanization of agriculture. Industrial capitalism marked the development of the factory system of manufacturing, characterized by a complex division of labor between and within work process and the routinization of work tasks; and finally established the global domination of the capitalist mode of production.[40]
Britain also abandoned its protectionist policy, as embraced by mercantilism. In the 19th century, Richard Cobden and John Bright, who based their beliefs on the Manchester School, initiated a movement to lower tariffs.[48] In the 1840s, Britain adopted a less protectionist policy, with the repeal of the Corn Laws and the Navigation Acts.[40] Britain reduced tariffs and quotas, in line with Adam Smith and David Ricardo's advocacy for free trade. Karl Polanyi argued that capitalism did not emerge until the progressive commodification of land, money, and labor culminating in the establishment of a generalized labor market in Britain in the 1830s. For Polanyi, "the extension of the market to the elements of industry - land, labor and money - was the inevitable consequence of the introduction of the factory system in a commercial society." [49] Other sources argued that mercantilism fell after the repeal of the Navigation Acts in 1849.[48][50][51].
[edit] Monopolism
In the late 19th century, the control and direction of large areas of industry came into the hands of trusts, financiers and holding companies. This period was dominated by an increasing number of oligopolistic firms earning supernormal profits.[52] Major characteristics of capitalism in this period included the establishment of large industrial cartels or monopolies; the ownership and management of industry by financiers divorced from the production process; and the development of a complex system of banking, an equity market, and corporate holdings of capital through stock ownership.[2] The petroleum, telecommunication, railroad, shipping, banking and financial industries are characterized by its monopolistic domination. Inside these corporations, a division of labor separates shareholders, owners, managers, and actual laborers.[53]
By the last quarter of the 19th century, the emergence of large industrial trusts had provoked legislation in the US to reduce the monopolistic tendencies of the period. Gradually, during this Progressive Era, the US government played a larger and larger role in passing antitrust laws and regulation of industrial standards for key industries of special public concern. By the end of the 19th century, economic depressions and boom and bust business cycles had become a recurring problem. In particular, the Long Depression of the 1870s and 1880s and the Great Depression of the 1930s affected almost the entire capitalist world, and generated discussion about capitalism's long-term survival prospects. During the 1930s, Marxist commentators often posited the possibility of capitalism's decline or demise, often in contrast to the ability of the Soviet Union to avoid suffering the effects of the global depression.[54]
[edit] Keynesianism and neoliberalism
In the period following the global depression of the 1930s, the state played an increasingly prominent role in the capitalistic system throughout much of the world.
After World War II, a broad array of new analytical tools in the social sciences were developed to explain the social and economic trends of the period, including the concepts of post-industrial society and the welfare state.[40] This era was greatly influenced by Keynesian economic stabilization policies. The postwar boom ended in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the situation was worsened by the rise of stagflation.[55] Exceptionally high inflation combined with slow output growth, rising unemployment, and eventually recession to cause a loss of credibility in the Keynesian welfare-statist mode of regulation. Under the influence of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Western states embraced policy prescriptions inspired by laissez-faire capitalism and classical liberalism. In particular, monetarism, a theoretical alternative to Keynesianism that is more compatible with laissez-faire, gained increasing prominence in the capitalist world, especially under the leadership of Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK in the 1980s. Finally, the general public's interest was shifted from the collectivist concerns of Keynes's managed capitalism to a focus on individual freedom and choice, called "remarketized capitalism." [56] In the eyes of many economic and political commentators, the collapse of the Soviet Union supposedly brought further evidence of the superiority of market capitalism over communism.
[edit] Globalization
Although international trade has been associated with the development of capitalism for over five hundred years, some thinkers argue that a number of trends associated with globalization have acted to increase the mobility of people and capital since the last quarter of the 20th century, combining to circumscribe the room to maneuver of states in choosing non-capitalist models of development. Today, these trends have bolstered the argument that capitalism should now be viewed as a truly world system.[40] However, other thinkers argue that globalization, even in its quantitative degree, is no greater now than during earlier periods of capitalist trade.[57]
[edit] How capitalism works
[edit] Individuals
Individuals engage in the economy as consumers, labourers, and investors. For example, as consumers, individuals influence production patterns through their purchase decisions, as producers will change production to produce what consumers want to buy. As labourers, individuals may decide which jobs to prepare for and in which markets to look for work. As investors they decide how much of their income to save and how to invest their savings. These savings, which become investments, provide much of the money that businesses need to grow.
[edit] Businesses
Business firms decide what to produce and where this production should occur. They also purchase the right inputs (materials, labour, and capital). Businesses try to influence consumer purchase decisions through marketing and advertisement as well as the creation of new and improved products. What drives the capitalist economy is the constant search for profits (revenues minus expenses). This need for profits, known as the profit motive, ensures that companies produce the goods and services that consumers desire and are able to buy. In order to be successful, firms must sell a certain quantity of their products at a price high enough to yield a profit. A business may consequently lose money if sales fall too low or costs are incurred that are too high. The profit motive also encourages firms to operate efficiently by using their resources in the most productive manner. By using less materials, labour or capital, a firm can cut its production costs which can lead to increased profits. Commerce plays an important role in determining the growth rate of the capitalist economy. An economy grows when the total value of goods and services produced rises. This growth requires investment in infrastructure, capital and other resources necessary in production. In a capitalist nation, businesses decide when and how much they want to invest for these purposes.
[edit] The market
The market is a term used by economists to describe a central exchange through which people are able to buy and sell goods and services. In a capitalist economy, the prices of goods and services are controlled mainly through supply and demand and competition. Supply is the amount of a good or service produced by a firm and available for sale. Demand is the amount that people are willing to buy at a specific price. Prices tend to rise when demand exceeds supply and fall when supply exceeds demand, so that the market is able to coordinate itself through pricing until a new equilibrium price and quantity is reached. Competition arises when many producers are trying to sell the same or similar kinds of products to the same buyers. Competition is important in capitalist economies because it leads to innovation and more reasonable prices as firms that charge lower prices or improve the quality of their production can take buyers away from its competitors. Furthermore, without competition, a monopoly or cartel may develop. A monopoly occurs when a firm supplies the total output in the market and means that the firm can limit output and raise prices because it has no fear of competition. A cartel is a group of firms that act together in a monopolistic manner to control output and raise prices. Many countries have competition laws that prohibit monopolies and cartels from forming. However, even though antimonopoly laws exist, large corporations can form near enterprises in some industries. Such firms can temporarily drop prices and accept losses to prevent competition from entering the market and then raise them again once the threat of entry is reduced. In many capitalist nations, public utilities (communications, gas, electricity, etc), are able to operate as a monopoly under government regulation due to high economies of scale.
[edit] Income
Income in a capitalist economy depends primarily on what skills are in demand and what skills are currently being supplied. People who have skills that are in scarce supply are worth a lot more in the market and can attract higher incomes Competition among employers for workers and among workers for jobs, help determine wage rates. Firms need to pay high enough wages to attract the appropriate workers; however, when jobs are scarce workers may accept lower wages than when jobs are plentiful. Labour unions and the government also influence wages in capitalist nations. Unions act to represent labourers in negotiations with employers over such things as wage rates and acceptable working conditions. Most countries have an established minimum wage and other government agencies work to establish safety standards.
[edit] The government
In capitalist nations, the government allows for private property and individuals are allowed to work where they please. The government also generally permits firms to determine what wages they will pay and what prices they will charge for their products. The government also carries out a number of important economic functions. For instance, it issues money, supervises public utilities and enforces private contracts. Laws, such as policy competition, protect against competition and prohibit unfair business practices. Government agencies regulate the standards of service in many industries, such as airlines and broadcasting, as well as financing a wide range of programs. In addition, the government regulates the flow of capital and uses things such as the interest rate to control factors such as inflation and unemployment.[58]
[edit] Perspectives
[edit] Classical political economy
The classical school economic thought emerged in Britain in the late 18th century. The classical political economists Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Jean-Baptiste Say, and John Stuart Mill published analyses of the production, distribution and exchange of goods in a market that have since formed the basis of study for most contemporary economists.
In France, 'Physiocrats' like François Quesnay promoted free trade based on a conception that wealth originated from land. Quesnay's Tableau Économique (1759), described the economy analytically and laid the foundation of the Physiocrats' economic theory, followed by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot who opposed tariffs and customs duties and advocated free trade. Richard Cantillon defined long-run equilibrium as the balance of flows of income, and argued that the supply and demand mechanism around land influenced short-term prices.
Adam Smith's attack on mercantilism and his reasoning for "the system of natural liberty" in The Wealth of Nations (1776) are usually taken as the beginning of classical political economy. Smith devised a set of concepts that remain strongly associated with capitalism today, particularly his theory of the "invisible hand" of the market, through which the pursuit of individual self-interest unintentionally produces a collective good for society. It was necessary for Smith to be so forceful in his argument in favor of free markets because he had to overcome the popular mercantilist sentiment of the time period.[59] He criticized monopolies, tariffs, duties, and other state enforced restrictions of his time and believed that the market is the most fair and efficient arbitrator of resources. This view was shared by David Ricardo, second most important of the classical political economists and one of the most influential economists of modern times.[60] In The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), he developed the law of comparative advantage, which explains why it is profitable for two parties to trade, even if one of the trading partners is more efficient in every type of economic production. This principle supports the economic case for free trade. Ricardo was a supporter of Say's Law and held the view that full employment is the normal equilibrium for a competitive economy.[61] He also argued that inflation is closely related to changes in quantity of money and credit and was a proponent of the law of diminishing returns, which states that each additional unit of input yields less and less additional output.[62]
The values of classical political economy are strongly associated with the classical liberal doctrine of minimal government intervention in the economy, though it does not necessarily oppose the state's provision of a few basic public goods.[63] Classical liberal thought has generally assumed a clear division between the economy and other realms of social activity, such as the state.[64]
While economic liberalism favors markets unfettered by the government, it maintains that the state has a legitimate role in providing public goods.[65] For instance, Adam Smith argued that the state has a role in providing roads, canals, schools and bridges that cannot be efficiently implemented by private entities. However, he preferred that these goods should be paid proportionally to their consumption (e.g. putting a toll). In addition, he advocated retaliatory tariffs to bring about free trade, and copyrights and patents to encourage innovation.[65]
[edit] Marxian political economy
Karl Marx considered capitalism to be a historically specific mode of production (the way in which the productive property is owned and controlled, combined with the corresponding social relations between individuals based on their connection with the process of production) in which capitalism has become the dominant mode of production.[40] The capitalist stage of development or "bourgeois society," for Marx, represented the most advanced form of social organization to date, but he also thought that the working classes would come to power in a worldwide socialist or communist transformation of human society as the end of the series of first aristocratic, then capitalist, and finally working class rule was reached.[66][67]
Following Adam Smith, Marx distinguished the use value of commodities from their exchange value in the market. Capital, according to Marx, is created with the purchase of commodities for the purpose of creating new commodities with an exchange value higher than the sum of the original purchases. For Marx, the use of labor power had itself become a commodity under capitalism; the exchange value of labor power, as reflected in the wage, is less than the value it produces for the capitalist. This difference in values, he argues, constitutes surplus value, which the capitalists extract and accumulate. In his book Capital, Marx argues that the capitalist mode of production is distinguished by how the owners of capital extract this surplus from workers—all prior class societies had extracted surplus labor, but capitalism was new in doing so via the sale-value of produced commodities.[68] He argues that a core requirement of a capitalist society is that a large portion of the population must not possess sources of self-sustenance that would allow them to be independent, and must instead be compelled, in order to survive, to sell their labor for a living wage.[69][70][71] In conjunction with his criticism of capitalism was Marx's belief that exploited labor would be the driving force behind a revolution to a socialist-style economy.[72] For Marx, this cycle of the extraction of the surplus value by the owners of capital or the bourgeoisie becomes the basis of class struggle. This argument is intertwined with Marx's version of the labor theory of value asserting that labor is the source of all value, and thus of profit.
Vladimir Lenin, in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), modified classic Marxist theory and argued that capitalism necessarily induced monopoly capitalism - which he also called "imperialism" - in order to find new markets and resources, representing the last and highest stage of capitalism.[73] Some 20th century Marxian economists consider capitalism to be a social formation where capitalist class processes dominate, but are not exclusive.[74] Capitalist class processes, to these thinkers, are simply those in which surplus labor takes the form of surplus value, usable as capital; other tendencies for utilization of labor nonetheless exist simultaneously in existing societies where capitalist processes are predominant. However, other late Marxian thinkers argue that a social formation as a whole may be classed as capitalist if capitalism is the mode by which a surplus is extracted, even if this surplus is not produced by capitalist activity, as when an absolute majority of the population is engaged in non-capitalist economic activity.[75]
David Harvey extends Marxian thinking through which he theorizes the differential production of place, space and political activism under capitalism. He uses Marx's theory of crisis to aid his argument that capitalism must have its "fixes" but that we cannot predetermine what fixes will be implemented, nor in what form they will be. This idea of fix is suggestive and could mean fix as in stabilize, heal or solve, or as in a junky needing a fix – the idea of preventing feeling worse in order to feel better. In Limits to Capital (1982), Harvey outlines an overdetermined, spatially restless capitalism coupled with the spatiality of crisis formation and its resolution. Furthermore, his work has been central for understanding the contractions of capital accumulation and international movements of capitalist modes of production and money flows.[76] In his essay, Notes towards a theory of uneven geographical development, Harvey examines the causes of the extreme volatility in contemporary political economic fortunes across and between spaces of the world economy. He bases this uneven development on four conditionalities, being: The material embedding of capital accumulation processes in the web of socio-ecological life; accumulation by dispossession; the law-like character of capital accumulation in space and time; and, political, social and "class" struggles at a variety of geographical scales.[77]
[edit] Weberian political sociology
In some social sciences, the understanding of the defining characteristics of capitalism has been strongly influenced by 19th century German social theorist Max Weber. Weber considered market exchange, rather than production, as the defining feature of capitalism; capitalist enterprises, in contrast to their counterparts in prior modes of economic activity, was their rationalization of production, directed toward maximizing efficiency and productivity; a tendency leading to a sociological process of enveloping 'rationalization'. According to Weber, workers in pre-capitalist economic institutions understood work in terms of a personal relationship between master and journeyman in a guild, or between lord and peasant in a manor.[78]
In his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-1905), Weber sought to trace how a particular form of religious spirit, infused into traditional modes of economic activity, was a condition of possibility of modern western capitalism. For Weber, the 'spirit of capitalism' was, in general, that of ascetic Protestantism; this ideology was able to motivate extreme rationalization of daily life, a propensity to accumulate capital by a religious ethic to advance economically, and thus also the propensity to reinvest capital: this was sufficient, then, to create "self-mediating capital" as conceived by Marx. This is pictured in Proverbs 22:29, "Seest thou a man diligent in his calling? He shall stand before kings" and in Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men." In the Protestant Ethic, Weber further stated that "moneymaking – provided it is done legally – is, within the modern economic order, the result and the expression of diligence in one's calling…" And, "If God show you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way (without wrong to your soul or to any other), if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your calling, and you refuse to be God's steward, and to accept His gifts and use them for him when He requierth it: you may labour to be rich for God, though not for the flesh and sin" (p. 108).
Western Capitalism, was, most generally for Weber, the "rational organization of formally free labor." The idea of the "formally free" laborer, meant, in the double sense of Marx, that the laborer was both free to own property, and free of the ability to reproduce his labor power, i.e., was the victim of expropriation of his means of production. It is only on these conditions, still abundantly obvious in the modern world of Weber, that western capitalism is able to exist.
For Weber, modern western capitalism represented the order "now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which to-day determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with economic acquisition, with irresistible force. Perhaps it will so determine them until the last ton of fossilized coal is burnt" (p. 123).[79] This is further seen in his criticism of "specialists without spirit, hedonists without a heart" that were developing, in his opinion, with the fading of the original Puritan "spirit" associated with capitalism.
[edit] Institutional economics
Institutional economics, once the main school of economic thought in the United States, holds that capitalism cannot be separated from the political and social system within which it is embedded. It emphasizes the legal foundations of capitalism (see John R. Commons) and the evolutionary, habituated, and volitional processes by which institutions are erected and then changed (see John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, and Daniel Bromley.)
One key figure in institutional economics was Thorstein Veblen who in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) analyzed the motivations of wealthy people in capitalism who conspicuously consumed their riches as a way of demonstrating success. The concept of conspicuous consumption was in direct contradiction to the neoclassical view that capitalism was efficient. In The Theory of Business Enterprise (1904) Veblen distinguished the motivations of industrial production for people to use things from business motivations that used, or misused, industrial infrastructure for profit, arguing that the former is often hindered because businesses pursue the latter. Output and technological advance are restricted by business practices and the creation of monopolies. Businesses protect their existing capital investments and employ excessive credit, leading to depressions and increasing military expenditure and war through business control of political power.
[edit] German Historical School and Austrian School
From the perspective of the German Historical School, capitalism is primarily identified in terms of the organization of production for markets. Although this perspective shares similar theoretical roots with that of Weber, its emphasis on markets and money lends it different focus.[40] For followers of the German Historical School, the key shift from traditional modes of economic activity to capitalism involved the shift from medieval restrictions on credit and money to the modern monetary economy combined with an emphasis on the profit motive.
In the late 19th century, the German Historical School of economics diverged, with the emerging Austrian School of economics, led at the time by Carl Menger. Later generations of followers of the Austrian School continued to be influential in Western economic thought through much of the 20th century. The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, a forerunner of the Austrian School of economics, emphasized the "creative destruction" of capitalism—the fact that market economies undergo constant change. At any moment of time, posits Schumpeter, there are rising industries and declining industries. Schumpeter, and many contemporary economists influenced by his work, argue that resources should flow from the declining to the expanding industries for an economy to grow, but they recognized that sometimes resources are slow to withdraw from the declining industries because of various forms of institutional resistance to change.
The Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek were among the leading defenders of market capitalism against 20th century proponents of socialist planned economies. Mises and Hayek argued that only market capitalism could manage a complex, modern economy. Since a modern economy produces such a large array of distinct goods and services, and consists of such a large array of consumers and enterprises, asserted Mises and Hayek, the information problems facing any other form of economic organization other than market capitalism would exceed its capacity to handle information. Thinkers within Supply-side economics built on the work of the Austrian School, and particularly emphasize Say's Law: "supply creates its own demand." Capitalism, to this school, is defined by lack of state restraint on the decisions of producers.
Austrian economists claim that Marx failed to make the distinction between capitalism and mercantilism.[80][81] They argue that Marx conflated the imperialistic, colonialistic, protectionist and interventionist doctrines of mercantilism with capitalism.
Austrian economics has been a major influence on some forms of libertarianism, in which laissez-faire capitalism is considered to be the ideal economic system.[82] It influenced economists and political philosophers and theorists including Henry Hazlitt, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Israel Kirzner, Murray Rothbard, Walter Block and Richard M. Ebeling.[83][84]
[edit] Keynesian economics
In his 1937 The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, the British economist John Maynard Keynes argued that capitalism suffered a basic problem in its ability to recover from periods of slowdowns in investment. Keynes argued that a capitalist economy could remain in an indefinite equilibrium despite high unemployment. Essentially rejecting Say's law, he argued that some people may have a liquidity preference which would see them rather hold money than buy new goods or services, which therefore raised the prospect that the Great Depression would not end without what he termed in the General Theory "a somewhat comprehensive socialization of investment."
Keynesian economics challenged the notion that laissez-faire capitalist economics could operate well on their own, without state intervention used to promote aggregate demand, fighting high unemployment and deflation of the sort seen during the 1930s. He and his followers recommended "pump-priming" the economy to avoid recession: cutting taxes, increasing government borrowing, and spending during an economic down-turn. This was to be accompanied by trying to control wages nationally partly through the use of inflation to cut real wages and to deter people from holding money.[85] John Maynard Keynes tried to provide solutions to many of Marx's problems without completely abandoning the classical understanding of capitalism. His work attempted to show that regulation can be effective, and that economic stabilizers can reign in the aggressive expansions and recessions that Marx disliked. These changes sought to create more stability in the business cycle, and reduce the abuses of laborers. Keynesian economists argue that Keynesian policies were one of the primary reasons capitalism was able to recover following the Great Depression.[86] The premises of Keynes's work have, however, since been challenged by neoclassical and supply-side economics and the Austrian School.
Another challenge to Keynesian thinking came from his colleague Piero Sraffa, and subsequently from the Neo-Ricardian school that followed Sraffa. In Sraffa's highly technical analysis, capitalism is defined by an entire system of social relations among both producers and consumers, but with a primary emphasis on the demands of production. According to Sraffa, the tendency of capital to seek its highest rate of profit causes a dynamic instability in social and economic relations.
[edit] Neoclassical economics and the Chicago School
Today, the majority academic research on capitalism in the English-speaking world draws on neoclassical economic thought. It favors extensive market coordination and relatively neutral patterns of governmental market regulation aimed at maintaining property rights; deregulated labor markets; corporate governance dominated by financial owners of firms; and financial systems depending chiefly on capital market-based financing rather than state financing.
Milton Friedman took many of the basic principles set forth by Adam Smith and the classical economists and gave them a new twist. One example of this is his article in the September 1970 issue of The New York Times Magazine, where he claims that the social responsibility of business is "to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits…(through) open and free competition without deception or fraud." This is similar to Smith's argument that self-interest in turn benefits the whole of society.[87] Work like this helped lay the foundations for the coming marketization (or privatization) of state enterprises and the supply-side economics of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
The Chicago School of economics is best known for its free market advocacy and monetarist ideas. According to Friedman and other monetarists, market economies are inherently stable if left to themselves and depressions result only from government intervention.[88] Friedman, for example, argued that the Great Depression was result of a contraction of the money supply, controlled by the Federal Reserve, and not by the lack of investment as John Maynard Keynes had argued. Ben Bernanke, current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is among the economists today generally accepting Friedman's analysis of the causes of the Great Depression.[89]
Neoclassical economists, today the majority of economists,[90] consider value to be subjective, varying from person to person and for the same person at different times, and thus reject the labor theory of value. Marginalism is the theory that economic value results from marginal utility and marginal cost (the marginal concepts). These economists see capitalists as earning profits by forgoing current consumption, by taking risks, and by organizing production.
[edit] Political advocacy
[edit] Support
[edit] Economic growth
Many theorists and policymakers in predominantly capitalist nations have emphasized capitalism's ability to promote economic growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), capacity utilization or standard of living. This argument was central, for example, to Adam Smith's advocacy of letting a free market control production and price, and allocate resources. Many theorists have noted that this increase in global GDP over time coincides with the emergence of the modern world capitalist system.[92][93] While the measurements are not identical, proponents argue that increasing GDP (per capita) is empirically shown to bring about improved standards of living, such as better availability of food, housing, clothing, and health care.[94] The decrease in the number of hours worked per week and the decreased participation of children and the elderly in the workforce have been attributed to capitalism.[95][96][97][98] Proponents also believe that a capitalist economy offers far more opportunities for individuals to raise their income through new professions or business ventures than do other economic forms. To their thinking, this potential is much greater than in either traditional feudal or tribal societies or in socialist societies.
[edit] Political freedom
Milton Friedman argued that the economic freedom of competitive capitalism is a requisite of political freedom. Friedman argued that centralized control of economic activity is always accompanied by political repression. In his view, transactions in a market economy are voluntary, and the wide diversity that voluntary activity permits is a fundamental threat to repressive political leaders and greatly diminish power to coerce. Friedman's view was also shared by Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes, both of whom believed that capitalism is vital for freedom to survive and thrive.[99][100]
[edit] Self-organization
Austrian School economists have argued that capitalism can organize itself into a complex system without an external guidance or planning mechanism. Friedrich Hayek coined the term "catallaxy" to describe what he considered the phenomenon of self-organization underpinning capitalism. From this perspective, in process of self-organization, the profit motive has an important role. From transactions between buyers and sellers price systems emerge, and prices serve as a signal as to the urgent and unfilled wants of people. The promise of profits gives entrepreneurs incentive to use their knowledge and resources to satisfy those wants. Thus the activities of millions of people, each seeking his own interest, are coordinated.[101]
This decentralized system of coordination is viewed by some supporters of capitalism as one of its greatest strengths. They argue that it permits many solutions to be tried, and that real-world competition generally finds a good solution to emerging challenges. In contrast, they argue, central planning often selects inappropriate solutions as a result of faulty forecasting. However, in all existing modern economies, the state conducts some degree of centralized economic planning (using such tools as allowing the country's central bank to set base interest rates), ostensibly as an attempt to improve efficiency, attenuate cyclical volatility, and further particular social goals. Proponents who follow the Austrian School argue that even this limited control creates inefficiencies because we cannot predict the long-term activity of the economy. Milton Friedman, for example, has argued that the Great Depression was caused by the erroneous policy of the Federal Reserve.[89]
[edit] Moral imperative
Ayn Rand was a prominent philosophical supporter of laissez-faire capitalism; her novel Atlas Shrugged was an influential publication on the subject of business and continues to be a best-seller.[102] The first person to endow capitalism with a new code of morality (Rational Selfishness),[103] she did not justify capitalism on the grounds of pure "practicality" (that it is the best wealth-creating system), or the supernatural (that God or religion supports capitalism), or because it benefits the most people, but maintained that it is the only morally valid socio-political system because it allows people to be free to act in their rational self-interest.[104][105] These thinkers have had a substantial influence on the US Libertarian Party. The Libertarian Party strongly advocates the elimination of most, if not all, state involvement in the marketplace. The Republican Liberty Caucus is the libertarian branch of the Republican Party.
[edit] Criticism
Notable critics of capitalism have included: socialists, anarchists, communists, technocrats, some forms of conservatism, Luddites, Narodniks, some schools of nationalism and Shakers. Marxism advocated a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism that would lead to socialism before eventually transforming into communism after class antagonisms and the state ceased to exist. Marxism influenced social democratic and labour parties as well as some moderate democratic socialists, who seek change through existing democratic channels instead of revolution, and believe that capitalism should be regulated rather than abolished, supplementing the market economy with a mixed economy. Many aspects of capitalism have come under attack from the anti-globalization movement, which is primarily opposed to corporate capitalism.
[edit] Religious criticism and opposition
Many religions have criticized or opposed specific elements of capitalism; traditional Judaism, Christianity, and Islam forbid lending money at interest, although methods of Islamic banking have been developed. Christianity has been a source of both praise and criticism for capitalism, particularly its materialist aspects.[106] The first socialists drew many of their principles from Christian values, against "bourgeois" values of profiteering, greed, selfishness, and hoarding. Some Christian critics of capitalism may not oppose capitalism entirely, but support a mixed economy in order to ensure adequate labor standards and relations, as well as economic justice. Indian philosopher P.R. Sarkar, founder of the Ananda Marga movement, developed the Law of Social Cycle to identify the problems of capitalism and proposed the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) as a solution to its ills.[107][108] Pope Benedict XVI issued an encyclical Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth) in 2009; he stated: "The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner"[109] and "Therefore, it must be borne in mind that grave imbalances are produced when economic action, conceived merely as an engine for wealth creation, is detached from political action, conceived as a means for pursuing justice through redistribution".[110]
[edit] Marxist Feminist criticism
Marxist and Feminist geographers critique capitalism primarily on the basis of social and environmental justice.
Marxian development geographers analyse the contractions of capitalism, class struggle, uneven development and imperialism in the global South by employing historical-material analysis ('little d' development). This work investigates patterns of accumulation, class formation and politics in rural and urban areas, the role of the state, struggles over resources and the articulation of peasant production with agrarian capitalism.
Feminist political-economy researchers are interested in the ways that these processes are gendered and also take into account a serious consideration of social reproduction in concern with capitalist production processes.[76]
[edit] Inequalities in distribution of wealth
Critics argue that capitalism is associated with the unfair distribution of wealth and power; a tendency toward market monopoly or oligopoly (and government by oligarchy); imperialism, counter-revolutionary wars and various forms of economic and cultural exploitation; repression of workers and trade unionists, and phenomena such as social alienation, economic inequality, unemployment, and economic instability. Critics have argued that there is an inherent tendency towards oligolopolistic structures when laissez-faire is combined with capitalist private property. Capitalism is regarded by many socialists to be irrational in that production and the direction of the economy are unplanned, creating many inconsistencies and internal contradictions and thus should be controlled through public policy.[111]
In the early 20th century, Vladimir Lenin argued that state use of military power to defend capitalist interests abroad was an inevitable corollary of monopoly capitalism.[112] Economist Branko Horvat states, "it is now well known that capitalist development leads to the concentration of capital, employment and power. It is somewhat less known that it leads to the almost complete destruction of economic freedom."[113] Southern Methodist University Economics Professor Ravi Batra argues that excessive income and wealth inequalities are a fundamental cause of financial crisis and economic depression, which will lead to the collapse of capitalism and the emergence of a new social order.
[edit] Neglect of the public interest
Environmentalists have argued that capitalism requires continual economic growth, and will inevitably deplete the finite natural resources of the earth, and other broadly utilized resources. Murray Bookchin has argued that capitalist production externalizes environmental costs to all of society, and is unable to adequately mitigate its impact upon ecosystems and the biosphere at large. Labor historians and scholars, such as Immanuel Wallerstein have argued that unfree labor—by slaves, indentured servants, prisoners, and other coerced persons—is compatible with capitalist relations.[114]
[edit] Democracy, the state, and legal frameworks
[edit] Private property
The relationship between the state, its formal mechanisms, and capitalist societies has been debated in many fields of social and political theory, with active discussion since the 19th century. Hernando de Soto is a contemporary economist who has argued that an important characteristic of capitalism is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system where ownership and transactions are clearly recorded.[115] According to de Soto, this is the process by which physical assets are transformed into capital, which in turn may be used in many more ways and much more efficiently in the market economy. A number of Marxian economists have argued that the Enclosure Acts in England, and similar legislation elsewhere, were an integral part of capitalist primitive accumulation and that specific legal frameworks of private land ownership have been integral to the development of capitalism.[116][117]
[edit] Institutions
New institutional economics, a field pioneered by Douglass North, stresses the need of a legal framework in order for capitalism to function optimally, and focuses on the relationship between the historical development of capitalism and the creation and maintenance of political and economic institutions.[118] In new institutional economics and other fields focusing on public policy, economists seek to judge when and whether governmental intervention (such as taxes, welfare, and government regulation) can result in potential gains in efficiency. According to Gregory Mankiw, a New Keynesian economist, governmental intervention can improve on market outcomes under conditions of "market failure," or situations in which the market on its own does not allocate resources efficiently.[119] Market failure occurs when an externality is present and a market will either underproduce a product with a positive externality or overproduce a product that generates a negative externality. Air pollution, for instance, is a negative externality that cannot be incorporated into markets as the world's air is not owned and then sold for use to polluters. So, too much pollution could be emitted and people not involved in the production pay the cost of the pollution instead of the firm that initially emitted the air pollution. Critics of market failure theory, like Ronald Coase, Harold Demsetz, and James M. Buchanan argue that government programs and policies also fall short of absolute perfection. Market failures are often small, and government failures are sometimes large. It is therefore the case that imperfect markets are often better than imperfect governmental alternatives. While all nations currently have some kind of market regulations, the desirable degree of regulation is disputed.
[edit] Democracy
The relationship between democracy and capitalism is a contentious area in theory and popular political movements. The extension of universal adult male suffrage in 19th century Britain occurred along with the development of industrial capitalism, and democracy became widespread at the same time as capitalism, leading many theorists to posit a causal relationship between them, or that each affects the other. However, in the 20th century, according to some authors, capitalism also accompanied a variety of political formations quite distinct from liberal democracies, including fascist regimes, monarchies, and single-party states,[40] while some democratic societies such as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Anarchist Catalonia have been expressly anti-capitalist.[120] While some thinkers argue that capitalist development more-or-less inevitably eventually leads to the emergence of democracy, others dispute this claim. Research on the democratic peace theory indicates that capitalist democracies rarely make war with one another and have little internal violence.[121][122] However critics of the democratic peace theory note that democratic capitalist states may fight infrequently and or never with other democratic capitalist states because of political similarity or stability rather than because they are democratic or capitalist.
Some commentators argue that though economic growth under capitalism has led to democratization in the past, it may not do so in the future, as authoritarian regimes have been able to manage economic growth without making concessions to greater political freedom.[123][124] States that have highly capitalistic economic systems have thrived under authoritarian or oppressive political systems. Singapore, which maintains a highly open market economy and attracts lots of foreign investment, does not protect civil liberties such as freedom of speech and expression. The private (capitalist) sector in the People's Republic of China has grown exponentially and thrived since its inception, despite having an authoritarian government. Private investment in Fascist states, such as Nazi Germany, greatly increased[125], and Augusto Pinochet's rule in Chile led to economic growth my using authoritarian means to create a safe environment for investment and capitalism.
In response to criticism of the system, some proponents of capitalism have argued that its advantages are supported by empirical research. For example, advocates of different Indices of Economic Freedom point to a statistical correlation between nations with more economic freedom (as defined by the indices) and higher scores on variables such as income and life expectancy, including the poor, in these nations.
[edit] Variants of capitalism
Variants on capitalism include anarcho-capitalism, corporate capitalism, crony capitalism, finance capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism, technocapitalism, Neo-Capitalism, late capitalism, post-capitalism, state capitalism and state monopoly capitalism. There are also anti-capitalist movements and ideologies including Anti-capitalism and negative associations with the system such as tragedy of the commons, corporatism and wage slavery.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Grassby, Richard. The Idea of Capitalism before the Industrial Revolution. Critical Issues in History. Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, p.1
- ^ a b c d Scott, John (2005). Industrialism: A Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Tormey, Simon. Anti-Capitalism. OneWorld Publications, 2004. p. 10
- ^ Tucker, Irvin B. (1997). Macroeconomics for Today. pp. 553.
- ^ Case, Karl E. (2004). Principles of Macroeconomics. Prentice Hall.
- ^ a b Stilwell, Frank. "Political Economy: the Contest of Economic Ideas." First Edition. Oxford University Press. Melbourne, Australia. 2002.
- ^ Economic systems. (2009). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ a b c d e Braudel, Fernand (1982). "Production, or Capitalism away from home". The Wheels of Commerce, Vol. 2, Civilization & Capitalism 15th-18th Century. Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 231–373. http://books.google.ca/books?id=WPDbSXQsvGIC&lpg=PP1&dq=capitalism%20and%20civilization%20wheels%20of%20commerce&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
- ^ a b c d e Banaji, Jairus (2007). "Islam, the Mediterranean and the rise of capitalism". Journal Historical Materialism (Brill Publishers) 15: 47–74. doi:.
- ^ a b c Capitalism. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2006.
- ^ Werhane, P.H. (1994). "Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism". The Review of Metaphysics (Philosophy Education Society, Inc.) 47 (3).
- ^ a b c "free enterprise." Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Philip Lief Group 2008.
- ^ Mutualist.org. "...based on voluntary cooperation, free exchange, or mutual aid."
- ^ Friedman, Milton. 1962. Capitalism and Freedom. University of Chicago Press. p 38.
- ^ "market economy", Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary
- ^ "About Cato". Cato.org. http://www.cato.org/about.php. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
- ^ "The Achievements of Nineteenth-Century Classical Liberalism". http://www.cato.org/university/module10.html.
Although the term "liberalism" retains its original meaning in most of the world, it has unfortunately come to have a very different meaning in late twentieth-century America. Hence terms such as "market liberalism," "classical liberalism," or "libertarianism" are often used in its place in America.
- ^ Etymology of "Cattle"
- ^ a b c d e James Augustus Henry Murray. "Capital". A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Oxford English Press. Vol 2. page 93.
- ^ Arthur Young. Travels in France
- ^ Ricardo, David. Principles of Political Economy and Taxation>. 1821. John Murray Publisher, 3rd edition.
- ^ Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Tabel The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. page 267.
- ^ Braudel, Fernand. The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization and Capitalism 15-18 Century, Harper and Row, 1979, p.237
- ^ Karl Marx. Chapter 16: Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value. Das Kapital.
Die Verlängrung des Arbeitstags über den Punkt hinaus, wo der Arbeiter nur ein Äquivalent für den Wert seiner Arbeitskraft produziert hätte, und die Aneignung dieser Mehrarbeit durch das Kapital - das ist die Produktion des absoluten Mehrwerts. Sie bildet die allgemeine Grundlage des kapitalistischen Systems und den Ausgangspunkt der Produktion des relativen Mehrwerts.
The prolongation of the working-day beyond the point at which the labourer would have produced just an equivalent for the value of his labour-power, and the appropriation of that surplus-labour by capital, this is production of absolute surplus-value. It forms the general groundwork of the capitalist system, and the starting-point for the production of relative surplus-value.
- ^ Karl Marx. Chapter Twenty-Five: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. Das Kapital.
- Die Erhöhung des Arbeitspreises bleibt also eingebannt in Grenzen, die die Grundlagen des kapitalistischen Systems nicht nur unangetastet lassen, sondern auch seine Reproduktion auf wachsender Stufenleiter sichern.
- Die allgemeinen Grundlagen des kapitalistischen Systems einmal gegeben, tritt im Verlauf der Akkumulation jedesmal ein Punkt ein, wo die Entwicklung der Produktivität der gesellschaftlichen Arbeit der mächtigste Hebel der Akkumulation wird.
- Wir sahen im vierten Abschnitt bei Analyse der Produktion des relativen Mehrwerts: innerhalb des kapitalistischen Systems vollziehn sich alle Methoden zur Steigerung der gesellschaftlichen Produktivkraft der Arbeit auf Kosten des individuellen Arbeiters;
- ^ Saunders, Peter (1995). Capitalism. University of Minnesota Press. p. 1
- ^ Karl Marx. Das Kapital.
- ^ Ragan, Christopher T.S., and Richard G. Lipsey. Microeconomics. Twelfth Canadian Edition ed. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada, 2008. Print.
- ^ Robbins, Richard H. Global problems and the culture of capitalism. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2007. Print.
- ^ Erdkamp, Paul (2005), "The Grain Market in the Roman Empire", (Cambridge University Press)
- ^ Hasan, M (1987) "History of Islam". Vol 1. Lahore, Pakistan: Islamic Publications Ltd. p. 160.
- ^ The Cambridge economic history of Europe, p. 437. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521087090.
- ^ Subhi Y. Labib (1969), "Capitalism in Medieval Islam", The Journal of Economic History 29 (1), pp. 79–96 [81, 83, 85, 90, 93, 96].
- ^ Robert Sabatino Lopez, Irving Woodworth Raymond, Olivia Remie Constable (2001), Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: Illustrative Documents, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231123574.
- ^ Timur Kuran (2005), "The Absence of the Corporation in Islamic Law: Origins and Persistence", American Journal of Comparative Law 53, pp. 785–834 [798–9].
- ^ Subhi Y. Labib (1969), "Capitalism in Medieval Islam", The Journal of Economic History 29 (1), pp. 79–96 [92–3].
- ^ Ray Spier (2002), "The history of the peer-review process", Trends in Biotechnology 20 (8), p. 357-358 [357].
- ^ Said Amir Arjomand (1999), "The Law, Agency, and Policy in Medieval Islamic Society: Development of the Institutions of Learning from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century", Comparative Studies in Society and History 41, pp. 263–93. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Samir Amin (1978), "The Arab Nation: Some Conclusions and Problems", MERIP Reports 68, pp. 3–14 [8, 13].
- ^ a b c d e f g h Burnham, Peter (2003). Capitalism: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation. Beacon Press,Boston.1944.p87
- ^ The Rise of Capitalism
- ^ Quoted in Sir George Clark, The Seventeenth Century (New York: Oxford University Pres, 1961), p. 24.
- ^ Mancur Olson, The rise and decline of nations: economic growth, staglaction, and social rigidities (New Haven & London 1982).
- ^ Economic system :: Market systems. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2006. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/178493/economic-system/61117/Market-systems#toc242146.
- ^ Schumpeter, J.A. (1954) History of Economic Analysis
- ^ Hume, David (1752). Political Discourses. Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & A. Donaldson.
- ^ a b "laissez-faire". http://www.bartleby.com/65/la/laissezf.html.
- ^ Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation, Beacon Press. Boston. 1944. p.78
- ^ "Navigation Acts". http://www.bartleby.com/65/na/NavigatA.html.
- ^ LaHaye, Laura (1993). "Mercantilism". Concise Encyclepedia of Economics. Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Mercantilism.html.
- ^ [Economy Professor http://www.economyprofessor.com/economictheories/monopoly-capitalism.php]
- ^ Scott, John (2005). A Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Engerman, Stanley L. (2001). The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Barnes, Trevor J. (2004). Reading economic geography. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 127. ISBN 063123554X.
- ^ Fulcher, James. Capitalism. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ Henwood, Doug (2003-10-01). After the New Economy. New Press. ISBN 1-56584-770-9.
- ^ "Capitalism." World Book Encyclopedia. 1988. 194. Print.
- ^ Degen, Robert. The Triumph of Capitalism. 1st ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2008.
- ^ Hunt, E.K. (2002). History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 92.
- ^ Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought. Blackwell Publishing. 1991. pp. 91.
- ^ Skousen, Mark (2001). The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 98–102, 134.
- ^ Eric Aaron, What's Right? (Dural, Australia: Rosenberg Publishing, 2003), 75.
- ^ Calhoun, Craig (2002). Capitalism: Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b "Adam Smith". econlib.org. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Smith.html.
- ^ The Communist Manifesto
- ^ "To Marx, the problem of reconstituting society did not arise from some prescription, motivated by his personal predilections; it followed, as an iron-clad historical necessity – on the one hand, from the productive forces grown to powerful maturity; on the other, from the impossibility further to organize these forces according to the will of the law of value." - Leon Trotsky, "Marxism in our Time", 1939 (Inevitability of Socialism) [1]
- ^ Karl Marx. "Capital. v. 3. Chapter 47: Genesis of capitalist ground rent". Marxists. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch47.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Karl Marx. Chapter Twenty-Five: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. Das Kapital.
- ^ Dobb, Maurice 1947 Studies in the Development of Capitalism. New York: International Publishers Co., Inc.
- ^ David Harvey 1989 The Condition of Postmodernity
- ^ Wheen, Francis Books That Shook the World: Marx's Das Kapital1st ed. London: Atlantic Books, 2006
- ^ "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism". Marxists. 1916. http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/index.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ See, for example, the works of Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff.
- ^ Ste. Croix, G. E. M. de (1982). The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World. pp. 52–3.
- ^ a b Lawson, Victoria. Making Development Geography (Human Geography in the Making). New York: A Hodder Arnold Publication, 2007. Print.
- ^ Harvey, David. Notes towards a theory of uneven geographical development. Print.
- ^ Kilcullen, John (1996). "MAX WEBER: ON CAPITALISM". Macquarie University. http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/y64l10.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ "Conference Agenda" (PDF). Economy and Society. http://www.economyandsociety.com/events/Ethic&SpiritCapsm_Conf_Agenda2.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Rothbard, Murray N. (1973). "A Future of Peace and Capitalism". Modern Political Economy (Boston: Allyn and Bacon): 419–430. http://www.mises.org/story/1559. "In fact the mercantilist system is essentially what we've got right now. There is very little difference between state monopoly capitalism, or corporate state capitalism, whatever you want to call it, in the United States and Western Europe today, and the mercantilist system of the pre-Industrial Revolution era. There are only two differences; one is that their major activity was commerce and ours is industry. But the essential modus operandi of the two systems is exactly the same: monopoly privilege, a complete meshing in what is now called the "partnership of government and industry," a pervasive system of militarism and war contracts, a drive toward war and imperialism; the whole shebang characterized the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.".
- ^ Osterfeld, David (1991). "Marxism, Capitalism and Mercantilism". The Review of Austrian Eonomics 5 (1): 107–114. ISSN 0889-304.
- ^ What is Austrian Economics?, Ludwig Von Mises Institute.
- ^ DiLorenzo, Thomas. "Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850): Between the French and Marginalist Revolutions." Mises.org|http://www.mises.org/fredericbastiat.asp
- ^ http://www.mises.org/journals/scholar/BastiatAustrian.pdf|Thornton, Mark. "Frédéric Bastiat as an Austrian Economist." Mises.org.
- ^ Paul Mattick. "Marx and Keynes: the limits of the mixed economy". Marxists. http://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1969/marx-keynes/ch01.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Erhardt III, Erwin. "History of Economic Development." University of Cincinnati. Lindner Center Auditorium, Cincinnati. 07 Nov. 2008.
- ^ Friedman, Milton. "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits." The New York Times Magazine 13 Sep. 1970.
- ^ Felderer, Bernhard. Macroeconomics and New Macroeconomics.
- ^ a b Ben Bernanke (2002-11-08). "Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke". The Federal Reserve Board. http://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/SPEECHES/2002/20021108/default.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Yonary, Yuval P. (1998). The Struggle Over the Soul of Economics. Princeton University Press. pp. 29. ISBN 0691034192.
- ^ Angus Maddison (2001). The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. Paris: OECD. ISBN 92-64-18998-X.
- ^ Robert E. Lucas Jr.. "The Industrial Revolution: Past and Future". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis 2003 Annual Report. http://www.minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/04-05/essay.cfm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ J. Bradford DeLong. "Estimating World GDP, One Million B.C. – Present". http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/TCEH/1998_Draft/World_GDP/Estimating_World_GDP.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Clark Nardinelli. "Industrial Revolution and the Standard of Living". http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/IndustrialRevolutionandtheStandardofLiving.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Barro, Robert J. (1997). Macroeconomics. MIT Press. ISBN 0262024365.
- ^ "Labor and Minimum Wages". Capitalism.org. http://www.capitalism.org/faq/labor.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Woods, Thomas E. (2004-04-05). "Morality and Economic Law: Toward a Reconciliation". Ludwig von Mises Institute. http://www.mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1481. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Norberg, Johan. "Three Cheers for Global Capitalism". The American Enterprise. http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.18013/article_detail.asp. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Friedrich Hayek (1944). The Road to Serfdom. University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-32061-8.
- ^ Bellamy, Richard (2003). The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought. Cambridge University Press. pp. 60. ISBN 0-521-56354-2.
- ^ Walberg, Herbert (2001). Education and Capitalism. Hoover Institution Press. pp. 87–89. ISBN 0-8179-3972-5.
- ^ Ayn Rand's Literature of Capitalism, The New York Times
- ^ The Virtue of Selfishness
- ^ Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
- ^ Capitalism - TheoryThe Ayn Rand Lexicon.
- ^ "III. The Social Doctrine of the Church". The Vatican. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8C.HTM#-2FX. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Dada Maheshvarananda. "After Capitalism". http://www.prout.org/aftercapitalism/. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ "proutworld". ProutWorld. http://www.proutworld.org/. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Caritas in veritate paragraph 32
- ^ Caritas in veritate paragraph 36
- ^ Brander, James A. Government policy toward business. 4th ed. Mississauga, Ontario: John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd., 2006. Print.
- ^ Vladimir Lenin. "Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism". http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/index.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Horvat, B.. The Political Economy of Socialism. Armonk, NY: M.E.Sharpe Inc.. pp. 11.
- ^ That unfree labor is acceptable to capital was argued during the 1980s by Tom Brass. See Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labor (Cass, 1999). Marcel van der Linden. ""Labour History as the History of Multitudes", Labour/Le Travail, 52, Fall 2003, p. 235-244". http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/52/linden.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Hernando de Soto. "The mystery of capital". http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Karl Marx. "Capital, v. 1. Part VIII: primitive accumulation". http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch27.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ N. F. R. Crafts (April 1978). "Enclosure and labor supply revisited". Explorations in economic history 15 (15): 172–183. doi:. .we the say yes
- ^ North, Douglass C. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Principles of Economics. Harvard University. 1997. pp. 10.
- ^ On the democratic nature of the Venezuelan state, see [2]. On the current government's rejection of capitalism in favor of socialism, see[3] and[4]
- ^ James Lee Ray. "Does democracy cause peace". http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ray.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Hegre, Håvard. "Towards a democratic civil peace? : opportunity, grievance, and civil war 1816-1992". http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTENERGY/0,,contentMDK:20708340~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:336806,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Mesquita, Bruce Bueno de (2005-09). "Development and Democracy". Foreign Affairs. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050901faessay84507/bruce-bueno-de-mesquita-george-w-downs/development-and-democracy.html. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ Single, Joseph T. (2004-09). "Why Democracies Excel". New York Times. http://www10.nytimes.com/cfr/international/20040901facomment_v83n4_siegle-weinstein-halperin.html?_r=5&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- ^ http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Capitalism_Fascism_WW2.html
[edit] References
- Bacher, Christian (2007) Capitalism, Ethics and the Paradoxon of Self-exploitation Grin Verlag. p. 2
- De George, Richard T. (1986) Business ethics p. 104
- Lash, Scott and Urry, John (2000). Capitalism. In Nicholas Abercrombie, S. Hill & BS Turner (Eds.), The Penguin dictionary of sociology (4th ed.) (pp. 36–40).
- Obrinsky, Mark (1983). Profit Theory and Capitalism. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 1. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=4995059.
- Wolf, Eric (1982) Europe and the People Without History
- Wood, Ellen Meiksins (2002) The Origins of Capitalism: A Longer View London: Verso
[edit] Further reading
- Ackerman, Frank; Lisa Heinzerling (August 24, 2005). Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing. New Press. pp. 277. ISBN 1565849817.
- Buchanan, James M.. Politics Without Romance.
- Braudel, Fernand. Civilization and Capitalism: 15th - 18 Century.
- Bottomore, Tom (1985). Theories of Modern Capitalism.
- H. Doucouliagos and M. Ulubasoglu (2006). "Democracy and Economic Growth: A meta-analysis". School of Accounting, Economics and Finance Deakin University Australia.
- Coase, Ronald (1974). The Lighthouse in Economics.
- Demsetz, Harold (1969). Information and Efficiency.
- Fulcher, James (2004). Capitalism.
- Friedman, Milton (1952). Capitalism and Freedom.
- Galbraith, J.K. (1952). American Capitalism.
- Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen von (1890). Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economical Theory. London: Macmillan and Co..
- Harvey, David (1990). The Political-Economic Transformation of Late Twentieth Century Capitalism.. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-16294-1.
- Hayek, Friedrich A. (1975). The Pure Theory of Capital. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-32081-2.
- Hayek, Friedrich A. (1963). Capitalism and the Historians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Heilbroner, Robert L. (1966). The Limits of American Capitalism.
- Heilbroner, Robert L. (1985). The Nature and Logic of Capitalism.
- Heilbroner, Robert L. (1987). Economics Explained.
- Josephson, Matthew, The Money Lords; the great finance capitalists, 1925-1950, New York, Weybright and Talley, 1972.
- Luxemburg, Rosa (1913). The Accumulation of Capital.
- Marx, Karl (1886). Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production.
- Mises, Ludwig von (1998). Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Scholars Edition.
- Rand, Ayn (1986). Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. Signet.
- Reisman, George (1996). Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics. Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books. ISBN 0-915463-73-3.
- Resnick, Stephen (1987). Knowledge & Class: a Marxian critique of political economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Rostow, W. W. (1960). The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Schumpeter, J. A. (1983). Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy.
- Scott, John (1997). Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes.
- Seldon, Arthur (2007). Capitalism: A Condensed Version. London: Institute of Economic Affairs.
- Sennett, Richard (2006). The Culture of the New Capitalism.
- Smith, Adam (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- De Soto, Hernando (2000). The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01614-6.
- Strange, Susan (1986). Casino Capitalism.
- Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World System.
- Weber, Max (1926). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
[edit] External links
- Center on Capitalism and Society directed by Edmund Phelps
 | Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism |
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