[PEN-L:11256] Re: Henwood - Middle Aged?

[JayHecht@xxxxxxx]

   Not so Doug Henwood, the middle-aged publisher of the Left
   Business Observer newsletter, and the host of a show on
   geo-politics on WBAI, a New York leftist radio station.

God, do I feel old!!!!

   Henwood has written Wall Street, a book that amply
   illustrates his nasty ad hominem streak and overweening
   intellectual arrogance.   Both characteristics were also central elements
in Karl Marx's  personality.

We all dream of sucj complements!!!

 One wonders whether Henwood acquired his
   repellent style through natural aptitude or exaggerated hero
   worship.
I'd say the former !!!

   Whatever the reason, Wall Street is predictable Henwood,
   with Marxist analysis of the U.S. capital markets.

What is Paul nuts!  Obviously, he didn't read the book or is not capable of
writing the following six letters:  K-E-Y-N-E-S

   Henwood's substantive complaints about aggregate
   financial-transaction expense, excessive turnover,
   asset-pricing models and leveraged buyouts echo longstanding
   critiques by, among others, Louis Lowenstein of Columbia
   University and Warren Buffett.

Yeah, but those guys never appeared on WBAI!!!

   Then we're off on a lengthy trek debunking current theories
   of finance, during which Henwood really bogs down in the
   fever swamps of lengthy paeans to Marx's visionary genius,
   magisterial corrections of other Marxist economists, plus
   occasional odd digressions, such as bashing Rudolf
   Hilferding, a Social Democratic finance minister during the
   Weimar Republic.

What! A kind word for a Hilferding!  Is he nuts!  Does poor Pauley realize
that Rudy was a Marxist (who was also killed by the Gestapo).

   Despite 300-plus pages of excoriation, Henwood's disdain for
   capitalism remains unconvincing. His criticism of American
   society as atomistic is ironic, given the civic void exposed
   in socialist states when their totalitarian systems
   collapse. In addition, while Henwood is at his best and most
   provocative doing street theater on the cost, waste and
   pretensions of American financial markets, someone in the
   U.S. must be doing something right.

Hello Paul (anyone home???)  Yeah, they are called "Retained Earnings" amd
"Depreciation" which Doug goes to great lenghts to point out are the primary
sources of capitalist investment

 The U.S. saves 5%-10%
   less of GDP than other developed countries. Yet starting
   from the world's highest standard of living, America
   maintained broadly comparable economic growth despite a
   lower savings effort. Perhaps the U.S. capital markets,
   whose aggregate costs are under 1% of GDP, contribute to
   that success.

What a stupid comparision!!

Hey Doug, I think this was a pretty good "Review" for a guy who just tanked!

Jason