[lbo-talk] drama at the Brecht Forum

[Cseniornyc at aol.com]

Well it turned out to be rather anticlimactic this meeting.  Strange  to 
arrange a panel about whether the economy is about to crash and not  to have a 
single economist on it. It is like assembling a panel of  architects to discuss 
the best procedure for prostate operations.
So we had the profession-undefinable  Doug Henwood, a Realtor who  extolled 
the virtues of the market, a literary editor and Nomi Prins a wealthy  ex 
Manager Director at Goldman Sachs and Bear Sterns and who made a lot of money  
there ,is now retired and playing Liberal Chic.
I must say that Mr. Henwood was the most coherent of all although he  
disappointed the crowd of mostly gloom and doomers and conspiracionists  who wanted 
to hear assurances that the final days of Wall St were arriving  very soon. A 
young questioner was particularly chagrined when Doug told him that  usually 
after recessions Americans actually vote for the right. Although Mr  Henwood 
might be taking correlation for causation, it is still a good  observation to 
keep in mind.
It is interesting to notice that the Brecht Forum, a self-proclaimed  Marxist 
center is seldom patronized by the working classes and it is very rare  when 
you see a Union leader on a panel or a seminar. Instead Slavoj Zizek will  be 
there soon again.
There were no Marxists on this panel either. Might as well because Marx  
didn't say much about money and finance, somehow.
En passant, I remember Doug saying on this list not too long ago that Marx  
had said that "money is a social relation".Actually he never said that.

 
Cris Senior

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