A Large Writing Project for This Year. Detroit, Fallen Cities and the US Macro Economy.

I have finally begin to "ink" some ideas that I have for a large writing project this summer.
These preliminary ideas have a long way to go and I would happily receive comments thoughts from my readers.

My work will be threefold.

1. I will need to write a summary of the coinciding economic histories of the city of Detroit (housing patterns, taxes, etc.) and the corporations that dominate the auto industry (mostly GM, but also Ford and Chrysler) as they relate to Wayne county Michigan.  Numbers such as populations, employment numbers, etc. This is essentially to establish statistical correlation between these corporations and the county that houses them.  This will be an important aspect as it will (hopefully) numerically demonstrate how the people involved and the enterprises symbiotically both built and destroyed a major urban area.  Included will be analysis of both the corporations, but also public services etc. offered by local governments to their employees. 

2. I plan to update the Marxian conception of the corporation.  The generation of surplus labor takes place not only within the settings of the corporate environment, but also within a certain geographic area. I hope to contribute to the Marxist corporate literature from this perspective.  Topics such as type of labor available, as well as surplus generating policies of the enterprise need to be updated to discuss the relationship with the communities in which the enterprises are contained.  Surplus is generated by real people and they have to exist within a geographic area, this dynamic is not adequately discussed in Marxian economics or geography.  This section will also include an analysis of labor relations, relative bargaining power of the workers of these companies over time, union actions, etc.  Basically wage/labor relations history stuff, but in the context of these things affecting both the enterprise and the community (something new as far as I know>)

3. Finally, and this is vague still...I want to be able to say something meaningful about municipal policy, certainly as it relates to "fallen" cities like Detroit, Pittsburgh, Holyoke, etc. and how they should attempt to use the resources/factories that they have to stimulate recovery (with or without the gentrification pattern that is being followed in many American cities), but also, the future of other American urban areas that rely upon manufacturing today, as well as possibly some contributions on positives/negatives to the broader idea of the moving away from "real" production into the service sector that the American macro economy as a whole has experienced.

Comments very welcome!

Finally...have we started to move past the need for sleep?

I have not been writing for a while. 
In an attempt to get (my sleep deprived) brain working again I am starting slow tonight, with a simple link.
This article discusses two new stimulant drugs that in trial seem to allow the brain to function normally without sleep. 
Is it possible that we won't have to waste hours a day in the fight against capitalist exploitation for much longer?
Not addressed are all the health and psychological benefits of a night of slumber. but .....still...steps in the right direction. 

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/jessa-gamble-life-without-sleep/

US News and World Report: Ranking of Graduate Programs in Economics. A Thought...

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/economics-rankings

Check the "rankings methodology".
It is essentially the academic equivalent of asking Anheuser Busch / Inbev employees to rank the best breweries.  Hegemony breeds hegemony and bourgeois thinkers love bourgeois thought.   The most remarkable thing here might be that I am even bothering to remark on this.  

Politics and Baseball: The Death of Hugo Chavez and Cowardice of the Miami Marlins

As some of you may know, and I would guess that many of you, dear readers, do not, the World Baseball Classic is currently taking place.  The WBC is an international tournament that takes place every 4 years during Major League Baseball's spring training season.  It is commonly accepted that "baseball" countries other than the United States take the WBC more seriously than most Americans (both players and fans) do.  This can be clearly seen by the players who choose to participate, with many top talent American players skipping the tournament while players such as Miguel Cabrera leave their major league training camps to represent their home nations.

It is no accident that I bring up Cabrera.  He is a native of Venezuela.   The Venezuelan national team (with Cabrera) played an exhibition game against the Miami Marlins on March 5th.  Prior to the game the Venezuelans requested a moment of silence to honor recently deceased leader Hugo Chavez.  This request was denied, with the cited reason by the Marlins being there was "not enough time". 

I love the game of baseball, but I will also be the first to admit that it is not the most action packed sport for the casual observer.  "Not enough time", is that really the best the Marlins management could come up with?  The 3 hour broadcast must have been too packed with adds for McDonald's "Fish McBites"?  (Which have a ridiculous and somewhat hilarious jingle, you can listen to it here) to include a moment to honor a fallen world leader?

Why do the Marlins, and by association Major League Baseball have such a hard time being honest?  They probably don't want "America's Game" associated in anyway with a leader who was openly critical of American consumerism, of US leadership as well as US foreign policy, not to mention being a self described socialist, and having a record of nationalizing most major Venezuelan industry and conducting major land reform.

I could easily argue that Chavez did a lot of good in Venezuela, and that many people there are far better off than they were before he came to power.  It would be completely in line with the general theme of this blog to make such statements.  For some statistics on the improvements under Chavez please see this chart, posted on a blog I read regularly. 

The truth is that I don't know as much as I should about Chavez and Venezuelan politics, and I don't want to comment where I don't have anything informed to contribute.  What I do want to add is that I think this is just another example of cowardice and poor leadership by the Marlins organization.  Either state that Chavez was not popular in the United States and you don't want him honored in your stadium, or accept that Chavez was a major world leader, and honor the Venezuelan team's request for a moment of silence before the game.

Bottom line; if a US leader was to pass away while in office and one of our national teams was denied a moment of silence to honor him during a sporting event in a foreign country we would likely go to war over it.  I don't think the Marlins ownership has the right to deny something like this to team Venezuela, and if they are going to deny the request, they should at least have the cojones to admit that they are doing it for a reason other than "being short on time".

This is just the latest in a long line of examples of the Marlins ownership/management treating baseball fans like we are a bunch of idiots, that rant will have to wait for another post.  I sincerely hope this becomes a major problem for the team.  From what I know, no one deserves the negative attention more.  Marlin's owner Jeffrey Loria and his management team should be ashamed of themselves.