Nkrumahism, The Can Of Worms I Opened – Das Kapital

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• Prof Lungu 10 years ago

  We are concluding our 2 posts on the previous Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr essay with this.
  
  In conclusion, Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr has been attempting a US-style Ayn Rand blow-job, directly from "London".
  
  He shows little ...
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  We are concluding our 2 posts on the previous Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr essay with this.
  
  In conclusion, Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr has been attempting a US-style Ayn Rand blow-job, directly from "London".
  
  He shows little appreciation for the facts of history on one hand, and the intersection of economics - politics - commerce - law- and history, on the other hand.
  
  Or, he just does not care!
  
  Imagine, in 1945, when the US announced an end to Lend-Lease for England, that announcement alone precipitated a huge financial crisis for Winston Churchill's England, forcing the US to reconsider grant of a low-interest loan to England in the amount of $3.75 billion.
  
  More important, Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr has shown that he has no clue how the United State operates, except to cite books out of context, or, he does not care about context and the facts people present before his Ghanaian-national eyes!
  
  The biggest absurdity is to hear, from Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr, that "...the difference is private companies don’t collapse and leave a vacuum..."
  
  How remarkably absent-minded of history and facts!
  
  WE SAY: Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr knows little history, the intersection of economics - politics - commerce - law, of he does not care!
  
  We guess Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr has never heard of ENRON-USA, or Chapter 11 (or Chapter 7) filing by companies in capitalist-USA.
  
  ITEM: Enron cut off power to consumers to manipulate prices, and the state of Texas (and the US) did nothing to stop them, until the bankruptcy, and the COLLAPSE.
  
  
  ENRON'S COLLAPSE - IMPACT ON JUST ONE CATEGORY:
  Employees: 15,000
  ---They lost most of their 401(k) retirement plans.
  ---They lost their jobs!
  ---There were many ripple effects of the ENRON's wreak we do not care to enumerate here.
  
  ITEM: We are thinking if you got cents on the dollar for your Enron 401K Retirement benefit as settlement, you see the "vacuum" in your wallet and "retirement future" filled, even if you do not have a job and will receive $1,200 a month when you used to earn $6,000 a month.
  
  
  Then the multiple occasions the US federal government had to save private enterprise (Chrysler, GM, etc.), from themselves, even as their CEO made multi-millions in compensation and benefits, every year.

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• Kojo T 10 years ago

  Phillip confuses democracy, socialism, communism and Nkrumaismm .A lot has been written about capitalism starting with Adam Smith .But wealth creation has nothing to do with ideology. Most of the isms deal with owhership. If ...
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  Phillip confuses democracy, socialism, communism and Nkrumaismm .A lot has been written about capitalism starting with Adam Smith .But wealth creation has nothing to do with ideology. Most of the isms deal with owhership. If I own fallow land does that create wealth?.Wealth is created by applying enterprise,land, capital and labor. The efficient use of these creates more wealth.Phillip please go back to your basics

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• francis kwarteng 10 years ago

  Dear Baidoo,
  
  You are so wrong on so many things I don't even know where to start if, for the sake of argument, I should decide to mount a fierce riposte to your faulty reasoning and assumptions. Again you did not do any se ...
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  Dear Baidoo,
  
  You are so wrong on so many things I don't even know where to start if, for the sake of argument, I should decide to mount a fierce riposte to your faulty reasoning and assumptions. Again you did not do any serious reading before taking on this task.
  
  There are also numerous misrepresentations in this piece just as you did in responding to my rebuttal. Others are blatant lies (go back and re-read my rebuttal).
  
  Did you take time to go through my rebuttal before coming up with this articles? You could have provided a disclaimer citing gaps in your memory recall. What did you do in the six months?
  
  Let me recommend the following authoritative texts for you (these texts destroy most of the faulty assertions you make about Adam Smith, capitalism, Keynes, socialism, etc):
  
  1) The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers (Robert Heilbroner)
  
  2) Teachings from the Worldy Philosophers (same author)
  
  3) New Ideas from Dead Economists (George Bushholz)
  
  4) The Authentic Adam Smith: His Life And Ideas (James Buchan)
  
  5) Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty)
  
  6)Universal Man: The Lives of John Maynard Keynes (Richard Davenport-Hines)
  
  7)The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)
  
  As for Allan Greenspan, go to Forbes magazine and read the article "Allan Greenspan's Epic Incompetence: Another Shoe Drops" (Author: Eamonn Fingleton).
  
  Then go to the website of Naked Capitalism and read Bill Blacks article "Hoe Elite Economic Hucksters Drive America's Biggest Fraud Epidemics."
  
  Please also check out the AlterNet Series and read everything you find there under "The Age of Fraud." The Center for Economic and Pollicy Research (CEPR)has the article "Mr. Incompetent, The Economy Wrecker Alan Greenspan, Was Central to The Formation to The Campaign to Fix The Debt." The article says in part:
  
  "ALAN GREENSPAN WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE PERSON WHO HAS DONE MORE DAMAGE TO THE US ECONOMY AND SOCIETY THAN ANYONE WHO WAS NOT A FOREIGN ENEMY. IN FACT THE DESTRUCTION HE WRECKED THROUGH HIS INCOMPETENCE WOULD ALSO EXCEED THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY ALMOST ALL WOULD-BE ENEMIES AS WELL. GREENSPAN ACCOMPLISHED THE REMARKABLE FEAT OF AS FED CHAIR OF IGNORING OF IGNORING THE GROWTH OF THE $8 TRILLION HOUSING BUBBLE. THIS BUBBLE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN EASIER TO SEE IF IT BEEN 500 FEET HIGH AND LIT UP WITH HUGE NEON SIGNS SAYING 'HUGE HOUSING BUBBLE.' BUT GREENSPAN INSISTED THE BUBBLE WAS NOT THERE..." Please Baidoo go and read the rest of the article.
  
  
  And if you want a technical treatment of Alan Greenspan's failures as an economist, plead William Fleckenstein's book "GREENSPAN'S BUBBLES: THE AGE OF IGNORANCE AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE."
  
  In fact, you would not have said what you said about Greenspan if you read this book. But I am also too sure if you are serious or just decided to write for writing sake.
  
  Well, as for Einstein and the rest I should rather leave that to rest because you have no clue what you are talking about (I don't mean this as an insult, though). It is frustrating to read columnists who do not have a firm grip on the subject they pretend to be experts in!
  
  Dear Brother Baidoo, you should know by now why you are not to be taken serious on things you apparently have no deep knowledge about. Please be serious next time and don't be an apologist of names and theories you have not adequately researched into!
  
  I willend here and not bother you with an extensive bibiographies that do not do justice to your overly weak, uninformed assumptions, and porous arguments. I will get the technical texts for you!
  
  You seem to have wasted your six months for a task that should have been more remarkable and insightful than the three pieces I have read so far!
  
  You can always send me an email (franciskkwarteng@yahoo.com) and we discuss authoritative texts and technical publications on such subject matters before you decide to write! Always make sure to compare the contents of the texts I give you and what you have.
  
  So, my friend, you see the formidable task I have to undertake should I even decide to write a full essay (s) to rebut your arguments, outright lies and factual misreprepresentations, and faulty and grossly misinformed assumptions. I don't have that luxury of time on myself. I better use that to write other articles.
  
  Have a great week.

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• GORGORDUTOR 10 years ago

  Well said said Kwarteng.

  Well said said Kwarteng.

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• francis kwarteng 10 years ago

  Dear GORGORDUTOR,
  
  I am so disappointed in Baidoo for spending six month just to come up with these largely uninformed articles.
  
  I can only hope he does better next time after doing some serious reading! It is regrettabl ...
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  Dear GORGORDUTOR,
  
  I am so disappointed in Baidoo for spending six month just to come up with these largely uninformed articles.
  
  I can only hope he does better next time after doing some serious reading! It is regrettable I don't have time on my hand to guide Baidoo through his analytic errors, misrepresentations, faulty logic and assuptions, outright lies, and the like.
  
  Again, it is eloquently clear he did not do any serious reading in six months for this porously argued articles (I don't mean this as an insult).
  
  Perhaps Baidoo should take his time and re-read the articles again in conjunction with what the world's leading authorities have to say on the subjects (I have provided tons of resources for him but he keeps churning the same "outmoded" arguments and faulty assumptions).
  
  This is what happens when writers don't look at social science (the liberal arts/the humanities), literature, history, cultural and literary criticismm, etc., from the standpoint of the scientific method. They just argue on the basis of "sentiments."
  
  Have a great week.

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• Loway 10 years ago

  Nkrumah is right,United we stand,divided we fall.The west will not allow Africa to develop, only Africans can Develop Africa

  Nkrumah is right,United we stand,divided we fall.The west will not allow Africa to develop, only Africans can Develop Africa

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• Kwame 10 years ago

  Philip Kobina Baidoo, Karl Marx wrote in his "The German Philosophy" that the mere existence of error can not be righted. Thus in dialectics the existence of Ebola can not be righted the reason why mankind is doing all what e ...
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  Philip Kobina Baidoo, Karl Marx wrote in his "The German Philosophy" that the mere existence of error can not be righted. Thus in dialectics the existence of Ebola can not be righted the reason why mankind is doing all what exists as his disposal to eradicate it. But at the same time their are a group of minority in society that what to preserve Ebola because of the profit they gain from making Ebola drugs.
  Karl Marx's finding in Historical Materialism is that one socioeconomic system overthrows another which has long lived its time. In dialectics we shall say that the species evolve, thus from the dialectical and economic perspective capitalism will not live forever its time to live the socioeconomic scene came long ago, and that has also found expression in the march by the 99% of the population in both the U.S. and Western Europe against it.
  The main finding of Karl Marx in the Capital is Surplus Value and the wage slave, that still exist. Unless you are to prove to us that the employees of companies in capitalist countries are shareholders, rather than employees or wage salves, then put down your pen. I am of the view that you have not disagreed with Lenin's "Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism" and Kwame Nkrumah's "Neocolonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism" or you may be said to be living on Mars. Capitalism is a disease in society and just like disease is not the natural stage of a living body, thus capitalism as a disease is not appropriate for society.

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• MARCUS AMPADU 10 years ago

  P. K. Baidoo Jnr. , you are inadvertently revealing your heroes - Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and now Milton Friedman.
  
  By the way, the progressive liberals, Chris Dodd & Barney Frank are no longer US Congressmen ...
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  P. K. Baidoo Jnr. , you are inadvertently revealing your heroes - Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and now Milton Friedman.
  
  By the way, the progressive liberals, Chris Dodd & Barney Frank are no longer US Congressmen.
  
  It behooves you to keep up with the time if you are going to dabble in modern political economy because the terrain changes so fast.
  
  I will advise you to read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, a New Times Bestseller. Ms. Klein offers a new paradigm for understanding politics, at the same time I find The Shock Doctrine one of the best economic books of our new 21 st. century. The author presents a persuasive, and damning critique that capitalists of your ilk will be impressed by the weight of statistics and the extensive documentation she puts together to make her case.

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• francis kwarteng 10 years ago

  Mrcus,
  
  I have already recommended "The Shock Doctrine" to Baidoo. The book exposes the weaknesses and failures of Milton Friedman's liberal economics!
  
  I have also recommended books by Winston Churchill for Baidoo to rea ...
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  Mrcus,
  
  I have already recommended "The Shock Doctrine" to Baidoo. The book exposes the weaknesses and failures of Milton Friedman's liberal economics!
  
  I have also recommended books by Winston Churchill for Baidoo to read. Baidoo sees Churchil as his idol but it may be the case that he is not familiar with Churchill's views on Africans, captalism, imperialism, and the British Empire.
  
  Among other things he does not mention Thatcher's support for Apartheid, how Apartheid benefited British imperialism, and why a large segment of the citizens of the town where Thatcher came from did/do not want to be associated with her and her legacy (many did not want to see buried in the town?).
  
  Baidoo conveniently avoided these questions in discussing Thatcher. There is more to her checkered legacy!
  
  Thanks for edcating Baidoo. The gaps in his thinking are too many to take him serious. He could have done better in these essays if he spend his six months qualitatively reading and researching the "right" and authoritative sources. He fails woefully!
  
  Thanks.

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• francis kwarteng 10 years ago

  Hello,
  
  I recommended these texts for Baidoo but he appears not to have read them. I will want him to read them and come back here to refute the data (US declassified data among others).
  
  Baidoo seems not to know how Ame ...
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  Hello,
  
  I recommended these texts for Baidoo but he appears not to have read them. I will want him to read them and come back here to refute the data (US declassified data among others).
  
  Baidoo seems not to know how American capitalism contributed to the rise of Nazism and "communism." I put communism in quotes because the way Marx and Engels understood it and explained is not what Baidoo tries to capture in his faulty and largely ill-informed articles.
  
  I will advise him to go back again and read Marx and Enegls on the subject and back here to explain what it was the Russians, Cubans, and the Chinese "had." Baidoo does no appear to have a grasp of what "mixed economy" means.
  
  It is clear in his articles. And he has not spent quality time on examining the authoritative texts on Ghana's political economy (from the Gold Coast to the present).
  
  I believe all the texts I have assembled for him (I am preparing a list of technical texts for him) will educate him on the subject matter. This is not to say I know everything! I believe we are all learning from each other. I learn new things everyday!
  
  What I am indirectly saying is that Baidoo should have done some serious reading before embarking on this latest project. He three away six months for nothing!
  
  I will recommend them again (all by the late Anthony C. Sutton):
  
  1) Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution
  
  2) Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (1917-1930)
  
  3) Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (1930-1945)
  
  4) Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (1945-1965)
  
  5) National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union
  
  6) Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler
  
  
  Please Baidoo, read these dense texts and come back here to refute the evidence!
  
  All errors are mine.
  
  Have a great week.

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