The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
"Has the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lived up to its founding goals or is it just a club for rich countries to dictate growth?" asks Al Jazeera, after the IMF met for its annual meeting in Turkey last week. Two years ago, The IMF was fighting for relevance but has come back with vigour, bolstered by a new role given to it by G20 leaders at the London Summit earlier this year -- to bail out countries affected by the global financial and economic crisis and to play a key role...
Saliem Fakir -
The recent G20 meeting is prescient. It reinforces the idea, despite scepticism about state intervention, that only the state can bring back balance. The G20 statement is full of measures that speak to a throng of interventions that demonstrate the state’s capacity is not nascent, but real.
The financial crisis like the “War or Terror” legitimises state activism within the economy. If you thought the state was dead you cannot help but feel that its strident zest for life is...
Michael Hudson -
Not much substantive news was expected to come out of the G-20 meetings that ended on April 2 in London – certainly no good news was even suggested. Europe, China and the United States had too deeply distinct interests. American diplomats wanted to lock foreign countries into further dependency on paper dollars. The rest of the world sought a way to avoid giving up real output and ownership of their resources and enterprises for yet more hot-potato dollars. In such cases one expects a...
The G20 was not about bringing about the 'new world order' touted by Britain's Gordon Brown. It was an attempt to maintain the 'old world order', contends Leo Panitch, Professor of political science at York University and author of "The American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance." In his view, the G20 countries have come together with an agreement around a bunch of rhetoric and some "not insignificant measures." The rhetoric is that they are united...
Democracy Now -
Tens of thousands of protesters from around the world have gathered in London to demonstrate against the G20 talks and call for economic justice and environmental accountability. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviews Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South to get his perspective on the G20.
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AMY GOODMAN: President Obama is in London today ahead of the G20 summit, where world leaders are gathering to discuss the global economic crisis. It marks Obama’s first trip to Europe since...
Dean Baker -
Imagine that the United States was researching biological weapons and it inadvertently allowed a deadly bacteria to get into the atmosphere. The bacteria quickly spread around the world, leading to sickness and death everywhere.
Fortunately, US scientists have developed a drug to treat the disease, which the United States generously shares with the other wealthy countries and a select group of developing countries. Unfortunately, there are a number of developing countries with whom the...
