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Crisis

FROM THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL AUSTERITY

by Third World Network

3 May 2013

To highlight some of the complex dynamics and challenges of the IMF’s role in the Arab region, in a context of continuing popular uprisings that are calling for social and economic justice and for transforming the national development paradigm, and to link it to the waves of austerity across Europe, the US and other regions, a panel discussion titled “From the Arab Revolutions to Global Austerity,” was held on the sidelines of the spring meetings (19-21 April) of the IMF and World Bank. More

BRICS BANK: DOING DEVELOPMENT DIFFERENTLY?

by Brunn Nagara

12 April 2013

The annual Brics summit held during the week in Durban, South Africa, focused on what that muscle can do - challenge the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the way development finance is conducted, as well as the Western dominance that has prevailed in both Bretton Woods institutions. More

CYPRUS : AS THE FINANCIAL CRISIS DEEPENS, WILL THE LESSONS BE LEARNT?

by Martin Khor

12 April 2013

The Cyprus crisis has again shown that over-dependence on the financial sector and an unregulated and liberalised financial system can cause havoc to an economy. More

GLOBAL FINANCIAL FLOWS, AID AND DEVELOPMENT

by Eurodad

30 March 2013

This paper - written by Eurodad for CONCORD’s Aidwatch coalition - sets out all the financial resources potentially available for development. It examines their key characteristics and discusses their poverty and sustainable development impacts, as well as the implications for aid. More

CYPRUS - WHOSE CRISIS?

by Petros Kosmas

29 March 2013

Cyprus’s banking sector did not grow so recklessly and to an unsustainable size in order to best serve Cypriots’s social and economic needs. More

MORE ROOM FOR DEBATE ON VENEZUELA

by Mark Weisbrot

9 January 2013

Last week the New York Times did something it has never done before - in its “Room for Debate” section it offered differing views on Venezuela. In the 14 years since Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela, the Times has offered many op-eds and editorials against Venezuela - including its own editorial board piece supporting the 2002 military coup (which they later backpedaled from without apology). But they have never seen fit to publish even a single op-ed that contrasted with their editorial line (or reporting, for that matter) on this oil-rich country. More

NEW BLOW TO BANKING SYSTEM

by Martin Khor

31 July 2012

The still-developing LIBOR scandal is the latest and biggest blow to the credibility of big banks and their regulators, and should catalyse broad-ranging reforms to the financial system. More

MEXICO’S ELECTION: IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID

by Mark Weisbrot

5 July 2012

While some have noticed that the economy has played a role in the election, almost no commentators seem to appreciate the depth of Mexico’s economic failure. More

GREECE ALREADY DEFAULTED ON THE CREDITORS’ TERMS; WHAT THEY FEAR IS DEFAULT ON THE DEBTOR’S TERMS

by Christina Laskaridis

19 May 2012

What is being witnessed in Greece is a full blown example of being trapped in the debtor’s prison of current sovereign debt resolution mechanisms, where creditors are both judge and jury More

EUROMEDITERRANEAN MEETING ON DEBT AND AUDITS

by Eurodad

17 March 2012

On Saturday, April 7th an Euromediterranean meeting on debt and audits will be held in Brussels in order to greater knowledge and empower coordinated actions among campaigners. More

WE CONDEMN THE DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN ON THE GREEK DEBT AND THE RESCUE PLAN BY PRIVATE CREDITORS

by Damien Millet, Yorgos and Sonia Mitralias, Eric Toussaint, Renaud Vivien (CADTM)

12 March 2012

For the CADTM, this new plan is a hoax: while claiming to rescue Greece it actually saves the day for private creditors though they are largely responsible for the Greek debt. More

THE LESSON FROM ICELAND’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY: LET BANKS GO BUST

by Matthew Partridge

5 March 2012

Governments around the world bailed out their financial sectors. However, Iceland took a different tack. The government declared that it would only save domestic bank account holders - everyone else would have to fight over the remaining assets More

OUR STREETS VS. WALL STREET

by Steve Fraser

8 November 2011

After an absence of well over half a century, Wall Street is back, center stage, as the preferred American icon of revulsion, a status it held for a fair share of our history. More

IRELAND: THE SOCIALIST SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS

by Ireland: Socialist Workers Party - SWP-

14 November 2010

These cuts will only throw the country back into an even deeper recession - putting ever greater numbers of people onto the dole. All of which begs the question: What is the alternative? More

EUROZONE CRISIS IS SELF-INFLICTED

by Mark Weisbrot

28 May 2010

The populations now suffering under EU-imposed austerity must have a real and credible threat of leaving the euro More

UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION: A BROKEN SYSTEM

by Marianne Hill

7 October 2009

Shifts in employment patterns and a tightening of eligibility requirements are behind the nationwide reduction in effective unemployment insurance coverage. More

G-20 MEETING IN PITTSBURGH : CASINO CAPITALISM AS USUAL

by Mark Engler

3 October 2009

he Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Pittsburgh (Sept. 24-25 2009) brought together leaders from the most significant players in the global economy. Unfortunately, the changes left off the table at the summit were far more significant than the modest reforms actually debated, and the few alterations that did make it into the final agreement are likely to be further watered down in implementation. More

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ONE YEAR ON

by Jayati Ghosh

18 September 2009

Today there is talk of recovery everywhere, even in currently recessionary Europe and certainly in the US. So was the emergency response successful? And have policy makers learned the important lessons from the crisis? More

THE BAILOUTS REVISITED

by Marty Wolfson

15 September 2009

Who got bailed out and why? Is there any alternative to “Too Big to Fail”? If we want to help the people who are suffering in this crisis and recession, then we should make financial policies with them directly in mind. Just throwing money at the banks will not get the job done. More

UNITED STATES: ONE YEAR OF BANKSTER BAILOUTS AND MELTDOWN MADNESS

by John Nichols

14 September 2009

One year ago today, the economic time bomb that George Bush and Dick Cheney had spent two terms constructing - on a platform of deregulations furnished by Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich - blew up. The explosion created the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. And it sent unemployment rates soaring to the highest levels in a quarter century. More

CAPITALISM IN CRISIS, GOVERNMENT IMPOTENT

by Rick Wolff

11 September 2009

Government policies over the last two centuries of capitalism’s ascendancy have neither ended nor replaced crises as the system’s method for correcting capitalist excesses. More

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES DEVELOPING COUNTRY CRISIS IMPACTS AND RESPONSES

by Eurodad

9 September 2009

On 3 September the European Parliament Development Committee discussed the effects of the economic crisis on developing countries. More

AMERICA’S BAILOUT BARONS

by Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh, Chuck Collins and Sam Pizzigati - Institute for Policy Studies

8 September 2009

The full the 16th Annual IPS Executive Compensation Survey, "America’s Bailout Barons - Taxpayers, High Finance, and the CEO Pay Bubble". More

MANAGING CRISIS IN JAMAICA AND CUBA

by Robert Buddan

8 September 2009

In Cuba, the economy is the top priority and food security is regarded as nothing less than a matter of national security. In Jamaica, the economy is the priority, although winning by-elections seems to come close More

INTERVIEW OF JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER ON THE GREAT FINANCIAL CRISIS

by Mike Whitney

29 August 2009

he robbing of public funds to bail out private capital is now on a scale probably never before seen. A politicized, organized working class capable of understanding and reacting to that theft, and choosing thereby to restructure society, to meet real social, egalitarian needs is what is now to be hoped for. More

BEYOND THE WORLD CREDITORS’ CARTEL

by Dariush Sokolov

20 August 2009

In Latin America and elsewhere, the IMF may be re-emerging-but in a changed landscape. More

THE END OF RETIREMENT?

by Sam Gindin

17 August 2009

The attack on private sector pensions is not new; while the process has been uneven across time and sectors, private pensions in the U.S. and Canada have been eroding for over a quarter of a century. More

RUSSIA’S ECONOMY : NORMAL REMEDIES WON’T WORK

by Dmitri Travin

14 August 2009

The economic crisis in Russia has proved much more serious than was expected in the autumn of 2008, when the first signs of a serious downturn became apparent. Experts are currently talking more and more about the imminent so-called second phase of the crisis, when bad debts on a massive scale will lead to the collapse of the banking system. More

THE DEFLATING ECONOMY

by Mike Whitney

13 August 2009

There should be a modest uptick in GDP in either in the 4th quarter 2009 or the 1st quarter 2010. This will mark the end of the current 20 month-long recession, but not the end of the crisis. The blip in growth doesn’t mean that the troubles are over or that the economy is on the way to recovery. It simply means that Obama’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus is beginning to kick in, giving a boost to consumer spending and generating short-term economic activity. Regrettably, when the stimulus (...) More

BERNANKE’S BAD TEACHERS

by Gerald Friedman

11 August 2009

Bernanke closed his 2002 remarks with a promise. “Let me end my talk,” he said, “by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.” More

US BANK BAILOUT TO COST $23.7 TRILLION

by Andre Damon

22 July 2009

The federal government’s bailout of Wall Street may cost $23.7 trillion, according to a statement given to Congress Monday by the lead overseer of the Treasury’s bailout program, Neil Barofsky, special inspector-general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). More

US CONGRESS DIVIDED ON THE NEED OF A NEW STIMULUS PACKAGE

by Bill Laforme

9 July 2009

A debt has started to develop in Washington on the and the viability or not of second federal stimulus package as, despite the massive deficits piling up in recent months, the economy is not reacting. More

STAGES IN THE NEW DEBT DEFLATION FISHER-MINSKY CRISIS

by Arturo Guillén R.

19 June 2009

The global crisis is the most important capitalist crisis since World War II. It is a new type of debt-deflation crisis, highlighting the limits of the finance-dominated regime of accumulation in place since the 1980s and characterized, among other things, by securitization, that is, a financing regime based on issuing securities and derivatives. More

ARE EASTERN EUROPE PROBLEMS GOING TO SPILLOVER?

by Nouriel Roubini

11 June 2009

The collapse of the Thai baht in July 1997 helped spark the Asian financial crisis. Could events in Latvia spawn a similar contagion? Eyes are focused on this small Baltic economy—amid growing talk of a devaluation—because of the potential for spillover effects into its fellow Baltic states, Sweden and the broader Eastern European region. More

LATVIA’S CRISIS DEEPENS

by Kathleen Moore

7 June 2009

Not so long ago it was the fastest growing economy in the European Union. But boom turned to spectacular bust last year as the global financial crisis swept across Eastern Europe, popping Latvia’s real-estate bubble. More

CHINA AND THE US DOLLAR TRAP

by Sebastian Mallaby

1 June 2009

Chinese authorities are searching for a way to reduce their exposure to the greenback. The surest method would be to stop buying so many U.S. Treasury bonds; but that would mean allowing the Chinese currency to rise against the dollar, which would hurt Chinese exporters when they are already suffering. More

LATIN AMERICAN LEADERS ARE CALLED TO PARTICIPATE IN UPCOMING UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE WORLD CRISIS (G-192)

by Social Movements

29 May 2009

Social movements of Latin American send and Open Letter to Heads of State encouraging their participation in the upcoming celebration in New York, June 24 to 26, of the United Nations’ Conference on the Developmental Impacts of the Financial and Economic Crisis. More

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLDMAN SACHS

by Robert Zevin

28 May 2009

The Bush administration and the Obama administration have simply abandoned the principles that worked for Roosevelt through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in the first days of his administration, that worked in the Savings and Loan Crisis in the early 90’s, that worked in Sweden as well at the same time and that have been understood by capitalist central bankers for 150 years. Save the depositors not the bank owners or bondholders. More

UN SUMMIT ON FINANCIAL CRISIS DELAYED UNTIL LATE JUNE

by News Agencies

27 May 2009

The UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development was originally slated to be held on June 1-3, with an aim to find a common and lasting solution to address the ongoing financial and economic crisis of the world. More

ASIAN COUNTRIES CREATE AN INDEPENDENT USD 120 BILLON FUND TO FACE THE CRISIS

by OID-IDO

25 May 2009

The idea of the "pool" stemmed from the devastation Asian nations suffered from the 1997-98 financial crisis. But turning the idea into a real mechanism has been possible on last weeek end , in the background of the world crisis. More

HAS THE RECESSION BOTTOMED OUT?

by Steve Schifferes

22 May 2009

By some measures, the global recession seems to be accelerating, with unemployment rising and overall economic activity falling. But there are some signs that the rate of decline is slowing. How significant is the evidence for a turning point? More

CANADA’S PRIME MINISTER IS URGED TO PARTICIPATE IN FORTHCOMING UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE WORLD CRISIS (G-192).

by Halifax Initiative Coalition

18 May 2009

An open letter urges Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen harper, to give the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis the political weight it deserves and to participate in the meeting as the country’s Head of Government. More

PRESIDENT OF UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY REJECTS EUROPEAN CRITICISM TO G-192 DECLARATION ON CAPITALIST CRISIS

by OID-IDO

13 May 2009

The President of United Nations General Assembly, Miguel D’Escoto, criticized European countries for rejecting without justification the draft for a declaration of the world leaders Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis (G-192) to be hold in New York from June 1 to 3 to debate and propose alternatives to the international crisis. More

TOWARDS A WESTERN/EASTERN EUROPE BANKING AND SOCIAL TSUNAMI

by Catherine Samary

12 May 2009

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was called to the rescue by Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine... which are confronted with a fall in growth and in foreign exchange rates, with capital flight and a banking crisis. The policies of budgetary austerity, under the pressure of the IMF and of the European Union, are producing governmental crises. More

HAS BERNANKE PULLED THE ECONOMY BACK FROM THE BRINK?

by Mike Whitney

12 May 2009

Digging out of the current recession won’t be easy. The wholesale credit system will have to be rebuilt, just as the financial system will have to be re-regulated and reset at a lower level of economic activity. That means higher unemployment, smaller GDP, and falling demand. More

AUSTRALIA: WHEN CASHED-UP IMF OFFERS TO HELP, STEER WELL CLEAR

by Ross Buckley

5 May 2009

Make no mistake, the worst of the global crisis is still before us.This collapse in trade and capital flows will seriously damage the fragile economies of poorer countries. More

CONCERNS: UN CONFERENCE ON WORLD CRISIS (G192)

by François Houtart

4 May 2009

Letter to Social Movements, Non-Governmental Networks and Intellectuals. Facing the systemic and global crisis, the G20 has presented a series of measures, without consulting the majority of the countries of the world. More

ECONOMY ON THE ROPES

by Mike Whitney

2 May 2009

The economy continued to shrink in the first quarter of 2009 at an annual pace of 6.1 percent, making it the worst recession in more than 50 years. More

ECUADOR AT THE CROSSROADS

by Eric Toussaint

30 April 2009

The coming months will show whether Ecuador’s government can take the necessary measures to face the consequences of the international crisis which is deeply affecting the Ecuadorian population More

USA: CALCULATING THE LOSSES OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

by Billy Wharton

30 April 2009

The resulting losses have not just been financial. Significant social stress produced by the financial shock has translated into externally and internally directed violence. More

IMF/WORLD BANK SPRING MEETINGS: FINANCE MINISTERS IN WASHINGTON FAIL TO DELIVER ON G20 PROMISES

by Eurodad

29 April 2009

Impoverished countries don’t know yet on how much they will count and the extent to which the IMF will grant this finance at reasonable terms and avoid making past mistakes. More

AUSTRALIA: WHO PAYS FOR THE RECESSION?

by Graham Matthews

27 April 2009

On April 23, the Australian Financial Review reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had “dramatically downgraded its outlook” for the Australian economy, predicting a recession similar to the 1990s downturn and an unemployment rate of up to 8% next year. The IMF said the economy was set to contract by 1.4%. More

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS MENACES 2015 MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

by Amin Ahmed

25 April 2009

The global financial crisis is imperilling attainment of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and creating an emergency for development, warned an IMF-World Bank report released on Friday. More

IMF PREDICTS A HISTORICAL RECESSION IN 2009

by OID-IDO

22 April 2009

The International Monetary Fund is predicting a "severe recession" of global proportions in 2009 and a "gradual" recovery in 2010. According to the World Economic Outlook, GDP will shrink by 1.3% in 2009 before growing again by 1.9% in 2010. More

IMF EMERGENCY LOANS: GREATER FLEXIBILITY TO OVERCOME THE CRISIS?

by Eurodad

22 April 2009

Despite promising IMF rhetoric about greater flexibility in fiscal and monetary policies because of the current crisis, IMF loans in Romania, Latvia and Armenia show that practice is not in line. The Fund is still pushing tight fiscal policy and single-digit inflation. More

THE CRISIS IS FAR FROM OVER

by Michel Husson

19 April 2009

The degree of coordination among the capitalist authorities (governments, banks, IMF, sovereign wealth funds, European institutions, etc.) is advancing under the pressure of the emergency. But it is not enough to make us envisage the establishment of a new Bretton Woods. More

REGULATIONS DO NOT PREVENT CAPITALIST CRISES

by Rick Wolff

16 April 2009

From FDR to Obama, capitalist crashes brought state interventions into the economy that always included new or increased regulations. Immediately after (and sometimes already during) every phase of regulation, boards of directors and major shareholders of many US corporations began to undermine that regulation. More

THEIR CRISIS, OUR CHALLENGE

by David Harvey

14 April 2009

The term ‘national bail-out’ is therefore inaccurate, because they’re not bailing out the whole of the existing financial system - they’re bailing out the banks, the capitalist class, forgiving them their debts, their transgressions, and only theirs More

G20: HOW NOT TO RULE THE WORLD

by Jayati Ghosh

13 April 2009

Not much could have been expected from this G20 Summit. Despite the urgency of a global economy going rapidly over the cliff, there is still too much disagreement about most issues among the members. Even so, the resulting communiqué released with so much fanfare is deeply disappointing. More

THAILAND CANCELLED ASEAN SUMMIT FORCED BY PROTESTS

by News Agencies

11 April 2009

The Thai Government has canceled a summit of leaders from the Association of South East Asian Nations - ASEAN - after anti-government protesters blocked the meeting venue at the seaside resort of Pattaya. The government has declared a stage of emergency over the province. More

RUSSIA: BANKING CRISIS DEEPENS

by Emma O’Brien and William Mauldin

10 April 2009

Russian banks’ bad loans will quadruple to $70 billion this year, deepening the country’s worst financial crisis since the government’s 1998 debt default More

UNITED STATES: IS THE BAILOUT PLAN BREEDING A GREATER CRISIS?

by Paul Craig Roberts

8 April 2009

If the U.S. dollar loses its reserve currency status, the United States will not be able to pay for its imports. The ensuing crisis would dwarf the current one. More

ITALY: MASS PROTEST IN ROME OVER FINANCIAL CRISIS

by News Agencies

6 April 2009

Several hundred thousand workers, pensioners, immigrants and students filled a Rome park on Saturday in protest at the Italian government’s handling of the financial crisis. More

TRANSFORMING THE WORLD IN CRISIS

by Conference of Prague 2009

3 April 2009

NGO`s discussed for three days in Prague the root causes, impacts and responses to the financial crises, economic meltdown, climate change, mismanagement of natural resource use, increasing inequity and volatile food and oil prices from the systemic perspective of the world’s poor and vulnerable. More

A G20 MEETING FOR NAUGHT

by Eric Toussaint and Damien Millet

2 April 2009

The G20 was not created in order to provide genuine solutions; it was hastily summoned a first time in November 2008 to salvage the powers that be and try and to plug the breaches in capitalism. More

LATIN AMERICA : ARGENTINA AND CHINA TO SIGN INEDIT $10.2 BLLLION CURRENCY SWAP DEAL

by News Agencies

31 March 2009

Argentina and China have tentatively agreed to swap equivalente $10.2 billion worth of their currencies to enable South America’s second-largest economy to avoid using dollars in trade between the nations, banking officials said Monday. More

CZECH REPUBLIC AND HUNGARY: FINANCIAL CRISIS TAKES POLITICAL TOLL

by Zoltán Dujisin

30 March 2009

The weak governments in Hungary and the Czech Republic have fallen, raising questions on the future of liberal economic reform and the influence of the U.S., the European Union and Russia in the region. More

FISCAL STIMULUS PLANS: THE NEED FOR A GLOBAL NEW DEAL

by Isabel Ortiz

27 March 2009

This article reviews the fiscal stimulus packages announced in 43 countries. In March 2009, the total amount announced for these stimulus plans is US$ 2.18 trillion, or 3.5% of world’s GDP, mostly in higher income economies. More

LONDON: PUT PEOPLE FIRST MARCH AHEAD OF G20’S SUMMIT

by Social Movements

26 March 2009

On 28th March thousands will march through London as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20, ahead of their 2nd April summit on the global financial crisis More

GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD : BILLIONS MORE FOR FAILED BANKS

by Dean Baker

25 March 2009

As a result, the banks are likely to still have several hundred billion of bad assets on their books even after this plan has been put in place. The Obama administration will then be forced to go to Congress with yet another bailout proposal More

OBAMA DIALS DOWN WALL STREET CRITICISM

by Monica Langley

24 March 2009

In recent days, in spite of public furor over huge bonuses paid at American International Group Inc., the administration has concluded that it needs the private sector to play a central role in fixing the economy. More

NO RETURN TO NORMAL

by James K. Galbraith

21 March 2009

Why the economic crisis, and its solution, are bigger than you think. More

FINANCIAL CRISIS: SECRECY JURISDICTIONS UNDER PRE-G20 SUMMIT PRESSURE

by Eurodad

20 March 2009

The financial crisis has definitely put tax havens on the spotlight. In the run up to the G20 London summit on 2 April, secrecy jurisdictions are on the front pages of most newspapers More

HAS THE ECONOMY GONE OVER THE EDGE?

by Lee Sustar

19 March 2009

The epicenter of the crisis remains the U.S. financial system, where "zombie" banks—that is, insolvent ones like Citigroup—continue to swallow hundreds of billions in government funds, even as they are unable or unwilling to make new loans themselves. More

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS FRUSTRATES LATIN AMERICA’S EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH THE BANK OF THE SOUTH

by César Muñoz Acebes

18 March 2009

Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela signed, at the end of 2007, the foundational act of the Bank of the South, but still continue working in a draft of the constitutive agreement. More

MONEY SENT FROM WORKERS TO LATIN AMERICA IS EXPECTED TO DROP

by Miriam Jordan

16 March 2009

After a decade of growth, remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean began to slow in 2008, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, as countries that attract large numbers of migrant workers, including the U.S., Spain and Japan, slid into recession. And this year, remittances to the region are likely to drop for the first time since the bank began tracking annual flows in 2000. More

EUROIFINET LAUNCHES A POSITION PAPER ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND CAPITAL FLIGHT, DEBT AND IFIS

by Eurodad

12 March 2009

The paper highlights that there is a broad, global systemic crisis with environmental, social, economic and democratic dimensions; and that there is a need for new structures and a new paradigm More

"THE BAILING OUT OF THE SYSTEM RIGHT NOW IS GOING ON WITH TAXPAYER FUNDS BUT WITHOUT THE SAY OF THE PUBLIC"

by Mike Whitney

9 March 2009

John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, recently published by Monthly Review Press. This is a heavily abridged version of an interview was conducted by Mike Whitney that first appeared at Dissident Voice - http://www.dissidentvoice.org More

WHAT KIND OF A “NEW” BRETTON WOODS WILL EMERGE FROM THE CRISIS?

by John Dillon

6 March 2009

As the world undergoes the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s, political leaders of various persuasions have been talking about convening a new Bretton Woods conference to re-design the global financial system. The rhetorical calls for a new Bretton Woods sound appealing. But it is not at all clear whether a new, more just and sustainable order will emerge. Currently minor re-forms that will only shore up an unjust economic order seem more likely. More

AFL-CIO SUPPORTS NATIONALIZING THE BANKS: BUT WHO WILL CONTROL AND RUN THEM?

by Dan La Botz

5 March 2009

The AFL-CIO has announced that it now supports nationalizing the nation’s banks rather than continuing to spend billions of dollars in repeated efforts to restore them to solvency. More

LATIN AMERICA FACES THE GLOBAL CRISIS

by Claudio Katz

3 March 2009

The capitalists of Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina receive the assistance that should be allocated for the destitute. The social-liberal and neo-developmentalist governments all follow statist programs on behalf of the rich and powerful and do not coordinate their anti-crisis policies. More

EUROPE’S FINANCIAL REGULATION “WISE MEN” UNWANTED SAY PROTESTERS

by Alex Wilks- Eurodad

2 March 2009

Sheriff or cowboy? That was the question that we raised on the De Larosiere Group as their report on European financial regulation was launched yesterday. Eurodad staff joined colleagues from Corporate Europe Observatory and Friends of the Earth to dress up in checked shirts and hats and parade outside the European Commission’s Berlaymont building. More

E.U. MEETING- DOUBTS AND DEBATES DUE EASTERN EUROPE’S CRITICAL FINANCIAL SITUATION

by News Agencies

1 March 2009

The EU "27" leaders extraordinary Summit concluded with questions on whether statements about unity and solidarity in dealing with the world financial crisis were true or an alibi for the implementation of side policies. More

FROM GLOBAL FINANCE TO THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE BANKS

by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin

26 February 2009

The call for nationalization of the banks provides an opening for advancing broader strategies that begin to take up the need for systemic alternatives to capitalism More

TIME FOR PERMANENT NATIONALIZATION

by Fred Moseley

24 February 2009

But there is a better alternative, a more equitable, “taxpayer friendly” option: Permanently nationalize banks that are “too big to fail” and run these banks according to public policy objectives (affordable housing, green energy, etc.), rather than with the objective of private profit maximization. The nationalization of banks, if it’s done right, would clearly be superior to current bailout policies because it would not involve a massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to bondholders. More

THE CRISIS OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT,

by Chronis J Polychroniou

23 February 2009

Interview with John Bellamy Foster, Editor of Monthly Review and Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon, for Eleftherotypia (Greece) More

REBUILDING BANKING

by Leo Panitch

13 February 2009

Understanding the role of the state in a capitalist society helps us to see why, when a government bails them out with public money, the bankers do not see this as the start of socialism. More

ENERGY CRISIS, CLIMATE COLLAPSE, HUNGER AND FINANCIAL INSTABILITIES: THE PLAGUES OF CAPITALISM

by Elmar Altvater

12 February 2009

The financial crisis turns into a crisis of the real economy At the beginning of October 2008, the IMF valued the losses of the global financial crisis at US$ 1400 billion. Only a month later, the Bank of England doubled this estimate to US$ 2800 billion. More

"NEW EUROPE" IS ON THE ECONOMIC EDGE

by Michael Werbowski

10 February 2009

The rising rage is palpable across Europe. Grumblings of discontent simmering beneath the surface for years have turned nasty, in places such as Greece last year. In 2009, these feelings persist and are intensifying by the day More

ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

by BBC- News

10 February 2009

BBC News asked four participants in the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil, (David Evan Harris, Walden Bello, Myriam Vander Stichele and Marcos Arruda) to state their opinions on the global crisis and alternatives to address it More

ICELAND GOES BANKRUPT: NEW GOVERNMENT FORMED AS A RESULT OF ECONOMIC TROUBLES

by Brett Evans

10 February 2009

Iceland’s center-left Social Democratic Alliance Party was chosen Tuesday to form a new government with the Left-Green movement following the collapse of the conservative government amid deep economic troubles. More

LESS AND WORSE AID? FINANCIAL CRISIS SHOWS FIRST IMPACTS ON EUROPEAN AID BUDGETS

by Eurodad

7 February 2009

While rich countries’ governments spent trillions on bailing out banks and speculators, the more than one billion people living in absolute poverty will clearly be the losers of the financial crisis. Several donors announced recently that they will either cut their aid spending in 2009, or they will deliver more aid in less effective or more harmful ways. More

BANK EXPROPIATION IS RATIONAL, BUT NEITHER SOCIALIST NOR SUFFICIENT

by Paulo L dos Santos

6 February 2009

The chronic banking crisis is flaring up again. Banks in the US and Britain continue to hemorrhage capital as recession and falling asset prices add to their losses More

AS A WAY OUT OF THE CRISIS, ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

by Jana Silverman

5 February 2009

From January 27 - February 1, the eighth edition of the World Social Forum (WSF) took place in Belem do Para, the vivacious gateway city to Brazil’s Amazon region. Under throbbing heat and intense tropical rainstorms, over 130,000 activists from 142 countries came together to establish connections between diverse social movements, debate possible solutions to the current financial crisis, and celebrate the construction of a more just and sustainable world More

CRISIS IN THE HEARTLAND: CONSEQUENCES OF THE NEW WALL STREET SYSTEM

by Peter Gowan

4 February 2009

Against mainstream accounts, Peter Gowan argues that the origins of the global financial crisis lie in the dynamics of the New Wall Street System that has emerged since the 1980s. Contours of the Atlantic model, and implications-geopolitical, ideological, economic-of its blow-out. More

LESSONS FROM GLOBAL CORPORATE FRAUDS

by Jayati Ghosh

3 February 2009

As global capitalism lurches around in crisis, it seems that there is no end to the worms crawling out of the woodwork. The financial crash and economic downswings have been accompanied by more than just cyclical bad news from companies that have been engaged in bona fide business. The adverse market conditions are making it harder to disguise corporate frauds that could flourish in the earlier boom, and so more and more details of unsavoury business operations are emerging among a wide (...) More

A NEW NEW DEAL UNDER OBAMA?

by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney

1 February 2009

With U.S. capitalism mired in an economic crisis of a severity that increasingly brings to mind the Great Depression of the 1930s, it should come as no surprise that there are widespread calls for “a new New Deal.” More

THE HUMAN COSTS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

by Nick Turse

30 January 2009

The body count is still rising. For months on end, marked by bankruptcies, foreclosures, evictions, and layoffs, the economic meltdown has taken a heavy toll on Americans. In response, a range of extreme acts including suicide, self-inflicted injury, murder, and arson have hit the local news. By October 2008, an analysis of press reports nationwide indicated that an epidemic of tragedies spurred by the financial crisis had already spread from Pasadena, California, to Taunton, Massachusetts, from Roseville, Minnesota, to Ocala, Florida More

HOW SERIOUS IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ABOUT NATIONALIZING BANKS?

by Mike Ellis

29 January 2009

Not very. Speaking to reporters today, newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner all but dismissed the idea outright: More

THE UN DISCUSSES IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM

by Eurodad

27 January 2009

There is no doubt that the financial crisis will have vast implications for developing countries. The world’s poor are going to be seriously affected by a crisis they have not contributed to create, and they run the risk of being left out from key global discussions to fix the flawed international monetary and financial system More

BHUTAN POLITICAL CRISIS, DEBT SCENARIO AND INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

by Mohan Tamang

15 January 2009

Presented by Mohan Tamang, Democratic Youth of Bhutan, 15th Jan 2009 More

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS: IMPACT AND RESPONSES IN NEPAL

by D. R. Khanal

15 January 2009

Global Financial Crisis: Impact and Responses in Nepal Presented by D. R. Khanal (Dr.) More

"THE PARTY IS OVER"; ORIGIN AND CAUSES OF THE HOUSING CRISIS

by Arturo Guillén R.

21 June 2008

This paper’s aim is to analyze the origins and causes of the housing crisis that began emerging in the U.S. economy in early 2007, becoming a grave financial crisis by August. In the second part, I will examine the background to the crisis: the long 1990s boom, the 2000 NASDAQ crisis and the policies adopted to extricate the system from it. Section 3 presents a brief chronology of the housing crisis; in part 4, I will suggest some hypotheses for understanding it theoretically; and in (...) More

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