Financial System

HOW THE BANKS DO IT

by Donald Mackenzie

2 May 2013

The insurance that taxpayers provide to banks has the effect of making it seem to bankers that it is much cheaper for them to take on debt to fund their assets than to raise cash from shareholders, for example by issuing new shares. 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

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

KEY ISSUES IN THE ORGANIZATION OF AND GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN FINANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: LESSONS FROM RECENT EXPERIENCE

by Ylmaz Akyuz

2 February 2013

A fundamental question raised by recurrent fi-nancial crises in mature and emerging econo-mies is how to ensure that the financial markets and institutions serve growth and development rather than being a constant source of instability and disrup-tion in pursuit of self-interest. This is not only a ques-tion of how best to regulate the existing institutions and markets, but also how to restructure and organ-ize them. More

PUBLIC DEBT IN THAILAND FROM 1997 - 2010.

by Naphon Phumma

5 July 2012

Even during the global current crisis, the government has financed its spending by issuing new lots of government bonds that are valued in the form of the Baht. More

MORE PAIN, NO GAIN FOR GREECE

by Mark Weisbrot, Luis Alberto Montecino

12 March 2012

New Paper Argues Greece Should Consider Default and Exit From Euro. It looks at Greece’s experience with “internal devaluation” and finds there’s a high risk of continued prolonged recession 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

OUR STREETS VS. WALL STREET

by Steve Fraser

15 October 2011

Occupy Wall Street, the ongoing demonstration-cum-sleep-in that began a month ago not far from the New York Stock Exchange and has since spread like wildfire to cities around the country, may be a game-changer. If so, it couldn’t be more appropriate or more in the American grain that, when the game changed, Wall Street was directly in the sights of the protesters. More

FINANCIAL CRISIS OR CRISIS OF CAPITALISM?

by Michel Husson

23 June 2010

The current crisis originated in the financial arena but quickly spread to all of the so-called real economy. This observation raises two questions. A theoretical question: how to analyze the relationship between finance and the real economy and their responsibility for the crisis? And a more practical question: what are the channels of transmission from one to another and how to reverse financialization? More

THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE XXI CENTURY.

by Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall

24 May 2010

The following text is the Preface of The Global Economic Crisis. The Great Depression of the XXI Century, Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall (Editors), Montreal, Global Research, 2010, which is to be launched in late May. More

UNITED STATES : STATE BUDGET BLUES - LOOKING FOR FUNDS IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES

by Marianne Hill

29 December 2009

Experts anticipate that federal dollars going to state programs will be scaled back, with funding levels increasing only in targeted areas such as health care and energy. So shortfalls in state budgets will continue for years to come unless states either enact more cuts or update their antiquated tax systems. More

NEW REPORT FINDS IMF AGREEMENTS HAVE INCLUDED POLICIES THAT COULD WORSEN ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN IN 31 OF 41 COUNTRIES

by Mark Weisbrot, Rebecca Ray, Jake Johnston, Jose Antonio Cordero and Juan Antonio Montecino.

7 October 2009

A new discussion paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research finds that 31 of 41 countries with current International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreements have been subjected to pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies that, during the current global recession, would be expected to have exacerbated economic slowdowns. 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

BANK OF THE SOUTH IS FORMALIZED

by News Agencies

29 September 2009

Presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela signed on September 26th. the foundational document on the sidelines of the Africa-South America Summit in Margarita Island, Venezuela, last night, after almost four years of attempts to form a regional financial institution. More

UNITED STATES- UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION: A BROKEN SYSTEM

by Marianne Hill

24 September 2009

Lower-income families have fewer assets to see them through rough economic times, and their extended families are also hard-pressed as demands upon them increase. 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

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

WHICH IMF DO YOU WANT?

by Roberto Bissio

2 September 2009

Technical or political, friendly or heated, these debates have explored all the aspects of the tumultuous relationship between the IMF and Latin America, except for one: What Fund do we want? How should we reform the Fund, if we could? 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

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

NOT HOME YET

by James Surowiecki

3 August 2009

Even as the economy seems to be stabilizing, mortgage delinquencies continue to rise, with nearly two million foreclosure filings already this year More

USA: CHANGES IN THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND WORKERS’ SITUATION

by Víctor Isidro Luna

29 July 2009

Talking in a broad sense, the conditions of life for workers in the USA improved from Second World War (SWW) until seventies and after that pick worsened. More

SOME USD 5 TRILLION ON FINANCIAL SUPPORT SINCE THE CRISIS BEGAN, BUT ALMOST NOTHING HAS REACHED THE MOST VULNERABLE COUNTRIES

by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

22 July 2009

Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said that Capital flows to poorer states and export earnings have together collapsed by USD $2 trillion since the credit crunch began. "This is an alarming trend, and it’s not a result of their own doing." More

BALTIC ECONOMIC INSTABILITY THREATENS TO SPREAD TO SWEDEN

by Jordan Shilton

17 June 2009

The uncertainty over Latvia’s economic future has provoked concerns in ruling circles throughout Europe. Concerns are particularly acute in Sweden. Estimates suggest that Swedish-based banks have outstanding credits totalling 500 billion kronor (nearly €50 billion) to the Baltic countries. More

NAFTA’S SERFS: FROM WAGE SLAVERY TO DEBT SLAVERY

by Kent Paterson

17 June 2009

The growing indebtedness of Mexican credit card users has actually created a new opportunity for the shadowy, high-interest lender. To pay off high-interest credit cards, some debtors look again to the agiotistas. Meanwhile, delinquency rates on U.S. credit card accounts topped 5% at the end of the last year, with default rates continuing to climb upward during the first few months of 2009. 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

UNITED STATES: FORECLOSURE REMAINS A GROWING NATIONWIDE PROBLEM

by Bill Laforme

31 May 2009

The nationwide foreclosure problem is getting worse than ever, according to the latest figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association. 12.07 percent of U.S. home loans are now either in the foreclosure process or at least one payment past due, which is said to be the highest level ever recorded. 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

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

CHALLENGES AND POSSIBILITIES: LEARNING FROM ALBA AND THE BANK OF THE SOUTH

by Martin Hart-Landsberg

22 May 2009

Three trends are highlighted : the failure of neoliberalism, the growing crisis of the East Asian model, and South American efforts to shape as well as advance an alternative development vision. It concludes with a brief discussion of responses to the challenges generated and possibilities afforded by these trends, highlighting six lessons for those working to build a more egalitarian, democratic, and sustainable world 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

EUROPEAN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS CALL FOR NEXT JUNE 1-3 UNITED NATIONS SUMMIT (G- 192)

by European Cross-Sectoral Network on the Combined Crises

14 May 2009

A call to UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development (1- 3 June 2009), and especially the European leaders attending the event to focus on reforms that directly benefit people and the planet. 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

TAX HAVENS AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

by Rachel Keeler

11 May 2009

Over the years, trillions of dollars in both corporate profits and personal wealth have migrated “offshore” in search of rock bottom tax rates and the comfort of no questions asked. From offshore havens to financial centers, banking secrecy faces scrutiny. 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 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

USA: NEW WAVE OF HOUSINGS FORECLOSURES

by Mike Whitney

21 April 2009

Due to the lifting of the foreclosure moratorium at the end of March, the downward slide in housing is gaining speed. More

ECUADOR OFFERS TO BUY BACK PUBLIC BONDS AT 70% DISCOUNT

by News Agencies

21 April 2009

Ecuador offered to repay holders of defaulted bonds as little as 30 cents on the dollar. Yhe proposal was launched as a resolution for the 2012 and 2030 Global Bonds More

IMF APPROVES U$S 47 BILLION NEW CREDIT TO MEXICO, BUT THE FOCUS IS PLACED IN EASTERN EUROPE.

by News Agencies

20 April 2009

Mexico is the first nation to be granted the IMF credit under its newly created ’flexible credit line’ (FCL) available to strongly performing economies with fewer strings attached, to tide over the worst economic crisis in over 60 years. 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

G20 COMMUNIQUÉ: SOME PROGRESS ON GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE, BUT A LONG WAY TO GO

by Eurodad

17 April 2009

The fight against tax havens has progressed in the last few weeks much further than anybody could have imagined a couple of years ago. But the progress seems to be essentially rhetoric. 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

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

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

WORLD CRISIS: THE KEY ISSUE HERE IS FEAR AND LACK OF CONFIDENCE

by Andrew Kliman

7 April 2009

I can’t make a prediction as to how far things are going to fall. But there is a danger of a collapse of prices and jobs well beyond the government’s ability to manage. More

THE US DOLLAR QUESTIONED: CHINA AND RUSSIA PROPOSE STUDIES TO CREATE A NEW INTERNATIONAL RESERVE CURRENCY

by Oleg Shchedrov and Daisy Ku

4 April 2009

Russia proposed on Thursday an IMF or G20 study on creating a new international reserve currency and China reiterated support for a broader discussion of the dollar’s role that was missing at the London G20 summit. 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

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

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

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

WHATEVER’S HAPPENED TO GLOBAL BANKING?

by C.P. Chandrasekhar & Jayati Ghosh

7 March 2009

The call for nationalization of banks in developed countries, even if for a temporary period, marks a potential ideological shift. Even staunch free market advocates are declaring that nationalization is inevitable. This article examines the factors explaining this acceptance of public ownership and the implications that this has for the future of banking regulation. 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

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

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

USA: THE ECONOMISTS WHO MISSED THE HOUSING BUBBLE ARE COMING AFTER YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY

by Dean Baker

20 February 2009

Word has it that President Obama intends to appoint a task force the week after next which will be charged with "reforming" Social Security More

IRISH GOVERNMENT FACES GROWING FEARS OF DEBT DEFAULT

by Elena Moya

17 February 2009

Fears are growing that Ireland could default on its national debt after the cost to insure against possible losses on loans to the country rose to record highs at the end of last week. More

WILL IMF LOANS HURT THE POOR THIS TIME AROUND?

by Bretton Woods Project

15 February 2009

While the IMF undertakes high-speed reviews into its lending instruments and conditionality, it continues to make crisis loans with heavy conditionality that may adversely impact the poor in developing countries. More

THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK ALSO WITH BILLIONAIRE LOOSES DUE TO MORTGAGES MESS

by News Agency

14 February 2009

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the largest lender for projects including roads and power plants in Latin America, lost $1.9 billion on mortgages and other securities as part of an unusually aggressive investment strategy, according to internal bank documents obtained by The Associated Press. 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

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

JUST SAY ’’NO’’ TO THE CREDIT RATING AGENCIES

by Gerald Epstein

9 February 2009

The credit rating agencies have got us, coming and going. First they help cause the biggest economic calamity since the 1930’s. And now they tell us we can’t take the fiscal measures needed to get us out of this mess. Meanwhile, they are laughing all the way to the bank (that is, if they can find one that is still solvent). Why are we still listening to them? 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

"TOO BIG TO FAIL:" A BAILOUT HOAX

by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh

6 February 2009

Using the “too big to fail” scare tactic, the U.S. government has kept a number of terminally ill Wall Street gamblers on an expensive life-support system that is estimated to cost taxpayers $8.5 trillion More