financial flows Archives - Page 16 of 65

Multilateral Money

by Soren Ambrose, Emily Schwartz Greco | Aug 25, 2009

While U.S. investors are debating whether the financial crisis is ending, the damage is still spreading in developing countries. Countries more remote from the meltdown’s epicenter, like those in sub-Saharan Africa, did not feel the pinch immediately, but are now facing big drops in foreign investment, crashes export income due to falling commodity prices, and decreased remittances from citizens working abroad, where their jobs are the most vulnerable to the crisis. The fragility of low-income countries’ economies means that the crisis is likely to last longer and hit them harder.

Review: ‘The Future of Global Relations’

by Jennifer Doak, John Feffer | Aug 17, 2009

The end of the Cold War ushered in a new period of unipolar American power. In this country, liberals and conservatives alike celebrated the triumph of market democracies under the leadership of the United States. The Clinton administration attempted to consolidate America’s geoeconomic power. The Bush administration attempted to consolidate America’s military and geopolitical power. And today, the Obama administration surveys the wreckage of these efforts to preserve a unipolar world. The global economy is in deep recession, and the United States is drowning under the costs of maintaining its post-Cold War empire. The chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan stands testament to the failures of our military pretensions.

The Pursuit of True Security

by Megan Cheney, Jennifer Doak, Marcus Raskin | Aug 13, 2009

For years the United States has used military force as a Band-Aid for a wide-range of global problems ranging from the removal of dictators to ensuring access to global trade partners. Yet it’s clear that this has not been successful. For all of the money, time, and lives we have spent to maintain a colossal international force, we are no safer. It’s time to reexamine our military involvements and change our force distributions to reflect our goal: true security.

Against the Lisbon Treaty

by John Feffer, Steve McGiffen | Jul 30, 2009

There is an idea abroad in North America that the European Union (EU) represents a progressive alternative to U.S.-sponsored neoliberalism. You can find this argument in books such as Jeremy Rifkin’s The European Dream and in numerous articles in left-leaning journals. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.

Book Review:’The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority’

by John Feffer, Noor Iqbal | Jul 30, 2009

In any middle school civics class you’ll learn that the system of checks and balances is a central tenet of the U.S. Constitution. Over the last 100 years, however, it appears the government has been operating under different assumptions, particularly where trade policy is concerned.

Obama: Renegotiate NAFTA as You Promised

by Manuel Perez-Rocha, Emily Schwartz Greco, Stuart Trew | Jul 27, 2009

Starting my first year in office, I will convene annual meetings with Mr. Calderón and the prime minister of Canada. Unlike similar summits under President Bush, these will be conducted with a level of transparency that represents the close ties among our three countries. We will seek the active and open involvement of citizens, labor, the private sector and non-governmental organizations in setting the agenda and making progress.

The Advent of the G14

by John Feffer, Erin Fitzgerald, Sarah Yun | Jul 23, 2009

The Group of Eight (G8) has frequently come under attack for being an archaic institution that doesn’t represent the current configuration of global political and economic influence. These criticisms have intensified with the rise of the Group of 20 (G20) financial summit as the major vehicle for responding to the global financial crisis.

Robert McNamara’s Second Vietnam

by Walden Bello, John Feffer | Jul 13, 2009

The conventional view of Robert McNamara, who passed away a few days ago, is that after serving as the chief engineer of the disastrous U.S. war in Vietnam, he went on in 1968, to serve as president of the World Bank. In this way, he sought to salve his troubled conscience by delivering development assistance to poor countries.

Keynes: A Man for this Season?

by Walden Bello, John Feffer | Jul 8, 2009

One of the most significant consequences of the collapse of neoliberal economics, with its worship of the "self-regulating market," has been the revival of the great English economist John Maynard Keynes.

Not only do his writings make Keynes very contemporary. There is also the mood that permeates them, which evokes the loss of faith in the old and the yearning for something that is yet to be born. Aside from their prescience, his reflections on the condition of Europe after World War I resonate with our current mix of disillusion and hope:

The IMF is Back? Think Again

by Aldo Caliari, Emily Schwartz Greco | May 28, 2009

Last year, as the financial crisis reached global and historic proportions, many commentators identified one institution as the debacle’s great winner: the International Monetary Fund. Just two years ago, the IMF seemed to be on an inexorable downward path: its credibility and effectiveness in question, its portfolio of borrowers severely reduced, its legitimacy and governance structure under challenge, and its own finances in disarray. In fact, the Fund had started “downsizing” its staff as the only way to avoid running one of the deficits that it so strongly advises client countries to steer away from.