Something is seriously wrong with the economy, here and abroad. By now, the Canadian mainstream media should have recognized it. Instead, we get reassurances from business sources about "recovery" being just around the corner.
In Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., experts offer the same failed analysis (government failed), and governments propose the same discredited solutions (reduce deficits).
In the 1970s it was Germany. In the 1980s it was Japan. Now, apparently, it is China that is responsible for U.S. economic woes.
Appearing before Congress, U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner pointed the finger at China, accusing them of currency manipulation. Congress has called upon the president to bring in tariffs aimed at reducing Chinese manufacturing exports. The presidential report specifying "Section 301" measures is expected in November.
Liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman opines that by not allowing its currency to appreciate, China is refusing to play by the same rules as everybody else.
I hear a helicopter flying outside my window as I write this. It's a reminder of how annoying it is to live under the upcoming G20's semi-militarized thumb.
But much as the G20 is a blight on Toronto-land, it is also our best global hope on the immediate horizon. I know that's a stretch. But while we gird for the typically depressing news when world leaders gather, there are bigger forces in play that just may deliver some unexpected small steps in the right direction.
For example, one supremely smart idea the expensively gathered could move toward endorsing would address the government debt crisis, the climate crisis and the outrageous blight of poverty in the developing world.
British Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has come out in favour of a global financial transactions tax. Speaking Saturday in Edinburgh (his home base) to a G20 Finance Ministers meeting on the subject of bank bailouts Brown said "it cannot be acceptable that the benefits of success in this sector are reaped by the few but the costs of its failure are borne by all of us."
As my concern with our ceaseless reliance on economic growth increases, I have come to see the peddling of this singular truth about prosperity everywhere I look. The critique of growth has become quite familiar, and can be described in a nutshell as awareness that infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible, and that change is imminent -- welcome or not. This means thoughtful development of alternatives is necessary for our survival and well-being.
What's growth got to do with it?
- The Endgame of the Greatest Looting in History: Prelude to Feudalism Redux
Laughing All the Way to the Bank:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/07/20097972424110179.html
"It isn't the pre-crisis era. It's WAY better than that for banks. This is 'back to business as usual' with bells on. The financial crisis has been the best thing that could happen for the banks.
Yes, even I can't believe it. Our watershed moment to change the world economic system has not just been squandered, we have inadvertently reinforced the same strategies and institutions that have created the mess in the first place.."
"we"? "inadvertently"?
