While
millions face poverty and hunger, others make fortunes without producing. A sustainable
alternative to financial globalisation must be based on international
cooperation and solidarity - with new indicators in place to measure well-being. By Marcos Arruda.
A whole generation of policy makers has been mesmerised by
Wall Street - an
illusion that even extended to finance and economics professors. We now face a crisis
that could be worse than the Great Depression, says former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson.
As the free market capitalist
economy breaks down before our eyes, we must return to the conviction that economic growth and the
affluence it brings is a means and not an end. It demands a major shift from the free market towards public action that politicians have yet to grasp, writes Eric Hobsbawn.
Following
China’s recent call for a new global currency to replace the dollar,
progressive economists outline alternative proposals for monetary reform based on a more localised, accountable and democratic financial system.
The
current financial crisis offers an opportunity to question the corruption of children's
culture by rampant commercialisation, commodification and consumption. A
road to recovery cannot be simply about returning to a re-established, bankrupt consumer society, argues Henry A. Giroux.
Globalisation is not a convincing excuse for accepting
inequality. But is equality and generosity sustainable in the context of the world
market? As the example of Scandinavian countries shows us, the irrefutable
answer is yes, says Göran Therborn.
The G20 summit was a one-size-fits-all approach that merely attempts to reinvent
the same system - and bypasses the real concerns of protesters who focus on
global inequality and the climate crunch as much as the credit crunch. Analysis
by Johann Hari, Sanjay Suri and David Harvey.
The G20 summit has provoked a mass mobilisation of
campaigners for global justice, whose emerging coalitions may play a key role in shaping the politics
of the post-crisis era. Some leading figures make their case.
The priority given to short term growth in mainstream economics undermines the Earth's ability to maintain its ecological balance and neglects the principle of fairness in the distribution of resources, according to the new book ‘Right Relationship'. A review by Alexia Eastwood.
Northern governments are responding to the economic slowdown by reviving the same 'fossilized institutions' that underpin the financial crisis. The G20 should abandon old ways of global
governance and put in their place a more decentralized, democratic order, says
Walden Bello.
