STWR - Share The World's Resources

The world economy will this year suffer its worst performance for more than 60 years with a serious risk that 50m people will lose their jobs, international organisations have warned. Reported by Krishna Guha et al.

Keynes is back in fashion, but his policies did not give to the state - at all levels - the leading role in investment that is now necessary. What is required is a radical rebalancing of relations between economic and social power, led by democratised state institutions, says Stuart Holland.

The challenge for Obama is to fund the much needed new deal without creating more debt. The solution lies in the government's ability to control the creation of money, which would provide a range of options for stabilising the future economy, argues Ellen Brown.

Deregulation can be a principled position held by true believers in a free market. But Wall Streeters all wanted one-sided regulation that provided them with an enormous government security blanket, says Dean Baker.

The financial crisis presents both a golden opportunity and a threat to the left, although the window of opportunity will be brief, much time has already been lost, and there is sadly no sign of a British Keynes for the 21st century, writes Larry Elliott.

The financial crisis is a challenge, not just for economic management, but also in terms of how we think about the global economy and how we can devise the kind of financial system – based on moral and social principles - that we would like to see in today’s world, writes Clive Dilnot.

The real challenge posed by the current economic crisis is to chart a new course towards higher systemic levels of global cooperation to create lasting social and economic stability, fairness, justice and environmental sustainability, argues Barry K. Gills.