STWR - Share The World's Resources

Despite calls for reform of the global financial architecture by governments of poorer countries, the UN summit on the financial crisis failed to yield meaningful results - largely because many richer countries sidelined the event and blocked progressive proposals. By STWR.

Claims of ‘green shoots' in the global economy are misleading and mask the severe impact of the downturn on poverty and food security in poor countries. Governments can counteract this unfolding humanitarian crisis by prioritising economic equality at this year's international summits. By STWR.

Rather than the commonly blamed US housing bubble, the real cause of the financial crisis was a systemic imbalance between supply and demand. Until businesses raise their workers' wages at the same rate as productivity, economic recovery remains unlikely, says Pranav Bihari.

Despite the lessons of the financial crisis, policymakers seem intent on returning to business as usual. The time has come for civil society and grassroots movements to create a shared identity in promoting alternative financial institutions, argues Sargon Nissan.

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.

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 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.