STWR - Share The World's Resources

12th May 07 - Richard C. Cook, Global Research.ca

10th May 07 - Interview with Elaine Meinel Supki, by Mike Whitney, Information Clearing House

Our empire won't retreat from its distant borders but these same borders are bankrupting us for we never recovered from the Vietnam War, we literally papered over the mess which remained and continues to poison our nation. The military/industrial complex is not making us rich, it is making us poorer. And the paper being laid over all this is the same paper the Germans used in 1924 to paper over their own bankruptcy: printed money.

7th May 07, UN News Centre 

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has emphasized the value of collaboration among developing countries while calling for greater efforts to manage the process.

“The potential – and popularity – of South-South Cooperation has never been greater,” Ms. Migiro said at a “brainstorming session” in New York on the issue on Thursday. “The recent strong economic performance of many developing countries has expanded opportunities for collaboration between them,” she noted.

With developing countries collaborating as never before on such pressing global issues as terrorism, migration or the spread of disease, the Deputy Secretary-General said this dynamism must be harnessed. “The rapid growth in intra-South cooperation necessitates a systematic and efficient approach towards managing the process,” she said.

“I am heartened by the Group of 77 and China’s efforts to review existing South-South cooperation, and to explore ways to enhance it in ways that can help achieve wider aims like the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” a set of time-bound antipoverty targets agreed at a 2000 UN Summit.

In this effort, she told participants, “the United Nations will remain your partner every step of the way.”

Link to original source
 

4th May 07, Sarah Anderson, Foreign Policy in Focus

When Bolivian President Evo Morales took office in January 2006, he pledged to follow through on his campaign pledge to increase Bolivians’ share of revenues from their major source of foreign income, natural gas. International gas companies, however, threatened to sue. Previous Bolivian governments had signed a flurry of bilateral investment treaties that gave foreign investors the right to bypass domestic courts and file such lawsuits through international tribunals. Morales complained that these rules made him feel like a “prisoner” in the presidential palace.

3rd May 07 - Steven C. Johnson, Global Policy Forum / Reuters

The United States may have no military equals, but the challenges to its financial power have become impossible to ignore. A stark reminder came on Friday when the weakening dollar slumped to a record low against its main rival, the euro, after the U.S. economy recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of below-trend growth. The euro hit a record high of $1.3680.

The strength of the dollar is more than just a matter of bragging rights. Experts say the consequences of its long-term decline could have deep significance - for average Americans and for the country's position as an unrivaled global power. Over time, the forces behind its decline could further marginalize the United States on the world stage, lower its standard of living and tie its hands in responding to crucial security issues or financial crises.

"We can no longer view ourselves as king of the hill," said Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and founder of the world's first market for financial futures. "There are a lot of other potential kings now vying to take our place."

5th April 07 - Benjamin R. Barber, The Los Angeles Times

The crisis in subprime mortgages betrays a deeper predicament facing consumer capitalism triumphant: The "Protestant ethos" of hard work and deferred gratification has been replaced by an infantilist ethos of easy credit and impulsive consumption that puts democracy and the market system at risk.

Capitalism's core virtue is that it marries altruism and self-interest. In producing goods and services that answer real consumer needs, it secures a profit for producers. Doing good for others turns out to entail doing well for yourself.