Past pledges of more aid and fairer trade to fight poverty have amounted to very little for the world's poor. More of the same medicine is not the solution - a global shift in priorities is needed to redistribute essential resources to immediately secure basic human needs, argues Davinder Kaur.
The financial crisis puts to rest the myths that our economic institutions are sound and that
markets work best when deregulated - providing an ideal opportunity to replace the present system with a new economy dedicated to serving life, writes David Korten.
The privatisation of the world's natural resources leaves us 'awash with capital but literally running out of nature'. Now, we need a counter narrative to legally protect our global commons, and share our most essential resources, argues a new report by Maude Barlow.
The G-20 summit to tackle the global financial
crisis represented a welcome step to include developing countries in the
international economic architecture. Governments must now extend this
cooperation to tackling natural resource management and climate change too,
says Trevor Houser.
An eruption of war and displacement in east Africa is rooted in historical land tension, a dense ethnic mixture, and the Rwandan government's belief that the area remains a 'mineral mother-lode waiting to be exploited'. But are the DR Congo and Rwanda on the verge of civil war? By Gerard Prunier.
As the G20 prepares to meet in Washington to discuss the financial
crisis, civil society organisations voice their concerns on how the the financial system, its
architecture and its institutions must be completely rethought. By Robin Broad & John Cavanagh.
It's the IMF to the rescue! Again. But in a saner world, the IMF would change its tune and advise countries
to build up their own economies - perhaps through some kind of green
jobs plan - instead of rapidly integrating into a global economy
largely built on US consumption, writes Sameer Dossani.
Global policymakers need to understand not only the economics of aggregate
growth, but the socio-economic impact of globalized flows on the distribution
of income and on the welfare of human beings, says Sharat G. Lin.
Five winners of the Nobel Prize for
economics, including Joseph Stiglitz and Edmund S. Phelps, share their views on why a radical change in the global financial system is needed in order to overcome the current crisis. By Spiegel.
A new poll of 21 nations around the world
finds that large majorities in every country say their government
should be responsible for ensuring that citizens can meet their basic
needs for food, healthcare, and education.