Rethinking Poverty today

by Dollars and Sense

United Nations University (UNU) Office at the United Nations in New York will present a book launch this afternoon to discuss issues raised in Rethinking Poverty: Report on the World Social Situation 2010, published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

If you're in NYC, you're invited to attend, from 3-4:30 p.m. in Conference Room C, Temporary North Lawn Building (TNLB), UN Headquarters.

If you can't make it to the UN today, the event will include a simultaneous live, interactive webcast. To receive instructions on how to participate in the webcast, please register. The webcast will also be archived online in a few days.

Here's a brief synopsis of the book and the event:

The negative economic and social impacts of the recent food and energy crises, combined with the threats posed by climate change, challenges the assumption of the sustainability of poverty reduction. Rethinking Poverty: Report on the World Social Situation 2010 disputes the current technocratic vision of poverty reduction and affirms that eradicating poverty requires actions leading to sustainable economic growth, productive employment creation and social development as part of an integrated framework of economic and social policies for the benefit of all citizens.

The event will feature Dr. Jomo Kwame Sundaram, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), and (Honorary) Research Coordinator for the G-24 Intergovernmental Group on International Monetary Affairs and Development. The Q&A session following the presentation will be moderated by UNU's Director Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud.

Read more about the event and the book. [Hat tip to Lynn Fries.]

Labels: global imbalances, poverty, United Nations

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
2/16/2010 12:11:00 PM 0 comments

 

UN Calls for Overthrow of Free Market Ideology

by Dollars and Sense

From yesterday's Telegraph..

The United Nations has called for a return to state-led "industrial policy" for poorer countries in what amounts to a rejection of the free-market thinking that has dominated global institutions for the last 30 years.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 8:04PM BST 16 Jul 2009

Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said the financial crisis had exposed the deep failings of growth models adopted in Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia, usually under pressure from the West.

"Some advanced countries may be seeing an end to the crisis but it's still darkness at the end of tunnel for the least developed, and many of them are going backwards. We're talking about a billion malnourished people," he said in London.

Capital flows to poorer states and export earnings have together collapsed by $2 trillion (£1.22 trillion) since the credit crunch began. "This is an alarming trend, and it's not a result of their own doing," he said.

Mr Supachai said the world had spent some $5 trillion on financial support since the crisis began but almost nothing has reached the most vulnerable countries. "There is very little trickle down," he said.

While Eastern Europe has been rescued by the International Monetary Fund, the world's 49 "least developed countries' (LDCs) are too poor to meet the loan conditions.

UNCTAD said market ideology has distorted the structure of farming in many of these countries over the years and prevented them creating light industries and processing needed to move up the manufacturing ladder. "The market-led reforms since the early 1980s have, to a large extent, failed to correct this deep-seated weakness," said the agency's annual report.

Decrying a "false dichotomy" between the virtues of the free market and the alleged vice of state dirigisme, it said there is much to learn from the calibrated "industrial policies" of Malaysia, Sweden, Taiwan, and Finland.

"Not all decisions made by governments are always rational. Governments are subject to capture by special interests. The same criticisms, however, apply equally to the market," it said.

UNCTAD said the commodity boom of recent few years masked the underlying problems, as well as leaving countries exposed to sudden shocks and debt crises. The claim may raise eyebrows among those in the City who think that a "commodity supercycle" driven by China has transformed the prospects of mineral-rich states, despite the price correction over the last year.

The UN's tilt towards "smart dirigisme" would have caused apoplexy in Washington under the Bush Administration, and will remind some critics of development orthodoxies in the 1960s.

It may receive a less chilly reception from President Barack Obama and his Democratic Congress. As global leadership shifts ineluctably from West to East it is no longer possible in any case to ignore the success of Asia's state-led systems. The ideological baton is passing.

Read the original article.

Labels: economic crisis, Free Market, industrial policy, recession, United Nations

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
7/17/2009 11:46:00 AM 0 comments

 

UN Summit on the Financial Crisis

by Dollars and Sense

The G8 will meet in early July in the Italian town of L'Aquila, in a less luxurious setting than had originally been planned, according to a recent Guardian article:

The organiser of next month's G8 conference near the earthquake-hit Italian town of L'Aquila today shrugged off the strong aftershocks felt in the area on Monday, suggesting a few tremors may bring the world leaders closer to the victims.

"I cannot guarantee there won't be any shocks" at the 8-10 July meeting, said the head of the civil protection department, Guido Bertolaso. "It is important that leaders touch with their own hands the anxieties of inhabitants."

Nearly 300 people were killed and more than 60,000 made homeless by the earthquake that struck the central Abruzzo region on 6 April. In an attempt to bring attention to the plight of survivors, the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, decided to shift the G8 meeting from a plush new conference centre in Sardinia to a financial police training barracks outside L'Aquila.

But while the G8 leaders may be in no danger of the ceiling collapsing on them, they should not expect luxury, warned Bertolaso. "This will not be like staying on Via Veneto," he said, adding that the nearest tent city to the barracks is 300 metres away. All the world leaders attending have confirmed they will sleep at the barracks, he said, including Berlusconi.

After €320m (£274m) was spent on new buildings to host the leaders in Sardinia, Bertolaso said €50m had been spent on preparing the barracks.

The 1,000 beds provided for leaders and their staff will be removed after the meeting and installed in new tremor-proof housing being built for the 15,000 to 18,000 earthquake victims whose homes were reduced to rubble and must be rebuilt.

But Bertolaso said one leader would be allowed a treat when he checks in next month. "There is a beautiful room ready for Obama and we are thinking of setting up a basketball court because we know he is keen on the sport."

The 4.6 magnitude aftershock which struck the area on Monday night caused no major damage or injuries, but sent hundreds of frightened locals scrambling from the tents they are living in.

Bertolaso said the barracks due to house 1,000 G8 delegates, including Gordon Brown, would stand up to worse punishment than that dished out on Monday or on April 6. "International inspectors have confirmed the safety of the housing," he said. "It will resist an earthquake stronger than any recorded there so far."

We can only hope that the proximity of big-wigs from the rich countries to tent cities and the homeless will get them to remember the less well-off while they discuss ongoing measures to deal with the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, less-rich countries pushed the UN, via the General Assembly, to hold a summit on the financial crisis. Here are some resources on the summit:

• Nick Dearden of the Guardian says that the richest nations are holding back the UN's attempts at global governance in response to the financial crisis:
  While G8 leaders will keep the agenda in their comfort zone, patting each other on the back for maintaining aid commitments, the UN will discuss a series of proposals for transformation of the global economy.
  

  [W]hile Gordon Brown will be beaming alongside the great and the good at the G8, the UN will be lucky if it gets a junior foreign minister to show up.
  
  As so often, the idea of 192 countries daring to air their views on matters of global importance causes the British—and other western delegations—a touch of indigestion.
  
  As such, a programme to discredit the UN process is already up and running—taking particular aim at the president of the UN general assembly Rev Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann. D'Escoto, a leftist priest from Nicaragua, has enraged rich countries by offering a radical paper for nations to debate which declares "[g]lobalisation without effective global or regional institutions is leading the world into chaos".
  
  Against claims that his report lacked "inclusivity", d'Escoto has claimed that "it must speak to the hundreds of millions across the globe who have no other forum in which they can express their unique and often divergent perspectives".

  
  Read the rest of the article.


• Aldo Caliari has a good article at islamonline.net asking, "Will UN Conference Break G8's Dominance?":
  

  On June 24-26, 2009, governments from all over the world will be represented at a heated conference on the impacts of the global financial crisis on development.
  
  Indeed, for years, "big-picture" reforms of the global financial and monetary system were believed to be the province of rich countries, through exclusive gatherings such as the Group of 7 or 8 and their unquestionable dominance of the international financial institutions at the center of such a system.
  
  Bodies setting the agenda for reform of the financial system, such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and — as a post-Asian crisis creation — the Financial Stability Forum, were equally characterized by their rich-country, exclusive memberships.
  
  Claims for greater openness and participation were met with the response that the issues of financial regulation were to be left to "experts" who would know what they were doing.
  
  However, now all this is beginning to change. A full-blown financial crisis that has spilled onto the whole world is blamed on failures of regulation in a developed country that until recently was seen to be at the forefront of regulatory know-how.
  
  Such crisis will wreak havoc far beyond the borders of the country where it started.
  
  That everyone has a stake in financial regulation seems to be a lesson that the poorest countries are not willing to forget easily—even as developed countries that profited from the system try to play up the signs of recovery and quickly get back to the status quo.

  
  Read the full article here.


• The United Nations University has set up a Conversation Series on the economic crisis, and is making available many videos of speakers with a wide variety of perspectives, including Noam Chomsky, Robert Johnson, Joseph Stiglitz, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, and many others.
  
  Click here to access the "video portal."

—CS

Labels: financial crisis, G20, G8 summit, United Nations

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
6/24/2009 04:19:00 PM 0 comments

 

Two Good Pieces on Global Finance from FPIF

by Dollars and Sense

Two nice relatively new pieces from the good folks at Foreign Policy in Focus. Hat-tip to LF for alerting me to these. (I like that FPIF lists the editor in charge of an article as well as the author—great idea.)

Overhauling Global Finance

Alex Wilks | May 28, 2009 | Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco

The global financial crisis has discredited the financial institutions that played a part in causing it. Discussions of radical alternatives are beginning to flourish, with the world's governments rushing to consult experts who previously found themselves out in the cold.

If only. In fact many of the same financial experts as a decade ago populate finance ministries, review panels, and talk shows. The commission of experts convened by the president of the United Nations General Assembly represents one rare exception.

This commission includes 18 researchers, politicians, former officials, and activists from all the world's regions. Their mandate is to recommend "needed institutional reforms required to ensure sustained global economic progress and stability which will be of benefit to all countries, developed and less developed." The body is popularly known as the "Stiglitz Commission" because it's led by Nobel laureate and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz. But it's most notable for the participation of high-level experts from developing countries.

Read the rest of the article.

Plus this one on the IMF, by Aldo Caliari, who has written for D&S:

The IMF is Back? Think Again

Aldo Caliari | June 1, 2009 | Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco

Last year, as the financial crisis reached global and historic proportions, many commentators identified one institution as the debacle's great winner: the International Monetary Fund. Just two years ago, the IMF seemed to be on an inexorable downward path: its credibility and effectiveness in question, its portfolio of borrowers severely reduced, its legitimacy and governance structure under challenge, and its own finances in disarray. In fact, the Fund had started "downsizing" its staff as the only way to avoid running one of the deficits that it so strongly advises client countries to steer away from.

Against this backdrop, the world's credit drought offered the international financial institution a lifeline. Observers predicted it would propel countries that had closed their programs with the IMF to have to reapply. Big IMF loans were back. The G20 summit in London in early April, with its dizzying figures in new funding for the IMF (The Wall Street Journal and other major outlets reported a $750 billion pledge) only made the feeling a distinct belief.

Since October of last year, the number of IMF non-concessional loans has more than tripled, while the total volume of outstanding loans more than doubled — from nearly $7.5 billion to about $16 billion. This is far from the almost $50 billion in loans that were outstanding in 2003, but does reflect a U-turn.

Still, looking beneath the surface reveals a more nuanced picture. Accounts that herald the IMF's "revival" are premature and superficial. Recent events illustrate nothing more than the fact that the world's largest economies, who happen to be the Fund's largest shareholders, view it as an instrument to manage emergency crisis financing. That was never, however, in question. It was the borrowers who saw the need for substantial reform in the IMF before this emergency financing function could be played effectively and, in fact, the infusion of large amounts of funding, by freeing the IMF's hands and relieving its fears of survival that will act against such reforms. On the other hand, there's little that suggests a sense of renewed faith on the IMF by its main shareholders, let alone by the borrowers.

Read the rest of the article.

Labels: financia crisis, Foreign Policy in Focus, IMF, Joseph Stiglitz, United Nations

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
6/22/2009 04:14:00 PM 0 comments

 

World Hunger Reaches 1 Billion Mark

by Dollars and Sense

Not because there isn’t enough food—see the last paragraph below.

From the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, as reported by the AP on Saturday:

The global financial meltdown has pushed the ranks of the world’s hungry to a record 1 billion, a grim milestone that poses a threat to peace and security, U.N. food officials said Friday.

Because of war, drought, political instability, high food prices and poverty, hunger now affects one in six people, by the United Nations’ estimate.

The financial meltdown has compounded the crisis in what the head of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization called a “devastating combination for the world’s most vulnerable.” ...

Officials presenting the new estimates in Rome sought to stress the link between hunger and instability, noting that soaring prices for staples, such as rice, triggered riots in the developing world last year. ...

Even though prices have retreated from their mid-2008 highs, they are still “stubbornly high” in some domestic markets, according to FAO. On average, food prices were 24 percent higher in real terms at the end of 2008 compared to 2006, it said. ...

FAO said that the hunger rate is rising, too—that is, the number of hungry people is growing more quickly than the world population. Officials did not provide a rate but said the trend began two years ago. ...

World cereal production in 2009 was strong, but the global economic downturn resulted in lower incomes and higher unemployment rates—and therefore reduced access to food.

Read the full article here.

Labels: agriculture, FAO, food crisis, food security, hunger, rising food prices, United Nations

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
6/22/2009 09:47:00 AM 0 comments

 

ILO: World Economy May Lose 51 Million Jobs

by Dollars and Sense

From Reuters; hat-tip to LP:

By Laura MacInnis |Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:06am EST

GENEVA (Reuters) - Up to 51 million jobs worldwide could disappear by the end of this year as a result of the economic slowdown that has turned into a global employment crisis, a United Nations agency said on Wednesday.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) said that under its most optimistic scenario, this year would finish with 18 million more unemployed people than at the end of 2007, with a global unemployment rate of 6.1.

More realistically, it said 30 million more people could lose their jobs if financial turmoil persists through 2009, pushing up the world's unemployment to 6.5 percent, compared to 6.0 percent in 2008 and 5.7 percent in 2007.

In the worst-case economic scenario, the Global Employment Trends report said 51 million more jobs could be lost by the end of this year, creating a 7.1 percent global unemployment rate.

Read the rest of the article.

Labels: International Labor Organization, jobs, recession, unemployment, United Nations

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
1/28/2009 11:58:00 AM 0 comments