Today the Summit of world leaders -- the G20 -- ended in a spirit of good cheer. World leaders are united, they're confident and they're looking forward. They have looked closely at the system that crashed, and decided simply to reboot it. It appears we have all been fooled: there is no bug in the operating system that is the international financial architecture. It simply needed to be switched back on.
This they have done. Of course they didn't just switch it on. They met first in London in April, made a statement, and threw some of our money at the problem. On Friday they made another long statement, a resounding commitment to sustain and defend 'an open world economy based on 'price stability' and market principles.' And then they vowed to throw more taxpayer money at it.
$6 trillion by the end of next year, since you ask. And just in case more cracks should appear in the architecture, central bank governors will continue to dish out free money ('expansionary policies') to the banks -- 'for as long as needed.'
"Taken together," declared the G20 on Friday, "these actions will constitute the largest fiscal and monetary stimulus and the most comprehensive support program for the financial sector in modern times."
You heard that the first time. For the financial sector. Not for suckers like you and me.
However, while G20 leaders are confident that the system is sound, they acknowledge that there is one glitch in the works. Bankers' bonuses.
So they put their minds to what to do about bonuses, and it's no secret: they disagreed. In the end they decided to do very little. Why? Well, news had filtered through to the conference that bankers were in trouble: they had made only $5.2 billion trading derivatives last quarter. The G20 resolved to bring them back from the brink. All mention of capping bonuses was erased from the Summit Communique.
And then they started putting their money where their mouth is.
As a small contribution to boosting the construction sector, they're setting up a permanent new office. To cheer up their friends in submerging markets, they've appointed additional directors from China, Brazil, etc. Then, to show they're serious about creating jobs, they're hiring a few admin staff.
To help the poor of the world, they shuffled the deckchairs on the board of the International Monetary Fund. No doubt this will cheer up those families in drought-stricken Kenya whose babies were snatched by starving hyenas.
Then Gordon Brown rallied all the Mums of Africa and Asia: "We need to work together," he said, "to make the policy and institutional changes needed to accelerate the convergence of living standards and productivity in developing and emerging economies to the levels of the advanced economies."
So there you have it. A triumph of leadership and international diplomacy. Expect the global economy to go from strength to strength -- and our leaders to go down in history for their courage, their foresight and their wisdom.
And don't worry your little heads about bugs in the system.
Ann Pettifor: The Choice for the G-20
The hype around the stock bubble will most likely weaken any resolve to deal with the huge challenges posed by an out-of-control finance sector and a failing global economy.
Thousands Hold Peaceful March at G-20 Summit
Obama's News Conference at the G-20
G-20 leaders pledge to phase out fossil fuel subsidies
IMF Reform 'Bright Spot' Of G-20 Summit-China Vice Foreign Min
Warren's talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A
anarchist ideas: www.anarchistfaq.org
Obama may say he is against the protests at the G20 this week publicly, but you can bet he'll be using the protests as a threat to try to get the banks to agree to the limited reforms he wants soon enough. he will say, "look, you deal with me, and agree to these reforms, or you'll have to deal with these angry mobs of people more and more in the future...."
it's just like how MLK used to specter of more riots to get leaders to the table and get civil rights enacted.
support these protesters: http://www.resistg20.org
indy media on the protests: http://indypgh.org/g20/
the bigger, louder, and more often protests like this happen, the better the reforms will be. the more room progressive dems will have to push on obama, and the more room he'll have to push on the banks.
explaining myths about direct action: http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/twelvemyths.php
fight back against the capitalists' attack on us!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etv8YEqaWgA&feature=player_embedded
it sure ain't students or regular people. police first and foremost protest PROPERTY (which is 90% of the law), and 1% owns 95% of the wealth(property) in this country, so guess who they don't really cae about:
US!
www.organizepittsburgh.org
For most American's a G20 summit is when "we" the rich nations talk about "them'" the poor nations. But, guess what, capitalism has no borders. Many Americans already live in a third world country in their corner of America. They face negative wealth, no job, no home, no medical care and no prospects. Some of the poorest people in the world live in the world's so-called number one democracy.
So it should be a surprise to no one that the G20 offer no answers because they are administering the very capitalist system which produces unemployment, deep inequalities and poverty for the many. Without inequality for the many capitalism cannot survive for the benefit of the few.
So who are the real threat to peace and stability? Let the arrests records speak for themselves.
Reform of the IMF and making the G-20 permanent were small steps in the right direction, though, and in this century there will have to be more changes along those lines as capitalism becomes an ever-more globally integrated system.
From Obama, the most that can be expected are some timid, cautious baby steps in that direction, for he is always afraid of straying to far from conservative and big business opinion. He is better than Neanderthals like Bush-Cheney, who still thought they could impose US hegemony on the world like it was still the 1950s, but we are no longer strong enough to do that. We are in decline, while new powers are rising more very year.
That is the plan, and it is to be feared, for sure. The rich will emerge like cockroaches after the dust settles and take right up where they left off. It will take more than an economic collapse to cleanse those vermin.
That is the plan, and it is to be feared, for sure. The rich will emerge like cockroaches after the dust settles and take right up where they left off. It will take more than an econ.omic coll.apse to cleanse those vermin.
50 years ago Veblen was on the Econ 101 reading list. You knew what a potlatch was. Since then Econ has evolved into a kind of orthodoxy that ignores intrinsics.
The new view focuses on the flow of money. It is like taking the blood pressure of a sick person. As long as the blood pressure is high enough you know you will not lose the patient. You can pump saline into the patient to keep the blood volume up. You can provide stimulants to keep the pressure up.
But what if the patient is also starving, is simply not getting enough nutrition? The blood pressure is OK now but eventually the whole body will run out of power from lack of calories.
Ethnographers tell us that otherwise mild epidemics can be devastating for hunter-gatherers because the flow of nourishment stops.