More effective regulation and supervision of financial market activity is indispensable to prevent a repeat of the current global financial and economic crisis. But equally important is a reform of the international monetary and financial system aimed at reducing the scope for gains from currency speculation, and at avoiding large trade imbalances, concludes the new Trade and Development Report(TDR). WDEV summarizes UNCTAD’s approach to such reform.
The first part of TDR 2009 presented here is subtitled "Responding to the global crisis" (the second part deals with "Climate Change Mitigation and Development"). According to the study, the current global financial and economic crisis is a reflection of the predominance that purely financial activities have gained over real productive activities. Blind faith in the efficiency of free financial markets lured governments and regulators into underestimating risk and pursuing excessive deregulation. The result was that private agents could engage in extreme leveraging and create havoc in national and international financial systems ... ... this article comes up in WDEV 5/Sep-Oct 2009 and is for subscribers only. For direct log in >>> click here.If you have no subscription >>> pick your option or >>>
The Superiority of the Financial Transaction Tax + Global Unemployment on Record Levels + New Beginning in European Development Policy? + Clean Development for the South
Global Economic Prospects for 2010 + Does Copenhagen Really Matter? + Quo Vadis, German Development Cooperation? + Mapping Social Protection in South Asia
"Natural disasters have invariably been transformed into man-made disasters, through the unpreparedness and dysfunction of government institutions, the incompetence of its politicians, the greed of its economic agents, the tenuous nature of support from civil society..."
The summit meeting of the Group of 20 most important industrialised and emerging countries (G20) in Toronto on 26-27 June 2010 reminded us that even extended informal management bodies in the global economy can only be as good as their member governments.
It was not long ago that we could say, "We are all Keynesians now." The financial sector and its free-market ideology had brought the world to the brink of ruin. Markets clearly were not self-correcting. Deregulation had proven to be a dismal failure.
Love for Africa was the motto at Tchibo-World, which took place in the third week of June in 2008. In addition to fair coffee and African furniture, 700,000 tops, skirts and table cloths bearing the Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) label have been sold in the 900 (app.) Tchibo retail stores.
The ITUC's Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights has documented a dramatic increase in the number of trade unionists murdered in 2009, with 101 killings - an increase of 30% over the previous year. The new Survey also reveals growing pressure on fundamental workers' rights around the world as the impact of the global economic crisis on employment deepened.