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Financial Crisis Debate

The financial meltdown has hit every corner of the earth and the indications are that it is only going to get worse. With no clear signs of recovery in the near future the world is headed into an unknown. The recent international labour organisation report has predicted a frightening scenario. 51 million more people could lose their jobs by the end of 2009. That means 51 millions families are going to lose their livelihoods. For those who manage to keep a job, earnings and other conditions of employment will deteriorate. Will things end there? Indications are that it will not. It is not the time to panic or beat our chest. Instead we have to put our collective heads together and look for solutions. Countercurrents has decided to initiate a debate and give a platform for writers to express their views , opinions and solutions , how best we can tide over these difficult times or at least, how best we can cope with and help each other in this dire situation.

We have initiated this debate with an excellent article by Abdul Basit "Global Financial Crises And Hugo Chavez". Although he does not give any easy solution to the economic crisis, he gives some valuable suggestions to get over it. He suggests that the world need to study closely the Bolivarian revolutionary model successfully implemented by Chavez in Venezuela, especially the subsidized food distribution network. This is particularly important in the face of severe food shortage and social break down that is likely to follow the financial meltdown. We welcome you all to join this debate by sending in your thoughts at [email protected]. Here are a few articles send in by readers of Countercurrents.

14 April, 2009

Human Need And The Economy
By James Keye

We will only be able to change the present total domination of almost every detail of our lives by an exchange token economy by being able to meet the most essential of our needs by our own efforts: that is the bad news. And it is also good news since there is nothing more rewarding than to be in real control of even a short life compared to being the disenfranchised observer of a life owned by an economic system

31 March, 2009

Capitalism Beyond The Crisis
By Amartya Sen

The present economic crises do not call for a "new capitalism," but they do demand a new understanding of older ideas, such as those of Adam Smith and Arthur Pigou - many of which have been sadly neglected, argues Amartya Sen

26 March, 2009

Economic Crisis: Why More Of The Same
Will Not Work

By Jayati Ghosh

There is no question that current "Northern" standards of life cannot be sustained if they were made accessible to everyone on this planet. This means that future economic growth in the developing world has to involve more equitable and sensible patterns of consumption and production

25 March, 2009

Toward A New Sustainable Economy
By Robert Costanza

The fallacy that economic growth can lead to improved human welfare underpins the global financial crisis. Now, we need to move beyond 'growth at all costs' and reorganise the economy based on the quality of life rather than quantity of consumption, argues Robert Costanza

Natural Adversaries
By David Kendall

Creation cannot dominate its creator. People like to worship their own creations just as dogs seem to enjoy sniffing their own feces. But at some point the human species needs to grow up and realize that Capital cannot dominate People, and People cannot dominate Nature. The model is upside-down, ladies & gentlemen. It’s time to flip it over

10 March, 2009

Selfless Side Of Humans Can Overcome Crisis
Mohammad Yunis interviewed by Tetsuo Kogure

The interlinked crises of food, finance and climate change illustrate the weaknesses of our current economic system. It is possible to integrate selflessness into a market long dominated by the selfish pursuit of profits, says Muhammad Yunus

19 February, 2009

Reflections On The Concept Of A 'Green New Deal'
By Peter Custers

It is high time a transition be staged away from the present economy of capital accumulation - towards an economy which is stationary, which refuses to grow. This transition, moreover, needs to be staged at the world level, and needs to be strategized in a manner which will protect the global South. At present, the given perspective may sound very utopian, exactly the way the concept of a Green New Deal would have sounded utopian if proposed a few years back. Yet it is truly important that climate activists and environmentalists start discussing the given perspective, as part of their struggle to defend planet earth. In a period of economic crisis such as now exists, when dramatic changes and transformations are inevitable, we need a new vision, one that helps protect all forms of life on planet earth

18 February, 2009

The Ten Principles Of Apocalyptic Financing
By Peter Goodchild

There must be survival strategies for those of us who believe every word that comes out of the TV set, for those of us whose income has half the spending power of our parents’, for those of us who bleed ourselves dry trying to educate children who will be climbing over garbage dumps in later decades

12 February, 2009

The Futility Of Not Creating Debt Free Currency
By Eric V. Encina

We need to reorganize the patterns of the global economy rather than continue to throw money at useless crooks and empty remedies that, doubtlessly, do not work because, if they did, we would be seeing improvements already rather than an ever deepening crisis. Therefore, we need to start pressuring our government representatives to make the necessary radical reforms. If we not change our monetary patterns soon, the most terrible outcomes imaginable are all but assured

Mesmerized By Melodic Rhetoric
By Joel S. Hirschhorn

In these dismal times using what the Founders gave us makes more sense than ever before. Americans need more than two-party politics. They need a serious debate about structural reforms through constitutional amendments that can attack the deep rooted corruption and incompetence that plague the federal government and contributed to creating our current economic meltdown

09 February, 2009

Candles In The Darkness
By Dave Bennett

Survival is a universal topic of discussion these days, given clearly evident faltering economies, climate change and rapidly diminishing resources. Dave Bennett reviews three books that deal with these issues - " Energy Security and Climate Change A Canadian Primer" by Cy Gonick, "Plan C - Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change " by Pat Murphy and "Depletion and Abundance, Life on the Home Front - Coming to Terms With Peak Oil, Climate Change and Hard Times" by Sharon Astyk

04 February, 2009

Be Wary Of Who You Follow
By Norm Lowry

My piece of the debate on "Global Financial Meltdown" is simple: Stop looking to my country (the USA) for much of anything related to "Integrity" or "Moral leadership"

02 February, 2009

Global Financial Crises And Hugo Chavez
By Abdul Basit

Taking into account the current leadership and their negative performance, it is natural that we make an in-depth analysis about the 'other' leaders who are accused by the dominant media and regimes as 'tyrants' and 'dictators'. Although many leaders come to our mind, the most prominent among them are Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Ahmedinejad of Iran..etc. In this article we will look into the policies pursued by the one among them namely Hugo Chavez, an icon of resistance against Imperialists and oppressors

 

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