The Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development is over. The conference declaration, titled “The Future We Want”, is a weak and meaningless document. It aims at the lowest common denominator consensus to say it all, but to say nothing consequential about how the world will move ahead to deal with the interlinked crises of economy and ecology. Is this the future we want or the future we dread?
Global Trend: Food issues in the Rio+20 spotlight
Food security and sustainable agriculture was one of the most important topics at the recent Rio+20 Summit, for the simple reason that all of us have to eat to survive, and agriculture has to be ecologically sustainable for production to continue into the future.
While the negotiators were busily hammering out a quite satisfactory text on this topic in a small room, a more interesting discussion was taking place on Food and Nutrition Security in the huge plenary hall sitting 2,000 people.
After a Chinese Visit, Questions about the G20: One Circumstance and Two Problems
Eduardo Gudynas, Guest Blogger
Until a few days ago, I had planned on contributing to the Spotlight G20 series by analyzing the visit of the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to several South American countries. During the Rio +20 Conference, he met Dilma Rousseff from Brazil, and then he traveled to Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. In every capital city, Prime Minister Jiabao negotiated and signed many agreements. He was interested in buying minerals, hydrocarbon and agri-food products, as well as financing transport infrastructure, such as harbors and railroads, to ensure access to such resources.
China has become one of the major commercial partners of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay (all of them members of the Common Market of the South – Mercosur). In these close relationships, agreements are no longer as eye-catching as silences are. For example, everybody shuts up when the huge financial assistance from Beijing does not include the “annoying” social and environmental safeguards. In exchange, South American progressive governments say nothing about human rights.
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Inside the Greek State: Breaking the Doom Loop
Robert H. Wade, Guest Blogger
It is hardly surprising that many Greeks blame Germans for their imploding economy, and see a German plot to turn Greece into a modern-day dependency. After all, German banks willingly lent vast sums to the Greek government and private companies – as imprudently as Greeks borrowed. Their suspicions play into the memories of German atrocities in Greece during the Second World War, when troops requisitioned all the food and inflicted severe famine on urban populations in 1941-42. Corpses littered the streets of Athens.
But talk to ordinary people about their lives and you soon hear of their perennial frustrations with the state, to the point where the big surprise is that Greece became as prosperous as it is with such dysfunctionality. Indeed, a Pew Research Center poll in March-April 2012 found that 87% of Greek respondents agreed that the crisis was generated primarily by the “manipulations” of the Greek government.
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When the Law Takes its Course
On 16 June 2012, a twelve-member jury convicted the India born and educated Rajat Gupta, former head of consultancy major McKinsey and Company and former board member at Goldman Sachs and Procter and Gamble (among other firms). He was found guilty on three counts of securities fraud and one charge of conspiracy. All convictions were related to insider trading in Goldman stocks, which were among the charges on which hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group had been earlier convicted. Rajat Gupta, the jury concluded, provided confidential information to Rajaratnam with regard to Goldman Sachs that permitted him to enter into and profit from trades based on insider knowledge.
India and the Credit Rating Agencies
The recent downgrade of India as a sovereign borrower by the US-based Fitch has come close on the heels of similar downgrades and placing on “negative watch” by the other big two international credit rating agencies. In April, Standard and Poor’s had lowered India’s rating outlook from “stable” to “negative,” and June it warned that India become the first “fallen angel” among the BRICS nations to get a sovereign credit rating below investment grade.
Wages, Household Debt and the Fiscal Cliff
It is well known that while real wages kept the pace with labor productivity up to the early 1970s in the United States, they have lagged ever since, as shown in Figure 1. The causes of the collapse of the so-called Golden Age of Capitalism that allowed for expanding wages in the advanced economies are complex and diverse, but it is clear that the demise of the Keynesian consensus and full employment policies was at center stage.
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Spain Is Now Making Ireland's Mistakes
Mark Blyth and Stephen Kinsella, guest blogger
Spain is now heading down the same path that bankrupted Ireland. It doesn’t have to be this way; and indeed, it shouldn’t be this way. Ireland is not a role model for austerity policies, but rather a cautionary tale.
The parallels between Spain and Ireland are striking. Just like Ireland, Spain had a credit boom financed mostly with external debt, which meant that the balance sheets of their banks are now stuffed with bad debts as asset values collapse. Both governments have now injected billions into these ailing banks, to the detriment of their respective debt profiles. The Spanish Prime Minister has become preoccupied with creating market confidence, as was the Irish Prime Minister in the run up to the EU/IMF bailout. Confidence talk may buy some time, but ultimately it doesn’t make the problem go away. Read the rest of this entry »
Spain Is Now Making Ireland’s Mistakes
Mark Blyth and Stephen Kinsella, guest blogger
Spain is now heading down the same path that bankrupted Ireland. It doesn’t have to be this way; and indeed, it shouldn’t be this way. Ireland is not a role model for austerity policies, but rather a cautionary tale.
The parallels between Spain and Ireland are striking. Just like Ireland, Spain had a credit boom financed mostly with external debt, which meant that the balance sheets of their banks are now stuffed with bad debts as asset values collapse. Both governments have now injected billions into these ailing banks, to the detriment of their respective debt profiles. The Spanish Prime Minister has become preoccupied with creating market confidence, as was the Irish Prime Minister in the run up to the EU/IMF bailout. Confidence talk may buy some time, but ultimately it doesn’t make the problem go away. Read the rest of this entry »
Real Rio Action is on the Streets
Patrick Bond: Rio+20 official meetings a bust as green market mechanisms prove a failure