Analysis
Sustainability and Illicit Financial Flows: not unrelated
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- Written by Anne Hollingshead
(From Global Financial Integrity)
There are obvious relationships between illicit financial flows, corruption, and tax evasion and environmental sustainability. For example, shell corporations can be used to mask illegal fishing or poaching. Corruption can enable companies to get around environmental compliance laws. And tax evasion can divert valuable resources away from environmental enforcement. In sum, illicit financial flows are human constructs that supplement and enhance damaging human behavior, contributing both to stagnating economic growth and worsening environmental conditions.
Read more: Sustainability and Illicit Financial Flows: not unrelated
Robin Hood in the United States
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Why is the Incredible Hulk smoothly whistling on YouTube as he takes a dollar and draws a Robin Hood mask on George Washington’s mug?
Because Mark Ruffalo -- who plays the green superhero in the movie The Avengers -- stars in a video to kick off the U.S. Robin Hood Tax campaign. The video also features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Chris Martin of Cold Play, nurses, clergy, AIDS activists, students, urban farmers and, yes, yours truly, a climate activist. (Please help us spread it far and wide!)
Trade Union statement on Rio+20
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- Written by ITUC
In order to replace the existing model, the trade union movement must play a decisive role in fighting for an alternative development modell for our societies grounded on peoples' needs, on solidarity, on economic democracy and on a fair distribuytion of wealth ...
Brazil Pushes to End Tax Haven Secrecy
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- Written by Sam McWilliams
(From Global Financial Integrity)
Brazil’s Parliament is considering measures to eliminate tax havens. These havens are problematic for Brazil and other nations because they reduce tax revenues, hurting spending budgets. Brazil has 33 conventions and one agreement signed with countries for curtailing tax abuse. However, among them all, there are no provisions that require exchanges in financial information from the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, or the Bahamas, among others. For those three jurisdictions alone, Brazil has a total estimated US $61.2 Billion of direct investment. Opaque systems such as this allow for large scale tax evasion. Brazil needs the financial transparency necessary to monitor activity moving in and out of tax havens.
Reflection Group proposes changes that future justice for all will require
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- Written by Reflection Group
Two weeks before the United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro (Rio2012), 18 leading civil society activists and scholars from around the globe proposed concrete measures to effectively overcome the obstacles that prevent the world population to achieve a real sustainable development that enhances social equality and protects the environment.
Read more: Reflection Group proposes changes that future justice for all will require
Two weeks before the United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro (Rio2012), 18 leading civil society activists and scholars from around the globe proposed concrete measures to effectively overcome the obstacles that prevent the world population to achieve a real sustainable development that enhances social equality and protects the environment. |
Read more: Reflection Group proposes changes that future justice for all will require
The price of inequality
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- Written by J. Stiglitz
America likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity, and others view it in much the same light. But, while we can all think of examples of Americans who rose to the top on their own, what really matters are the statistics: to what extent do an individual’s life chances depend on the income and education of his or her parents?
Nowadays, these numbers show that the American dream is a myth. There is less equality of opportunity in the United States today than there is in Europe – or, indeed, in any advanced industrial country for which there are data.
On the social dimension of the climate justice agenda
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‘Sustainable development’ remains a controversial concept, though it is still part of the dominant discourse on ecology and climate change. Activists have pointed to the impossibility and undesirability of ‘development’ – a western concept intrinsically linked to economic growth and to a reprehensible modernity, so they say – and the equally unacceptable and undesirable ‘sustainability’ which, according to them, perpetuates an unjust world order.
Read more: On the social dimension of the climate justice agenda
The World Class Struggle: The Geography of Protest
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- Written by Immanuel Wallerstein
When times are good, and the world-economy is expanding in terms of new surplus-value produced, the class struggle is muted. It never goes away, but as long as there is a low level of unemployment and the real incomes of the lower strata are going up, even if only in small amounts, social compromise is the order of the day.
But when the world-economy stagnates and real unemployment expands considerably, it means that the overall pie is shrinking. The question then becomes who shall bear the burden of the shrinkage - within countries and between countries. The class struggle becomes acute and sooner or later leads to open conflict in the streets. This is what has been happening in the world-system since the 1970s, and most dramatically since 2007. Thus far, the very upper strata (the 1%) have been holding on to their share, indeed increasing it. This means necessarily that the share of the 99% has been going down.
Read more: The World Class Struggle: The Geography of Protest
Historic moment for the IMF
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- Written by K.P. Gallagher, S. Griffith-Jones, J.A. Ocampo
This month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) can make history. The IMF is set to officially change its view on the regulation of cross-border finance. Preliminary work released by the IMF exhibits diligent research and deep soul searching, but falls short of being a comprehensive view on how and when to regulate capital flows. There is still time for the IMF to further sharpen its view.
Equity in financing and use of health care
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- Written by Anne Mills et al.
Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania: implications for paths to universal coverage
Website: http://bit.ly/LxttYa
“…..Universal coverage of health care is now receiving substantial worldwide and national attention, but debate continues on the best mix of financing mechanisms, especially to protect people outside the formal employment sector. Crucial issues are the equity implications of different financing mechanisms, and patterns of service use. We report a whole-system analysis—integrating both public and private sectors—of the equity of health-system financing and service use in Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania….”
