Articles
Successes and failures of the left
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The victory of Syriza in Greece, a leftwing government in Portugal, the wonderful success of Podemos in Spain, a new chairman for the Labour party in Great Britain, the amazing victories of Bernie Sanders in the democratic caucuses in the US.
It is far too early to make a final analysis of what is happening, but one thing seems to be clear: many people, and most of all young people, seem to want something different in politics, they do not believe in neoliberal TINA-politics anymore, they think the world is far too unequal, they know they are the 99 % while it is the remaining 1 % that takes all the important decisions and pays no taxes. They know the ‘establishment’ or ‘la casta’ only listen to those who pay them, the CEOs of hedge funds, oil or car companies, the pharmaceutical industry, the mining corporations …
But we should have no illusions.
IMF on gender and income inequality
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Gender inequality and its impact on economic growth have risen up the IMF agenda under current managing director Christine Lagarde’s leadership. In October 2015, the IMF published the staff discussion note (SDN) Catalyst for change: Empowering women and tackling income inequality, following a series of earlier gender-focused SDNs. The series has focused on the ways in which gender inequality has a negative impact on female labour force participation rates, which in turn has a negative effect on macroeconomic growth and stability. Previous SDNs have focused on gender inequalities in unpaid care; education: access to productive inputs: tax incentives and legal restrictions to women’s work.1 The latter links gender inequality to another issue on which the IMF has published research – income inequality.
20 African countries still do not treat women as equal citizens
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Everyone has the right to be born with a nationality – safe, fearless and free – and secure in their human right to equally transfer, acquire, change or retain it. There is no reason why over 50 countries around the world – 20 of which are in Africa - should still have sexist nationality and citizenship laws, which largely discriminate against women, potentially putting them and their families in danger and denying them the rights, benefits and services that everyone should enjoy.
Read more: 20 African countries still do not treat women as equal citizens
Quiet revolution in sustainable development finance
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The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) recently launched the report of its Financial Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System (“the Report”), established in early 2014 to explore how to align the financial system with sustainable development, with a focus on environmental aspects.
UNEP’s Financial Inquiry set out to respond three questions: 1) under what circumstances should measures be taken to ensure that the financial system takes fuller account of sustainable development?, 2) what measures have been and might be more widely deployed to better align the financial system with sustainable development? and 3) how can such measures best be deployed?
Read more: Quiet revolution in sustainable development finance
What free roaming chickens and accounting tricks have in common
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Is offshore tax avoidance a victimless crime? That was the question underlying my recent visit to the Cayman Islands, where I spent a whirlwind weekend helping to film a BBC2 documentary on the real-world impact of tax havens on economic inequality.
On paper, at least, the Cayman Islands is an economic powerhouse. The latest data from the Internal Revenue Service show that U.S.-based corporations claim that their subsidiaries earn $51 billion a year there, an astonishing figure for an island nation that has a population of just 59,000.
Read more: What free roaming chickens and accounting tricks have in common
