The Great Rip Off
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- Written by Global Witness/GFI
- Category: Analysis
Global Witness, an international investigative and advocacy organization, today released a report, entitled “The Great Rip Off,” studying the use of anonymous U.S. companies for a wide range of illegal and otherwise fraudulent activities in the United States, and outlining the policy steps needed to curb this massive abuse of the incorporation system. Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advocacy organization that has worked closely with Global Witness over the years, recommends the report as a welcome new resource on an important but often misunderstood issue.
How Did Leaders Respond to the People’s Climate March?
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- Written by Pablo Solon
- Category: Analysis
About 400,000 people went to the streets on September 21st to ask for real actions to address climate change. It was the greatest climate march in history. The UN Climate Summit organized by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon took place two days later with the participation of 100 heads of state and 800 leaders from business. How did this Summit react to the demands of the peoples climate march? Did it meet the expectations?
According to Ban Ki-Moon and other leaders, it was a success. To see if that is true, we should look at: 1) what science is telling us; 2) the previous commitments made by governments; and 3) how these commitments at the UN have improved in order to address the mismatch between what has to be done and what is being done.
Read more: How Did Leaders Respond to the People’s Climate March?
Climate change and toxic assets
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- Written by Fander Falconi
- Category: Analysis
The assets of oil companies have a toxic effect. The irrational behaviour of markets has moved into the industry of non-renewable energy resources (oil, gas, coal), as accurately described in an article published in The Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Prichard (1).
We must remember that, previous to the great crisis of central capitalism of 2008, the banks created the so-called financial bubbles, when they gave big loans to persons with little possibility of repayment. US banks, to increase the market, created high risk mortgages, known as “sub-prime” options, with the backing of the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that required the banks to loan to persons who lacked a good credit history. The risk was eluded systematically, which amplified the demand for real estate and hiked housing prices. This was the cause of the sudden growth of the real estate bubble, both in the United States and in Europe.
Climate Smart Agriculture: Clever name, Losing game?
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- Written by Action Aid
- Category: Analysis
With the impacts of climate change being felt on food systems around the world, and the contribution of agriculture to global emissions also gaining attention, agriculture is one of the issues at the heart of climate change concerns. The concept of ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’ was developed by the FAO and the World Bank. The concept of ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’ was developed by the FAO and the World Bank, claiming that ‘triple wins’ in agriculture could be achieved in mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions), adaptation (supporting crops to grow in changing climate conditions), and increasing crop yields. But there is growing confusion and debate over what the term really means, what it can achieve, what is new about it, and whether it really can benefit food systems in the face of climate change.
Increasingly, civil society and farmer organisations are expressing concerns that the term can be used to green-wash agricultural practices that will harm future food production, such as industrial agriculture practices or soil carbon offsetting.
Is Globalization making a U-turn?
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- Written by Eduardo Porter
- Category: Analysis
Not long ago, executives at the Dutch multinational Royal DSM, a globe-girdling maker of nutritional supplements and high-tech materials, used to require a battery of internal studies to decide where to do a deal or locate a new manufacturing plant.
But today, “we won’t even do the study,” Stephan B. Tanda, the managing board member with responsibility for the Americas, told me. “It’s clear it will be the United States.”
US Wealth Report 2014
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- Written by CapGemini
- Category: Documents
Built from the World Wealth Report 2014 and based on our Global HNW Insights Survey with over 1,000 HNWI responses across the U.S., the report sheds light on the ongoing U.S. economic recovery and its impact on the record wealth growth. The report also explores increased trust and confidence levels of U.S. HNWIs.
Stop corporate takeover of climate summit
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- Category: News
Invitation to sign on statement to denounce corporate takeover of Climate Summit
We call upon all fellow social movements, peoples organizations and environmental and climate justice movements to sign on this statement and join us in this call to action.
Migration's Hall of Mirror
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- Written by Petr Sutherland
- Category: Analysis
On both sides of the Atlantic, anti-immigrant politics are undermining democracies and damaging lives. Far-right nationalist parties are gaining traction in Europe, while millions of undocumented migrants suffer in the shadows. In the United States, President Barack Obama, concerned about his party’s ability to retain control of the Senate, has decided to put off immigration reform until after the election in November.
Yet that may be the wrong approach. A new public-opinion survey by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) reveals that anti-immigrant sentiment stems largely from misinformation, not entrenched animus.
Africa's Dividing Farmland A Threat to Food Security
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- Written by Miriam Gatthigah
- Category: Analysis
When Kiprui Kibet pictures his future as a maize farmer in the fertile Uasin Gishu county in Kenya’s Rift Valley region, all he sees is the ever-decreasing plot of land that he has to farm on.
“I used to farm on 40 hectares but now I only have 0.8 hectares. My father had 10 sons and we all wanted to own a piece of the farmland. Subdivision … ate into the actual farmland,” Kibet tells IPS. “From 3,200 bags a harvest, now I only produce 20 bags, at times even less.”
Experts say that Africa’s extensive land subdivision is emerging as a significant threat to food security.
Read more: Africa's Dividing Farmland A Threat to Food Security
The cost of corruption
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- Written by Carey L. Biron
- Category: Analysis
“Whenever corruption is allowed to thrive, it inhibits private investment, reduces economic growth, increases the cost of doing business, and can lead to political instability. But in developing countries, corruption is a killer,” a report on the findings, released Wednesday, states.
“When governments are deprived of their own resources to invest in health care, food security or essential infrastructure, it costs lives, and the biggest toll is on children.”
Global Governance and Policy Space for Development
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- Category: Documents
Unctad's new 'Trade and Development Report has just been published.
The Report highlights that, six years after the onset of the global economic and financial crisis, the world economy has not yet established a new sustainable growth regime. With an expected growth between 2.5 and 3 per cent in 2014, the recovery of global output remains weak. Furthermore, the policies supporting the recovery are frequently inadequate, as they do not address the rise of income inequality, the steady erosion of policy space along with the diminishing economic role of governments and the primacy of the financial sector of the economy, which are the root causes of the crisis of 2008. Putting the world economy on the path of sustainable growth requires strengthening domestic and regional demand, with a reliance on better income distribution rather than new financial bubbles.
