I can imagine the scene in London right now, walking along the boardwalk, crossing the Millennium Bridge and facing the ominous Tate Modern in all its red brick glory. The Thames, below, running swiftly over all the waste tossed into its murky waters, decades of filth floating to the top – exposed. Across its bank, a young man with a cocktail in one hand and a match in another.
And as the masses of people gather, the G20 sit in their black leather chairs and discuss matters far too large for them to seriously tackle. And we know this. And they know this. Another Bretton Woods is on the agenda and while these nations pledge to curb protectionism, 17 have imposed protectionist measures since they last met.
They will pledge to solve this and have made declarations to that end. On the table are clear ideas on trade credits and financial stability writes David Hayes. Somewhere else the issue on women, unemployment, and the millennium development goals is floating about in the swill.
10,000 homes a day in the United States alone are being lost, forclosed to a decrepit financial monster that lost all bearing and morale in the 80s, in the 90s, and even now as we read the bold headlines.
Saskia Sassen at openDemocracy puts into perspective. The value of outstanding derivatives is 14 times greater than the GDP of all the countries on our tiny planet combined.
Sobering thoughts and figures. To end global poverty, to lift 1.4 billion people out of povery would cost the world $173 billion says Oxfam. And yet in a matter of days and weeks, banks and the financial institutions that will further throw people into poverty have received almost $9 trillion.
Where have our values gone? Where is our sense of reality, of compassion? Floating along in the Thames into a Wasteland of dreams upended by corporate greed the world waits; in transition, in hope and in anger.
