Today the OECD published its annual statement of how much each country’s government gives in overseas aid, and the big news is that the pledges made at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 are not being met – to the tune of at least $22 billion a year. The Robin Hood Tax could bridge the gap and then some, so there is still time to produce enough overseas aid to meet the Millennium Development Goals that are due to be achieved by 2015.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is right to note that progress has been made (Britain for one is keeping its Gleneagles pledge), and that campaigners have something to be proud of. But we must go further and, as he also notes, we need a Financial Transactions Tax to plug the shortfall (a global tax could deliver $100 billion a year for international development which would more than meet the shortfall on the $50 billion a year promised at Gleneagles  - but then, that wasn’t enough anyway.) Read more »

   Filed under: G20, International development, Transactions tax | No Comments »

In the UK we call it the Robin Hood Tax. In Germany, it’s the Tax Against Poverty. And in the US it’s the financial speculation tax. But in all those countries – and many more – popular campaigns are building support for a financial transactions tax to raise money for public services, combating poverty and tackling climate change. Existing groups like Americans for Financial Reform and Europeans for Financial Reform (the latter set up by the ETUC and the Party of European Socialists) are also backing these campaigns. Read more »

   Filed under: Beyond Crisis, Financial crisis, G20, Recession, Tax | 1 Comment »

Mervyn King is at it today in the Financial Times, endorsing a global bank levy rather than splitting up the banks or a financial transactions tax. He describes the latter as the least likely outcome of global discussions and he may be right. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, or won’t, get such a tax. Read more »

   Filed under: Beyond Crisis, Financial crisis, G20, Tax | 2 Comments »

Alan Beattie has marked the latest World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial in Geneva with a full page Financial Times article asking why the global economic crisis has not yet produced new global institutions. There are two things needed: time and leadership. Read more »

   Filed under: Financial crisis, G20, Recession, Trade | 1 Comment »

It’s been a week since Gordon Brown stole the headlines at the G20 Finance Ministers’ Meeting at St Andrews on 7 November by supporting a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). Was it all a flash in the pan, or has Gordon taken the debate to a new level? In truth, the campaign for what will probably always be known as the ‘Tobin Tax’ had been on a rising curve for months, but will take some time to deliver. But Gordon Brown’s statement was a major milestone, and he deserves support from progressives for what he did, especially as he has come under predictable fire for doing so. Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, Financial crisis, G20, International development, Tax | 2 Comments »

You can’t have missed the ad for the TUC’s Beyond Crisis conference, but Put People First are also organising an interesting event on November 7 from 10:00 – 17:30 at Central Hall Westminster, SW1H 9NH.

This is what the conference leaflet says:

In March, we marched in our tens of thousands to demand the G20 Put People First. Far from putting people first we’ve seen nothing but a tinkering around the margins followed by the return to business as usual. Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, G20, Globalisation, International development, Recession, Trade | Comments Off

Peter Mandelson’s speech (YouTube) is undoubtedly the talk of Labour conference here in Brighton. It was of course an extraordinary performance but that should not obscure its policy content. Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, Financial crisis, G20, Manufacturing, Politics | Comments Off

Initial reactions: the International Trade Union Confederation welcomed the focus on jobs and growth at the Pittsburgh summit last week (union lobbying was quite successful on those sections of the summit communique) but there is still a long way to go. There’s a useful summary of civil society responses on Kel Currah’s ‘Sherpa Times’ website (sherpas are the civil servants who negotiate the G8 and G20 summit communiques – but reading the preamble to last week’s communique, you can hear Gordon Brown dictating it – I particularly liked “no more banking as usual”!) Further analysis will follow, but note also Kel Currah’s assessment of who had the best summit, among CSOs: us! Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, G20 | Comments Off

The global trade union movement has issued a ‘Pittsburgh Declaration’ setting out what they want from the G20 leaders summit this week. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber will be in Pittsburgh, along with other G20 trade union leaders, to lobby the leaders and the people who run the global institutions like the ILO, IMF and WTO about jobs, justice and climate. The key messages are: the recession ain’t over till the jobs come back, and there can be no return to business as usual. We need greater equality between and within nations, and we need a sustainable economy that provides decent work and reins in climate change.

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   Filed under: G20 | 1 Comment »

Demonstrating once again how indispensable it is in a crisis, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has issued a report to this week’s G20 setting out the impact of Government interventions on jobs – at a time when unemployment globally could hit 241 million. Their bottom  line (see press release) is that those interventions saved or created 7-11 million jobs in G20 countries alone, as against 25 million jobs definitely lost. But they warn also that if the recovery measures are removed too soon (as British Conservatives are advocating, for example), unemployment will lurch upwards again – the report says:

Expansionary fiscal measures to generate jobs and boost aggregate demand should be continued, and where necessary enhanced, until such time as private demand is sufficiently robust to sustain growth and employment.

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   Filed under: Financial crisis, G20, Labour market | Comments Off