I would very much appreciate Your comments, corrections and supplementary information at orla@jordals.dk or snail mail: Orla Jordal Greve Alfreds väg 1, 275 96 Sövde, Sverige.
I need help for items marked ????
There are problems though:
The need of an efficient state is overlooked
Free trade and sound investments are dependent on an efficient state (1) to secure good laws and an evenhanded law enforcement, (which should preferably be accessible to poor and rich, foreign and citizen, private person and big business) as well as defined property rights (2), (3). Bruce R. Scott may be at least somewhat right, when he states:"Institutional deficiencies, not capital shortages are the major impediment to development". I see confirmation of this hypothesis in the situation in CIS (former soviet union) countries, where
the infrastructure was functioning albeit with some weaknesses as far as roads are concerned,
industrial equipment was there, though not too modern,
the workers were well educated.
The only thing, which was totally out of order at the beginning of the Yeltsin period was "Law and order". The 10 years have not brought any economic development - it is reasonable to think - just because the state is still not functioning efficiently enough to give protection to investments.
Most developing countries have similar problems with weak and corrupt states.
When the state is lacking, industry may internalize the risks in an insecure market with inconsistent contract enforcement by creating a closed production system (4) (Keiretsu in Japan, Chaebol in South Korea). These systems can be highly efficient, but are seemingly less flexible than more open markets and there is also here a lack of democratic control.
The present type of globalization, where the United States Trade Representative and others are pursuing the Reagan - Thatcher anti-state counterrevolution (5) has the wrong direction.
Sound investments needs the protection of a strong state and a sound stable state is also needed to secure long - term economic stability (6).
Further a stable state is necessary to establish and secure the stable functioning of the
infrastructure, without which no kind of business can thrive - transportation,
electricity, water, telephone.
An efficient state is also necessary to ensure, that all enterprises abide by the rules -
labour, environmental, etc. - so that nobody get competitive advantage by taking a free
ride.
Even in Western Europe what is needed is rather more efficient states than less, with trafficking in young women, smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, humans and slaughter offal (7).
The many rules churning out of the EU bureaucracy are created in closed working groups with a very heavy particular business influence - this must soon be countered by stronger - better educated - expertise on behalf of the people by the state. There should be a meaningful distinction between regulators and the regulated (8).
Further taxpayers generally finance most of the educational system and very much research. We do deserve some influence on the results in return. As the scientific journal Nature writes on the Human Genome Project:
"The people of many countries have invested in the Human Genome Project's determination of the sequence.... we require the results of genome sequence analyses, as with protein structure coordinates, to be immediately available from an appropriate database without restriction." (9).
The same consideration is valid in most other fields.
The global R&D budget of pharmaceutical companies is estimated at 28 billion USD per year57. The total budget of the Danish Research ministry - covering higher education as well as research is in 2000 less than 1 billion USD.
The hindrances to free and fair trade.
Recent integration of aspects of the world economy has been highly uneven, limited to particular economic sectors and not nearly global. The level of integration corresponds to the level in 1913 (10).
Most Foreign Direct Investments takes place in US, China, Western Europe + Brazil + Mexico, the last 2 mainly in the automobile sector. When one speaks of globalization there is actually only a few countries involved (11).
70 % of Foreign Direct Investments goes from one rich country to another rich country. 8 developing nations get another 20 % (12)
NAFTA is closed to: ????
EU is closed to agricultural products of which the most important are rice, bananas and sugar.
And what more ????
USA was asked march 2005 to eliminate subsidies on cotton producers and
exporters. Barzil will ask WTO to impose sanctions on the US, due to its failure
to meeting a WTO trade resolution in this matter. (Xinhuanet, 230905)
Recent World Bank research found that tariff and non - tariff barriers imposed by high - income countries, together with agricultural subsidies, cost developing nations much more in lost export opportunities than the approximately 50 billion USD that they receive in foreign aid each year (13).
Tariffs on labour - intensive manufactured goods such as textiles, clothing and footwear range from 15 to 30 %. Import taxes are higher still on many agricultural products: more than 100 % for meat, sugar and dairy goods. Fruits and vegetables face some of highest tariffs - a US tariff of 121 % on groundnuts, Europe's 130 % tariff on above - quota bananas and Japan's 171 % tariff on raw cane sugar (14).
World Bank research found that eliminating all barriers to imports from sub - Saharan Africa in North America, Europe and Japan would lead to a 14 % rise in the region's exports, an annual increase of about 2.5 billion USD (15).
Even when there can be established some political willingness to correct this it is immediately met by very strong opposing forces.
The EU commissionaire Patrick Lamy suggested that the 49 poorest countries from 2004 should be given free access to the EU market for all goods except weapons. This resulted in a massive lobbying campaign from farmers and the sugar monopolies (16) - including Danisco - which resulted in an even more modest proposal - which has been supplanted by proposal no 3, giving this freedom from 2009 !!! The 49 poorest countries cover just 0.4 % of global trade.
The EU agricultural system is very far from free and fair trade and so are the support systems for fishing in the industrial countries and this is very damaging not only to the less developed countries but also the environment and the health of all EU residents as consumers.
Although multinational corporations as a group are neither good nor bad, international rules are required to govern the relationships of Multinational Companies and national governments.
The purpose of Foreign Direct Investments by firms is to achieve partial or complete control over marketing, production or other activities in another economy (17).
The firm seeks to acquire from the host economy as many concessions as possible, such as favourable tax treatment and trade protection (18).
Intrafirm trade in Multinational corporations is managed trade (19) and so neither free nor fair.
The EU and USA every year uses 360 billion USD in subsidies to agriculture and 450 billion
USD in subsidies to industry. And here is not counted the industrial subventions hidden in
the defence industry (58).
There are goods, which are not suited to free trade
For instance the natural monopolies, railroads, roads, cable nets (whether for communication or electricity), water supply systems etc.
Natural ressources necessary for human survival as breathable air and drinkable water also should not exploited economically. Uruguays constitution bar private control of water and declare water "a fundamental human right. That is how we all should do. The sad story of water privatisation in India is found here. The sneaking way in which it was done is also illustrated (an Indian news editor found a tender in an American journal - it was never in the local papers - this also ensures, that the profit does not stay in India).
The Reagan - Thatcher counterrevolution let to a lot of splitting up of public services to smaller entities - often very artificial - which were then privatized. The effects are now gradually appearing, some of them rather catastrophic, others appear just as nuisances.
17th January 2001 San Francisco was without electricity (20), no traffic lights, elevators stopped, no ATMs working. Governor Gray Davis declared some kind of emergency, which entitled him to buy electricity and distribute it to the power companies not able to supply their customers. He declared the deregulation a "dangerous mistake". Later it has been found out, that Enron through manipulation with the market stole 1.1 billion USD out of public utilities/customers. (59). Snohomish County Public Utility District published tapes of traders. Tapes revealed manipulation in 473 out of 537 days.
The hopeless situation for public transportation in England - and the many train
collisions - can also mainly be referred to the split up and privatization of British
Rail.
I know there are many other cases of such major problems, which have arisen out of this Friedmanisation and I should be glad to receive from You examples from all countries.
I intend to keep a list available from my homepage: http://www.jordals.dk
As to the nuisances my personal experiences are two:
1. The telephone here at my place in Sweden is operated by several companies, meaning I have two - one delivering the connection and the only possibility to send e-mails, the other the cheaper rates and a more reliable connection (which can't send e-mails). And when there are problems they always start telling the trouble lies with the other company ! And it takes a lot of effort to locate the source of the trouble and have it corrected.
2. My electricity bill has got so complicated, that it is nearly impossible to find out what is the real price for an additional kwh - and whether it will pay to change company.
And it is not, that it has got any cheaper.
On 20 February 2001 Medscape.com could report a rationing of tetanus vaccine, because
Wyeth Lederle suddenly without prior notice to the CDC announced that it would no longer
manufacture it.
All the liberal economists state that competition is good because it drives prices down. But then the director of Svenska Giro - the postal money transfer system here - says: "we cannot afford two girosystems !" He may even be right. If the service is worked efficiently as a public service without owners needing profit, that should give the lowest price. (21)
It does not seem that anyone has suggested to privatise defence and police. As they are highly inefficient organisations they should otherwise be good candidates, according to the usual arguments. But even Reagan and Thatcher saw the problems !
We in Scandinavia have seen a disquieting growth in private security guards etc. though.
And private armies are found at many places. I don't propose to make more - on the contrary. Too many wars are caused/kept going by private financial interests, oil in Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria, diamonds in Sierra Leone.
To my opinion hospitals and care and nursing are ill suited to privatisation. Especially when the service is payed off taxes. Then better save the profit which the private company should have had.
Even such service as has for longer time existed as private enterprise, like cleaning, does not always come out competitive compared with public service. Lund University Hospital Sweden has just received an extra bill of 13 million SEK for cleaning (22), they had expected a saving !!
To privatize parts of a hospital - or to carve it up in several privatized pieces - give a lot of problems. Which firm carries the responsibility for errors, for increased waiting-hours. There are created new communication problems. (60).
More than a billion people all over the world consume unsafe drinking water, and every year 3.4 million people - mostly children - die due to water related illnesses, said the WHO on the occasion of World Water Day, 22 March.
Every year 2.2 million people die from diarrhea. 90 % of these deaths are among children. Diarrhea can be reduced 26 % when basic water, hygiene and sanitation are supplied (23).
Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of
human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people
already lack access to fresh drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 the demand
for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 percent more than the amount of water that is
currently available.
Multinational corporations recognize these trends and are trying to monopolize water
supplies around the world. Monsanto, Bechtel, Enron and other global multinationals are
seeking control of world water systems and supplies.
The World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water
pricing. This policy is causing great distress in many Third World countries, which fear
that their citizens will not be able to afford for-profit water (24).
Even scientific research is damaged by the lack of state, as Nathan Smith (26) writes: "Science has been commodified, and the medium for that commodification is the culture of private - sector funding of scientific research. In the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, scientists are encouraged to produce marketable results, not good science (defined as a disinterested study of a phenomenon with doubts and failures published alongside proofs and successes).... I don't necessarily think that science currently lacks a code of ethics; I think it just knows which side its bread is buttered on. What really needs to change is where the funding comes from. The science of today is too potentially devastating to the environment to be left in the hands of for - profit entities".
Efficient government control is heavily needed with BSE, Foot-and-Mouth disease, Campylobacter, Listeria, PCB, Dioxin and antibiotics in human and animal food/feed.
It is dangerous to the quality of government that all research - which is closely connected to education - has become dependent on private enterprise financing. There will soon be a scarcity of qualified public servants, who are free of private enterprise interests to control e.g. that food security regulations are followed. Even business needs a "meaningful distinction between regulators and regulated" (25).
Deregulation and privatization is generally advocated on the pretext that the service will become cheaper, better, more efficient. Many studies show this not to be the case, e.g. we have seen increases of 70 - 100 % on flight tickets on Swedish destinations (27). It sure started with much cheaper rates, Transwede competing with SAS. But as could be expected the companies lost money and now there is again only one company on each destination, and the prizes skyrocketed.
Very often a private company will take "calculated risks" and invest in other projects, than those which enhance safety and reduce environmental threats. Following a gas accident in Toulouse, France, (1 killed, 34 wounded, 300 evacuated) the trade union noted that Gas de France (GDF) had invested 2 billion Euros internationally and only spent 128 million Euros on the exchange of unsafe tube types, (Monde Diplomatique, Aout 2004). A shift to out-of-house work for the tube exchange caused a price rize for GDF of 40 %.
Many services are better and cheaper provided as public services without owners, as owners must have profits, which are taken on the prizes (28).
The WTO rules prescribes (or USA works to have the prescribe) privatisation of
railways, nursing homes, hospitals and many other services, but in November 2001 the
selected president decrees that Air security officers - which were employed by private
companies in the USA - should in the future be federally employed.
Prisons are another type of activity not suited for privatisation: Terry
Stuart, former director, Arizona prison system (1995 - 2002), Iraq, may - june
2003, june2004 consulting for Advanced Correctional Mangement i Haïti. Zmag, 170604.
Free capital movement - aside from what is needed for trade - is a threat against economical stability - which is also needed for global trade.
Foreign exchange trade in the late 1990s was approximately 1.5 trillion USD/day.
The global volume of trade - goods and services - in 1997 was 25 billion USD/day (29). Making exchange 60 times the amount needed for trade.
This is responsible for an extreme fluidity of exchange rates, which is an impediment to global trading and a threat to economic stability (30).
Fixed exchange rates - Bretton Woods system - is incompatible with free capital movements (31).
The Bretton Woods System was created during and after World War II to supplant the direct gold based system of the early 1900s.
A fundamental change in political thinking and emergence of a novel domestic consensus in Western Europe and in the United States supported a liberal world economy. Central to the new consensus was a distributional settlement between capital and labour in which the major economic powers pledged themselves to pursue full employment policies and to guarantee the welfare of their populations. Recognizing that free trade would create losers as well as winners, governments also promised to compensate the losers through full employment and social insurance policies (32).
This domestic political consensus rested on certain important conditions. In the early postwar years, national economies were generally closed, and therefore governments were relatively free to pursue economic policies promoting rapid economic growth and full employment (33).
As their economies opened governments found it more and more difficult to pursue economic policies of full employment and social welfare (34). And now we have attained the stage, where the layoff of thousands of workers at Ericssons only results in some rather neutral notices in the papers and a rise of Ericsson's shares by 10 million SEK per worker laid off (35)
Before 1970 capital flows were sharply controlled and there were some limitations to goods and services.
The most important change is the greatly increased mobility of capital movements around the world, encouraged by deregulation of capital markets, technological developments and new financial instruments all of which have also greatly limited governmental ability to contain markets pressures (36).
Within a period as short as 1 or 2 years erratic swings in the 3 major currencies have occurred in which their values have varied by as much as 30 to 40 %. Making it impossible to calculate relative costs (37).
EU members chose protection against both inflation and exchange rate instability and thereby surrendered the possibility of maintaining independent monetary politics (full employment) (38) and the vulnerability to economic shocks increased and the ability to deal with such shocks decreased.
Foreign Direct Investments impinges directly on national economies and can infringe on national values and economic independence (39) and the rapidly moving speculation capital does not stimulate growth - but is threatening economic stability (40).
We must demand that these public interests - which are also of benefit to sound trade and investment - be better protected. I do not see any other way to this than limitation to Foreign Direct Investments.
Globalization must be based on a more just basis and be controlled by democratic institutions. As it is, the market is a straightjacket offering one size, one colour and a free choice of where You will buy Your Coca Cola.
Now the flow of people is severely limited (Fortress Europe, the US - Mexican border).
The world would be better for people if they could travel freely and money were controlled.
Therefore the democratically elected representatives in each country should regain their control over capital movements to give people freedom to move.
The free market does not solve all problems
1. Gilpin claims (41) that capitalism
distributes wealth more equally. There I consider him wrong. 2 billion people live for
less than 2 USD/day. The richest third's per capita income rose by an annual 1.9 % between
1970 and 1995, whereas the middle third went up by only 0.7 % and the bottom third showed
no increase at all (42).
2. Although financial crises appear to be an inherent feature of
international capitalism, only half - hearted measures have been taken to prevent future
financial crises. The rule based Bretton Woods system has eroded and WTO and other rules
are no longer adequate for a highly integrated and fragile economy.
The 1990s financial troubles resemble their predecessors in many ways. As in the "tulip mania" (1637) in Holland and the South Sea Bubble (which burst in 1720) in England and other "get-rich-quick" schemes, the greed of international investors led them to make very risky speculative investments in the emerging markets of East Asia (43).
When the investment boom tended to stop everyone sought suddenly to leave the market, the market therefore collapsed. And as a new feature this crisis did not keep restricted to the directly inflicted market, it spread and grew to a global financial turmoil due to the immense scale and velocity of international financial flows and the equal swiftness of information flows today.
In little more than a year its effects were increasingly felt even by the Americans.
Thousands of American and other investors lost millions of dollars as stock markets dropped around the world and many financial institutions collapsed (44).
Recurrent financial crises lead one to question the rationality of markets and to ask how rational actors can become caught up over and over again in the investment booms or manias that almost invariably result in financial panics and crises. Or, to put the matter another way, if economic actors are rational, as they are assumed to be by economists, how can one account for the frequent utter irrationality of financial markets? Although a number of distinguished economists have developed theories to explain currency crises, equally distinguished economists have denied that there really is any problem (45), e.g. Milton Friedmann.
The tendency of free markets to burst into speculation booms (which may/will ? be followed by crises) is strengthened by the highly leveraged "hedge" funds, the huge "private" pension funds and many other factors making some people able to speculate with money, which are not their own !!! my point is here, that they would be much more careful if only their private funds were in risk.
The irrationality of the market is illustrated by an example found in Björn Elmbrant: Hyperkapitalismen: At 8 a.m. a Wednesday before Christmas 1998 Henry Blodget, CIBC Oppenheimer, New York, announces a prognosis of $400 for Amazon shares (valued by him 2 months earlier at $150). When there is a break in the meeting the rate starts rising and achieves $300. In 2000 Amazon shares were $18 !
3. American businesses frequently threatened to move to Mexico or elsewhere unless labour accedes to management demands. This is an important factor for the protectionist stand of organized labour (46).
4. We must reconquer the control that democratic institutions have lost to the financial sector and oppose any attempt to limit national sovereignty to protect investors/markets (47) (as e.g. the Multilateral Agreement on Investments).
Sweden's minister for culture Marita Ulvskog want to have stricter regulation of TV promotions directed to children. But alas, sovereignty in this field has already been passed on to EU, where the Commission demands proof that this kind of promotion is damaging to children (the argument sounds as if it came from WTO).
There is a lack of democracy in the processing of the rules for this "globalization" one example is that the United States Trade Representative is negotiating binding rules that could affect the ability of the United States to protect the environment and human health," said Stephen Porter, Senior Attorney with CIEL (the Center for International Environmental Law . "To hide what it is doing from concerned citizens is shameful for a government that considers itself the world's model for democracy. The United States Trade Representative is willing to give these documents to 33 foreign nations, but not the American public (48)."
5. Mega-merged corporate media are predominantly interested in the
entertainment value of news and the maintenance of high audience viewing/reading levels
that lead to profitable advertising sales. Non-sexy or complex stories tend to receive
little attention within these corporate media systems. This structural arrangement is what
censorship looks like in America today: not usually a deliberate killing of stories by
official censors, but rather a subtle system of information suppression in the name of
corporate profit and self interest. Corporate media censorship is an attack on democracy
itself. It undermines the very fabric of our society by creating a highly entertained but
poorly informed electorate.
Given that corporate media systemically censor important news stories, it is not hard to
understand why more than 50 million eligible voters do not bother to vote. Without
essential knowledge of important political issues, voter apathy is rampant, and political
parties may tend to appear different, but act alike (49).
The same tendency to concentration and Gleichschaltung of the press is seen to a varying degree in the European countries (e.g. the closing of Arbetet in Malmö and Aktuelt in Copenhagen).
This commercial censorship seemingly covers everything from North Korea and Kosova to the "banisters" the Swedish road managing authority (Vägverket) has suddenly started to plant in the middle of the roads and even certain films(56).
The film Baise-moi which passed the official Swedish censorship without cuts was censured out of the advertisements by the firm Branschmedia, which coordinates all Swedish cinema advertizing - although the advertisements are prepaid.
6. The weak states of most less developed countrys are corrupt - but who
are corrupting them ?
We in Sweden do know of Bofors !
And this year it came out that the communication minister of Cambodia was appointed honorary consultant (at 2500 USD/month) for Millicom a firm associated with Kinnevik AB.
As shareholders and institutional investors in Talisman Energy Inc., meet on May 1 in Calgary, Canada, the fighting between government of Sudan forces, armed opposition forces and various local militias continues in the oil-rich regions of Sudan (50), there is a similar problem with Lundin Oil involving former Swedish premier Carl Bildt. Also the wars in Somalia and Nigeria (Shell), Chechnya and the rest of Caucasus are oil wars.
It seems very clear, that this problem will never be solved by the free market.
7. Poor-quality pesticides threaten health in developing nations. About 30 % of pesticides marketed in developing countries, with an estimated market value of 900 million USD annually, do not meet internationally accepted standards, United Nations agencies said Thursday.
"These poor quality pesticides frequently contain hazardous substances and impurities that have already been banned or severely restricted elsewhere" said Gero Vaagt of FAOs pesticide management group (51).
Liberalization of global trade need to be separated from US imperialist demands.
The USA is playing by double standards.
South Africa and Brazil are sought denied the right to import generic medicines against AIDS - which is a real illness, counting thousands of deaths because of WTO/TRIPS patent rules, while an anthrax scare - counting below ten dead and easily treated by other medicines - gets senator Charles Schumer (D. N.Y.) out asking for invocation of 28 USA Sec 1498, allowing the federal government to purchase products for official use from manufacturers other than the patent holder. After this the federal government persuaded Bayer to deliver Ciprofloxacin at 1/3 of the ordinary price !!!
The WTO rules prescribes (or USA works to have the prescribe) privatisation of railways, nursing homes, hospitals and many other services, but in November 2001 the selected president decrees that Air security officers - which were employed by private companies in the USA - should in the future be federally employed.
Many non-American observers have taken note of the fact that the IMF's program of structural adjustment included specific items that the United States had long demanded of Asian governments, and that the latter had long rejected. For example, recipients of IMF assistance were required to open their banking systems to foreign investors, most of whom were Americans and who were then able to buy local banks at cheap prices. The United States, these critics have charged, took advantage of the crisis to force open the economies in the region and to make them susceptible to domination by American financial interests (52).
A particularly vexing problem for America's trading partners is the extraterritorial application of American law, not just to the foreign affiliates of American firms but also to those of foreign corporations; for example, the HelmsBurton Act, which punishes foreign firms that deal with Cuba, is an especially infamous example of this American effort to impose its laws and policies on other countries (53).
By March 1997 the US had imposed trade sanctions 61 times on 35 countries (54).
Liberalisation "gives larger firms from rich countries the opportunity for takeovers that are reminiscent of colonialism" (55).
US Space Command "Vision for 2020" compares the US effort to "control space" and Earth below to how centuries ago "nations built navies to protect and enhance their economic interests".
The "war of bananas" between EU and US seems to have ended now, but not with a fair and open system. EU seems just to have opened for larger quotas from the US firms of South America, making European consumers double losers. Before the system gave higher prices but some support for former EU colonies' banana export, now only the higher prices are left !!
261004, Greg Palast reports that in February 2003, a 101-page document came to him from somewhere with the US State Department. Titel: Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Growth. It contained a detailed plan for the privatisation and robbing of the Iraqi economy. Jay Garner was fired because he promised the Iraqis democracy in 90 days. Bremer's 100 orders closely follow the plan.
171004, Poland's buy of F-16 is one good example of Free Trade the American way !!!!
They are often a way to attract public funds.
******
3. Jason Ralph: American democracy and democracy promotion, International Affairs, 2001, 77, 1, 129 ff
Review of:
John Judis: The paradox of American democracy: elites, special interests and the betrayal of public trust, N.Y. 2000, 26 USD
Michael Zweig: The working class majority: America's best kept secret, Cornell UP 2000, 25 GBP
Ray Teixera & Joel Rigens: America's forgotten majority: why the white working class still matters, N.Y. 2000, 16.5 GBP
***
Big business has been allowed to penetrate the media, the universities, the major political parties and the government, p. 132
This has implications beyond American domestic policies.
The liberalisation of international economy in 1970s undermined labours negotiating position, abolished the balanced government.
There must be a strong government to counterbalance the power of big business.
The real swing votes lie with the white working class and a shift of party platforms to the left to acquire this vote is the only way to break the political stalemate.
The white working male is afraid of an activist government, this is the main hindrance to white working majority. They brought Clinton in because of health reform promises, that were not delivered and were scared by gay military reform, which was delivered.
Only Poetry can address grief: Moving forward after 911.
By Starhawk ATTAC Newsletter "Sand in the Wheels", 101, 241001.:
"We want enterprises to be rooted in communities and responsible to communities and to future generations. We want producers to be accountable for the true social and ecological costs of what they produce.
We say there is a commons that needs to be protected, that there are resources that are too vital to life, too precious or sacred to be exploited for the profit of the few, including those things that sustain life: water, traditional lands and productive farmland, the collective heritage of ecological and genetic diversity, the earth's climate, the habitats of rare species and of endangered human cultures, sacred places, and our collective cultural and intellectual knowledge. We say that those who labor are entitled, as a bare minimum, to safety, to just compensation that allows for life, hope and dignity, and to have the power to determine the conditions of their work. We say that as humans we have a collective responsibility for the well being of others, that life is fraught with uncertainty, bad luck, injury, disease, and loss, and that we need to help each other bear those losses, provide generously and graciously the means for all to have food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, and the possibility to realize their dreams and aspirations. Only then will we have true security.
We say that democracy means people having avoice in the decisions that affect them, including economic decisions"
As proposed by Prof. Howard Wachtel of American University in several papers: If TNC worldwide profits, worldwide sales revenues and sales revenues in each tax jurisdiction are known, then they could be taxed in each jurisdiction at a flat rate worldwide. Example: Company X makes worldwide profits of $1 billion and receives 40% of its worldwide sales revenues in the United States. The profits earned in the U.S. are thus considered to be $400 million and the corporate profit tax is applied to that base.
*********
se også WTO
Dean Baker: The new economy takes a dive
Useful links
Charlie Cray: Dubious
Development: The World Bank's forey into private sector investment. Har en liste over
IFC's investeringer i den private sektor.
George Monbiot: Tinkering
with poverty
William Rivers Ritt har skrevet en krads Reagan-nekrolog på Truthout, 070604,
som også ser på globalliseringens følger.
1. Bruce R Scott, Foreign Affairs, 20001, 80, 1, 160-177.
2. Hilton L Ross, Asia's bad old ways, Foregn Affairs, 2001, 80, 2, 9 - 14.
3. Robert J Samuelson in a review of Hernando de Soto: Why capitalism succeeds in the west and fails everywhere else. Foreign Affairs, 2001, 80, 1, 205 ff.
4. Hilton L Root (Milken Institute): Asia's bad old ways, Foreign Affairs, 2001, 80, 2, 9 - 14.
5. I owe that expression to Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 83.
6. Martin Wolf, Foreign Affairs, 2001, 80, 1, 178 ff.
7. Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 7 march 2001.
8. Hilton L Root (Milken Institute): Asia's bad old ways, Foreign Affairs, 2001, 80, 2, 9 - 14.
9. Nature, 2001, 409, 745 editorial Human genomes, public and private.
10. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, chapter 10.
11. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 24.
12. Bruce R Scott, Foreign Affairs, 20001, 80, 1, 160-177.
13. Nicholas Stern, International Herald Tribune, 25 January 2001.
14. Nicholas Stern, see above.
15. Nicholas Stern, see above.
16. Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 26 February 2001
17. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 164.
18. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 174.
19. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 95.
20. Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 19 January 2001.
21. Johan Hultman of Institutet för en objektiv Rättsgrund in Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 19 February 2001.
22. Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 28 March 2001.
23. Medscape.com 22 March 2001.
24. Peter Phillips, Project Censored, 2 March 2001
25. Hilton L Root, Foreign Affairs, 2001, 80, 2, 9 - 14
26. Nathan Smith, letter to Scientific American, May 2001, p. 7.
27. Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 2 April 2001.
28. Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 19 February 2001, Johan Hultman, Institutet för en objektiv rättsgrund, Ordet.
29. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 22.
30. Martin Wolf: Foreign Affairs, 2001, 80, 1, p. 178 ff.
31. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 123.
32. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p
33. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 56.
34. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 66.
35. Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 28 March 2001.
36. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 128.
37. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 126.
38. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 206.
39. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 185.
40. Joseph Stieglitz of the World Bank, as quoted by Lars Pålsson Syll in Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 9 February 2001.
41. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 3.
42. Bruce R Scott: The great divide in the global village, Foreign Affairs, 2001, 80, 1, 160 - 177
43. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 134.
44. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 134.
45. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 137.
46. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 181
47. Gerhard Schulz, ATTAC Helsingborg in Swedish journal: Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 7 March 2001.
48. E-mail from ATTAC: US trade representative sued for hiding documents from public, 7 March 2001.
49. Peter Phillips, Project censored, Sonoma University, May 2001.
50. Amnesty International, mail, 1 May 2001.
51. Medscape.com 2 February 2001.
52. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 159.
53. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 185.
54. Robert Gilpin: The Challenge of global capitalism. The world economy in the 21st century, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 355.
55. Bruce R. Scott, see above.
56. Swedish Journal Sydsvenska Dagbladet 8 March 2001.
57. Nature, 2001, 409, 745 editorial Human genomes, public and private
58. Le Monde Diplomatique, Decembre 2001, p. 7
59. The Seattle Times, 140604.
60. Sydsvenskan, 230907, Oro När dialysen ska läggas ut på entreprenad, p. c10.
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