Is the WTO useless?

13/8/18 15:17
abomvubuso: (Groovy Kol)
[personal profile] abomvubuso
How will the world trade order cope with a large, increasingly powerful, increasingly assertive new emerging superpower like China, which quite evidently views globalisation differently from the established power-brokers? That's the question that probably keeps both US and European politicians awake at night these days. The tension is most visible in the US, where Trump's administration has openly accused China of economic aggression, and responded by launching a trade war. Trump's methods could be perceived as too extreme, but the notion that something must be done about China's trade and industrial practices is actually quite prevalent among the mainstream political elites.

Sure, the tone is much milder in Europe, but they're sharing the same concerns. The EU commissioner of trade Cecilia Malmstrom recently asked how the Chinese state-dominated industrial model could be made compatible and placed at equal competitive footing with the open markets, globally. And that's a legitimate question. Because the Chinese model has some competitive advantages.

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Fear inequality, not terrorism

23/1/17 13:50
[identity profile] ddstory.livejournal.com
The annual meeting of the Illuminati/Bilderberger cabal in Davos has come up with a new motto: "Responsive and Responsive Leadership". Sounds nice and timely, what with the inauguration of President Douche who has vowed to shake up the existing world order, whatever that's supposed to mean.

So, the Davos smart-heads are unanimous that the main culprits for The Donald's shocking rise are the key crises of the recent years: polarized society, income inequality, and many countries shutting themselves in and getting introvert. This years Global Risk Report (something like a Davos manifesto setting the priorities for the next year) outlines five factors that will determine world events from now on. 1) Slow growth plus high debt and demographic shifts that will increase inequality and give ammo to the anti-globalist camp and those who feel marginalized by the current capitalist model. 2) Smeared-out national identities, systematically undermined by globalization, and the subsequent emotion-prone decision-making process. 3) The Fourth Industrial Revolution having changed modern societies, economies, and ways of doing business. 4) The transition to a multi-polar world order that threatens stable global cooperation. 5) The need for urgent action on climate change that's hanging like a sword over everybody's heads with an ever growing menace.


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Soroooos!!1!

12/1/17 14:26
[identity profile] ddstory.livejournal.com
And the ripples start rippling across...

George Soros NGOs to face crack down in Hungary thanks to Donald Trump's victory

Bold move, or just batshit insane? Orban seems to have ganked a few lines out of Putin's book, including his paranoia about the Bilderberger/Illuminati global conspiracy. Or could there be a grain of truth in all these accusations? I mean, as much as Soros has been demonized and presented as the face of evil incarnate and the standard-bearer of everything that is bad and corrupt about globalization, it's not like he has exactly stayed away from manipulating markets, crashing national currencies, and all in all, exploiting situations to his own benefit.

Some are already arguing that the move is apparently part of a global trend, an end of the "Clinton-Obama era", whatever that's supposed to mean. I'd argue there's no such "era", it's just the Pax Americana working its work for decades (we've all heard of the Economic Hit Man scheme already).

Others are rather eager to defend Soros as a brave man who has taken up causes that are outside the nice PR type of philanthropy, like promoting actual open democratic society and values that he generally endorses.

So what do you make of this move? Is this the beginning of the end of this sort of philanthropy with a political agenda, or it's just a tempest in a teacup, a minor Central European wannabe-dictator trying to emulate his Big Brother mentor from the East, and pandering to the conspiracy-theory prone crackpots that happen to constitute the core of his base? In other words, mostly a move for domestic consumption?
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That's what shoving down the throat looks like

27/4/16 14:05
[identity profile] ddstory.livejournal.com
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/ttip-obama-merkel-101.html

Merkel and Obama are trying hard to push TTIP through, the article basically says.

Rough translation of some parts mine:

"Chancelor Merkel has defended the secrecy of the TTIP negotiations. She claims it couldn't be done in public because the other party (the US) are bound to get some "advantages". Merkel said nothing would be concealed, and no current standards would be violated. All European standards will be preserved. Environment and consumer protection will stay at the same level."

Even despite her latest shenanigans, I'm still kinda surprised that Merkel would outright lie about the facts. She's usually supposed to know better.

It's quite evident that everything about these TTIP negotiations has been completely intransparent from day one. There's a reason that Wikileaks has offered 100 thousand euros to anyone who could get them the full text of the TTIP agreement. But apparently, no one among those directly involved in these negotiations considers themselves poor or honest enough to want that sort of money for such a thing.

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Shouldn't we Occupy Bilderberg too?

3/5/12 21:49
[identity profile] vehemencet-t.livejournal.com





Thanks to the efforts of the alternative media trackers, the international "Bilderberg conference" has been confirmed to be taking place in U.S. Virginia. For those who don't know "Bilderberg" is the informal name for an annual conference of around 120-140 individuals from the top echelons of global politics finance, banking, industry, media and even royalty. Members are pledged to strict secrecy regarding what is discussed there, as well as mandated to implement the final decisions in their respective spheres according to former Secretary General of NATO and Bilderberg attendee Willy Claes, and a generous media blackout is usually provided for their activities. In the past, Bilderberg has been linked to the formation of the original European Union, the adoption of the Euro currency, the conflict in Kosovo, and the bolstering of prominent future political leaders.

For all of us engaged in the struggle against world oppression in all its forms, they represent a pinnacle of the ruling class and their convenient centralization so near to many protesters, activists and anarchists is an opportunity that should not be wasted.

People from different branches of the ideological perspective are already calling out--Occupy Bilderberg! This a chance to assemble the forces of freedom fighters from such diverse corners as the Occupy movement, Crimethinc, We Are Change and many more nameless affinity groups and social action cells out there of the 99%.

Disrupt Bilderberg! Expose the 0.001%! Shut that conference down! Force your way through and remind the global elite that we are not their slaves and that they will lose control.

So on May 31-June 3, 2012 let's all of us be at:

Spread the word and prepare yourselves for the fight!

It is my hope that a huge mass of people arrives there to draw attention to this group which I feel has been allowed to be secretive for far too long. After all if the goal of such groups is to fight economic and political corruption and exploitation, then, in my opinion, it is high time they were introduced to one of its historically chief concentrations.

(OP Note: If this violates some rule or guideline, I was not aware of it--though I did check. Also, before somebody mentions it--I apologize for the quality of some of the links--unfortunately because of the usual and inexplicable media blackouts some of those sources are the 'only game in town' for covering this--just try to ignore the unfactual/sensationalist/speculative stuff you disagree with. Thank you.)
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The Consumer: Profitable Prospect, or Willing Participant?

25/3/12 18:25
[identity profile] peristaltor.livejournal.com
[livejournal.com profile] brucenstein's recent contribution regarding tariffs set on Chinese-made solar panels got me to thinking. There are not just one issue to discuss here — the more obvious and immediate being the way China's government funds industrial activity — but two. We must also consider what kind of electrical grid we have and what kind we want for the future.

To consider that, we need to also consider ( our electrical past. )
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Globalization: The Demise of the Nation State

1/8/11 10:12
[identity profile] sophia-sadek.livejournal.com
Western culture always considers something to be new when it does it for the first time. Globalization is one of those supposedly new things that is actually quite old. There was a time when textiles manufactured in India were worn by people in central Africa without the intervention of a British middle man. That was not considered global by Western standards because no Westerners were involved.

In my younger years, I was struck by the ease with which money traveled the globe compared to the difficulties faced by people who sought work outside of their locale of origin. Money was evidently more free than were human beings. This makes sense when one considers the slavish origins of both currency and economy. It also made me feel very privileged to have opportunities to work outside of America and to travel to places that were closed to some of my college friends. Not only was money more free, but so were civilian technical workers.

As the Tea Party pines for the close of the eighteenth century, other people are starting to come to the conclusion that the planet is much smaller today than it was when tea was dumped in Boston harbor. Institutions that were established for the level of technical development that existed in the days of wooden ships and quill pens are becoming obsolete. Still, there was one eighteenth century figure who put his finger on our current situation when he proclaimed the world his country and doing good his religion.

What do think of the idea of a government above the level of the petty antics of the UN and its squalid founders? Would you like to see the final demise of the fiefdoms that call themselves governments? What higher authority do you see on the horizon?
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No place for the old money

18/5/11 22:46
[identity profile] abomvubuso.livejournal.com
A governmental Las Vegas. Thats how a US journalist called Astana during the global economic forum which was held earlier this year in the new Kazakh capital city. In just 12 years the former Tselinograd (literally: New Soil Town) has been transformed completely from a typical small town amidst the Kazakh steppe. Now weird-looking high-rise architecture is hanging in the air, sprinkled with all sorts of kitsch lights. Egyptian style pyramids stand next to sarays taken from the 1001 Nights tale, next to Chinese pagodas, next to traditional Turkic yurts. Unlike the more cosmopolitan, old style, Stalinist-socialist-realism-architecture, but green and cosy old natural capital Almaty which i've always loved returning to, during my only visit to Astana a year or so ago, the new jewel of the steppe struck me with its markedly sterile environment - it looks as if it was specifically built for the purpose of being put on postcards. And in a sense, it really was.

I mean look at this.



But in some way Astana was indeed the right place to discuss the "architecture" of the global financial system. Lots of parallels could be drawn between the artificial creation of a capital in the middle of nowhere, which was meant to host all the leaders and politicians of a fast developing country, and the pronounced striving for a, largely artificial, global currency, which could provide shelter to the money of the investors. But there are several significant differences. In a city like that you could easily summon all the geniuses of architecture to unleash their imagination and craziness, and create the most posh patchwork of buildings. But in the world of finance, experimenting in such ways is intolerable - the various concepts are often mutually incompatible, and change occurs with lots and lots of efforts and pain, and it requires not just economical logic and consistency, but also a serious amount of resolve.

( Lots of ideas how to re-arrange the financial world, but little political will to realise any of them )
 
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The consequences of Western "civilization"

6/2/10 20:44
[identity profile] dailykosjeff.livejournal.com
"On a small island 750 miles off the coast of India, one woman's death marked the end of an ancient civilization.
"Her death is not just the death of one person, it is the death of a whole tribe and up to 65,000 years of history," said Miriam Ross of Survival International, which campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal people. "It is also a warning sign that the same fate could befall other tribes in other parts of the world."
"At one point, the British forcibly resettled the Great Andamanese to a single island in order to "civilize" them. The tribe was moved into an "Andaman home" during which time 150 children were born. None of them lived beyond the age of 2."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/bo-vanish-death-civilization/story?id=9757454

Racism, colonialism, chauvinism: these are all the unavoidable symptoms of the Western 'civilization' that conservatives hold so dear and seek to spread through the world, only now through the more deceptively benign path of globalization. If the advocates of neoliberal policies have their way, soon the remnants of indigenous cultures will be buried under McDonald's and Wal-Mart.

Susan Sontag said it best: "Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history."
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