Nader on the Economy

The Economic Crisis-In a Nutshell

I came across this article in zmag.org.  It gives a great breakdown of the financial crisis and its links way beyond the mortgage and insurance agencies and banks.  This recession is due to our economic system as a whole.

As Bello writes, this has been a downward spiral process that mainly took foot in the seventies with the push for further liberalization of the markets and Reagonomics.  Neo-liberalization made overproduction an aspect of the free-trade market.  This caused a great amount of competition in the market which “limited the growth of purchase power and demand, thus eroding profitability,” as Bello says.  This even relates to the subsidies that Western nations use in the market to lower the costs of their agricultural products which make their products cheaper to consume than those same products in other countries that are forbidden to have subsidies under Structural Adjustment Program agreements with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  In addition, the powerful rich countries are also able to dictate the supply and demand of the market which causes a decrease in value of foreign products due to overproduction.  The system is wasteful in many ways.

Obviously neo-liberalization only encourages this overproduction.  By removing state constraints and rulings, corporations are able to to as they please which means moving wealth from the poor to the rich.  By bringing many countries into this liberalized economy, the world becomes dependent on these wealthy corporations and banks and governments to dictate their lives.  Finally Bello links all this to financialization which is the culprit of this credit crisis.  This has to due with the greedy investments by these banks and corporations that pushes the stock market over the edge.  They fabricated money when it wasn’t their which turned this system onto itself.

It is amazing how big this system is and how it links to everyone.  I just read that the economy of Iceland collapsed today and is probably going to look towards the IMF for a loan (something that is just part of this endless spiral).  Deregulation has not worked in the past and is not working now.  Until this is challenged and there are not free money giveaways to corporations, maybe the problem can be dealt with.  Use the 700 billion for social and environmental infrastructure instead…these are the areas that need it.

Financial Woes

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/business/06markets.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I just found this article after coming out of the theater watching “Battle in Seattle.” It is unbelievable how obviously linked corporations are to governments. All of a sudden the public goes wild because the economy is going down the hole, and Banks are going bankrupt. So we award this greed with a rescue plan. And it is so ironic that free-market capitalists are now fans of socialist government plans. Socialism for the rich with the working classes’ money, while the gap between rich and poor increases, environmental protection is hardly a concern, and basic humanitarian necessities are ignored.

A quick side note, on the tube, CNN (ergh) is talking about “America’s Money Crisis” which is way over 10 trillion dollars, and is increasing ONE MILLION $$$$$$$$$$ every 6 SECONDS. And we still are going on with our obviously failed economic system. And it still blows me away that the total of all “third world” national debts combined is around 3 trillion dollars. By that logic we should be poorer than the poorest of Africa. But since we hold so much power in the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and so on we are making the workers, the children, the poor of the world carry the woes of our debt.

Moving Photography of Chris Jordan

These photos are some of my favorite around because of their amazing ability to get a message across.  I’m excited for this January because his exhibit is actually coming to WSU.

http://chrisjordan.com/

Zoom of Photo

Shipping Containers

Chris Jordan’s series, “Running the Numbers”, portrays so well the effects of our over-comsumed society.  What I find so great about his photos is, that besides the obvious bewilderment of how much we consume and all the wast it produces, the link between all these products or lifestyles and how that relates or Western economic practices.  Or if anything, the pictures and numbers are just surprising at even the superficial level.

The fact that we use so many cell phones blows me away, especially as I think of everything that goes into making that cellphone.  Cheap labor from foreign countries, the utilization of raw materials from around the world, and the interestingfact that we have been able to afford a lifestyle where something like a cellphone is just a product for us to use throw out.

One of my favorite pictures is of the shipping containers.  To me, this is a huge chain of relationships.  It exemplifies our import/export “free” trade market that uses tons of fossil fuels to transport things we consume, ranging from bananas to electronics and toys.  Then I think of the laws in place that dictate this trade, looking at the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, etc.  And I wonder, who grew the coffee for me to drink, as an example?    Knowing the coffee industry, I think of coffee as one of the most pesticide-applied plants, I think of the workers that are growing this mono-crop production (which aids in the extinction of birds) who are not protected by unions or receive a sufficient pay.  I think of this crazy division of wealth where I can go to Starbucks which is every where now, and buy a cup of coffee for a little over a buck, and hey, let’s throw in a paper cup which draws in a whole bunch of other strings.

This all goes back to our trade laws and loan industries.  The fact that we give ridiculous amounts of money to poor countries (which we have made poor with a history of colonialism and a domination of these people’s resources) and define rules such as Structural Adjustment Programs where the country must privatize all sectors of possible profit (this means schools, health care, water, electricity), maintain low wages, and export mono-crops, among other things, which purposely keeps the populace poor at the expense of corporate wealth is outrageous.

Cease-Fire

I just read this article today in the paper.  A little update…

International / Africa

Nigerian Rebels Declare Cease-Fire in Oil Region

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: September 22, 2008

The country’s main militant group declared a unilateral cease-fire in the southern oil region on Sunday. If it holds, it will end the worst spate of militant attacks to afflict the region in years.

For more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/world/africa/22nigeria.html?ex=1379736000&en

OIL!!!

I remembered this movie I saw less than a year ago in Seattle stumbling through some Democracy Now! videos.  This is a great interview with the filmaker talking about the situation in the Niger Delta.

This is examplory of the relationship of government and big corporations and those effects on human rights and the environment.  This is a continuation of our colonial practices, using resources in foreign lands, for means of export.  The people of the Niger Delta are made dependent now on this trade in order to receive money for their children, their food, their rights, etc.  But this does not happen.  As the movie says, the people of the Niger were given broken promises…where the oil industries of the West and China take 40% of profits and the Niger government the rest.  The problem is, the money does not trickle down.  The government itself is corrupt and does not serve its people.  But this is the government that our corporations support in order to get away with the drilling of oil resources.  This is the game of free market.

It is no wonder that people want to take up weapons to protest and gain international attention.  That was the only way for these people to even get noticed by Western media.  Immediately though, they were declared terrorists, or violent gang members.  Nevermind, the desperate situation of blatant drawing of these people’s resources, while they are left with polluted waters and acid rain, damaging their fishing food supply and farming abilities just as an example.  Now why would their be such social unrest?  Hmm.

MEND, or the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta demands that the money being made go to the infrastructure of the people.  This group is a response to the strong military that will put down any protest to the oil industries, and it is a response to the apparent poverty, lack of human rights, and environmental degradation.  This is now the desperate situation there.  These are the people that have to deal with the effects of our addiction.  These are the standards that the West creates with our money lending and the World Trade Organization.  Our economy allows, if not encourages, countries to have weaker environmental and human right laws.  Western corporations such as Shell and Chevron, with the blessings of our government trade laws and bank loans, and the cooperation of militaristic governments, are more powerful and have a greater control over resources than the actual people living on those lands containing those resources.  This is the Niger Delta.  MEND is looking for international solidarity in this struggle or a global resistance.  As the movie “Global Village or Global Pillage” talks about, we have to realize that this is even in our own interest… it’s about everyone’s quality of life.

The documentary is called Sweet Crude.  The website is: http://www.sweetcrudemovie.com/.

Interesting Juxtaposition with Radiohead’s “All I Need”

I stumbled across this video as I was searching through Adbuster’s website.  I found it extremely impactful to show side by side a lifestyle that we sometimes forget affects those around the globe.  It is simple to purchase something like our shoes, something we find necessary, without a thought to what went into that process.  The same lifestyle we build for our children and for ourselves, often degrades (directly and indirectly) those families, those children, in some strange sort of opposite way. I find it interesting that economists can argue such things that our foreign investment raises living standards or “lifts all boats.”  How is sweatshop labor justifiable?  How can we, as consumers, or simply as citizens that expect our own rights, keep allowing this?

I think we often forget the impact we have in the world.  I don’t know who to blame…the media, the government, the corporations, ourselves?  It’s a difficult answer because I think it does put responsibility on our own shoulders in some sort of a way.  But how can one even know of this responsibility unless you actually search what globalization causes, and how that links back to our consumer goods, our businesses, our government?  The fact that economists, especially right now, claim that these practices are justifiable, and argue that these myths (globalization lifts all boats, free trade benefits consumers, etc.) shows that they must not be here, right now.

“The race to the bottom,” or the downard spiral of national outbidding for cheap labor, will not end until we  take some kind of responsibility, and part of this means evaluating everything we consume.  I appreciate this video’s simplicity, something I find more impactful sometimes.  To see those comparisons side by side truly shows the widening gap between the rich and poor; the fact that “In 1999, the wealth held by the world’s 475 billionares was greater than the combined income of the poorest half of all the people in the world.”(Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh, Thea Lee-The Field Guide to the Global Economy).  I think this is  something where most people agree on.  Most people would find this intolerable and unjust.  I guess it is easy to forget, or not even know when the picture on the shoebox, or the tag on our clothing does not tell us exactly what went into making that product.

I highly recommend that people check out Adbusters when they have a chance.  It is a sort of journal about our product-obsessed cultures…a “journal of the mental environment.”  There are more videos along with this one if you search through the site.  http://www.adbusters.org.