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Are markets incompatible with democracy?
Written by Gavin Chait
Protesters in Greece carry banners reading "IMF and EU are stealing a century of social progress" and "Take the money thieves and not the workers". Greeks are not alone in feeling that markets wag the democratic dog.
Feeding the hungry with freely transferrable bank accounts
Written by Gavin Chait
"We used aid money to buy arms," says Aregawi Berhe, a former Ethiopian militant when speaking to the BBC recently. As much as $95 million of the $300 million raised for the victims of the 1984 to 1985 Ethiopian famine is alleged to have been spent on funding conflict.
A CIA report in 1985 concluded that, "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes."
Read more: Feeding the hungry with freely transferrable bank accountsCash and Ash Crisis demonstrate global interdependency
Written by Gavin Chait
The unpronounceable Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland has caused incalculable economic damage, but this is a blog on analysis so an attempt must be made.
6.8 million passengers were stranded and airlines – the immediate victims of the ash crisis – lost some $1.7 billion. This is on top of the $9.4 billion they already lost last year, so airlines are begging for tax bailouts. Shops at closed airports aren’t doing too well either.
Read more: Cash and Ash Crisis demonstrate global interdependencyTackling the next banking crisis today
Written by Gavin Chait
The global financial crisis has not changed the nature of economic transactions. What it has shown is the shortcomings in risk assessment and quantification as well as the difficulties of legislating and regulating that risk.
The three main challenges faced by regulators, politicians and the institutions themselves are as follows: restoring consumer trust both in banks and service providers, as well as those who would regulate and guarantee trust in these institutions; reducing financiers’ perceived lending risk to restore the availability of liquidity to businesses and entrepreneurs in order to encourage job creation and market growth; and, stimulating innovation and competition in financial services to consumers to reduce market concentration by a few large banks.
Read more: Tackling the next banking crisis todayPaying for Climate Change with a Carbon VAT
Written by Gavin Chait
Taxation is a form of insurance where the benefits are inverted. The intention is that these transfers be investments allowing the poor to improve their prospects and, eventually, become tax-payers. The reality is that, in most countries, the poor are not so mobile and cash transfers are not so much investments as entitlements.
As politicians incrementally shift the tax burden up the income brackets they include more people as net beneficiaries and fewer people as net payers. The credit crisis hurt governments so badly because, not only were banks destabilised, but their employees are the high-net-worth individuals who form the bulk of the tax-base. As banks crashed so did tax receipts.
Read more: Paying for Climate Change with a Carbon VATPage 8 of 54
