The following video entitled “what is the meaning of IMF austerity measures” shows what happened in the third world countries such as Ethiopia, Argentina, and Peru when the IMF austerity programs were launched.
From the video:
Time and time and time again in country after country in every corner of the globe, IMF loans spell disaster for the people who are left holding the bag.
The crux of the entire issue is that none of this is unexpected. In fact, it is part of the design of the IMF austerity programs themselves.
As revealed by Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World Bank, the IMF's modus operandi is to conduct economic raids of debtor nations, dismantling and selling off infrastructure for the benefit of foreign corporations, and making sure that all public money is used to pay off the bankers.
He even has a name for what happens after the "austerity" plan inevitably results in the dissolution of a society: the IMF riot.
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/content/meaning-austerity
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
The U.S. vs. China: the Saga Continues
We understand the problems and challenges facing the U.S. and China.
The U.S. holds a reserve currency status while China still has a peg to the USD.
Considering each country’s debt level, trading deficit, savings rate, growth rate, it seems that the U.S. is on a slide whereas China is on a ladder.
The saga reflects not only the realities of the changing economy but the status of civil liberties.
The saga continues.
The U.S. holds a reserve currency status while China still has a peg to the USD.
Considering each country’s debt level, trading deficit, savings rate, growth rate, it seems that the U.S. is on a slide whereas China is on a ladder.
The saga reflects not only the realities of the changing economy but the status of civil liberties.
The saga continues.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Is Korea Entering the Korean Version of Japan’s Lost Decade?
We understand how Japan has got to where they are now in terms of economic difficulties.
Japan has had a real economy to a certain extent, but that was not enough while it has helped Japan keep a pulse since they could export products into a credit boom.
Has Korea entered the Korean version of Japan’s lost decade?
If it did, when was that?
Was it during the 1997 financial crisis?
The 1997 financial crisis was a watershed in modern Korean history.
Most of all, without fundamentally overhauling the broken system, Korea has been subjected to global forces.
Japan has had a real economy to a certain extent, but that was not enough while it has helped Japan keep a pulse since they could export products into a credit boom.
Has Korea entered the Korean version of Japan’s lost decade?
If it did, when was that?
Was it during the 1997 financial crisis?
The 1997 financial crisis was a watershed in modern Korean history.
Most of all, without fundamentally overhauling the broken system, Korea has been subjected to global forces.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Japan May Be Seeing the End of QE
From Times Online:
The Japanese Government will rip up the promises it used to win last summer’s general election in an attempt to impose austerity and discipline on the most strained public finances in the developed world.
Pledges of generous child benefits, reduced motorway tolls and aid for farmers are likely to evaporate first, followed by the expected reversal of the promise not to raise consumption tax before 2013.
The dramatic policy U-turns were flagged yesterday by Yoshihiko Noda, the Finance Minister still less than a week into his new job and, like his predecessors, faced with defusing Japan’s explosive 200 per cent ratio of debt to gross domestic product. By the standards of Japanese finance ministers, he is already talking tough.
Describing Japan’s situation as “severe”, Mr Noda said that while he could not undo his party’s spending pledges in one go, he would start to do so “steadily”. Spending plans announced under the previous prime minister Yukio Hatoyama were savaged by economists as being impossible to achieve without eye-watering levels of new debt issuance.
Mr Noda’s comments came two days after Naoto Kan, Japan’s new Prime Minister, said that the country could face a Greek-style financial crisis if it did not act immediately to rein-in spending and start chipping away at the country’s spectacular mountain of public debt. Mr Kan, a known fiscal hawk, warned parliament that Japan’s long addiction to debt issuance had to end and told the country that he would try to deliver “minimum unhappiness” — a phrase seen as heralding an era of austerity and pain for many households.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article7149396.ece
The Japanese Government will rip up the promises it used to win last summer’s general election in an attempt to impose austerity and discipline on the most strained public finances in the developed world.
Pledges of generous child benefits, reduced motorway tolls and aid for farmers are likely to evaporate first, followed by the expected reversal of the promise not to raise consumption tax before 2013.
The dramatic policy U-turns were flagged yesterday by Yoshihiko Noda, the Finance Minister still less than a week into his new job and, like his predecessors, faced with defusing Japan’s explosive 200 per cent ratio of debt to gross domestic product. By the standards of Japanese finance ministers, he is already talking tough.
Describing Japan’s situation as “severe”, Mr Noda said that while he could not undo his party’s spending pledges in one go, he would start to do so “steadily”. Spending plans announced under the previous prime minister Yukio Hatoyama were savaged by economists as being impossible to achieve without eye-watering levels of new debt issuance.
Mr Noda’s comments came two days after Naoto Kan, Japan’s new Prime Minister, said that the country could face a Greek-style financial crisis if it did not act immediately to rein-in spending and start chipping away at the country’s spectacular mountain of public debt. Mr Kan, a known fiscal hawk, warned parliament that Japan’s long addiction to debt issuance had to end and told the country that he would try to deliver “minimum unhappiness” — a phrase seen as heralding an era of austerity and pain for many households.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article7149396.ece
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Rising Wages in China and Its Ramifications
Foxconn has announced that it would offer its workforce a 30% pay raise. Foxconn is a Taiwanese contract manufacturer with a factory complex in China, exploiting its cheap labor and serving international companies including Intel, Nokia, Apple, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. How would this cost inflation affect people around the globe?
Of course these inflationary pressures would have different ramifications for the Western advanced economies, newly industrialized economies, and emerging ones.
Cycles seem to turn relentlessly.
Of course these inflationary pressures would have different ramifications for the Western advanced economies, newly industrialized economies, and emerging ones.
Cycles seem to turn relentlessly.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Illusion of Decoupling and Consequences of Current Policy Decisions
We understand what’s been going on around the globe: the U.S., China, the Eurozone, Japan, and so on.
Can any country with export-driven economy decouple from this historic credit bubble bust?
What have politically motivated policy decisions such as bailouts, low interest rates, and QE done to the U.S. economy and any other country’s?
The math is real, yet how will the effects unwind on every level?
The broken system needs to be significantly reformed and restructured.
Moral elite leadership leading to constructive policy actions, fiscal sustainability, and social culture will make a country less susceptible to global forces and sovereign debt woes worldwide.
Any government should establish its policies in the best interest of its own people and failure to do so may result not only in lower standard of living but in a solvency crisis.
Solvency is a choice.
Can any country with export-driven economy decouple from this historic credit bubble bust?
What have politically motivated policy decisions such as bailouts, low interest rates, and QE done to the U.S. economy and any other country’s?
The math is real, yet how will the effects unwind on every level?
The broken system needs to be significantly reformed and restructured.
Moral elite leadership leading to constructive policy actions, fiscal sustainability, and social culture will make a country less susceptible to global forces and sovereign debt woes worldwide.
Any government should establish its policies in the best interest of its own people and failure to do so may result not only in lower standard of living but in a solvency crisis.
Solvency is a choice.
Monday, June 21, 2010
China's Yuan Announcement
China announced on Saturday that they plan to increase the yuan’s flexibility. Yet, some remain skeptical over a large appreciation of the yuan.
It seems clearer that while MNCs have profited from China, Beijing has behaved in their best interests, regardless of Western global forces’ intentions.
By contrast, how Japan and Korea have dealt with those forces?
It seems clearer that while MNCs have profited from China, Beijing has behaved in their best interests, regardless of Western global forces’ intentions.
By contrast, how Japan and Korea have dealt with those forces?
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