Produced and distributed by the Americas Policy Program, a program of the Center for International Policy (CIP). For more information, visit http://www.americaspolicy.org/ and http://www.ciponline.org/.
We’ve just posted three articles on aspects of the global financial crisis that we think you’ll find interesting. The first is by food and agriculture expert Raj Patel on the many incarnations of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round. It appears that just when you think it’s out for the count, it’s up and fighting again. And that’s not good news for the poor. Says Patel, “although it’s called the Doha Development Round, it’s not the poorest who will be developed by the negotiations. The G-20 declaration (to revive the talks) signals that the world’s richest governments are keener to support their big industries as we head into a global recession, than to think terribly hard about their poorest citizens.”
Americas contributor Tony Phillips writes on the global summits to deal with the financial crisis and asks whether, after this hyperactive bout of diplomatic activity, we’re really any better off. Phillips looks closely at the real meaning of what to most of us is gobbledy-kook in the strange world of derivatives. He concludes that “none of the language in the White House G20 Summit Declaration is truly innovative… It rehashes the conventional wisdom that has crippled the world financial system: further deregulation of financial and trade markets, prohibitions on protectionism or restrictions on private capital flows,and resolution of the moribund Doha round of the WTO within a year.”
Also see a new post at Americas MexicoBlog (http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/) called “Coping with Crisis, Latin America Bucks the System.” It’s about the Nov. 26 meeting of Alba countries that decided to create a regional monetary unit to replace the endangered dollar. As the G-20 repeats tired recipes for disaster, these countries are making some bold plans. The challenge–one that Latin American integration has typically had trouble meeting– will be in bringing them to practice.