World
The fight of Occupy Wall Street is the struggle of all movements in the world. Finance capital, that created the crisis in 2008, has increased its power instead of being disciplined. At present, world GDP is 64 trillion US dollars while the derivatives market reached the incredible figure of 1,500 trillion US dollars in 2011. The speculative economy is 250 times larger than the real economy of the world. Now banks and Transnational corporations (TNCs) are moving to speculate on the impacts of the climate and environmental crises that the capitalist system has created.
by Pablo Solón
The overuse of a word can sometimes devalue it and make it lose its impact. The word “crisis”[1] no longer evokes fear or worry. Now, it is a word you hear almost everyday, and it has lost its significance. So today, when people hear about the crisis in Europe, there isn’t really an appreciation of the gravity of the situation. Things have been so bad for so long and everything seems to be in one way or another, in crisis, that people have been desensitized.
With leaders from La Via Campesina, labour and indigenous movements, World March of Women and other movements… hosted by Pablo Solon
by Walden Bello (FPIF)
Germany towers over Europe like a colossus. Its economy is the biggest in the European Union, accounting for 20 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product. While most of Europe’s economies are stagnating, Germany’s will have grown by some 2.9 percent in 2011. It boasts the lowest unemployment rate, 5.5 percent, of Europe’s major economies, compared to those of France (9.5 percent), the United Kingdom (8.3 percent), and Italy (8.1 percent).
In many ways, Germany is like Japan. Both countries were forced to give up armed expansion during the Second World War, only to have the national energy channeled into building formidable economies. But whereas Japan faltered in the 1990s, Germany has steadily plowed ahead, becoming the world’s biggest exporter from 1992 to 2009, replaced in first place by China only in 2010.
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