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The good news: chance to reform global casino |
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Written by Hazel Henderson
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Saturday, 01 November 2008 |
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Senior futurist Hazel Henderson has been writing and speaking about the fatal flaws of traditional economics for many years now. Finally others are beginning to join the dots... but the global financial crisis has swept over the more measured change of tide that had already begun in such areas as ethical investment, corporate social responsibility, micro-funding and more. So what does this far-sighted expert see in the crisis? Characteristically, she sees opportunity within the challenge..... "this global financial crisis brings opportunities... to reform today's global casino and restore
finance to its vital but limited role in facilitating real production
and innovation in the world's real economies."
November 15, 2008, will at last see a summit on how to reform failed
global finance. Invited to the USA, the heart of the failures, by
President George W. Bush will be the "leaders" of global finance.
Architects of the failure range from economic globalization enthusiasts
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Alan Greenspan and free market
Chicago School de-regulators and privatizers. Add Wall Street
"financial engineers" and quants who "innovated" all those
mortgage-backed and credit card-backed securities and the $60 trillion
of credit default swaps.
Well-meaning Democrats, trying to democratize home ownership through
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA-subsidized mortgages, played into the
hands of unscrupulous non-bank mortgage mills. The Federal Reserve
failed to use its power to oversee this shadow banking system which
included Wall Street's huge investment banks. Under Alan Greenspan and
now "helicopter" Ben Bernanke, the Fed kept interest rates too low and
robbed savers in order to keep the debt-laden US economy afloat.
So, where should the summiteers begin their reforms on November 15th?
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 November 2008 )
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Thriving economies in southern Mediterranean |
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Written by Sheila Moorcroft, Research Director, Shaping Tomorrow
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Wednesday, 22 October 2008 |
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The Mediterranean Union was launched in July 2008, but greeted with a certain amount of scepticism after its aims were watered down. Meanwhile, investment in the region is growing and so too are the ten MEDA country economies.
What is changing?
The meeting in July brought 43 countries together, the EU plus a further 16 from around the rim of the Mediterranean and the Baltic region, and breathed new life into the EU’s Barcelona process to encourage development in the Southern Mediterranean region.
The MEDA ten - Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia, Turkey, the Palestinian Authority and Israel – account for about 4% of the world’s population.They have been attracting significant amounts of Foreign Direct Investment from a variety of sources, in particular other emerging nations whose investments are often more closely linked in with the local economy than Western approaches to investment and oil rich economies. Direct investment into Algeria and Morocco, for example has grown tenfold, in 5 years. In total, MEDA inward investment is second only to China – just under $60 billion compared with $70 billion into China in 2006.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 22 October 2008 )
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Helping the future play out |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Monday, 20 October 2008 |
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Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Games could offer a new tool for exploring the future, using "the wisdom of crowds" to imagine new solutions, according to the California-based Institute for the Future (IFTF), an independent non-profit organization. The Institute has launched a new research platform composed of games designed to address real world problems.
"Chronicle the dark world of 2019. Then help us figure out how to fix it," says the IFTF, inviting players to participate in what they call the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game: Superstruct.
"More than just about imagining what lies ahead, Superstruct is about
building a better, stronger future. It’s about inventing new ways to
organize the human race and augment our collective human potential.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 20 October 2008 )
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