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Press release
EFTA court dismisses ’Icesave’ claims against Iceland and its people
by
CADTM
28 January 2013
It is with some satisfaction that CADTM learns of the decision by the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) court to dismiss all the complaints brought by the Netherlands and the UK against Iceland in the Icesave case. The judgement clearly states that it is not the responsibility of the parent nation of a banking company to cover the costs of the guarantees to their banking system, and the safety net structure must be financed by the banks themselves. This implicitly confirms that the (...)
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Dexia: What if we stopped banking?
by
Comité de soutien au recours du CADTM Belgique, ATTAC Bruxelles 2 et ATTAC Liège contre les garanties Dexia
1 November 2012
Having saved the banks from bankruptcy, States have seen their public debt skyrocket. Government authorities are now under pressure from the financial markets and European authorities (and the IMF, in some cases) to adopt austerity plans in order to find the necessary financial resources to reimburse the debt. Although its situation is less tragic than that of Greece, Belgium is no exception. Its situation could still deteriorate if the State guarantee of 54.45 billion euros awarded on 18 (...)
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Tax the rich : a central political question in the developed countries
by
Éric Toussaint
27 October 2011
Since the summer of 2011, the expressions "class struggle" and "class war" are at the heart of the speeches delivered by the mouth-pieces of the dominant classes. It is remarkable to notice that it is now the dominant classes and their representatives that speak of class war. In the USA, the capitalist class feels it is of such political and idealogical strength in front of so little social resistance it has broken the taboo about mentioning class struggle. If it has done so, it is also (...)
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The crisis reaches far beyond the European Union
by
Éric Toussaint
19 October 2011
Even if Europe is hard hit, the crisis by no means limited to the European Union: almost all the industrialized economies are in a state verging on coma. Depending on the country, unemployment remains high or is increasing. Even in the so-called emerging countries including BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), the strong growth is tending to slow down. The world’s stock exchanges, with few exceptions, have fallen heavily in 2011 -15% in the eurozone, Japan and China; -4% in the USA; -8% in (...)
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The virtues of financial repression
by
Éric Toussaint
15 October 2011
During the 1930s in the United States, to get out of the crisis resulting from the 1929 Wall Street crash the Roosevelt government decided to reduce the freedom previously enjoyed by the financial and banking sector. In the wake of this decision and under pressure from popular mobilizations in Europe during and after ‘Libération,’ governments of the Old Continent set a limit on what capital could do. As a consequence, during the thirty years following World War II, the number of banking crises (...)
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Dexia Krach: The start of a domino effect in the EU ? *
by
Éric Toussaint
8 October 2011
In the early days of October 2011 the virtual bankruptcy of the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia is yet another sign of how deep is this crisis that brings governments to serve public money to private interests. Dexia’s krach shows that it is the private banks that are the weak link in the debt crisis whereas governments and mainstream media highlight the public debt aspect of the crisis. In September 2011, faced with the weight of menaces that loomed over the whole private financial sector (...)
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The small and dark secret of European banks
by
Daniel Munevar
24 August 2011
At the onset of the recent volatility that has taken place in the global financial markets, much attention has been focused on the behavior of stock exchanges and the evolution of the debt crisis in Europe. But while the markets are reacting strongly to the signs that the process of restructuring the debt of the countries of the European periphery is only a matter of time, most media specialists are missing a key factor of fragility in the European and global financial system: its (...)
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Several doctrines for the same shock
by
Éric Toussaint
23 April 2011
During the first phase of the world economic crisis (2007-2009), the governments of the countries most affected by the crisis, starting with the United States, have taken strong measures, drawing upon lessons of the first months following the Wall Street crash in October 1929. Back then, the lack of State intervention to support both the financial system and demand led to very grave consequences in terms of recession and bankruptcy, then to political and social radicalisation. In reaction (...)
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Let’s put an end to public debt blackmail!
by
Damien Millet,
Sophie Perchellet,
Éric Toussaint
3 April 2010
There is a striking contrast in the most industrialized countries at the epicenter of the global crisis that broke out in 2007-2008: the governments and their friends running the major banks are congratulating themselves on having saved the financial sector and initiated limited economic recovery, but people’s living conditions continue to deteriorate. Furthermore, with stimulus packages for the economy of over 1000 billion dollars, the major financial institutions have received government (...)
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Latin America and the Global Crisis
by
Claudio Katz
15 July 2009
SUMMARY: The economic impact of the crisis is visible throughout the region. The expectations of a disconnection with it have been diluted, while the monetary and tax shields are inadequate to curb the effect of the financial earthquake. It is true that the leverage of banks is smaller, but capital out-flights are more intensive. Overproduction hits the internationalized industry and cheaper commodities reverts growth. Moreover, attempts to re-launch collide with the availability of fewer (...)
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