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Possible Readings for
H. Global Economics
World Situation
“The Miniature Earth,” an updated version of “State of the Village Report,” by Donella Meadows, 3.5 minute slideshow.
http://www.miniature-earth.com
If the world’s population were proportionally reduced to the size of a community of 100 people, it would look something like this…
Developing Countries
“Microcredit, Macro Problems,” by Walden Bello, The Nation, October 15, 2006, 4 p.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1015-23.htm
Microcredit is now presented as a relatively painless approach to development. However, microcredit is a great tool as a survival strategy, but it is not the key to development, which involves not only massive capital-intensive, state-directed investments to build industries but also an assault on the structures of inequality such as concentrated land ownership that systematically deprive the poor of resources to escape poverty.
“Freedom’s market,” opinion column by Amartya Sen, The Observer (Great Britain), June 25, 2000, 6 p.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/jun/25/globalisation.businessandmedia
The positive role of the market mechanism is hindered by the enormous inequalities that exist across the globe and often within each country.
Trade Policy
“Squeezing the Poor: Maybe Castro’s Right. Maybe That’s All Globalization Really Is About." opinion column by William E. Rees, Toronto Star, April 22, 2002, 5 p.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0422-03.htm
Third World poverty reduction is ostensibly the major goal of the new economic order. However, the structure of the real-world global financial system ensures that the benefits of global growth accrue mainly to the already wealthy.
“U.S. Trade Policy: ‘Do as We Say, Not as We Did’,” opinion column by Mark Weisbrot, CommonDreams.org, June 13, 2002, 3 p.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0613-08.htm
How much will the world’s poor really benefit from increased access to the markets of the rich countries?
“The World’s Mastermind: The Hidden Face of Globalization: A view from Argentina,” by Adrian Salbuchi, Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), December 2, 2006, 22 p.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SAL20070114&articleId=4034
Argues that the the Committee on Foreign Relations (CFR) and its sister organizations provide a means for the global elite to implement their long term goals of globalization.
“Against intellectual property,” Chapter 3 of Information Liberation: Challenging the corruptions of information power by Brian Martin, 1998, 36 p.
Intellectual property often retards innovation and exploits Third World peoples. Most of the arguments for intellectual property do not hold up under scrutiny. Long, comprehensive
Development through Economic Freedom
“America’s International Development Agenda,” by Brett D. Schaefer and Aaron Schavey, Backgrounder #1546, Heritage Foundation, May 6, 2002, 13 p.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2002/05/Americas-International-Development-Agenda
The level of economic freedom in underdeveloped countries is more important to their economic progress than the amount of aid they receive. President Bush’s proposal would disburse aid only to countries that show improvement in rooting out corruption, raising health and education standards, or promoting economic freedom.
Corporations
Description of We the People: A Call to Take Back America by Thom Hartmann, Neil Cohn, Gene Latimer, Paul Burke, Coreway Media, 2004, 0 sp.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1882109384/102-1045981-3392120?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance
corporate feudalism vs. democracy
“A Few Thoughts On the Speech by Bill Moyers: ‘This is Your Story — The Progressive Story of America’,” by Richard Grossman
One-sentence description.
Letter to The Nation on “Liberalizing The Law,” by Alexander Wohl, by Richard Grossman
One-sentence description.
“How Corporations Became ‘Persons’: The amazing true story of a legal fiction that undermines American democracy,” by Tom Stites, UU World, May/June 2003.
http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml
One-sentence description.
“Corporate Democracy, Civic Disrespect,” by James Galbraith, Yes! Magazine, Spring 2001.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/working-for-life/corporate-democracy-civic-disrespect
Why America has gone from a constitutional republic to a corporate democracy and what to do about it.
“Consent of the Governed: The reign of corporations and the fight for democracy,” by Jeffrey Kaplan, Orion Magazine, November/December 2003, abridged for the web, 21 p.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/132/
or
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/CotG.html
or
http://www.pushhamburger.com/consent.htm
One-sentence description.
“A New Populist Uprising,” by David Cobb, The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2006, 2 sp.
http://www.gp.org/articles/cobb_2006_05_22.shtml
or
http://www.populist.com/06.10.cobb.html
or
http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php?story=2006052211290343&query=una
Briefly describes an effort to prohibit non-local corporations from making political contributions in Humboldt County, California elections.
“Adjusting the Poor,” excerpted from the book When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten, published by Kumarian Press, 1995.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Korten/AdjustingPoor_WCRW.html
Origins of the IMF and World Bank
“Enron Proves Capitalism Needs Regulation,” opinion column by Dave Zweifel, Madison Capital Times, February 15, 2002, 2 p.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0216-06.htm
Very brief review of the history of unbridled capitalism.
“Toppling the Corporate Aristocracy,” an interview by Robert Hinkley of Marjorie Kelly, CommonDreams.org, April 19, 2002, 9 p.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0419-09.htm
Marjorie Kelly, author of The Divine Right of Capital, dismantles a major premise of capitalism and makes the case for creating more democratic corporations.
“How to Overthrow Corporate Rule in 5 Not-so-easy Steps,” Corporations.org, October 29, 2004, 7 p.
http://www.corporations.org/solutions/
Brief descriptions and a list of web resources on 15 ways (in 5 categories) to challenge corporate power.
“From Protest to Rebellion: Lessons from Tom Paine,” by Jeffrey Kaplan and Jeff Milchen, ReclaimDemocracy.org, September 11, 2004, 9 p.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0911-04.htm
Today’s corporations not only wield immense power over our law and government, they also control many physical conditions of our existence. Randy: The case against corporations, history, recent efforts opposing.
Socially Responsible Pension Reform
“The New Colossus: The New Politics of Capital,” by William Greider, The Nation, February 28, 2005, 17 p.
http://www.thenation.com/article/new-colossus
or
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0211-23.htm
In the wake of Enron-style corporate scandals, in which public pension funds lost more than $300 billion, some of the leading funds have restyled themselves as more aggressive reformers. They are picking fights with Wall Street orthodoxy they long accepted, like the obsessive maximizing of short-term gains and broadening their definition of fiduciary obligations to retirees by trying to enforce corporate responsibilities to serve society’s long-term prospects.
Global Unions
“Globalization and its Discontents,” Global Labor Strategies blog, August 3, 2007, 6 p.
http://laborstrategies.blogs.com/global_labor_strategies/2007/08/globalization-a.html
It is a new era and labor now needs to promote a broad agenda that makes the connections between corporate globalization, job loss, declining wages, migration, distorted tax policies, and diminished public services, the lack of adequate labor and employment rights, and environmental degradation.
