by John Vandaele, translation by Evelien Van Muylem.

In Brussels this last week as the guest of MO*  - an international affairs magazine.  This is an article they wrote for the website/magazine on the green New Deal.

‘Time for a Green New Deal XXL’

19 juni 2009 (MO) - In April, world leaders from the G-20 countries met in London. Trade unions, non-governmental and international organizations hoped they would consider Green New Deal XXL: a radical reform of the global system which also tackles economic, social and environmental problems.

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De Standaard:  Brussels 18th June, 2009.

Interview:Ann Pettifor over de ‘Green New Deal’ — BRUSSEL -
De westerse overheden moeten dringend de hand aan de ploeg slaan en de almacht van de financiële sector inperken. Dat vindt Ann Pettifor, econome en activiste.

Van onze redacteur

Weg met de banken, leve de overheid. Als je het gedachtegoed van Ann Pettifor in zeven woorden zou moeten samenvatten, zou het ongeveer zo klinken. Pettifor is het meest bekend als drijvende kracht achter Jubilee 2000, de campagne om de schulden van de ontwikkelingslanden grotendeels kwijt te schelden. Een campagne die een succesvolle apotheose kreeg toen de G8 in 1999 besloot om 100 miljard dollar van deze schulden af te schrijven. Nu werkt Pettifor, die al in 2003 in het boek ‘The Credit Crunch’ waarschuwde voor de komende kredietcrisis , voor de Londense denktank New Economics Foundation. Die heeft het rapport ‘AGreen New Deal’ uitgegeven. De titel verwijst naar de New Deal waarmee president Roosevelt de crisis van de jaren30 aanpakte. De daadkracht en voortvarendheid van toen is nu schrijnend afwezig, vindt ze. Pettifor was deze week op uitnodiging van het tijdschrift Mo* in Brussel om haar plan toe te lichten, en erover in debat te gaan met VBO-voorzitter Thomas Leysen

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I have been travelling again, this time to visit my frail and elderly mother in South Africa. I was there for President Zuma’s first ‘State of the Union’ Address, and will write more about the country of my birth in the next post. In the meantime wanted to add this piece - on economic optimism in the US - written last week for the Huff Post, with apologies for the delay in adding it to the site.

9th June 2009.

“As a banker noted recently, there is no constituency for pessimism. Americans, he suggested, believe in optimism as a human right. This bright buoyancy is one of this nation’s greatest strengths, lapped up by jaded Europeans.

But it was optimism that also enabled Americans to max out on credit cards and other forms of borrowing — in the mistaken belief that debts are always payable — sometime in the future.

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Ann Pettifor - 11th June 2009 - For the Guardian Online.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/12/recession-economic-crisis

A banker, Alan Clarke of BNP Paribas, citing a NIESR report, confidently tells the Guardian that the recession is over. Should we take the word of any banker – especially one that claims to be an economist – seriously?

Given that the economics profession was blind-sided by the ‘debtonation’ of 9th August, 2007, I am deeply sceptical. Second, given that this is a banker-induced recession; that reckless and often fraudulent behaviour by bankers led to a loss of $60 trillion of yours and my wealth (in the form of pensions, equities, lost interest on savings, and lost income from job losses) last year, should we believe a banker’s particular spin on the crisis?

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