G20: Can we expect change?
Hope is a universal human concept, but it is often one based on an emotional response to our desires rather than a reasonable attempt to understand the events of the future. Case in point may be the hope that many, including myself, had in the recent talks of the so-called "G20" concerning the world economy. As economies around the world appear to be snowballing, the nations that control the organizations that supposedly oversees and promotes international trade, such as the IMF and WTO, were speaking of the vast changes that needed to be made. The next Great Depression is coming, many have cried - which may or may not be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whether this is the case or not, one thing was for certain before the economic downturn: the rapid growth we have been experiencing was going to burst; it was no longer sustainable.
So we wait. We anticipate. With the United States government in transition and major and minor summits being held around the world, citizens of every nation await to see what our world leaders come up with. Will there be change? Or will they use this economic crises to rapidly advance the radicalized capitalism of the late Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of economics on a global scale?
Change is inevitable, but what sort of change do we have to look forward to? Certainly it is too early to say for the majority of the world's nations. The outgoing President of the United States continues to tout the radical free market line as he waves goodbye, while the incoming President appears to support government bailouts with very little accountability and restrictions. Russia, China, and India have yet to make substantial statements on the economy and we are unlikely to hear about such details in the west anyway, despite their enourmous influence in globalized trade.
But here in Canada, there is no ambiguity. As the Canadian public scrambles to understand whether this downturn is hype or happening, Prime Minister Harper secured a free trade agreement with Columbia and extended pledges to the rest of South America while in Lima. So despite the failed lessons of radical free market in Chile, Argentina, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Bolivia, Iraq, Poland, South Korea, and virtually every country that suffered an economic or natural disaster and had to appeal to the IMF for assistance, the Canadian ideologue has gone forward with the exact strategy that has heavily attributed to today's recession (which he has finally admitted is happening). Considering that "change" is the opposite of "conserve," Canada may well be in for a very bumpy ride, as the Conservative government looks to extend the Mulroney legacy.
Current News Reports:
- Global trade key to surviving crisis, Harper says
- Canada, Columbia sign free-trade agreement
- Bush touts free trade record at APEC
Don't forget to check out Naomi Klein's Disaster Capitalism in Action
