The international bank transfer system, SWIFT, is a form of contemporary digital colonialism and surveillance capitalism as it is run by US firms and provides data to US government agencies. Drives by governments and philanthropists to increase use of digital money will only strengthen it further.
Despite causing the worst financial crisis in decades, the financial sector emerged even stronger. TNI's eighth flagship State of Power report examines through essays and infographics the varied dimensions and dynamics of financial power, and how popular movements might regain control over money and finance.
The Transnational Institute (TNI) in the Netherlands is issuing an open call for essays, short papers, infographics and artistic collaborations for its forthcoming State of Power report launched in late January 2019 to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos. In 2019, we are particularly looking for accessible, engaging essays and artistic explorations that explore the issue of finance and power.
Asia’s financial crisis came a decade before the global crisis, but it has had a lasting influence and left a legacy that could sow the seeds for the next global crisis.
This paper dissects the Japanese bubble economy in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-98 and shows how they shaped Asia’s capacity to deal with and respond to the 2008 global financial crisis. It looks at how China emerged seemingly unscathed, but warns that the inroads of speculative financial capital into China and East Asia along with ongoing problems of over-production means that a future financial crisis is highly probable.
This summer, Women Peacemakers Program staff interviewed Ben Hayes, a researcher on topics such as security policy, counterterrorism, border control and surveillance, about his current work. Ben Hayes has been one of the first to research and write extensively on how countering terrorism financing (CTF) policies have been affecting the right to freedom of association and financial access for nonprofits, and the role of intergovernmental institutions such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)[1] in these phenomena. In this interview, he talks about how this topic first came to his attention, current trends in trying to craft solutions for the obstacles faced by nonprofits, as well as his take on what it will take to move forward.
This paper focuses on how the global economic crisis unfolded in Europe, where a toxic mix of financial liberalization, highly-leverage banks, a poorly-planned euro and Germany’s years of structural adjustment created a deeply unbalanced and highly indebted European economy, that was brought into sharp focus as Wall Street banks collapsed. The result was the reversal of Europe's economic integration and a state of permanent crisis that continues to this day.
One week before the official Asia-Europe government meeting (ASEM) gathers in Milan, over 400 people from 42 countries in Europe and Asia gathered at the 10th Asia-Europe Peoples forum (AEPF) to present their demands and recommendations.
Swedish energy company Vattenfall filed request for arbitration at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), after Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear energy.
Why has there been so little progress or learning from the world's biggest financial crisis? What solutions could really put people back in charge of finance?
Susan George chairs the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She says the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement could give powerful companies the right to challenge domestic laws which restrict their future profits.
A LEADING international political economist has warned that democracy is being damaged by the insidious creep of transnational corporations into government policy and their refusal to adopt country-by-country accounting practices, which have helped them avoid taxes.
A useful pocket guide on how a crisis made in Wall Street was made worse by EU policies, how it has enriched the 1% to the detriment of the 99%, and outlining some possible solutions that prioritise people and the environment above corporate profits.
Twee weken geleden riep de voorzitter van de Brabants-Zeeuwse Werkgeversvereniging zijn leden op hun steun voor de euro te betuigen. Met als motto: Hijs de vlag voor Europa!
Il 12 Settembre i Paesi Bassi affrontano le elezioni politiche generali. Qui nessuno discute l'euro, ma cresce una certa insoddisfazione verso l'Europa. La crisi come colpa alla periferia che «ha vissuto al di sopra dei propri mezzi» fa parte del discorso politico dell'intero arco dei partiti in lizza, anche se con moltissime sfumature.
