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Newswire on the IFIs
- What more evidence does the World Bank need that carbon markets are not working?
- At sustainability congress, dam builder bars civil society from dialogue
- Austerity a moral issue as it inflicts millions
- World Bank compliance arm assessing fresh complaint against Vizhinjam port
- With Inga dams, donors set to repeat past failures
- Bangladesh exposes flaws in World Bank's Doing Business Index
Aid
Return of the financial transactions tax
Embassy Magazine, Feb. 16, 2011
By John Jacobs
In spite of Canada's attempt to bury it at the Toronto G20 meeting, a tax on financial transactions is back on the global agenda and gaining momentum.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to use his term as chair of the G20 to reform the global financial system and curb the speculation that contributed to the economic crisis. At the top of his agenda is an international financial transactions tax (FTT) to fund the fight against poverty and climate change.
G8-G20 summits fall flat, ignore call for sustainable future
This month “Fortress Toronto”, with its 18,000 strong security forces and four kilometer chain link fence, bore witness to a Peoples’ Summit ripe with ideas and alternatives, petitions signed by 1.75 million asking leaders to invest in the future now, a 25,000 strong peaceful protest, media stunts galore, some regrettable violence, and two deeply disappointing summits.
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Final script May 22, 2010; release date June 18, 2010. |
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Bridge to South KoreaHeld in Toronto, on Monday and Tuesday, June 21-22, 2010, just ahead of the G8 Summit in Huntsville and the G20 Summit in Toronto, this meeting was intended as a strategy session for civil society organizations, platforms and networks from many G20 countries (and beyond) to discuss diverse perspectives on both the G20 as an institution and priorities with respect to its agenda. As the outcome of an initial G20 strategy meeting in Washington DC in April of 2010 among various groups, the intention of this broader meeting of national, regional and international networks was three-fold:
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MEETING DETAILS
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Bridge to South KoreaHeld in Toronto, on Monday and Tuesday, June 21-22, 2010, just ahead of the G8 Summit in Huntsville and the G20 Summit in Toronto, this meeting was intended as a strategy session for civil society organizations, platforms and networks from many G20 countries (and beyond) to discuss diverse perspectives on both the G20 as an institution and priorities with respect to its agenda. As the outcome of an initial G20 strategy meeting in Washington DC in April of 2010 among various groups, the intention of this broader meeting of national, regional and international networks was three-fold:
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MEETING DETAILS
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Robin Hood Tax: Canada misses a chance for Leadership
OTTAWA – The Canadian Government is missing an historic opportunity to offer constructive global leadership by refusing to consider any kind of levy on the global financial sector.
“There are two proposals on the table here,” said Fraser Reilly-King of the Halifax Initiative. “One would save the banks, the other would save the world. At a time when global poverty is rising, along with sea levels, and European economies are crashing, the Harper government is actively campaigning against both.”
A Bank Tax would apply broadly and ensure future bailout funds would come from banks themselves, not the public. Canada’s counterproposal involves “embedded contingent capital,” which would shift the burden to shareholders, turning [contingent] bonds to equity if the banks run into trouble.
