Financial architecture

Letter to PM Re: Financing for Development Conference - March 14, 2002

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien

The following letter was sent to the Prime Minister with copies to the Finance Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister on March 14, 2002. It was signed by leaders representing over 100 Canadian development, social justice, labour and faith organizations.

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Centre Block, 309-S
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

March 14, 2002

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to you, as representatives of Canadian non-governmental organizations, to express our dismay at the proposed outcomes of the UN Financing for Development process and Canada’s role in the negotiations leading to it. We call urgently for renewed leadership on the road to Kananaskis.

Presentation on "Controlling Casino Capital", World Social Forum, Porto Allegre

World Social Forum - Porto Alegre - Jan 25-30, 2001

Robin Round
Policy Analyst
Halifax Initiative Coalition

We use money everyday. Money is a tool; a means to simplify transactions in an economy based on the exchange of goods and services. But the way most of us use money is old fashioned, out of date. Money is no longer a means of exchange but an end in itself. We live in the era of the commodification of money, an era where money has become divorced from the real economy it was originally designed to serve.

G-20 Counter Conference, October 2000

PDF file report In October 2000, the Halifax Initiative organized a three day event on the eve of the G-20 Finance Ministers meeting in Montreal to discuss alternative proposals for the global financial system. The first day comprised of a film festival and Teach-In. An NGO strategy session was held for two days to explore ways the global financial system could contribute to the eradication of poverty and environment sustainability.

Click to view<br />
            the large size

FAQs - Group of Twenty (G20)

Revised March 2000


Answers

What is the G20?
 The G-20 was set up to 'smooth out the bumps' of financial globalization. It was established in the wake of the financial crises that gripped the global economy and devastated much of Asia, Russia and Latin America in the late 1990's. The G-20's mandate is 'To promote discussion, and study and review policy issues among industrialized countries and emerging markets with a view to promoting international financial stability.'


[ Back to top ]

Who sits at the G20 table?

Issue Brief: Myths about the Tobin Tax (October 1999)

Currency transactions taxes such as the Tobin-type tax are often dismissed by critics before all the arguments have been heard. They view the tax as too difficult to adopt and too easy to avoid. Much criticism is ill-informed or designed to stifle debate. Here are the most common myths and our response to them:

A TOBIN-TYPE TAX WILL HIT THE POOR
The tax is a progressive one, designed to target only those profiting from destabilising currency speculation.** The poor don’t flip millions of dollars a day on currency and bond markets, the world’s biggest banks urrency and bond markets, the world’s biggest banks and investment firms do. This tax will hit them.

FAQs - Tobin Tax

Letter to leaders of G7 nations Re: Vote campaign reports - June 11, 1999

June 11, 1999

To the leaders of the Group of Seven nations,

At next week's Summit in Cologne, you will be discussing new directions for public policy governing global markets in order to help prevent or mitigate future financial crises. Measures currently under discussion, including strengthened financial sector supervision, surveillance and transparency, while commendable if adopted, are insufficient to prevent future crises. Similar measures endorsed at your Summit in Halifax in1995 in the wake of the Mexican peso crisis, although not fully adopted, were unable to prevent or even anticipate the South East Asian crash of 1997. Clearly, bolder measures are required.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Financial architecture