Ahmed, Nafeez Mosaddeq. "Tunisia, Egypt, and the Big Picture: Egypt lies on the fault lines of the convergence of global ecological, energy, and economic crises—and thus, on the frontlines of deepening global system failure." Yes! (February 2, 2011)
Baxter, Joan. "How corporate tax breaks hurt humanity. Truth be told: taxation is only certain for the ordinary law-abiding citizen, the non-rich." Rabble (March 18, 2011)
Christensen, Villy, Reg Waatson and Siwa Msangi. "Will There Be An Fish in 2050." (February 26, 2011)
Chua, Amy. "The Myths of Globalization: Markets, Democracy, and Ethnic Hatred." Conversations with History (November 21, 2005)
Convention on the Rights of the Child [UNICEF]
Countercurrents ["Humanity is facing its greatest existential threat ever with climate change and resource depletion. This is not a crisis waiting to happen in the future, but it is already here and manifests itself in the many resource wars going on in several parts of the world, rising food and fuel prices, growing hunger, natural calamities of horrifying proportions, water scarcity, debt crisis, unemployment, social tensions among communites, growing humanrights violations and unprecedented ecological degradation. Unless we take urgent action to change the way we live, trashing our only home, this beautiful planet earth, this crisis has the potential to wipe out the entire humanity and a majority of the other species from the face of this earth. The objective of Countercurrents.org is to spread awareness about this crisis and search for meaningful solutions. We believe that energy intensive globalization should end and it must be replaced by a low energy, ecologically sustainable local economies. If humanity is to survive, the destructive system of capitalism and consumerism must be replaced by an economic system which is based on just equitable distribution and need based use of resources. We strive to reach this goal with our motto, which is "Educate! Organize! Agitate!" Countercurrents.org is founded and edited by Binu Mathew. The site came online on 27th March 2002. This is a non profit and educational initiative."]
Escobar, Pepe. "
No Business Like War Business: Who Stands to Profit from Intervention in Libya? From the Pentagon to the French government to the water privatizers, here are some of the beneficiaries of the campaign in Libya." AlterNet (March 30, 2011)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) [Rome, Italy: "The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information. We help developing countries and countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. Since our founding in 1945, we have focused special attention on developing rural areas, home to 70 percent of the world's poor and hungry people."]
Global Voices: Advocacy ["Global Voices Advocacy is a project of Global Voices Online. We seek to build a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists throughout the developing world that is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online. The aim of this network is to raise awareness of online freedom of speech issues, and to share tools and tactics with activists and bloggers facing censorship on different parts of the globe. The network is meant not only to provide support to its members, but also to produce educational guides about anonymous blogging, anti-censorship campaigns, and online organizing. By collaborating with software developers, activists, and bloggers, the network hopes to design new and more appropriate tools to protect our rights on the Internet. The Director of Global Voices Advocacy is Sami ben Gharbia, a Tunisian free speech advocate and blogger based in the Netherlands. From China, John Kennedy contributes regular updates on citizen media and censorship. Additionally, dozens of volunteers contribute articles."]
Global Voices: Citizen Media Stories from Around the World ("Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work together to bring you reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media.")
Grosscup, Beau. "Cluster Munitions and State Terrorism." Monthly Review 62.11 (April 1, 2011)
Hedges, Chris. "The Collapse of Globalization." Truthdig (March 27, 2011)
Herman, Edward. "Toward a Homeland "Favorable Climate of Investment." Z Magazine (April 1, 2011)
Holt-Gimenez, Eric. "Food Rebellions: 7 Steps to Solving the Food Crisis." (Resistance to the trade and “aid” policies that displace farmers and increase hunger.) Yes! (February 13, 2009)
Jordan-Young, Rebecca. "Introduction to 'Critical Conceptions: Technology, Justice and the Global Reproductive Market.'" Scholar and Feminist Online 9.1/9.2 (Fall 2010/Spring 2011)
Korten, David. "Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth." Needs No Introduction (March 10, 2011)
Lakhani, Nina. "Cuban medics in Haiti put the world to shame: Castro's doctors and nurses are the backbone of the fight against cholera." The Independent (December 26, 2010)
Mason, Paul. "Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere." BBC (February 5, 2011)
Mate, Gabor. "More Compassion, Less Violence Needed in Addressing Drug Addiction. Democracy Now (June 6, 2011)
---. "Obama Admin Should Heed Global Panel’s Call to End "Failed" U.S.-Led Drug War." Democracy Now (June 6, 2011)
"“Muscling in on the media” – a Reporters Without Borders look at organized crime." Reporters Without Borders (February 24, 2011)
"Neoliberalism and Globalization." History Commons (Ongoing Historical Timeline)
Prins, Nomi. "The Egyptian Uprising Is a Direct Response to Ruthless Global Capitalism." AlterNet (February 4, 2011)
Tax Justice Network ["TJN is an independent organisation launched in the British Houses of Parliament in March 2003. It is dedicated to high-level research, analysis and advocacy in the field of tax and regulation. We work to map, analyse and explain the role of taxation and the harmful impacts of tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens. Our objective is to encourage reform at the global and national levels. We are not aligned to any political party. Our network includes: Academics; Accountants; Development organisations and NGOs; Economists; Faith groups; Financial professionals; Journalists; Lawyers; Public-interest groups; Trade unions. Our founding objectives are: To raise the level of awareness about the secretive world of offshore finance; to promote links between interested parties around the world, particularly involving developing countries; to stimulate and organise research and debate; to encourage and support national and international campaign activity. In particular we aim to: Promote more local campaigns for tax justice, especially in developing countries; provide a medium through which tax justice issues can be promoted within multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund [IMF] , the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development [OECD] and the European Union."]
UNICEF ["UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality. That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young. We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We believe that we can, together, advance the cause of humanity."]
Wallerstein, Immanuel. "Structural Crisis in the World-System: Where Do We Go from Here?" Monthly Review (March 2011)
Wilson, Abbey, Jillian Harbin and Anne Cozza. "Western Lifestyle Continues Environmental Footprint" Project Censored (2011)
Wright, Dani. "Afghan War: Largest Military Coalition in History." Project Censored (2010)
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Showing posts with label Global Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Economy. Show all posts
Joan Baxter: How corporate tax breaks hurt humanity
How corporate tax breaks hurt humanity. Truth be told: taxation is only certain for the ordinary law-abiding citizen, the non-rich
By Joan Baxter
Rabble (Canada)
Benjamin Franklin once wrote that nothing is certain in this world except death and taxes. That was in 1789. Mr. Franklin might be surprised to learn that today his axiom no longer holds, at least not for the rich and powerful among us. Truth be told -- as it is in British investigative journalist and author Nicholas Shaxson's meticulously researched and riveting book, Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World -- taxation is only certain for the ordinary law-abiding citizen, the non-rich. The wealthy and the ultra-wealthy can quite easily get by paying little or even no tax, thanks to the shadowy spider webs of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions that span the globe.
Shaxson's aims in the book, he says, are to challenge the common idea that it is acceptable for a place to get rich by undermining the laws of other places and to offer a lens through which to view the history of the modern world. "Offshore business," he writes, "is, at heart, about artificially manipulating paper trails of money across borders." It is not a "colourful outgrowth of the global economy, but instead lies right at its centre." It's not about efficiency or any genuine production or real economic growth -- it's about people and corporations making vast amounts of money through tax evasion.
Hiding the world's wealth
This book is a jaw-dropper of an exposé of how the moneyed elites use offshore to hide and grow their wealth and of how this affects the rest of humanity. Shaxson travels the world and delves into archives and financial reports to offer up some mind-boggling facts and figures. More than half of world trade passes, at least on paper, through tax havens. The balance sheets of small island finance centres alone add up to 18 trillion dollars, about a third of the world's GDP -- and that is probably an underestimate. Wealthy individuals hold over 11.5 trillion dollars offshore. That's about one quarter of the world's wealth.
It seems that just about everyone who is anybody is in on the act. Media baron Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (which owns Fox News, HarperCollins, MySpace and Sun newspapers), for example, uses 152 offshore subsidiaries and so pays an estimated rock bottom six per cent tax rate. Even Bono, writes Shaxson, who "browbeats western taxpayers to boost aid to Africa, shifted his band's financial empire to the Netherlands [an important European tax haven] in 2006 to cut its tax bill." Eighty-three of the U.S.'s 100 biggest corporations have subsidiaries in tax havens. The Tax Justice Network, an organization that works to research and raise awareness of the secretive world of offshore finance, discovered that 99 per cent of Europe's hundred largest companies used offshore subsidiaries, and the largest users of those were banks.
Shaxson takes an extremely complex issue, how vast amounts of money are shifted into tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions where no one can tell who really owns the shell banks and corporations, and renders it all comprehensible, with lively, precise and sometimes very witty prose. It can be agitating reading about how multinationals, banks and the global oligarchy (including not just despots who have robbed their own countries but also some of the world's most respected and prominent citizens) use the offshore system to hide their wealth to avoid paying their share of taxes, which our governments, our schools, our universities, our healthcare systems, our institutions and ordinary people, so sorely need. It can be an especially disturbing read for those of us struggling right now to fill out our tax forms.
To Read the Rest of the Review Essay
By Joan Baxter
Rabble (Canada)
Benjamin Franklin once wrote that nothing is certain in this world except death and taxes. That was in 1789. Mr. Franklin might be surprised to learn that today his axiom no longer holds, at least not for the rich and powerful among us. Truth be told -- as it is in British investigative journalist and author Nicholas Shaxson's meticulously researched and riveting book, Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World -- taxation is only certain for the ordinary law-abiding citizen, the non-rich. The wealthy and the ultra-wealthy can quite easily get by paying little or even no tax, thanks to the shadowy spider webs of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions that span the globe.
Shaxson's aims in the book, he says, are to challenge the common idea that it is acceptable for a place to get rich by undermining the laws of other places and to offer a lens through which to view the history of the modern world. "Offshore business," he writes, "is, at heart, about artificially manipulating paper trails of money across borders." It is not a "colourful outgrowth of the global economy, but instead lies right at its centre." It's not about efficiency or any genuine production or real economic growth -- it's about people and corporations making vast amounts of money through tax evasion.
Hiding the world's wealth
This book is a jaw-dropper of an exposé of how the moneyed elites use offshore to hide and grow their wealth and of how this affects the rest of humanity. Shaxson travels the world and delves into archives and financial reports to offer up some mind-boggling facts and figures. More than half of world trade passes, at least on paper, through tax havens. The balance sheets of small island finance centres alone add up to 18 trillion dollars, about a third of the world's GDP -- and that is probably an underestimate. Wealthy individuals hold over 11.5 trillion dollars offshore. That's about one quarter of the world's wealth.
It seems that just about everyone who is anybody is in on the act. Media baron Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (which owns Fox News, HarperCollins, MySpace and Sun newspapers), for example, uses 152 offshore subsidiaries and so pays an estimated rock bottom six per cent tax rate. Even Bono, writes Shaxson, who "browbeats western taxpayers to boost aid to Africa, shifted his band's financial empire to the Netherlands [an important European tax haven] in 2006 to cut its tax bill." Eighty-three of the U.S.'s 100 biggest corporations have subsidiaries in tax havens. The Tax Justice Network, an organization that works to research and raise awareness of the secretive world of offshore finance, discovered that 99 per cent of Europe's hundred largest companies used offshore subsidiaries, and the largest users of those were banks.
Shaxson takes an extremely complex issue, how vast amounts of money are shifted into tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions where no one can tell who really owns the shell banks and corporations, and renders it all comprehensible, with lively, precise and sometimes very witty prose. It can be agitating reading about how multinationals, banks and the global oligarchy (including not just despots who have robbed their own countries but also some of the world's most respected and prominent citizens) use the offshore system to hide their wealth to avoid paying their share of taxes, which our governments, our schools, our universities, our healthcare systems, our institutions and ordinary people, so sorely need. It can be an especially disturbing read for those of us struggling right now to fill out our tax forms.
To Read the Rest of the Review Essay
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