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At UN, Stiglitz Hits Subprime, Says 1% of Bailout
Straight to Poor Countries
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
March 27 -- In the run-up to the
G20 meeting in London, economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke at the UN
against
irrational incentives in the financial services field -- read, the AIG
and
Citigroup bonus -- and in favor of the idea of a Financial Products
Safety
Commission, like the agencies conducting pre-release reviews of
medicines and
even electronics such as toasters.
Stiglitz
noted that banks rush to exploit lower
income and minority Americans with subprime loans has now damaged
economies all
over the world. And, we note, rather
than accountability, those who engaged in predatory lending and
securitizing
have received bailouts. Whether any of this will be meaningfully
addressed by
the G20 is not known.
The UN's
main pitch at the G20 is, with some vagueness and confusion, a request
for $1
trillion. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the request in a March 20
letter
to G20 participants, then found himself unable to repeat the number
when
standing on camera next to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The next day, however, when Inner City Press
asked Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas is despite the seeming
backtrack Ban
stands behind the $1 million figure, she said yes. She acknowledged
that most
of the $1 trillion is money already promised, but noted that Ban is
asking for
$25 billion on top of pre-existing ODA commitments of $100 billion, and
that
the rest of the trillion includes, for example, lending by the
International
Monetary Fund.
Stiglitz at UN on March 26, trillion dollar call not shown
The
Secretary of what's become known as the Stiglitz Commission, appointed
by
President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockman, answered
Inner
City Press' question to Stiglitz about Ban's $1 trillion idea. He did
not
address the number, but rather to whom such money should go: directly
to lower
income countries, he said, and not to intermediaries like the World
Bank -- or
the UN or UN Development Program.
What
Stiglitz' views are on providing cash
with no conditions to governments like those of Myanmar or North Korea
is not
known. The IMF has been asked about conditions on a $1.9 billion loan
it is
negotiating with Sri Lanka, the proceeds of which the government has
said may
be used for camps for internally displaced people from which the IDPs
cannot
leave or receive visitors, even from family members: detention camps.
Using a
percentage of the bailouts to fund interment would give a new meaning
to the UN
system phrase, "Vulnerability Fund." To be continued.
Footnote: several
reporters at Stiglitz's March 26
press conference joked afterwards about his lines that he not only
predicted
the financial meltdown, but also wrote the first academic paper
supporting
micro-lending. This last claim seems dubious, unless one discounts
academics
in, for example, Bangladesh. Maybe with whatever turns out to be their
share of
the requested $1 trillion, Bangladesh can more widely promote its
scholars.
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN
Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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