I have been reading, World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009. It is a joint product of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the five United Nations regional commissions. It is an assessment of the global economy for 2009. I consider this report in the context of the evolution of human civilization that I have been studying for many years.
The report seems to be saying that the financial infrastructure set up at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, including the IMF and the World Bank, is essentially bankrupt beyond repair, and that we are working on developing a new alternative international banking system. The United Nations is developing a multi-polar economy, that includes all nations and several currencies, instead of the US$ based economy set up at the end of WWII.
While the whole world economy is grinding to a halt, China and OPEC seem to be the nations with the most ... savings to invest in economic stimulus spending. The USA is spending trillions of borrowed dollars to stimulate its economy. The EU is also spending borrowed money. India seems to be working in the black, but doesn't have the mountains of cash like China and OPEC. The UN is working on developing a coordinated response to the global crisis.
I can remember fuel prices spiking a couple of years ago. Oil was $140/bbl and fuel was more than $4/gal. Just as suddenly as it shot up, the prices collapsed. Now, a few months later the whole world economy is coming unglued and spiraling into the worst economy since the 1930s. The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 says the corruption in the US banking system is the original impulse that has caused the economy to unravel. The real estate first, and then the entire credit industry and now the whole world economy is crumbling.
I suspect that the corruption in the US economy was definitely a factor contributing to this recession, however, there are other factors that are not being mentioned, at least that I am aware of. Mainly, the effect of transferring trillions of dollars from the advanced industrial nations to oil exporting nations. Its almost like another battle in the war on terror. These civilizations are clashing because they are coming together. We are all interdependent, individually, nationally and globally.
The report mentions that the Millennium Development Goals are far less likely to be accomplished because of the slowing economy. Another aspect of the story is the food crisis. The increasing fuel prices drove the price of food higher which has had a considerably harmful effect on the poorest people on earth.
The UN is responding aggressively and we are developing a new global financial infrastructure. It is based in the UN rather than the G-8 or even the G-20. We want all nations to participate in our economic consultations. We are also increasingly universal in scale, rather than national. This way the nations can work in concert with one another, instead of a haphazard response at best, a competitive response at worse.
We can not afford to allow this childish fighting over the earth's resources to continue. There are plenty of resources for everyone to live comfortably. These periodic shortages and economic upheavals that we have been experiencing during my lifetime are totally artificial. We can no longer allow a tiny minority of earth's inhabitants to fight over the material prosperity of human civilization.
We are rapidly developing a global financial and economic infrastructure that will be cooperative, transparent and function in harmony with earth's biosphere. We are establishing a more perfect union, a universal federation of nations. We are all responsible for this. Human civilization is whatever we make it. Every single human being alive on earth is responsible for making the world a better place, for creating a safe, clean and decent society.
Be kind, friendly and polite.
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