Stories written by Ann Pettifor
Ann Pettifor is director of Jubilee Research at the New Economics Foundation (nef) and editor of Real World Economic Outlook.

AN UNSTABLE WORLD IN SEARCH OF WORLD LEADERSHIP

By Ann Pettifor and - -
The statement issued by the G8 on the 8th July illuminates the many blind spots, the deep divisions, the lack of ambition and above all, the failure of world leadership by eight presidents and prime ministers. Their blind spots have grown to the size of moats; their divisions have deepened; and their ambitions for climate change and for Africa have been slashed to fit in with the apathy and torpor of US oil companies and high-worth taxpayers. The question we must pose is this: do these men deserve the accolade - “world leaders”? , writes Ann Pettifor, director of Advocacy International and editor of “Real World Economic Outlook”. It is in relation to Africa that these eight men have most clearly illuminated the feebleness of their ambition, and the weakness of their leadership. The talk was of increasing aid to Africa by $50 billion in 2006 to tackle the plague that is AIDS, to replace the past stripping of Africa's assets, and to address the impoverishment of that continent. Instead, after a long statement hectoring African leaders on “good governance” and “promoting growth” the eight leaders committed no new money to Africa in 2006. Instead they simply reiterated past commitments to increase aid to Africa by $25 billion in five years time. As UK NGOs have noted, only £10 billion of this commitment will be new money in 2010 far less than the additional $50 billion in 2006 that the social movement “Make Poverty History” had campaigned for.

US: DEBT RELIEF FOR IRAQ BUT NOT DESTITUTE ETHIOPIA.

By Ann Pettifor and - -
The US has been quick to call for cancellation of the odious debts of Iraq largely because it will cost the US very little and free up resources for US projects. Yet at the same time the US is blocking debt cancellation for one of the poorest country in the world, Ethiopia, writes Ann Pettifor, director of Jubilee Research at the New Economics Foundation (nef) and editor of Real World Economic Outlook. This is a glaring double standard, writes Pettifor in this article. Additional relief for Ethiopia is being delayed and blocked by the US with the tacit support of Germany and Japan as US and German creditors have gone to great lengths to obtain international legitimacy for the cancellation of Iraq\'s debt. The international community must honour commitments made to the millions of Jubilee 2000 supporters worldwide, in Cologne in June 1999. Led by Chancellor Schroder, world leaders promised to deepen and broaden debt relief for countries like Ethiopia. Above all the hypocrisy of their diverging approaches to Iraq and Ethiopia must be thwarted.

THE LOOMING FIRST WORLD DEBT CRISIS

By Ann Pettifor and - -
The first of the New Economics Foundation\'s annual reports on the global economy predicts that a giant credit bubble, created by central bankers and finance ministers who engineered decades of \'\'easy money\'\', has now reached a \'\'tipping point\'\', writes Ann Pettifor, director of Jubilee Research at the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and editor of Real World Economic Outlook. While globally there is a total of USD100 trillion of debt outstanding, there is only USD33 trillion of income with which to repay those debts. When this credit bubble bursts in the US and UK, it will be middle-class consumers that will first bear the brunt, the author argues in this article. This will be grossly unjust because while central bankers and finance ministers have clamped down on prices and wages, they have used the credit bubble (borrowing) to inflate asset values (stocks, bonds, and property) to extraordinary heights. On the whole it\'s the poor and the middle classes that rely on wages and salaries, while the rich derive their incomes from assets or wealth. The report calls on governments and central banks to take responsibility for their reckless de-regulation of finance, to re-regulate international capital by bringing back exchange controls, and to rein in reckless lending and borrowing.
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