March, 13 2009, 02:34pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
What Should the Global Economy Look Like?
WASHINGTON
Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 countries are gathering for meetings in Britain.
HA-JOON CHANG
In the U.S. until Sunday, Chang will then be in the UK where he is Cambridge University economics professor. He is author of "Bad Samaritans -- The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism" and "Kicking Away the Ladder." He is extremely critical of the U.S. Treasury and argues that the IMF needs to be restructured.
Chang also criticizes the richer nations for compelling poorer nations to follow policies the rich nations would never themselves follow. His writings have argued that richer nations, like the U.S. and Japan, have been protectionist to achieve their aims, but when developing nations attempt to follow a similar path, they are attacked.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown seemed to echo such sentiments recently, saying: "Our responses to past crises have been inadequate or misdirected, promoting economic orthodoxies that we ourselves have not followed and that have condemned the world's poorest to a deepening crisis of poverty."
See a recent interview with Chang on Democracy Now: https://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/10/economist_ha_joon_chang_on_the .
MARK WEISBROT
Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot recently wrote the piece "World Recession Forces Economic Re-thinking." https://www.cepr.net/index.php/mark-weisbrot-s-op-eds
GEORGE MONBIOT
Available for a limited number of interviews, Monbiot is author of numerous books including "The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order."
His piece "Keynes is innocent: the toxic spawn of Bretton Woods was no plan of his: The economist's dream was blocked for an IMF serving the rich. Reforms proposed by G20 leaders are too little, too late" was published by the Guardian: https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/18/lord-keynes-interna... .
He recently wrote the piece "Climate Change? Try, Climate Breakdown" https://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/georgemonbiot .
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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