US-Initiated WTO Rules Could Undermine Regulatory Overhaul of Global Finance

[G_j]

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/25/report_us_initiated_wto_rules_could


Report: US-Initiated WTO Rules Could Undermine Regulatory Overhaul of Global Finance

As the G-20 meets in Pittsburgh, a new report from Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch warns that the World Trade Organization has long advanced extreme financial deregulation under the guise of trade agreements and could undermine the current push for increasing regulation. We speak to Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division.

****

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, tell us about your sense of what will happen in terms of financial regulation.

LORI WALLACH: There’s an incredible contradiction, where the summit communiqué is going to, on one hand, talk about regulating finance, and at the same time, they’re going to talk about adopting the Doha WTO expansion, and a huge part of that agreement is deregulating finance.

And the problem is that the G-20 commitments aren’t binding. It’s a commitment of faith on the countries about what they’re going to do domestically. But the WTO rules are very binding and enforceable by sanctions. And so, it’s hard to know if it’s ignorance or it’s cynicism, but if the Doha round goes into place, all of the world’s countries will have a commitment not only to keep in place the existing WTO deregulation dictates on finance, but to deregulate further, right in the midst of what seems to be a global commitment to re-regulate.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, is there any—among the countries now that are going to be getting increased attention, in terms of the G-20’s growing role now in world economic affairs, are there any countries, specifically, that are trying to lead a fight for a greater regulation?

LORI WALLACH: Well, see, this is the most peculiar aspect of it. The European Union, as you just mentioned, Angela Merkel, among others, have been pushing for more regulation, and in fact they want the G-20 to have a—to establish a global floor of regulation. The US hasn’t been for that. It’s not going to be in this communiqué, but they’ve really been pushing. But simultaneously, it’s the European Union that is the major instigator of deregulation.

And so, the big development is we finally were able to get documents that actually explain what the plan is for the WTO Doha round, and it’s the European Union that’s been pushing the worst of it. I mean, they literally want a provision that is a standstill, a freeze in place, on regulation, while simultaneously they’re calling for re-regulation. You can’t have it both ways.

..more..

[Orwellian_Ghost]

1. K&R

Well, one interesting fact we found was, although Daddy Bush started negotiation, Clinton is the one who locked it up. And it was actually Geithner, when he was in the Treasury Department working for Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration, who was the lead Clinton administration Treasury Department negotiator. So he is, in a way, the guy who closed the deal. And so, he knows about it. He has to know about the existing agreements. And so, theoretically, he should be the guy who’s most aware of the perils, in the sense that he was part of the whole Clinton-era deregulation, including domestically.

I mean, the busting of Glass-Steagall, which, by the way, we listed in the WTO as one of our commitments, to reform Glass-Steagall, because it created firewalls between insurance, securities, banking. It, you know, kept banks from gambling with our savings—good idea. The WTO commitment lists reforming Glass-Steagall, getting rid of it. That all happened during Clinton. So not just at the WTO, but domestically, a lot of the folks who came from the Clinton administration who are now in the Obama administration—Larry Summers, Geithner—were in on this.

So, now Geithner is talking about re-regulating domestically, needs to get on that WTO piece, but cannot have a Doha round that has more deregulation. I mean, the basic principle here should be do no further harm. But then they have to go back and fix the WTO rules.

...

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/25/report_us_initiated_wto_rules_could


Bill Clinton Signs Repeal of Glass-Steagall

...

The Repeal of Glass Steagall

In the background of the go-go economy, the feeling grew among some economists and the financial community that Glass-Steagall hampered America’s financial competitiveness. Among the many voices favoring this was Alan Greenspan along with former Goldman Sachs partner Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary. In a 1995 speech and testimony to Congress Rubin signaled the Clinton Administration was ready to repeal Glass-Steagall:

“The banking industry is fundamentally different from what it was two decades ago, let alone in 1933.” He said the industry has been transformed into a global business of facilitating capital formation through diverse new products, services and markets. “U.S. banks generally engage in a broader range of securities activities abroad than is permitted domestically,” said the Treasury secretary. “Even domestically, the separation of investment banking and commercial banking envisioned by Glass-Steagall has eroded significantly.”

Anyone who thinks the repeal of Glass-Steagall was forced on an unwilling Bill Clinton need only read Rubin’s testimony.

A year later Sandy Weill set in motion the forces that would finally end Glass-Steagall. Weill proposed the most audacious financial merger in American history: he would merge one of the largest insurance companies (Travelers), one of the largest investment banks (Salomon Smith Barney), and the largest commercial banks (Citibank) in America. The problem was the merger was illegal in terms of Glass-Steagall.

...

http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/bill-clinton-glass-steagall-and-the-current-financial-and-mortgage-crisis-part-two-of-an-indepth-investigative-report.html

[G_j]

3. change: not wanted

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/10-5

Published on Thursday, September 10, 2009 by Inter Press Service

Speculators Undermining Recovery, Report Says
by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS - The current economic meltdown will continue for years if the world community does not take firm and coordinated action to regulate the flow of capital, say researchers who have just concluded a new study for the United Nations.

"There hasn't been much achievement in regulating the financial markets," says Heiner Flassbeck, one of the study's authors associated with the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). "The world is still mired in deep economic crisis."

The UNCTAD "Trade and Development Report" points out that despite a professed commitment to tackle the recession, many countries in the developed world have failed to rein in the financial industry's indulgence in speculative investment.

According to the report, this crisis reflects the "predominance" of the financial markets over the real economy.

Flassbeck lashed out at governments of the most industrialised countries for not doing enough to rein in the powers of the financial industry, saying that they had let the financial sector continue to do "business as usual".


..more.

[Junkdrawer]

2. K&R Extremely important stuff here...

Thanks

[G_j]

4. agreed

YW

[bvar22]

5. This may be the most important post on DU today.

I see some idiot does not want YOU to have this information.

K&R...back UP to +5.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Yep. Looking more and more like the G-20 was nothing but a sham...

Or, at best(??), a forum to force Iran into cooperation.

[G_j]

7. lol

some seem quite intent to unrec any real information.

:think:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

9. Was about to say

the same thing as regards it being the most important post of the day.

[bvar22]

8. Global Finance will not be regulated.

The whole purpose of "Free Trade" was to avoid regulation.
The Global Corporations and their handful of owners exist beyond the restraints of mere governments.
Capital can now move much faster than LABOR, Human Rights, or Environmental concerns, and that is the way the Ownership Society designed it.

Ditto Wall Street.

[anonymous171]

10. K&R. nt

[G_j]

11. --

[leftstreet]

12. K&R

[Orwellian_Ghost]

13. Can't believe

this post is dropping as it is.

[G_j]

14. thanks for trying

maybe the bigger picture is too scary?.

:shrug:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

15. Let's try again

kick

[scarletwoman]

16. Damn! Too late to rec this! Here's my kick, anyway.

We NEED this information! It really saddens me that so many DUers would rather not pay attention at this level. Unfortunately, it has been ever thus...

Thank you always for your tenacity and dedication to the Big Picture.

:loveya:
sw

[G_j]

17. Class "wars"

war is not the word I would choose. Perhaps, 'domination" would fit.
But it's falling apart, because greed always has a built in self-destruct mechanism.
And, most of all, the earth's resources are limited. Of course the ultra rich internationalists will do what they will to keep the dealing hand.

(but in In the end sw, we will have lived the best, most joyfull lives! :loveya:)

[scarletwoman]

18. True, that.

Let us be grateful always, for this precious life we have been granted.

:hug:
sw

[G_j]

20. I wouldn't trade it

the struggle is worth it, like alchemy, maybe never reach the gold, but it -enlightens the horizon.


at any rate, isn't it any humans responsibility to work for the better.
(pardon the buddhist in me) The WTO, of course, represents that ever so small and precious, ruling class.
Shine the light!


:pals:

[Trillo]

19. I'll rec this. On edit, it won't let me. Too late.

For those who are complaining about unreccers, consider:

|recs|+|unrecs| >= 5 then put it on a "Divisive" page or some such name, similar to Greatest page.

It still means 5 people thought it important enough to vote up or down.