Economic Crisis

The turmoil the Italian political landscape has been traversing of late is particularly worrisome. Not so much for the political instability but more for the political blindness that it reveals and which risks destroying the fundamentals of the very idea of democracy itself. While the current government continues the politics of austerity imposed by the European Union, the reform of the political architecture is still missing.

It is no secret that the lobbying might of financial institutions has shaped regulatory rules at national, European and global level. But did the disaster of the 2007 financial crisis change this? The honest answer is that the old institutions are still up to their old tricks, and a change in how we make policy is needed if we are to avoid a repeat of the crisis.

An interview with Philippe Lamberts, Green MEP and member of the Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs, who along with his colleague Sven Giegold, is one of the main actors in the struggle against mainstream financial orthodoxy.

While progress towards a more resilient financial system has undoubtedly been achieved at EU level, it remains nonetheless much too incomplete. The challenge is all the more significant as our system, more than ever, remains dominated by banks that are too big or too interconnected to fail and therefore too dangerous to exist.

The analysis and publication by journalists of previously confidential data from known tax havens – widely known as “Offshore Leaks” – has excited media interest around the world.

If we want to put finance on a leash with smart regulation, Greens must take the wind out of their opponent’s sails by having policies that simultaneously unleash finance and restore lending into the real economy and, above all, into a green industrial transformation.

The idea that the peripheral countries were the authors of their own destruction continues to exist at European level. However a closer examination of the facts shows this is not the case, and an urgent reprioritisation of EU policies is needed.

In Autumn 2013 the Green Party of England and Wales voted to adopt a motion that would remove the power of banks to create money, and return that power to a democratically accountable part of the state. But what is money?

The ongoing crisis, caused by excessive global debt, saw only financial institutions being protected. For life to come before debt we need to build an alternative to this out-of-control financial system.

In the dismal reality of the deepening financial crisis in the European Union, exploiting the natural environment is seen by troubled member states as a quick-fix solution for rapid economic recovery. Following decades of massive spending on an unsustainable economic and development model, the EU’s policy response is essentially a recipe for a much deeper and longer-term environmental crisis.