Asian financial crisis

Policy Brief: The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) - An idea whose time has come - April 2010

Introduction
A growing number of politicians, civil society organizations, economists and some financiers have become strong advocates of a global Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). An FTT is a tiny tax on financial market transactions such as equity, bond, derivative or foreign exchange trades.

Political leaders, including the presidents of France and Germany and the prime minister of Britain, back an FTT as one of the best ways to fund programs to fight world poverty, pay for climate mitigation and adaptation costs and make financial institutions pay their fair share of the costs of the global crisis which, in large part, was created by their practices. Prominent economists advocate a Financial Transactions Tax as one way to cool down excessive speculation in financial markets, a principal cause of the economic crisis.

Fifteen years is enough - March 2010

Fifteen years is enoughWhat’s changed in the international financial system and its institutions, what hasn’t and what needs to

Executive Summary
Back in 1995, the G7 met in Halifax during a “time of change and opportunity.” The meeting took place in a context of mounting deficits and debt crises in countries in the South; in the wake of economic collapse in Mexico; and amid strong global criticism from civil society, the media and governments about the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) austere neo-liberal structural adjustment policies.

A lot has changed since then, partly in response to the Halifax G7 Summit and subsequent G7 and G8 meetings. Too many of these improvements, however, exist only on paper. Beyond the surface, the neo-liberal, market-oriented bias that guides the Bank and Fund’s agenda and thinking has not altered.

The 2010 G8 Summit in Toronto in 2010 takes place during another “time of change and opportunity.” The financial crisis has spurred many civil society organizations (CSOs) to insist on far-reaching changes to the global financial system and its institutions. Clearly, as this publication will illustrate, 15 years of refusing to deal with the manifest shortcomings of the global economic system is enough.

Gordon Betcherman

Governance and institution - Global economic governance in crisis: new players, new power

Moderator: Gordon Betcherman, Professor, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa

Teresa Healy

Rules and policies - Raising and retaining funds

Moderator: Teresa Healy, Senior Researcher, Social and Economic Policy
Department, Canadian Labour Congress

Questions and answers and discussion - Tuesday 11:15am panel

Rules and policies - Raising and retaining funds

Questions and answers and discussion

Gerry Barr

Close and summing up

Gerry Barr, President-CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operation
and Chair, Make Poverty History Canada

Q&A Session

Perspectives on proposals for change - Rethinking the global financial system

Questions and answers and discussion

Government of Canada: 

John Davies

Rethinking global development finance – perspectives from the Canadian government

John Davies, Director and IDA Deputy, International Finance and Development Division, Finance Canada

Government of Canada: 

Soren Ambrose

Rethinking the global financial architecture – perspectives from civil society

Soren Ambrose, Development Finance Coordinator, Action Aid International

Amar Bhattacharya

Rethinking the global financial architecture –perspectives from the Inter-Governmental Group of 24

Amar Bhattacharya, Director, Inter-Governmental Group of 24

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