World Social Forum - Porto Alegre - Jan 25-30, 2001

Robin Round
Policy Analyst
Halifax Initiative Coalition

We use money everyday. Money is a tool; a means to simplify transactions in an economy based on the exchange of goods and services. But the way most of us use money is old fashioned, out of date. Money is no longer a means of exchange but an end in itself. We live in the era of the commodification of money, an era where money has become divorced from the real economy it was originally designed to serve.

CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY LEADERS CALL ON G20 MINISTERS TO FOCUS ON REAL PROBLEMS

Revised March 2000

What is the G20?
 The G-20 was set up to 'smooth out the bumps' of financial globalization. It was established in the wake of the financial crises that gripped the global economy and devastated much of Asia, Russia and Latin America in the late 1990's. The G-20's mandate is 'To promote discussion, and study and review policy issues among industrialized countries and emerging markets with a view to promoting international financial stability.'