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NO FINANCIAL REFORM IN SIGHT AS BANKS RESUME BUSINESS AS USUAL
Roberto Savio
NOVEMBER 2009 (IPS) - Despite universal clamour for reform, the financial system has
gone back to business as usual, as if nothing had
happened. In mid-October it was reported that the sum of
derivatives, the high-risk financial instrument that set off the
crisis, has continued to increase to a total of USD 445 trillion,
6.5 times the gross world product, writes Roberto Savio, founder
and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (IPS).
In this analysis, Savio writes that on December 10 leaders of all
of the countries of the world will meet in Copenhagen to discuss
ways to control climate change. There is still no agreement between
the old industrialised countries and newly-industrialised countries
like China, India, and Brazil, to finance technological changes
that would allow the latter to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
without restricting growth.
Without such an agreement, our species and planet is in jeopardy.
The cost for the above intervention would be about USD 40 billion,
but the rich countries are saying that because of the crisis they
cannot afford it. And yet we have seen that in a single day the US
came up with USD 182.5 billion to save one company, AIG. As the
meeting in Copenhagen approaches, the rich countries should get
their priorities straight and assume their share of the
responsibility for their planet.
(*) Roberto Savio is founder and president emeritus of the Inter
Press Service (IPS).
//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND,
THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM// (END/2009)
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