People in poverty continue to pay the high price of a debt crisis not of their making by Olivier De Schutter Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights 17 Oct. 2024 The international financial system is failing to address the catastrophic debt crisis that is engulfing developing countries and causing misery for hundreds of millions of people, the UN’s poverty expert said today. “The debt crisis is not just a fiscal issue; it is a full-blown human rights crisis,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. “In the poorest countries of the world people are struggling to eat, access health services or send their children to school, while their governments shell out billions of dollars to pay back loans to wealthy creditors. “Making a bad situation worse, countries with the highest levels of debt also tend to be those most vulnerable to climate change, but are being forced to prioritise debt repayments over addressing the severe consequences of the climate crisis.” The expert warned that rocketing interest rates since the Covid-19 pandemic were sinking countries in the Global South further into debt. In 2023, a record 54 developing countries allocated 10% or more of government revenue to paying off the interest on their debt, leaving “little room for countries to spend on poverty-busting public services such as education or social protection”. 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on either education or health. Interest rates demanded from developing countries are also much higher than those paid by rich countries. African countries borrow money at almost four times the rate paid by the United States, despite the astronomical level of US debt. “This perverse scenario has been playing out in the Global South for years, accelerating the freefall into poverty seen since the pandemic,” De Schutter said. “Creditors have responded too little, too late. The G20’s ‘Common Framework’, agreed in 2020 to bring international financing institutions (IFIs), individual states and private lenders together to speed up debt restructuring, is simply not working.” De Schutter called for immediate debt relief for countries in crisis and urgent reform of the international financial system to align with human rights. “Banks and hedge funds have become huge players in the world of sovereign debt and should not be exempt from their human rights responsibilities. It is abhorrent that debt repayments to the world’s richest corporations are being paid at the expense of children’s education or healthcare. Governments must introduce legislation to compel private creditors under their jurisdiction to participate in debt relief for low income countries. “Comprehensive reform of the international financial architecture, as advocated by the recently agreed Pact of the Future, is also needed. The current system within the IFIs, characterised by unequal representation between high and low-income countries, unfavourable lending conditions, and unfair debt restructuring is trapping too many countries in a cycle of poverty.” The Special Rapporteur lamented the conditions attached to bailout packages from IFIs which, with their demands for austerity measures, sale of state assets and, at times, surcharges already denounced by UN human rights experts, make it near impossible for states to comply with their human rights obligations and lock countries into unsustainable growth patterns that have only worsened poverty and inequality. “With Pakistan recently agreeing to its 24th bailout from the International Monetary Fund, which hinged on the country accepting what the Prime Minister called ‘conditions beyond imagination’, it is clear that people in poverty will continue to pay the high price of a debt crisis that is not of their making,” the expert said. “The solution to the debt crisis is neither to stimulate economic growth at all costs, nor to impose austerity policies. It is to cancel or restructure debt, and to focus on public investment, particularly in social protection, that will restore the prospect of long-term prosperity.” http://www.srpoverty.org/2024/10/17/statement-international-financial-system-not-fit-for-purpose-to-address-catastrophic-debt-crisis-un-poverty-expert/ http://www.srpoverty.org http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-poverty Visit the related web page |
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AP: Trump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, experts say by AP, ABC News, CNN, NPR, agencies USA Oct. 2024 AP: Trump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, experts say. With characteristic bravado, Donald Trump has vowed that if voters return him to the White House, “inflation will vanish completely.” It’s a message tailored for Americans who are still exasperated by the jump in consumer prices that began 3 1/2 years ago. Yet most mainstream economists say Trump’s policy proposals wouldn’t vanquish inflation. They’d make it worse. They warn that his plans to impose huge tariffs on imported goods, deport millions of migrant workers and demand a voice in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies would likely send prices surging. Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a letter in June expressing fear that Trump’s proposals would “reignite’’ inflation, which has plummeted since peaking at 9.1% in 2022 and is nearly back to the Fed’s 2% target. The Nobel economists noted that they aren’t alone in sounding the alarm. “Nonpartisan researchers,” they said, “predict that if Donald Trump successfully enacts his agenda, it will increase inflation.” Last month, the Peterson Institute for International Economics predicted that Trump’s policies — the deportations, import taxes and efforts to erode the Fed’s independence — would drive consumer prices sharply higher two years into his second term. Peterson’s analysis concluded that inflation, which would otherwise register 1.9% in 2026, would instead jump to between 6% and 9.3% if Trump’s economic proposals were adopted. Taxes on imports — tariffs — are Trump’s go-to economic policy. While in office, Trump started a trade war with China, imposing high tariffs on most Chinese goods. He also raised import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum, washing machines and solar panels. He has still grander plans for a second term: Trump wants to impose a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods and a “universal" tariff of 10% or 20% on everything else that enters the United States. Trump insists that the cost of taxing imported goods is absorbed by the foreign countries that produce those goods. The truth, though, is that U.S. importers pay the tariff — and then typically pass along that cost to consumers in the form of higher prices, which is how Americans themselves end up bearing the cost of tariffs. “There’s no question that tariffs are inflationary,’’ said Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, which studies the costs of government policies. Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely of the Peterson Institute have calculated that Trump’s proposed 60% tax on Chinese imports and his high-end 20% tariff on everything else would, in combination, impose an after-tax loss on a typical American household of $2,600 a year. Trump has made some implausible claims for protectionist policies. Asked how he would lower grocery prices — a particular irritant to many Americans — Trump has said the nation should limit the importation of food because America’s farmers are “being decimated’’ by foreign competition. “It’s sort of nonsensical to say that I am worried about high food prices, so I want to put a tax on food imports,” said Clausing, who is also a UCLA economist specializing in tax policy. “As you tax them, the food in the grocery store absolutely gets more expensive.” A huge proportion of food consumed in the United States — about 60% of fresh fruit and 38% of vegetables — are imported, according to Department of Agriculture data. “Trump is using tariffs as a political device to signal his strong skepticism around globalization broadly — ‘America First,’ ” said Mark Zandi chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “That this policy stance is inflationary is very difficult for most voters to grasp, especially when they are being told the opposite." Moody’s Analytics noted that the sheer magnitude of Trump’s new tariff proposals. “The former president is now talking about tariffs on over $3 trillion in imported goods across all countries." “While Trump promises to ‘make the foreigners pay,’ the researchers concluded in their Peterson report, ”our analysis shows his policies will end up making Americans pay the most.” http://apnews.com/article/trump-inflation-tariffs-taxes-immigration-federal-reserve-a18de763fcc01557258c7f33cab375ed http://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/true-dangers-trumps-economic-plans http://www.brookings.edu/articles/tariffs-on-all-imports-would-create-chaos-for-business/ http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25247867-23-nobel-economists-sign-letter-saying-harris-agenda-vastly-better-for-us-economy http://abcnews.go.com/Business/harris-plans-tackle-inflation-economists-fight/story?id=112944307 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/harris-unveils-economic-plans-inflation-housing-economists/story?id=112892305 http://www.epi.org/blog/profits-and-price-inflation-are-indeed-linked/ http://groundworkcollaborative.org/work/inflation-revelation-how-outsized-corporate-profits-drive-rising-costs/ http://endcorporateprofiteering.org/latest-research/ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/11/companies-inflation-price-gouging http://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1177180972/economists-are-reconsidering-how-much-corporate-profits-drive-inflation http://accountable.us/analysis-these-sp-500-companies-inflated-prices-despite-bigger-profits-and-investor-handouts/ http://accountable.us/fed-ignores-hardships-high-interest-rates-have-caused-everyday-families-makes-matters-worse/ http://www.socialeurope.eu/taking-aim-at-sellers-inflation http://perspectivesjournal.ca/2024-ellen-meiksins-wood-lecture-isabella-weber/ Oct. 2024 Fiscal Impact of the Harris and Trump Campaign Plans. (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget) During the 2024 campaign, Vice President Harris has proposed to significantly expand the Child Tax Credit and other individual tax credits, increase support for housing and health care, lower taxes on tips, and strengthen border security. She has also called for spending and tax breaks for child care, education, long-term care, preschool, paid leave, domestic research and manufacturing, and small businesses; and she has expressed support for extending expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA) for households making under $400,000 per year. To help offset the costs of her plan, Vice President Harris has proposed increasing taxes on corporations and high-income households and reducing prescription drug prices. Her campaign also says she supports the revenue-raising provisions in President Biden’s FY 2025 budget, which would further increase taxes on corporations and high-income households. Under our central estimate, we find the Harris plan would add $3.50 trillion to the debt over the ten-year period from FY 2026 through 2035 and former president Donald Trump's plan would add $7.50 trillion to the debt over that same period. http://www.crfb.org/papers/fiscal-impact-harris-and-trump-campaign-plans http://itep.org/a-distributional-analysis-of-kamala-harris-tax-plan/ http://itep.org/a-distributional-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tax-plan-2024/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-tax-plan-wealthy-corporations-oil-billionaires-musk-1235107554/ http://accountable.us/new-campaign-spotlights-the-billionaires-and-corporations-fighting-for-wealthy-tax-cuts/ http://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/what-billionaires-see-in-donald-trump http://www.americanprogress.org/article/project-2025s-tax-plan-would-raise-taxes-on-the-middle-class-and-cut-taxes-for-the-wealthy/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/an-american-democracy-built-for-the-people-why-democracy-matters-and-how-to-make-it-work-for-the-21st-century/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/house-committee-farm-bills-30-billion-snap-cut-other-harmful-proposals http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/harris-election-visions-nation-114937298 http://theconversation.com/kamala-harris-and-donald-trumps-records-on-abortion-policy-couldnt-be-more-different-heres-what-actions-they-both-have-taken-while-in-office-238172 http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/womens-reproductive-rights-center-stage-dnc-113017944 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/kamala-harris-policy-positions/ http://kamalaharris.com/a-new-way-forward/ http://democrats.org/where-we-stand/issues-2024/ http://tinyurl.com/yezvae5z http://www.prri.org/research/challenges-to-democracy-the-2024-election-in-focus-findings-from-the-2024-american-values-survey/ http://www.brookings.edu/events/democracy-at-a-crossroads/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-harris-rallies-voters-at-philadelphia-community-center-in-swing-state-of-pennsylvania http://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-harris-speaks-at-campaign-rally-with-michelle-obama-in-kalamazoo-michigan http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/25/opinion/what-trump-says.html http://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/us/politics/john-kelly-trump-fitness-character.html http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2024/10/trumps-escalating-rhetoric-washington-week/680419/ http://www.npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-s1-5134924/trump-election-2024-kamala-harris-elizabeth-cheney-threat-civil-liberties 11 Oct. 2024 US meteorologists face death threats as hurricane conspiracies surge. (Guardian News) Meteorologists tracking the advance of Hurricane Milton have been targeted by a deluge of conspiracy theories that they were controlling the weather, abuse and even death threats, amid what they say is an unprecedented surge in misinformation as two major hurricanes have hit the US. A series of falsehoods and threats have swirled in the two weeks since Hurricane Helene tore through six states causing hundreds of fatalities, followed by Milton crashing into Florida on Wednesday. The extent of the misinformation, which has been stoked by Donald Trump and his followers, has been such that it has stymied the ability to help hurricane-hit communities, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Katie Nickolaou, a Michigan-based meteorologist, said that she and her colleagues have borne the brunt of much of these conspiracies, having received messages claiming there are category 6 hurricanes (there aren’t), that meteorologists or the government are creating and directing hurricanes (they aren’t) and even that scientists should be killed and radar equipment be demolished. “I’ve never seen a storm garner so much misinformation, we have just been putting out fires of wrong information everywhere,” Nickolaou said. “I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather. I have had to point out that a hurricane has the energy of 10,000 nuclear bombs and we can’t hope to control that. But it’s taken a turn to more violent rhetoric, especially with people saying those who created Milton should be killed.” One post aimed at Nickolaou said: “Stop the breathing of those that made them and their affiliates.” She responded: “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes. I can’t believe I just had to type that.” “People have called me a plethora of curse words, people telling me to shut up and sit down, people who think it’s OK to take out Doppler radar because they think it is controlling the weather,” Nickolaou said. “It is eating up a lot of work and free time to deal with all of this. It’s very tiring.” A wide range of misinformation has been spread as Helene and then Milton gathered pace in the Gulf of Mexico, such as claims spread by Trump that Fema had run out of cash for hurricane survivors because it has been given to illegal immigrants. Violent threats have also become common, with posts across TikTok, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter), alleging that Fema workers should be beaten or “arrested or shot or hung on sight”. More outlandishly, several of Trump’s closest allies have baselessly asserted that the federal government is somehow controlling hurricanes. “Hurricane Helene was an ATTACK caused by Weather Manipulation,” claimed a video shared by Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor to Trump. “Yes they can control the weather,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right congresswoman, wrote on X last week. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” This steep rise in falsehoods has drawn a sharp response from Joe Biden, who has blamed Trump for an “onslaught of lies” and told the former president to “get a life.” “It’s beyond ridiculous,” Biden said of the claims being made around weather control. “It’s so stupid. It’s got to stop.” Although humans can worsen hurricanes by burning fossil fuels, creating a hotter ocean and atmosphere that gives hurricanes more energy, they cannot create, control or steer individual storms. Also, Fema’s disaster relief fund for hurricane-hit communities is separate from and unaffected by the money spent on giving shelter to migrants. But for meteorologists, the experiences around Helene and Milton are just an extreme continuation of a trend where the public is increasingly getting its information from extremist figures online rather than experts, according to Chris Gloninger, a former TV meteorologist and climate scientist who faced threats for talking about the climate crisis during his forecasts. “The modern Republican party has an army of people who are on social media with huge followings who just disseminate this misinformation,” Gloninger said. “I’m seeing my former colleagues getting threats, I’m getting messages that we are steering hurricanes into red states. It’s mindblowing, I’ve never seen anything like this in any disaster.” Gloninger said that meteorologists are “going to reach a point of burnout. What other profession are people targeted for simply doing their job? All we are trying to do is protect life and property during extreme weather.” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/11/meteorologists-death-threats-hurricane-conspiracies-misinformation http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/10/trump-hurricane-lies-conspiracy-theories http://blog.ucsusa.org/marc-alessi/hurricanes-helene-and-milton-further-proof-were-not-ready-for-fossil-fuel-caused-climate-change/ http://blog.ucsusa.org/category/science-and-democracy/ Oct. 2024 Trump sparks outrage after calling for army to handle enemies on election day. (news agencies) Donald Trump has provoked an angry backlash from Democrats after calling for the US armed forces to be turned against his political adversaries when voters go to the polls at next month’s presidential election. In comments that further fuelled fears of an authoritarian crackdown if he recaptures the White House, the Republican nominee said the military or national guard should be deployed against opponents that he called “the enemy within” when the election takes place on 5 November. He singled out the California congressman, Adam Schiff, who was the lead prosecutor in the ex-president’s first impeachment trial, as posing a bigger threat to a free and fair election than foreign terrorists. Trump’s comments, to Fox News in response to a question on possible election “chaos”, triggered an angry reaction from Kamala Harris’s campaign, which likened them to previous remarks that he would be a dictator “on day one” of a second presidency and his suggestions that the US constitution should be terminated to overturn the 2020 election result, which he falsely claims was stolen by Joe Biden. Trump and the vice-president are locked in a tight contest as election day looms. Most national polls put Harris narrowly ahead, but in the crucial swing states which will decide the election, the contest appears much tighter. Adam Schiff responded by accusing Trump of inciting violence in the same manner as he was widely accused of doing on 6 January 2021, when a mob attacked the US Capitol in an effort to stop certification of Biden’s election win. “Today, Trump threatened to deploy the military against the ‘enemies from within.’ The same thing he has called me,” Schiff wrote. “Just as he incited a mob to attack the Capitol, he again stokes violence against those who oppose him.” Harris’s campaign issued a more extensive condemnation. “Donald Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse ‘enemies’ than foreign adversaries, and he is saying he would use the military against them,” a campaign spokesperson, Ian Sams, said. “Taken with his vow to be a dictator on ‘day one’, calls for the ‘termination’ of the constitution, and plans to surround himself with sycophants who will give him unchecked, unprecedented power if he returns to office, this should alarm every American who cares about their freedom and security. “What Donald Trump is promising is dangerous, and returning him to office is simply a risk Americans cannot afford.” While Trump, being out of power, will be in no position to deploy troops on election day, his call for military power to quell political opposition is familiar, recalling his demand that soldiers be deployed in the streets of Washington DC in 2020 to disperse thousands of demonstrators protesting against the death of George Floyd. Gen Mark Milley, the then chairperson of the joint chiefs of staff, reportedly came close to resigning over the demand. Milley, who has since fallen foul of Trump, is quoted in a new book by Bob Woodward – the journalist who, along with Carl Bernstein, helped to expose the Watergate scandal of the 1970s – as calling the ex-president “a total fascist” and has voiced fears that he could be recalled to service and court-martialled if he returns to office. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/14/trump-military-enemy-within-armed-forces-election-day http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-suggests-using-military-address-enemy-rcna175255 http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-authoritarian-rhetoric-hitler-mussolini/680296/ http://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/22/politics/trump-fascist-john-kelly/index.html http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-military-generals-hitler/680327/ http://www.theatlantic.com/if-trump-wins/ http://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/19/politics/military-leaders-sound-the-alarm-trump/index.html http://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/politics/trump-speeches-age-cognitive-decline.html http://newrepublic.com/article/185622/finally-top-journo-erupts-media-ignoring-trumps-mental-state http://www.npr.org/2024/10/24/nx-s1-5163293/la-times-editor-resigns-trump-msnbc-washington-post http://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5156184/elon-musk-trump-election-x-twitter http://www.justsecurity.org/92714/american-autocracy-threat-tracker/ http://www.justsecurity.org/tag/january-6th-attack-on-us-capitol/ http://apnews.com/article/trump-jack-smith-election-supreme-court-0b9969b480036bb1f7c61a73980d406c http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25182548-chutkan http://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/inside-the-republican-national-committees-poll-watching-army http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-election-rigged-slow-vote-count-2024-1235133890/ http://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-judges-election-ebb54ab9badccfcb2b1bc2fa0de5bf21 http://www.americanprogress.org/series/project-2025-exposing-the-far-right-assault-on-america http://blog.ucsusa.org/chitra-kumar/project-2025s-assault-on-epa-human-health-and-the-environment-must-never-be-put-into-action http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-action-depends-on-the-2024-election/ |
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