wide eyed wonderings of the undecided

The Put People First campaign makes a series of demands that amount to a global restructuring along social-democratic Keynesian principles. Whilst not overly radical many people reckon the demands are unworkable utopian dreams.

I take each in turn and show how the critics are wrong.

Ensure democratic governance of the economy

1. Compel tax havens to abide by strict international rules.

This is not difficult, in 1999 the OECD began a programme to inhibit money laundering and found that tracking and blocking movements of capital was well within their grasp. The technology is there to do it, the political will is a different question. But when you have very public officials (the prime minister for example) calling a close to, or more visibility for tax heavens, the question is far from uptopian. (It does not help that HM Revenue and Customs (our tax collector) leases its building from a company based in Jersey!)

2. Insist on fundamental governance reform of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This already happened in the G20 meeting. The IMF has extended an international credit facility (Special Drawing Rights) to such an extent it amounts to a world currency. This is a fundamental restructuring of power at the IMF, pulling strength from the dollar, which acted as the world currency. It has given many more nation states (though not their inhabitants) far more voice at the IMF. The voting structures at the Bank, however remain thoroughly anti-democratic and require campaigning to reform.

3. Make all financial institutions, financial products and multinationals transparent and publicly accountable.

Well, the government owns huge sections of finance now in the UK. So in that sense they are much more publicly accountable. Multinationals are generally quite transparent, though obviously not publicly accountable.

Jobs: Decent jobs and public services for all

4. Ensure a massive investment in a green new deal to build a green economy based on decent work and fair pay.

There have been massive public investment programmes since the war, without which capitalism fails. So this is not a significantly unheard of demand. The idea it should go to productive use in the real economy creating jobs, rather than finance, makes this a demand for the UK to be like Sweden, France, Japan etc… and indeed to be like what the UK was between 1945-1979. So not particularly radical a demand at all.

5. Invest in and strengthen public provision of essential services.

Same as above really. Investing in public services is common to most advanced economies. It was only the US and UK that followed the radical doctrines of Thatcher & Reagan who decided not to. Even under New Labour we see massive spending in NHS, the only thing different about the Put People First demand is that it does not ask for privatisation.

6. Work to ensure sufficient emergency funding to all countries that need it, without damaging conditionalities attached.

Marshall Plan, post war. Not unprecedented… Some modern development aid, particularly all that from the Nordics and Canada follows this principle, so not at all impossible.

Justice: End global poverty and inequality

7. Deliver 0.7% of national income as aid by 2013, deliver aid more effectively and push for the cancellation of all illegitimate and unpayable developing country debts.

Debt cancellation is underway, so this is a welcome reminder but not a crazy overhaul. Same as above…

8. Ensure that poorer states are allowed to take responsibility for managing their economies, including controlling cross-border capital flows.

Capital controls have been the norm between 1940 – 1980, it took a massive recession, global restructuring program and a lot of right wing propaganda to get rid of them. Empirically capital controls have proved better for developing countries like Chile in the 1980s debt crisis, and developed countries like Germany and Spain today. Nothing at all utopian about the demand.

9. Stop pushing developing countries to liberalise and deregulate their economies, and do not attempt to rush through a completion of the Doha trade round, a deal that developing countries have rejected several times.

The 1999 WTO trade negotiation, which was in Seattle and brought to an absolute standstill by myriad protesters (communists, church-goers anarchists etc)… paved the way for civil society leaders and developing countries to call a halt to liberalisation conditions. Since then all attempts have stalled. This request follows a process that is well under way.

Climate: Build a Green Economy

10. In addition to the green new deal (recommendation 4), introduce the robust regulatory requirements and financial incentives needed to deliver a green economy.

More tricky. In terms of potential, the government owns huge amounts of finance in the UK. That is tax payers money, so reorientating how they run our banks is not impossible, but requires very outward expression of desire from people. Nationalised banks, channelling investment into the productive, job creating economy can be very progressive, yet is not utopian. Japan and South Korea built their economies on state directed credit.

11. Push for a deal at Copenhagen to agree substantial, verifiable cuts in greenhouse gases, which will limit temperature increases to well below 2°C.

Keeping global climate temperature increases to well below 2°C is by far and away the hardest and most pie-in-the-request. The concern is though that failure to do so will apparently cause all sorts of kafuffle. I would say that political will rather than human capacity remains at the core of this issue. Tradable carbon rationing would not only work as a progressive tax but also be able to tackle the issue at hand. Of course rations have been used in history, but it required a global disaster situation.

12. Commit to substantial new resource transfer from North to South, additional to Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), to support adaptation and sustainable development in poor countries.

They sort of do this, there is large amounts of aid that goes to the South. Its not helped by (a very modern) system of global finance which has, since 1987 transferred from South to North 20 times the amount of aid given from North to South ($375 billion).