UN unveils plan to release untapped wealth of...$7 trillion

[DoYouEverWonder]

and solve the world's problems at a stroke)

29 January 2006

The most potent threats to life on earth - global warming, health pandemics, poverty and armed conflict - could be ended by moves that would unlock $7 trillion - $7,000,000,000,000 (£3.9trn) - of previously untapped wealth, the United Nations claims today.

The price? An admission that the nation-state is an old-fashioned concept that has no role to play in a modern globalised world where financial markets have to be harnessed rather than simply condemned.

In a groundbreaking move, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has drawn up a visionary proposal that has been endorsed by a range of figures including Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Laureate.

It says an unprecedented outbreak of co-operation between countries, applied through six specific financial tools, would slice through the Gordian knot of problems that have bedevilled the world for most of the last century.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article341967.ece

[Demeter]

1. You and What Army? Not in Our Lifetime

It would take invasion from outer space to get this world to work together to subdue and harness the multinationals.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. This is what they were discussing at DAVOS

At the heart of the proposal, unveiled at a gathering of world business leaders at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, is a push to get countries to account for the cost of failed policies, and use the money saved "up front" to avert crises before they hit.

[jazzjunkysue]

8. We're all too greedy. Let us evolve and we might grow up enough

to consider sharing our resources. But at this rate, we'll destroy the planet before we evolve that far.

Maybe the native americans were wrong: The earth isn't a giant turtle: It's the ultimate reality TV show: Will the stupid, fearful humans keep their planet alive long enough to evolve?

Wonder which ultrasmart beings are using us for entertainment, and how many other shows they've got going.

Can I go to the planet where they have to figure out how to eat all the chocolate they can before they die?

[thefool_wa]

19. We can only hope

Hell, I think slavery to an alien master might be preferable to todays world. At least I know I would be behind the war effort when it happened :)

[Nostradammit]

2. How much of that would I get?

What's my cut?


7T/6B = ?

:sarcasm:


"An outbreak of co-operation"; I can get behind that.

[meow2u3]

3. That's $7 QUADRILLION in America

That ought to be enough money to help undo the damage the neocons have done to the world....unless Bushco gets its greedy tentacles on the money.

[thefool_wa]

20. The problem...

BushCo would have to go back to being normal citizens because, without the nation-state, there is no need for a president, no need for a congress, no need for a constitution, etc.

This is a frightening idea and a pleasing one all at once. It is not, however, something this world is ready for.

[Ian David]

4. Remember the right-wingers during the Clinton administration...

claimed Clinton wanted to surrender our authority to a New World Order controled by the United Nations?

And they said that U.N. troops had secret bases in America's National Parks and Black Helicopters were spying on us?

[Posteritatis]

6. One of my friends drank that kool-aid

It's funny, in hindsight. She spent awhile trying to convince us that every national park was actually a Chinese military base.

Her evidence was pictures of signs saying the parks were world heritage sites or whatnot (i.e., presupposing that the UN was going to do this) and photos of UN "military buildups" inside the US (i.e., white-painted jeeps and armored personnel carriers at major ports, awaiting deployment abroad).

[Ian David]

7. I had one show me a documentary about it and the Smyrna Airport...

Clinton cocaine ring.

I forget whether it was two documentaries, or one that linked Clinton Cocaine to The New World Order.

They all shut-up pretty quick after Bush's selection in 2000.

After that, everything was fine.

[IDemo]

9. This reminds me of the 'One World Government' my parents feared

in the 1960's and 70's. Don't recall the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation being included along with the Bildebergers and Rockefellers, however...

[KakistocracyHater]

10. another bait & switch tactic

brought to you by the guys who wrecked you the first time! They want to "ennable" a country to borrow money based on the amount of money that workers abroad send home, they "say" this will "save" 31Billion-what bs. What it REALLY means is that they get to "legally" demand payment of that loan & if defaulted they get to sweep all of those worker's money to themselves; see they can't stand to see billions sent to anyone, they have worked it out, making the carrot look nice & tasty, even gettable. It would "be used to invest in the country to build infrastructure that would discourage people from leaving.", yeah, that was the World Bank's job when it was created in the late 1960s-never happened; instead investors got to open foreign markets & buy them up, like Japan was "opened" by Capt.Perry(I think he was a captain, maybe admiral? Or was it China?) But wait! There's more! Let countries "buy 'insurance policies' against big swings in growth that would ensure that they did not have to cut public spending every time. In 1997 it wreaked havoc across South-east Asia." Yes lets!! You know those big insurance companies that raise their rates at the speed of greed? Let's do it on a country scale-yay! Talk about getting screwed like the Bankruptcy Bill just recently passed in the US. Those Asian countries got wrecked in '97 because they OBEYED the World Bank & IMF. Neolibralism created by Reagan & Thatcher(& those around them) demanded that countries let their infrastructure rot, because they 'were spending too much money on their infrastructure'-never mind that no first world nation (then) would have gutted themselves. "Brazil and Argentina were reduced to the status of beggars after poor economic policy combined with debts with national and international lenders. SOLUTION: A system to enable countries to take loans linked to their average economic growth rate to ensure that they do not have to cut public spending to raise the money to borrow needed funds during the hard times." Don't take this at face value; what it really means: so if you make more money you're gonna be charged more money. Your loan payments are going to linked to your economic growth rate &-like a nightmare-countries will find themselves charged far more than they expected, sooo they will try to slow their economic growth-or hide it. Maybe through privatizing. & lest we forget, Argentina was the biggest spur used by the World Bank to do as they say & not as they do for all of South America; how convenient that they forced those nations to accept poor economic policies in order to qualify for loans & then they turn around & blame those nations for listening.

[krkaufman]

11. Makes perfect sense...

For example, Iraq war will end up costing us well over a trillion dollars. What could have been accomplished if we'd used that trillion dollars in some other constructive -- rather than destructive -- way?

Makes perfect sense; and I'm certain it will get nowhere.

[rman]

12. Nice, both Bush and the UN pushing for the New World Order

Btw, there'd be no need for that $7 trillion if trade agreements would not enable wealthy nations to exploit poor nations.

"...nation-state is an old-fashioned concept that has no role to play in a modern globalised world..."


Bush speech to offer vision of world leadership
Financial Times
January 29 2006
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/85807968-90f1-11da-a628-0000779e2340.html

President George W. Bush is expected on Tuesday to try and retake the initiative in the Washington political debate, in a speech that is expected to be long on optimism and short on detailed policy proposals.
...
White House aides have characterised the speech as one that will lay out his approach and views on the importance of US world leadership and be visionary and thematic rather than deal with policy specifics.

In an interview with CBS television on Sunday, Mr Bush said the low level of public support for his policies in Iraq showed that the public had been distracted from achievements made in the country by images of violence on the news. He said he intended to play the role of “educator in chief” as well as “commander in chief”.
...
He is also expected to make optimistic comments on the US economy – unbowed by a report on Friday that suggested it slowed sharply at the end of last year – and to endorse policies aimed at improving the competitiveness of US industries.

<more>

[Javaman]

13. Katrina was only 4 months ago and it's already off the publics radar...

So how in gods name is the UN supposed to get a long term commitment to this?????

I weep for our future. I pray for a new enlightenment.

[Posteritatis]

14. Fortunately, the world consists of more than the US. (n/t)

[K-W]

15. Idiocy.

The financial system we haved evolved because it serves the will of the powerful minority. And until you change the fundemental balance of power in the world any financial system you apply will either be designed to or very rapidly evolve to support the will of the powerful minority at the expense of the rest of the people, the environment, and everything else.

The nation state does indeed need to die, but not to be replaced by a global regime of finance.

[Deja Q]

17. Nation-building?

You're right on the powerful minority taking full advantage of today's economic imbalance.

And if they were to drop the costs of everything, to match the wages they wish to dole out, there'd be no problem.

But when you can't provide jobs that allow for basic living expenses... that's not living. That's slaving.

Countries' leaders (government + economic) ensure their people are properly maintained and countries trade with each other. Countries don't leech out their infrastructure for bigger profits; that's a short term solution that will quickly smack them back in their faces. ; no infrastructure means the money involved becomes just as valuable.

Or are we in the middle of the Ultimate form of "nation building"?

[Deja Q]

16. Here's how to reduce global warming and END health pandemic:

No more video games or TV to relax with.

This will reduce heat; and people will be out and about and moving again. Obesity dwindles and we'll all look better (not to mention feeling better.)

That is obviously hard to accomplish and I am trying to free myself from the addiction too. And, hell, I'm an Aspie - a person with the social acuity of a confused possum, or the social mannerisms akin to that of a paranoid skunk!

[Amonester]

18. I guess they fear to call it by it's real name...

BIG BROTHER, ROBBER-BARON, TORTURER FOR WAR PROFITEERS AND CARELESS POLLUTERS!

WASTERS OF LAND, AND LIMBS.

This species is doomed. Is that it?

Hail the Idiot($)? :mad: