THE FINANCIAL speculators and hedge funds that so spectacularly
contributed to the financial crisis resulting in the ’Great Recession’
have now turned their attention to the international food market with
devastating consequences.
In about three weeks, a Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly of the
United Nations will be held in New York to review progress in reaching
the Milennium Development Goals (MDGs).
In the past few weeks there’s been a noticeable shift in tone in the
business pages and journals. Their confidence in the so-called
“recovery” has faded, and has been replaced by anxiety.
Wages have been slashed, unemployment has exploded and our public
services have been cut savagely as the economic crisis developed in
Ireland. All of this is the result of the policies of the right-wing
government and the actions of a small group of speculators, bankers and
developers.
The G20 meeting in Toronto of the leaders of the main capitalist
governments of the world demonstrated a complete incapacity to solve the
huge problems that confront us, particularly those hardest-hit – the
poor and the working class – by the economic crisis.
