Here we post a video of a speech by Lynn Walsh, editor of Socialism Today (political journal of the Socialist Party, England & Wales) on the crisis in the world economy and international perspectives. An article dealing with some of these themes in more detail will be included in the new edition of the Socialist
Lynn Walsh: A world in crisis from Stephan Kimmerle on Vimeo.
“It's the classic fairytale gone bad. A brave little country was given three wishes: low interest rates, high wages and billions in multinational investment. For a brief moment in time, for the first time in its history, Ireland was wealthy and had the respect of the world. Then it threw it all away. And that’s why they call it Namageddon.” - The Wall Street Journal.
THE GOVERNMENT has finally come out with more details about how its National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) is going to operate.
The proposed NAMA will buy, with government bonds, some 10,000 loans (half of which are behind in their payments and growing) and “assets” worth €90 billion off the banks at a “discount” (to be decided - but the figure of €20 billion is being bandied about).
Almost one in four young people in the European Union are currently unemployed. In Greece this figure hits 57%, in Spain 56%, in Ireland it is 29%. In total 5.5 million young people are unemployed across Europe and emigration is rife, with people leaving Ireland in numbers not seen since the Famine. In the face of this crisis the European Union has no solution to offer, its latest proposal a ‘Youth Guarantee’ is nothing more than wishful thinking.
By Paul Murphy
JANUARY 2009 saw the worst ever increase in unemployment. Those signing on to the live register rose by 36,500 to a total of 327,900. Brian Cowen has admitted that unemployment could reach 400,000 by the end of the year, but if it continues at that rate it could pass the half a million mark by the end of 2009.
