IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn warns a world economy beset by the twin scourges of high prices and joblessness could lead to trade protectionism and even war within nations.
Strauss-Kahn noted two " dangerous" imbalances that he said could sow the seeds of the next crisis.
The first was the unbalanced recovery across countries, as emerging nations grow much faster than developed economies and possibly overheat. The second was the social strains within countries with high unemployment and widening income gaps.
Over the next decade, 400 million young people would join the global labor force, posing a daunting challenge for governments, Strauss-Kahn added.
" We face the prospect of a 'lost generation' of young people, destined to suffer their whole lives from worse unemployment and social conditions. Creating jobs must be a top priority not only in the advanced economies, but also in many poorer countries."
When will income inequality ever surface on the radar screens of our own mainstream parties? Why is a guy who should know this stuff inside out, the Liberals' own Michael Ignatieff, not speaking out on this, not challenging the prime minister? We're not likely to see insurrection as witnessed spreading through the Middle East but income inequality is already excessive in Canada and takes a very real, tangible, and costly toll on our country and our future.
3 comments:
Kind makes one indignant. The global economy is far from recovering. Feeling it here in the States as well.
Hello Hal. This is fast becoming a global problem. McClatchey Newspapers ran a story today about how Big Agra in the US is flooding Mexico with heavily subsidized cheap corn putting some 2-million workers out of work. When a Mexican farmer can't afford to produce corn something is amiss.
We appear to be going through a transitional period from surplus to periodic shortages to permanent deficits. It is the sort of thing that destabilizes not merely national economies but their societies as well.
Nobody, it seems, is truly immune, no one is safe. Welcome to the 21st Century, what some are calling the Century of Revolution.
Wow. I didn't know that about Mexico and corn. That's fascinating. I guess at this point the stock market isn't the only thing that is going to whipsaw.
I hadn't heard the "Century of Revolution" label yet. But that definitely fits.
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