Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of International Monetary Fund, warned Friday at a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics that rising inequality and the climate crisis have the whole planet headed toward yet another financial disaster. Andrea Germanos at Common Dream writes—IMF Head Gives 'Stark Message' of Looming Inequality-Fueled Global Financial Disaster:
The trend of rising inequality within countries, [Georgieva] said, "is reminiscent of the early part of the 20th Century, when the twin forces of technology and integration led to the first Gilded Age, the Roaring Twenties, and, ultimately, financial disaster."
Unlike the 1920s, however, the new decade is confronted with an urgent climate crisis.
"In the 2020s," said Georgieva, "the financial sector will have to grapple with preventing the traditional type of crisis, and handle newer ones, including climate-related shocks. Think of how stranded assets can trigger unexpected loss. Some estimates suggest the potential costs of devaluing these assets range from $4 trillion to $20 trillion."
She also pointed to new IMF research showing rising inequality—which her institution has helped fuel by promoting neoliberal policies—is a predictor of a coming financial crisis. Staving off that threat includes increasing affordable and readily available access to financial services to address inequality, sustaining regulatory mechanisms, and ensuring more stability. Key to the latter point is addressing the climate crisis.
"The financial sector can play a crucial role in moving the world to net zero carbon emissions and reach the targets of the Paris Agreement," said Georgieva. "To get there, firms will need to better price climate change impacts in their loans." Institutions will also increase stability and help lessen inequality by boosting lending to smaller firms, she added.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Lieberman Says He Will Filibuster With Republicans:
Once again the "independent Democrat" from Connecticut is burnishing his Republican credentials, this time by announcing that he will join in a filibuster against the Senate resolution opposing the escalation of troops in Iraq.
MS. BLOCK: Can you imagine a scenario where you would join in with a Republican filibuster to stop the resolution, if it comes to that?
SEN. LIEBERMAN: I can because I think that it – this is this important.
Calling the resolution, "phony," Lieberman says:
I say to those who are opposed to what the president is now suggesting that they have a responsibility to do one thing: one is to come up with a better plan if they don’t like this one…
And Lieberman, like Bush and his acolytes, continue to ignore that there have been other plans put forward, such as the ones offered by John Murtha, Joe Biden, and Jack Reed. But of course their fatal flaw is that they don't agree with the Bush plan to "stay the course, plus 21,500."