Globalization Talk at Davos

Globalization Talk at Davos
Written by Thomas R. Eddlem
Saturday, 31 January 2009 17:04


German Prime Minister Angela Merkel proposed a new “global financial architecture” at the Davos World Economic Forum on January 30. But press coverage of the five-day event (ending February 1) focused upon side events, such as the spat between Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the many other verbal slights at the event.

Merkel blamed the current economic crisis on the “failure of the markets to address this crisis,” even though the crisis was clearly started by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank inflating the currency with artificially low interest rates and the U.S. government overspending with record deficits. Government interference in the marketplace started the current crisis, but Merkel told attendees that only more government interference in the marketplace can solve it: “The central task of politicians now is to restore the ability of markets to function, thereby creating a new trust, on a sounder footing.”

This, of course, is the central cry of all failed politicians: we failed, so give us more power.

Merkel called for a new set of rules and overhaul for the global financial architecture. “An international crisis can only be solved at the international level. And the lessons learned can also only be learned and addressed at the international level,” she said. She called for the adoption of a post-crisis charter for a global economic order.

Right now, Merkel’s talk is just that — talk.

What Merkel’s proposal would mean in concrete terms is global government (which globalists call “global governance”) and the creation of this global government through various international instituitions under the umbrella of an empowered United Nations and its Millennium Goals. The Davos “World Economic Forum” masks itself as a “free trade” organization, but a closer look at the specific goals of the annual conference also reveals the overarching goal of global government. The specific goals include a “global education initiative,” a “global health initiative,” “global risk network” (global management of corporations), “financing for development” (foreign aid), and of course management of the planet to address "climate change."

None of this has anything to do with genuine free trade, but that doesn’t stop the mainstream press agencies talking about how the current economic crisis has caused the "free market" to go into full retreat. Here’s how Reuters wire services’ columnist James Saft describes the consesnus at the conference:

This consensus, which generally favoured the market over the state, "light-touch" regulation of financial services and the free flow of goods and capital across borders, is somewhere between on the defensive and in full, not always organised retreat.

The irony is that proposed global regulations are on the ropes under the current economic crisis because globalists have been falsely using the mantra of “free trade” to sell them. Domestic politicians — especially Democrats in the United States — are blaming the untrammeled free market for the crisis, and “free market” sounds a lot like “free trade” to the untutored masses.

Fortunately for the globalists, tutors were available at Davos. “Retreating into protectionism would harm national self-interest,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pontificated to the assembled globalists on January 29, adding some commentary on his real goal of global regulations: “The Global Compact has been working with major investors so that their work can incorporate key environmental and social issues.”

Fortunately for freedom lovers, the meeting was marked more by acrimony than action with alacrity.

Look for the globalists to take a more straightforward strategy to enact a global financial regime over the next year or two.