On August 21, 2009, Joseph Stiglitz delivered this speech at the U.N.'s ESCAP conference in Bangkok. The speech is available for watching free on YouTube. The video is an hour long and well worth a listen. Otherwise, here is their press release which summarizes the speech. I have copied some interesting points down below.
This is where you can listen to the YouTube video:
Key Role of UN in Global Financial Architecture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiJza5iJSVY
(or it will be archived on the UN YouTube channel page)
http://www.youtube.com/user/unitednations
Here is the direct link to the ESCAP press release that summarizes the speech:
http://www.unescap.org/unis/press/2009/aug/g57.asp
Professor Stiglitz chairs the UN Commission of Experts on Reforms of the I.M.F. - often referred to as the Stiglitz Commission. Here are some of his comments, in his own words:
quote:
"The United Nations is the only international institution with the legitimacy to oversee this global reform .... We’ve now created a global economy but we haven’t created the institutions to make that economy work,” Professor Stiglitz said. “The global economic coordinating council would highlight those missing elements, make proposals for how to deal with them and hopefully move the agenda forward.”
The Professor also discussed the panel’s recommendation to move away from the current global reserve system. Noting that the current system based on the US dollar has collapsed, he stated that it is not a question of if we move to a new global reserve system, but rather if we do it in an orderly fashion.
“There’s a lot of expertise all over the world,” Professor Stiglitz said. “If there was the political resolve, I think it can be done overnight.”
In the week since that speech, the IMF has already taken steps to bolster member nations' reserves with their S.D.R's -- that coveted new U.N. currency that Russia and China have been wanting the world to switch over to.
(See the IMF press releases at http://www.IMG.org )
*Thanks to Web Bot forum for the heads up
