Zoellick Calls for Obama to Lead U.S. in Stimulus for Developing World
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Today in a New York Times op-ed, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, calls for President Obama to lead the U.S. in enabling developing countries to weather the financial crisis. Specifically, Zoellick calls for Obama to use the April G20 global summit meeting as an opportunity to pledge 0.7 percent of the U.S. stimulus package to a vulnerability fund designed to assist developing countries who cannot afford bailouts and deficits. Obama should then encourage other developed countries to do the same.
“The United States could begin by pledging some $6 billion of its own $825 billion stimulus package — just 4 percent of what was provided to American International Group. With this modest step, the United States would speed up global recovery, help the world’s poor and bolster its foreign policy influence.” says Zoellick. Developed countries contributing 0.7 percent of their gross national income (GNI) for official development assistance (ODA) will fulfill the long-standing U.N. target that has been frequently re-pledged by the developed world, including at the Monterrey conference in 2002.
With an estimated 100 million additional people pushed into poverty by the financial crisis, decreasing foreign direct investment (FDI), and declining exports, developing countries need help now. The vulnerability fund will assist countries in establishing safety-net programs like food-for-work programs and seed and fertilizer projects. In addition, it will help countries invest in infrastructure projects, like building roads, which both create jobs and prepare a country for productivity and growth. The fund will also assist small and medium enterprises that are often worst affected by such crises because they neither access credit, nor do they get bailed out.
Developed countries have stepped up in the last year, calling for increases in aid and supporting programs that assist the developing word. But it is not enough, as Zoellick stresses, “Poor people in Africa should not pay the price for a crisis that originated in America. The total aid from developed countries is about $100 billion a year, a modest sum in light of developing countries’ needs. The United Nations target for aid is 0.7 percent of an economy. The United States contribution is about 0.2 percent, although polls consistently show the American public is willing to contribute much more.”
-Beth Adler
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January 24, 2009 at 4:33 am
These people have absolutely zero interest in the welfare of the United States of America. Give money you don’t have!
I can hear people now. “We have plenty of money!” Really? Are you sure? Inflation kills the worth of your money…which is where we are heading to. The printing presses are running 24/7 folks. They are printing all of that money. That money, when that money floods into the US markets, it’s going to cause rapid inflation. Your money will be worth less. You will have less purchasing power. You’ll have stacks of money…or money with new and larger numbers on it, but it won’t be worth what it would be if all this money hadn’t been printed. Let’s add in that Robert Zoellick, who from here on out will be known as “An Imbecile”, want’s “some 6 billion” donated from all of this money that we are printing. In the end, you have inflation plus debt. You still have to pay for that money that was printed that you gave away. And your money is worth less…so it’s going to take longer. Never mind you that eventually, that 6 billion eventually makes it’s way back to the USA. Oops.
I know people here are intelligent. I’m fairly certain that some here are even intellectually honest with themselves as well…so what’s the deal? Do you enjoy helping to cut the throat of the nation that you live in so that others can have something that their socialistic (at best) governments should be doing for their own people? Are you so blind?
February 1, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Obama administration needs to realize that in several months economic crisis and soaring deficit will be solely his administration’s and his party’s problem, so for any previous or future mistakes he’ll have to take the blame. Two-three months from now nobody will remember Bush’s policies and the Democrats have to be more careful on the long-term effects of massive spending. If the new stimulus fails, just like the past one, then this will balloon into Obama’s first political problem. We have to also realize, that on the long-term we won’t be able to afford more bailouts and there has to be alternative solutions, since we are passing the trillion Dollar deficit boundary. Printing more money can be utilized as short-term tool, but on the long run it will devastate economy. Something needs to be done immediately, but more regulation & spending does not seem to be a logical answer, we need another alternative solution. Maybe we should take pure libertarian approach and let the free market decide who wins or loses? This will cause social unrest and chaos, so as a society we can not afford this option either. Maybe we’ve killed the goose that laid eggs for us?
February 1, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Social unrest and chaos…..well, we already have mass social unrest. I’m curious what type of chaos you think would come about.
I’m also curious about what you think needs to be done immediately. What do you propose as a solution to this as clearly we can’t let capitalism correct itself.