
By Zach Carter, Media Consortium Blogger Care2.com
Over the past thirty years, Wall Street has waged a steady war against governments around the globe, convincing policymakers of various ideological stripes that whatever raises profits for bankers and traders will be good for the rest of society. It’s a very simple and appealing portrait of how the world works. Unfortunately, it’s completely wrong.
Profiting from hunger
In an interview with AlterNet’s Terrence McNally, economic luminary Raj Patel explains the connection between widespread global poverty and wild Wall Street profits. Markets are defined by a set of rules—if those rules completely disregard social welfare, then the participants in those markets will ignore them as well. When traders can make a quick buck speculating on the price of rice, they will, even if that speculation drives up the price of a basic necessity and makes people go hungry.
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Posted in Economy Economics, Human Relationships, Human Rights Civil Liberties, Labor, Neoliberalism, Resistance, Social Justice
Tagged bailouts, Crisis, Default, Investors, lobbyists, Manipulation, poverty, Profiteering, Risk, Speculation, wall street