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christiana wyly
November 2009 
Balancing Global Economy: An Interview with James Quilligan
Posted on Jul 4th, 2009
by 
Albert
Albert
There is an interview at Huffington Post with James Quilligan. Done by Christiana Wyly who is at Gaia too. Would be great to see as much comments as possible to keep this visible.
The Juggling Contest - Balancing the Global Economy: An interview with James Quilligan
This interview is a follow-up to Guest Blogger James Quilligan's blog which appears in my previous post "Stimulate This!"
In the previous post Mr.Quilligan shares with us what is emerging out of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, along with some insights on the barriers to achieving equity and stabilization. This post will be followed by a continuation interview with questions and answers specific to our shared passion of economic and environmental equity including a new take on the Waxman-Markey measures.
CW: You mention that there are discussions happening on both emergency and long-term measures on financial reform -- how much long-term thinking is possible in the midst of such an urgent crisis? It seems as though there are all hands on deck just to keep the plates spinning? Is there room for innovation? Is there an openness to creating new models?
JQ: A lot of exciting dialogue and planning is taking place. While the world is still engaged in its old juggling contest involving foreign reserves, trade balances, financial leveraging, international balance of payments and the global balance of power, many new variables have now inserted themselves into the prime equation -- including human needs, human rights, human security, energy security and ecological debt. In trying to manage all of these factors without adequate global standards, rules and institutions, the de facto policy of laissez-faire competition continues to shape our global attitudes and practices. Yet at the international level, many leaders have recognized that there are major problems with our traditional concepts of legal boundaries -- including private property and sovereign borders -- and much progress is being made on trans-border cooperation agreements.
But the real epistemic break is happening where individuals with deeper understanding are organizing to preserve and manage a particular commons which they depend on for their own livelihood or well-being (be it natural, social, cultural or intellectual), and allowing the energy of shared governance to flow in and through that space. These autonomous commons groups are organizing spontaneously across the world in response to the global economic crisis and will eventually develop a unique ontological identity and power as a third sector to solve the local and transnational problems that businesses and governments are not equipped to address on their own
read more..
See also:
Making he Great Adjustment: Coalition for the Global Commons
The Juggling Contest - Balancing the Global Economy: An interview with James Quilligan
This interview is a follow-up to Guest Blogger James Quilligan's blog which appears in my previous post "Stimulate This!"
In the previous post Mr.Quilligan shares with us what is emerging out of the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, along with some insights on the barriers to achieving equity and stabilization. This post will be followed by a continuation interview with questions and answers specific to our shared passion of economic and environmental equity including a new take on the Waxman-Markey measures.
CW: You mention that there are discussions happening on both emergency and long-term measures on financial reform -- how much long-term thinking is possible in the midst of such an urgent crisis? It seems as though there are all hands on deck just to keep the plates spinning? Is there room for innovation? Is there an openness to creating new models?
JQ: A lot of exciting dialogue and planning is taking place. While the world is still engaged in its old juggling contest involving foreign reserves, trade balances, financial leveraging, international balance of payments and the global balance of power, many new variables have now inserted themselves into the prime equation -- including human needs, human rights, human security, energy security and ecological debt. In trying to manage all of these factors without adequate global standards, rules and institutions, the de facto policy of laissez-faire competition continues to shape our global attitudes and practices. Yet at the international level, many leaders have recognized that there are major problems with our traditional concepts of legal boundaries -- including private property and sovereign borders -- and much progress is being made on trans-border cooperation agreements.
But the real epistemic break is happening where individuals with deeper understanding are organizing to preserve and manage a particular commons which they depend on for their own livelihood or well-being (be it natural, social, cultural or intellectual), and allowing the energy of shared governance to flow in and through that space. These autonomous commons groups are organizing spontaneously across the world in response to the global economic crisis and will eventually develop a unique ontological identity and power as a third sector to solve the local and transnational problems that businesses and governments are not equipped to address on their own
read more..
See also:
Making he Great Adjustment: Coalition for the Global Commons
Access: Public
Thanks for sharing!
Want to add this piece from JQ himself:
Stimulate This
And some critical remarks in the comments section from Michael Strong. Using a more entrepreneurial view:
This “decisions on the management of the global economy should be transferred to the UN General Assembly” is a nightmarish proposal. The U.N. Human Rights Commission has included as members China, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria, Syria, Libya, Vietnamn, and Sudan, some of the worst violators of human rights on the planet. Sudan was elected to the commission in 2004, in the midst of Sudan's ethnic cleansing of Darfur. And Quilligan thinks that the U.N. should manage the global economy?
For a sane approach to global governance, see
http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/newsletter/articles/en_GB/05-09-brauer-haywood/
Quilligan's approach will lead to more poverty and war. He ignores the long term correlations between economic liberalization and poverty reduction. On China and India alone, see,
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPGI/Resources/12404_TNSrinivasan-Paper2+Tables.pdf
He also ignores the correlations between economic liberalization and peace, as shown in the work Gartzke, Djankov, and others.
He is right to complain about the role of unfair trade barriers put up by the rich countries. Stiglitz's best work is that developed nations should unilaterally eliminate trade barriers (as the U.S. has done for Africa with AGOA).
But pushing more foreign aid at this point, after the work of George Ayittey, Bill Easterly, Dambisa Moyo, and others is simply a recipe for enriching developing world kleptocrats while the citizens continue to suffer.
A very balanced, complex and integrated take in naming all dilemmas and unmasking the possible dynamics can be found in this 2003 report:
Strategies for bridging global gaps