June 02, 2009
The Southern Bank / Banco del Sur (One more step)
Americas Program Report: A New Financial Architecture for Latin America, Part 1, by Tony Phillips
Part one of a two part series Im writing about financial architectures for Latin America and the Caribbean. I intend to make this the basis for my thesis in the UBA in Regionalism/MERCOSUR. Part one is the simple piece part two is more for people who like economics. I hope you like it.
Posted by Tony Phillips at 12:17 AM | Comments (2)
May 30, 2009
Small World
Copenhagen is the new Kyoto. Later this year in Copenhagen the political and economic agents of the planet will decide for you and your progeny what shall be done to prevent a violent change in the planet's weather systems from spiralling out of control. Yes the same people who brought you various world wars, nuclear weapons and genetically engineered food are now to be placidly trusted to save the planet. I think not! This one is too critical to just leave to the policymakers, this is literally the air that we breathe. Time to get personal, what do you think? Check out this excellent guide and pass it on ...
Posted by Tony Phillips at 03:45 PM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2009
G-20 Reloaded & moving to the gold camp
G-20 Reloaded, by Tony Phillips
This crisis is big, very big. Previous efforts have failed. Trillions of good dollars have been thrown after bad. The G-20 leaders announced in their communiqué that the "crisis […] has deepened since we last met." The communiqué describes their plans as "the largest fiscal and monetary stimulus and the most comprehensive support program for the financial sector in modern times." They "pledged to do whatever is necessary." They were "undertaking an unprecedented and concerted fiscal expansion […] that will, by the end of next year, amount to $5 trillion, raise output by 4%, and accelerate the transition to a green economy."
Lofty expectations indeed!
Posted by Tony Phillips at 03:10 PM | Comments (2)
April 21, 2009
What the bees are telling us
The goodly folk at the New Economics Foundation at 3 Jonathan Street, London, have come out with a short book (20 pages or so) about supermarkets, food, oil, agriculture and especially apiculture (Beekeeping). It is a light read which encompasses much about why we need to change our consumption habits and is available for four pounds sterling or you can download it for free if you are poor like me. It is much recommended especially for those of you who live near the UK.
Posted by Tony Phillips at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2009
Climate Camping
A handful of people who are involved in the Camp for Climate Action process in the UK have made a short newspaper which summarises discourse leading up to the UN Climate Talks in Copenhagen at the end of the year.
Continue reading "Climate Camping"
Posted by Tony Phillips at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2009
Letter to the Irish Times
Click on the Irish times logo below to see the original
(or buy the newspaper).
Continue reading "Letter to the Irish Times"
Posted by Tony Phillips at 08:59 PM | Comments (3)
January 29, 2009
Back into Paraguay
Just a short note to tell you all that I shall be heading to Paraguay (the belly-button of the World). This time rather than going to Asunción (solely) for beer, politics and morochas; this time I shall be making a film on the Irish whore-queen of Paraguay Ms. Eliza Lynch. Ms. Lynch lived the first 10 years of her life in Ireland and many more in the dark kingdom of Paraguay surviving a war there that killed every male in Paraguay over the age of 13. If you have any contacts in Paraguay (especially historians) I would love to talk with them.
Wish me luck!
Tony
Posted by Tony Phillips at 09:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2009
Shoot the Irish Bankers
A story The case for and against nationalising the banks from the Irish Times on January 24th, notes that it may be inevitable that the Irish government will nationalize the islands largest banks (Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank). For those of you interested in share prices they make the US S&P 500 Volatility Index (the VIX Index) seem stable, for example, the AIB share price went up 35% on Friday 23rd. January. Imagine your house did that. How stable would that make the housing market?
The same article also briefly notes that both the Irish and British states may be rated for their national debt in similar risk categories as those of the certain third world countries (and Im writing this from Argentina), noting (as an aside) that Great Britain may itself default, something that hasnt happened since the Middle Ages.
You think this credit derivatives problem is over? Read the fine print. I shall be coming out with a sequel called Plan "B"!.
Sorry folks but this has just begun (baton down the hatches because the stakes are getting higher and the ideas more interesting than will ever be printed in the Irish Times).
For those of you who like their news in video form; this interview with Nobel Prize winning economist Joey Stiglitz 
is most revealing.
If you like your video news whacky and maybe slighly less conventional then maybe take a look at TheModernMystic, a english chap living in Spain who could be as right as most economists. Here is his take on The Irish Problem 
.
Continue reading " Shoot the Irish Bankers "
Posted by Tony Phillips at 02:00 PM | Comments (1)
December 31, 2008
Privatising Profits, Socialising Losses
Privatizing Profits, Socializing Losses, By Tony Phillips
Continue reading "Privatising Profits, Socialising Losses"
Posted by Tony Phillips at 01:39 PM | Comments (1)
December 13, 2008
UBA and the Depression
Two things of merit happened today. After three years I had my last class in the University of Buenos Aires where I hope to qualify with my thesis etc. as a Masters in Economics. The photo shows a few of us students in the Argentine province of Entre Rios on the Paraná river celebrating the end of one of the courses.
The second thing is that I have had my first financial analysis piece published by the Americas program. It dissect the Global Financial crisis and names a few names of those responsible. Hold onto your hats and click on the link below to read the story in English... Privatising Profits, Socialising Losses
Cheers,
Tony
Posted by Tony Phillips at 10:47 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2008
Financial Freefall
(for an easier to read version see:
Densidad Regional /
Throwing Spaghetti to the Wall )
Monday October 13th the G7 finance ministers returned to their governments from the International Monetary Fund and Finance Committee (IMFC) meeting and photo-op at the US Treasury. The World's dailies all led with the same story of substantial gains on World stock markets, helping foment the hope that the "coordinated bailout" had worked. Could this eliminate the horrifying specter of 1930's-style economic depression by preventing financial collapse? Had confidence returned to refresh what John Maynard Keynes' called The Animal Spirits of capitalism[1]?
Maybe not!
Continue reading "Financial Freefall"
Posted by Tony Phillips at 04:24 PM | Comments (1)
September 01, 2008
Documentary: Judge Guzman's Investigations
Posted by Tony Phillips at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2008
Vulture Funds, The World Bank courts and Argentina Financial Collapse
Argentina Versus the World Bank: Fair Play or Fixed Fight?
By Tony Phillips
Argentina versus el Banco Mundial: ¿Juego limpio o partido arreglado?
By Tony Phillips
Some multinational companies take over our natural resources, privatize basic services, fail to pay taxes and then, when they have no arguments in their defense, they go to the so-called ICSID. And then, in that World Bank tribunal, no country wins against the multinationals. So why do we need an ICSID where only the multinational companies can win?"
President Evo Morales of Bolivia.
See: full article online.
Ver: artículo en español.
Posted by Tony Phillips at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2007
Centre For Internation Policy
Climate Change Cause and Effect, An Americas Perspective
By Tony Phillips
In the recent Bali consensus the U.S. government agreed to overall cutbacks and China, formerly exempt as a developing country, agreed to voluntary cut-backs. But how will Latin America affect climate change and be affected by it? Take a look at the major contributors in the region and the effects it is already feeling.
Tony Phillips is a researcher and journalist on trade and multinational finance with an emphasis on dictatorships and the WTO, and a translator and analyst for the Americas Policy Program at www.americaspolicy.org.
See full article online.
Posted by Tony Phillips at 04:31 PM | Comments (1)
