Reports

Financial transactions taxes, small levies on trades of stock, derivatives, and other financial instruments, have gained increased attention as leaders around the world seek ways to address financial volatility and pay for pressing needs, from domestic economic recovery to the global fights against poverty and climate change.

Eleven of the nation’s leading experts on poverty have proposed a $400 billion emergency relief plan to create and save jobs for millions of Americans while also offering adequate resources to vital safety net programs.

President Obama has announced plans to expedite bilateral investment treaty negotiations between the United States and China. Similar to the investment chapters of U.S. free trade agreements, BITs give foreign investors the right to bypass domestic courts and sue governments in international tribunals.

The Obama administration promised “a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena.” The sixth yearly Report of the Task Force on a Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY 2010 finds that the promise of resource shifting has not yet been kept. The needle tracking the overall balance of spending on offense (military forces), defense (homeland security) and prevention (non-military foreign engagement) stayed stubbornly in place. In the FY 2010 request, like the one before it, 87% of the nation’s security resources were allocated to the tools of military force. This is true even excluding the appropriations for wars the country is currently fighting.

Civil society organizations around the world have been calling for new rules and institutions that will help bring economic recovery to everyone and lay the foundation for more equitable, sustainable, and stable livelihoods in the future. These proposals would benefit poor countries and ordinary Americans.