3.09.2009

Shrinking output vs. growing needs

According to the latest World Bank forecast (see also this):

The global economy is likely to shrink this year for the first time since World War Two, with growth at least 5 percentage points below potential. World Bank forecasts show that global industrial production by the middle of 2009 could be as much as 15 percent lower than levels in 2008. World trade is on track in 2009 to record its largest decline in 80 years, with the sharpest losses in East Asia.

The impoverished, especially those who live in developing countries, have also been hit hard by the depression: "94 out of 116 developing countries have experienced a slowdown in economic growth. Of these countries, 43 have high levels of poverty." The plight of the poor testifies to the systemic quality of the crisis and, of course, to the waste of human and natural resources common within the world economic system. After all, feeding, clothing and housing the poor is a social improbability, not a technical impossibility.

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