Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King, Vinette K. Pryce, Bert
Wilkinson, Lloyd Kam Williams
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, Feb. 15–21, 2019 BQ
By Jomo Kwame
Sundaram and Vladimir
Popov
KUALA LUMPUR and
BERLIN, Feb. 12, 2019
(IPS) — Economic recovery
efforts since the 2008-2009
global financial crisis have
mainly depended on unconventional
monetary policies.
As fears rise of yet another
international financial crisis,
there are growing concerns
about the increased
possibility of large-scale
military conflict.
More worryingly, in the
current political landscape,
prolonged economic crisis,
combined with rising economic
inequality, chauvinistic
ethno-populism as well
as aggressive jingoist rhetoric,
including threats, could
easily spin out of control
and ‘morph’ into military
conflict, and worse, world
war.
Crisis responses
limited
The 2008-2009 global
financial crisis almost
‘bankrupted’ governments
and caused systemic collapse.
Policymakers managed
to pull the world economy
from the brink, but
soon switched from counter
cyclical fiscal efforts to
unconventional monetary
measures, primarily ‘quantitative
easing’ and very low,
if not negative real interest
rates.
But while these monetary
interventions averted
realization of the worst fears
at the time by turning the
US economy around, they
did little to address underlying
economic weaknesses,
largely due to the ascendance
of finance in recent
decades at the expense of
the real economy. Since
then, despite promising to
do so, policymakers have
not seriously pursued, let
alone achieved, such needed
reforms.
Instead, ostensible structural
reformers have taken
advantage of the crisis to
pursue largely irrelevant
efforts to further ‘casualize’
labour markets. This lack of
structural reform has meant
that the unprecedented
liquidity central banks
injected into economies has
not been well allocated to
stimulate resurgence of the
real economy.
From bust to bubble
Instead, easy credit raised
asset prices to levels even
higher than those prevailing
before 2008. US house
prices are now 8 percent
more than at the peak of
the property bubble in 2006,
while its price-to-earnings
ratio in late 2018 was even
higher than in 2008 and in
1929, when the Wall Street
Crash precipitated the Great
Depression.
As monetary tightening
checks asset price bubbles,
another economic crisis —
possibly more severe than
the last, as the economy
has become less responsive
to such blunt monetary
interventions — is considered
likely. A decade of such
unconventional monetary
policies, with very low interest
rates, has greatly depleted
their ability to revive the
economy.
The implications beyond
the economy of such developments
and policy responses
are already being seen.
Prolonged economic distress
has worsened public antipathy
towards the culturally
alien — not only abroad, but
also within. Thus, another
round of economic stress
is deemed likely to foment
unrest, conflict, even war as
it is blamed on the foreign.
International trade
shrank by two-thirds within
half a decade after the US
passed the Smoot-Hawley
Tariff Act in 1930, at the
start of the Great Depression,
ostensibly to protect
American workers and
farmers from foreign competition!
Liberalization’s
discontents
Rising economic insecurity,
inequalities and deprivation
are expected to
strengthen ethno-populist
and jingoistic nationalist
sentiments, and increase
social tensions and turmoil,
especially among the
growing precariat and others
who feel vulnerable or
threatened.
Thus, ethno-populist
inspired chauvinistic
nationalism may exacerbate
tensions, leading to conflicts
and tensions among
countries, as in the 1930s.
Opportunistic leaders have
been blaming such misfortunes
on outsiders and may
seek to reverse policies associated
with the perceived
causes, such as ‘globalist’
By Doug Wirth
In his State of the Union
address, President Trump
pledged to end new HIV transmissions
in the United States
by 2030. He can start by looking
at what is working right
here, in his home state of New
York.
Thanks to Governor Andrew
Cuomo, the state Department
of Health, and the persistence
of countless advocates and
community groups, New York
is the national leader in the
effort to end the HIV epidemic.
How do we know New York’s
policies and approaches work?
The proof is in the data. At the
height of the epidemic, over
10,000 new HIV/AIDS cases
were diagnosed in New York
every year. But in 2017, new
HIV diagnoses were down to a
record low of just 2,157 in New
York City, with an overall state
decrease of 39 percent in new
cases since 2007.
To end the HIV/AIDS epidemic
nationally, we need to implement
policies like those in New
York that address health disparities
and promote access to
health care. While the Trump
administration has consistently
and systematically rolled
back protections for LGBTQ
Americans, who are disproportionately
impacted by HIV, New
York is addressing barriers to
health care like stigma and
discrimination. Most recently,
Governor Cuomo signed legislation
that added gender identity
and expression as a protected
class in the state’s human
rights and hate crimes law.
While the Trump administration
has signaled to health
care providers that they can
deny treatment based on sexual
orientation (see the Conscience
and Religious Freedom division
of HHS), New York has brought
more people into care, including
helping New Yorkers with
HIV become virally suppressed
so that they’re unable to transmit
the virus. To help HIV-negative
people stay negative, New
York has made testing accessible
statewide and expanded
access to essential HIV prevention
medications like preexposure
prophylaxis (PrEP)
and post-exposure prophylaxis
(PEP).
New York also has Medicaid
Special Needs Health Plans
(SNPs) like Amida Care, which
are specifically designed to
serve New Yorkers living with
or at higher risk for HIV. SNPs
connect people living with HIV
to care and have the expertise
to help people who are HIV
negative stay negative through
access to PrEP and enhanced
sexual health services. Transgender
individuals, who are
disproportionately impacted by
HIV, are eligible to join SNPs
regardless of HIV status. Amida
Care has enrolled 230+ HIVnegative
members of transgender
experience since November
OP-EDS
Another round of
economic stress
is deemed likely
to foment unrest,
conflict, even war
as it is blamed on
the foreign.
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Continued on Page 12
Continued on Page 12
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Economic crisis can
trigger world war
Ending HIV/AIDS by
2030? New York has
a plan for 2020
/schnepsmedia.com