MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Stiglitz calls for an open debate on the global financial reform

The Nobel Prize questioned the “closed club” condition of G8 and G20.

The debate on the restructuring of the world economy can’t be limited to a “closed club”, be it the G8 or the G20, and the United Nations must play a “vital role” in those discussions said Economy Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz in a column published Monday in the French newspaper Les Echos.

“The decision-making process (on the world economy) must not be limited to a closed club whose members are co-opted, which lacks political legitimacy and which is overwhelmingly dominated by those that to a great extent are responsible for the current crisis”, points out Stiglitz, ahead of this week’s G8 meeting in Italy.

“In spite of all its defects the United Nations is the only international institution where everybody has a seat” and the vision of the crisis is “in several aspects clearer” than that of the G20, said Stiglitz, recalling the recent end of June economic crisis conference organized by the UN in New York.

According to Stiglitz the UN framework is more appropriate politically for addressing “sensitive issues” for certain countries and to “underscore” the concern of poor countries, at a time when the situation becomes “more serious” for most of them.

During the UN conference last month, it was possible to discuss the international currencies reserve system, which according to Stiglitz is far “too sensitive to be debated at the G20”, while meantime the accumulation of reserves in US dollars only contributes to the global misbalances.

The UN conference convened representatives from 120 countries, but many of the western developed nations only sent second line delegations.