January 4212Global recession a global problem requiring global solutions, Yurievna tells World CongressTrigunian economist Katina Lesya Yurievna has delivered a speech to the World Congress in which she castigated the governments of Terra's leading powers for their "lack of determined, concerted, coordinated joint action in the face of the global recession", warning that "the global recession is a global problem which needs a global solution", and that "a lack of political leadership is unnecessarily worsening and prolonging the crisis".
Yurievna is frustrated that her proposals for a
"Blecher-Yurievna" system of exchange rate controls has not been taken up, and also that other proposals she favours for international economic reform, such as those put forward by
Dorvik and
Istalia, have not yet gained traction either. Commenting on
Luthori statesman Ryan Roberts's critique of the Security Council, she said she "sympathises with his point of view", although she felt "the problem is more about a lack of political will than about the structure of the Security Council itself".
She argued "it is not enough to wait for the Security Council to get its act together" and called for a "Coalition of the Willing" to get together and start to organise new international financial institutions to stabilise the global economy. "This would at least be a start," she said, "there would be some governments one would want to be involved who might not be in there at the start, but hopefully they would join later". She suggested Aloria, Dorvik, Istalia, Luthori Trigunia, Vanuku and Zardugal might be "amongst the leading nations able to take a role in this", although she hoped "as many as possible would be involved, most especially the nations with the really big economies".
Malivia's exchange rate reform "a good move, but needs international support" says YurievnaYurievna has issued a strong declaration of support for Malivia's decision to
begin to exert control over its exchange rate in order to try to manage its economy better. However, she urged the central banks of Terra's most powerful economies to "work together to support countries like Malivia in what they are trying to achieve in terms of currency stability", warning that "without international co-operation, we will continue to have chaos on the currency markets, as there is only so much one government working on its own can do ".
I'm confident about Istalia, says Yurievna (whilst taking a dig at Luthori)Yurievna has given an interview to an Istalian journalist in which she says she "does not necessarily agree with every single one of Istalia's policy choices" - specifically mentioning the free market healthcare reforms - but believes Istalia is "basically headed in the right direction, under strong and competent leadership". She singled out the
Anti-Crisis Budget and
Istalian Renaissance Program for special approval, calling them "visionary" and "far-sighted". She also praised Istalia as "now developed into a real world leader, showing moral and political leadership on important issues like dealing with the global recession and the crisis in Kalopia". However, she did urge Istalia "to borrow more money to invest further in its excellent infrastructure projects".
Yurievna admitted that
industrial unrest has become a serious problem in Istalia, but said she is "sure Istalia can get past this, if governments, businesses and trade unionists can get their heads together and come to a reasonable compromise". She added that "trade union strikes do cause problems, but I would far rather have a society where workers have rights than a society where the rights of workers can be trodden over". Whilst on this subject, she took a swipe at Luthori, which she criticised for "draconian right-wing laws that ban trade unions and forbid women from holding down jobs at all". She also called Luthori "unfit to be a member of the Security Council, and unable to provide global leadership during the current economic crisis".
Yurievna congratulates Hutorian Nation Senate for defeating austerity cutsYurievna has heaped praise on the Hutorian National Senate for
voting down austerity budget cuts, saying "This is exactly what a good legislature exists for - to stop the government from making really disastrous decisions". She urged the Hutoris to "borrow more money in order to invest further", warning that "trying to treat a recession with austerity is like pouring petrol over a fire".
Maintain your deficit, Yurievna tells NarikatonResponding to
talk of Narikatonite politicians wanting to close their budget deficit and
news that an austerity budget is now being debated in the Bundestag, Yurievna has issued a statement urging Narikaton "not to play the austerity game", arguing "that would be the surest way to crash your economy". "Narikaton should not begin trying to cut the deficit until its economy is in a stronger position and is clearly on the recovery road," she added.
Yurievna praises Zardic investment projects (but raises eyebrow over defence review plans)Yuriena has praised Zardugal for its
"dynamic public investment programmes", arguing "this is exactly what a forward-thinking government should be doing, especially during the difficult economic times of the present". However, she also argued "the Zardic government needs to borrow more money in order to finance more investment in education, training and infrastructure" and urged that "an important global power like Zardugal should be playing a much more prominent role in trying to contribute towards organising a proper global response to the global recession".
However, she was less positive about
reports Zardugal is planning a significant increase in defence spending, arguing this "is a move in the wrong direction", "will not make the world safer" and will "divert resources to a less useful and productive part of the economy".
Kalopia a "basket case", warns YurievnaYurievna has described Kalopia as "a complete revolutionary socialist economic basket case which one can have no confidence in whatsoever", taking particular issue with the complete prohibition of private enterprise, which she called "downright tyrannical". "Kalopia will not make much progress until it has a more moderate government," she added.
Compensate former slave-owners, Yigov tells KalopiaYurievna's colleague at the University of Yuravitovo, Dr. Igor Yigov, has caused considerable controversy by writing an article demanding the Kalopian government compensate former slave-owners for the loss of their slaves, arguing it "sets a dangerous precedent when government seize the property of private individuals without offering any compensation in return". Students are currently boycotting his lectures in protest at this.
Yigov, who has close connections with the
Williams School of Economics in Hutori, has just published a book called
Government, Recession and the Threat to Liberty, which argues recessions are caused by "governments meddling in the economy" and that "often the actions governments take in the name of overcoming recessions not only make the recessions worse, but also dangerously imperil the liberties of citizens".
Professor Vasiyev "completely wrong", says YurievnaYurievna has condemned as "completely wrong, utter ridiculous and totally destructive"
Professor Vasiyev's argument that it would be a good thing to reduce the size of the global economy. She argued:
With a modern. inter-connected global economy, economic growth is absolutely essential to maintaining employment levels, building prosperity, reducing poverty, social stability and the general sum of human happiness. Vasiyev is not even right about economic contraction helping the environment, because in practice, the complete opposite is often true. When the economic climate is challenging, that's when you start to see corporations cutting corners in terms of their ecological responsibilities, as they try desperately to keep themselves afloat. As an example, during the recession in Trigunia, the Conservative government privatised the agricultural and fishing industries. The private companies who took all of that over quickly found it was much more difficult to make a profit than they expected, so what did they do? They started cutting corners, which means, for example, we've had over-fishing, we've had an excessive use of pesticides and fungicides and we've had rivers being polluted. Now, agricultural and fishing output has actually fallen during this period, but guess what? The level of pollution generated by the agricultural and fishing industries has increased.
Tuition fees "probably necessary in today's world", says Yurievna (and takes yet another dig at Luthori)Yurievna has provoked student protests at the University of Yuravitovo, where she works, by giving an interview to the student newspaper in which she says "in an ideal world, there would be no tuition fees" but concedes "in the modern world, I believe we're at a point now where some kind of tuition fees are essential, because universities are struggling already, and if you cut off the income from tuition fees, they'd barely be able to function". She warned that the
Trigunian government's plans to abolish tuition fees would "leave the university sector in chaos, and leave Trigunian universities much less able to compete in the global academic market".
However, she refused to respond to questions about whether, if tuition fees were scrapped, she might move to an overseas university in order to earn more money.
Yurievna stirred further controversy be referring to the
protests against tuition fees in Aloria, commenting:
I've spoken to my academic colleagues in Aloria, and they say the same thing as most of my academic colleagues in Trigunia. Quite simply, the universities need the money, and if the government isn't going to provide it, then somehow or other the students are going to have to contribute something.
She also mentioned that
efforts to scrap tuition fees in Luthori look set to be voted down, and commented "this was a sensible decision, on balance". However, she also said she "can understand why students feel hard-done by, given that law-makers in Luthori get paid a higher salary than anybody else in the country, and also enjoy complete parliamentary immunity from prosecution". Continuing on this theme, she said Luthori's political system was "not fit for purpose" and "vulnerable to being complacent, out-of-touch, incompetent and corrupt".
Control monopolies and make the mega-rich pay their taxes, demands YurievnaResponding to reports about the
recent activities of Brock Locksley, reputedly the richest man in Terra, Yurievna has written an article demanding "governments should work together and take decisive action to make sure the richest corporations and the richest people on the planet pay their fair share of tax, because too many of them are robbing us blind through tax loopholes and offshore tax havens". She also urged governments "not to allow monopolies to take over parts of the economy", warning that "in times of recession, regulators sometimes become lax, because they don't want jobs to go, but they should not be short-sighted - in the long-term, monopolies damage the interests of everyone apart from the monopolists".