Japan Press Weekly

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2008 June 25 - July 1 [POLITICS]

G8 countries are called upon to take responsibility to deal with ‘market failure’

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The Group of Eight Summit is taking place in Toyako Town in Hokkaido on July 7-9, as the world capitalist economy undergoes a global financial crisis that originated in the United States, the rampage of speculative money that has caused the rise in prices of oil and grains, global warming, the increasing poverty rate, and widening economic inequalities.

G8 countries are called upon to examine the factors that have brought about the present world economic chaos and to sincerely pursue international coordination to take effective steps to address the pressing issues. Just by enumerating challenges and listing abstract measures as past Summits have done, they will not be able to pave the way to overcome the present crises.

For example, in “response to the sharp rise in oil and grain prices,” one of the economic challenges, the G8 will not be able to avoid discussing possible measures to regulate the worldwide speculative activities by hedge funds. The G8 Summit will be a testing ground for the developed countries’ ability to look into the real causes of the financial crisis and the rampage of speculative money and to propose effective measures to cope with these problems.

Behind the exacerbating crisis of the global environment and the rampage of speculative money are extreme profit-first business activities that have led to “market failure.” The “market failure” has been accelerated by the global imposition of market fundamentalism arising from neo-liberalism.

The task now is for the G8 members to establish reliable international rules, not based on unruly market forces, in response to the “market failure” caused by the profit-first business activities.

G8 Summit Chair Japan has heavy responsibility

The Japanese Communist Party on June 24 published a position paper entitled, “What Japan should do to fulfill its global responsibility to reverse global warming.” It urges the government to make clear its mid-term targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

At a news conference to publish the JCP position paper, JCP Chair Shii Kazuo referred to the rise in oil and grain prices saying, “I strongly call on the G8 countries to use their summit to discuss speculation regulations and start international cooperation to control speculative money. If the G8 countries are unable to implement these measures, they might as well be considered incapable of managing the world economy under the present form of capitalism.”

Summit countries, especially Japan as chair of the Toyako Summit, have a heavy responsibility to take effective action.