Tag Archives: economic crisis

 Pledge your support for the Robin Hood Tax

This blog is an extract from the Pope Paul VI Memorial Lecture, given by the Rt. Hon. Shirley Williams

The banking and financial crisis that has hit much of the world undermines the central hypothesis of a dogma that is almost a religion, the efficient market hypothesis.

This hypothesis holds that free markets are self-correcting, and should not be interfered with. In the name of that dogma, governments in the West removed regulations, softened the rules, permitted the taking of risk beyond what would have been earlier accepted and in effect pushed the market system to its limits.

There are also unmet aid targets that are well known to CAFOD and have become the mantra of thousands of good people intent on serving the Common Good. They have translated that intent into practical objectives, like redeeming debt and like the Millennium Development Goals.

But those goals are a long way from being met. On the basis of the current aid budget, the Millennium goals will take a long time to achieve.

Except for one thing. There is one tax that would enable us not only to pay our debts, but to increase aid to the developing world and subsidise cleaner, greener technologies of energy generation. These might then rescue our fragile planet from the spread of deserts, the scarcity of pure water, the rising of sea levels and the floods that today threaten it. Continue reading →