TPP, TTIP, Brexit and the “Investor-State Dispute Settlement"
The Investor-State Dispute Settlement portion of the TPP gives corporations the power to sue governments in a special court, laws or regulations hurt corporate profits. curb their profits. Same as NAFTA, where these cases are often secret or veiled in mystery.
Joseph Stiglitz in March 2016:
“I think that the strictures imposed by TTIP would be sufficiently averse to the functioning of government that it would make me think over again about whether membership of the EU was a good idea,”
http://cgt.columbia.edu/news/stiglitz-uk-should-consider-brexit-if-eu-si...
When you examine GDP projections in 2008 for the UK. in 2007 the IMF predicted that GDP for the Uk would grow 26.2% from 2007 to 2016. Cameron's austerity policies have restricted growth to 9.4% in the period 2007 to 2016. 3 times the cost of Brexit.
Dean Baker:
Is David Cameron's Austerity Three Times as Bad as Brexit?
If the next government spends 4-5% of GDP on infrastructure, Britains economy will be the shining star in western Europe within 18 months. It will also deal a blow to the Fix the Debt types and thier trade deals, especially with Bernie championing the death blow to the TPP here in the states.
We are the campaign was a thing. We are the revolution is now a thing.
Comments
TV is on in the background.
News is talking about how no one saw it coming. Given this vote and the new mayor of London, the questions was asked if the parties were underestimating the strength of Bernie and Trump. Ya think?
Again, the right won. They got their freaking candidate as nuts as he is. Again, the left lost. Democrats made damn sure of that.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
The EU is
evoking a clause to demand that the referendum be retaken as the numbers aren't high enough to warrant the UK leaving under that clause contained in the Lisbon Treaty.
Soooo.....
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Huh?
I know there's an online petition in the UK to have another vote, but "The EU is evoking a clause to demand that the referendum be retaken"? Does the EU have the authority to demand a revote? I've seen nothing to support that. Could you identify the relevant clause, please?
(BTW, I think "invoking" is the correct word here)
The EU and TPP
are part and parcel of the same program to turn national sovereignty over to global corporations. The revolution is going to be bloody. The only thing that the global ruling elite will tespond to is blood in the streets.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
So... hip me up
Are you saying that should the UK prevail in exiting that will also stop Britain from being a TPP signatory?
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
TTIP is the trade deal between the US & the EU.
As Stiglitz says, if the TTIP is signed, it would be good for the UK if they pulled out of the EU.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
Ok. Thanks.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Except the politicians would probably sign on anyway.
Front door: "Kick out them furriners! Exit!"
Back door: "Sell the citizenry into slavery to the corporations? No problem".
A massive oversimplification
The EU part that is.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
For me thats the crux of the issue
elevating the power of the corporation over that of the nation state.
Nope.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
I'm just an ignorant American, but...
I was in favor of brexit, for the reasons identified by Stiglitz & in this post.
Remember how Bernie has been portrayed as misogynist & racist by partisans and in the press? The media works for the oligarchy. So for a week now, the MSM has been howling that brexit is just a right-wing, anti-immigrant idea.
The implications of the ongoing TTIP negotiations and EU membership in that context have been hidden by that rhetoric. I wasn't buying it. Yes, Boris Johnson has been a Trump-level clown during this whole episode, but that seems opportunistic of him, given the trend the media has been on. Free publicity is irresistible to a certain type of people.
But all the while I think of Greece: the Greek people elected a prime minister, and the bankers said "No, you can't have that guy", and installed one they liked. Then SYRIZA was elected on the promise to leave the EU, and again the bankers said No. And so the Greeks suffer on.
At some point, some country (maybe Spain next?) will vote for Exit, and it will finally stick.
Just my 2¢.
“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett
Your 2 cents plus my 2 cents is almost a nickle
Italy is talking exit, is that Itexit? Maybe Greece will try again. The whole EU/Austerity concept seems to be patently unacceptable to working people everywhere.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
I believe the appropriate term is Italeave.
Wish I could take credit for it. I saw it burning up the intertubes almost immediately, along with Departugal, Fruckoff, Czechout, Oustria, Finish, and Slovakout.
ISDS is--or should be--a deal-killer
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is an abhorrent creation with One and only ONE purpose: to make corporations more powerful than not only individual citizens but entire nations. Enrichment of corporations by any means is the SOLE goal of ISDS. This is a peculiar time in World politics--rising resentment against the PTB is not only growing in the US but also the UK. Politics makes strange bedfellows, such as Bernie Sanders and Herr Drumpf--both are against the job-killing aspect of such trade deals and the surrender of national identity. Difference here is that Bernie is inclusionistic while Drumpf is xenophobic. Just like Chiang-Kai-Shek and Mao Tse Dung temporarily buried their immense differences in order to expel the Japanese from China, knowing all the while, that they would once again turn against the other when the expulsion was complete. Both men knew very well, that whatever vision they had for China,as different as they were--there would be no China if Japan continued its rape and pillage. Just as a side-note: more than 1,000,000 fully equipped and provisioned Japanese soldiers remained in China on VJ day.
The main stream propaganda networks paint Bresit as xenophobic--and it partially is--but if national identities are important, then the only way to maintain it is to avoid "foreign entanglements" (in the words of George Washington) which most decidedly includes ISDS. So in the UK there is a Donald Trump styled buffoon but there are also people concerned about preserving a tradition spanning almost two thousand years.