View previous stories
	El Niño is over say scientists – but it leaves tens of millions people short of food by John Vidal for Guardian News   June 2016   The strongest El Niño in 35 years which has seen long droughts, scorching temperatures, water shortages and flooding around the world is officially over. But the consequences of a second year of extreme weather will be seen for many more months in food shortages for nearly 100 million people, the loss of income for millions of poor farmers and higher prices in cities, say the UN and leading meteorologists.   According to scientists, sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, which warm significantly every few years, have cooled to normal levels and are unlikely to rise again this year. This marks the end of an 18-month global weather pattern which has created social and ecological turmoil in Asia, Africa and Latin America.   Overstretched humanitarian agencies have warned that the extreme conditions will last for many more months. Concern is mounting in southern Africa, where 50 million people are expected by the UN’s World Food programme to need help with food supplies in the coming months.   Some of the most extreme weather has been felt across southern Asia in the last nine months, where countries including India, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia have all experienced their worst droughts and most intense heatwaves in decades.   According to US meteorologists at Accuweather, highest ever temperatures have been recorded in Thailand at 44.6C (112.3F), Cambodia at 42.6C (108.7F), Laos at 42.3C (108.1F) and the Maldives at 34.9C (94.8F). Last week India broke the world record, with a temperature of 51C (123.8F) recorded in Rajasthan.   “Millions of families are living in El Niño’s devastating path of extreme conditions. Children, especially, face hunger, disease and futures shorn of the opportunities provided by education. Countries most affected by El Niño are also bearing the brunt of climate change, and it’s the most vulnerable and impoverished communities that will continue to be the hardest hit,” said Tanya Steele, interim CEO of Save the Children.   India has experienced two consecutive failed monsoons, the lowest rainfall in seven years, and some of the hottest days and nights ever recorded. Vast tracts of farmland are scorched and rice, maize, sugar cane and oilseed crops have been badly damaged in 2015/16.   Hundreds of millions of Indians who depend on farming for livelihoods were badly affected, with reports suggesting thousands of poor farmers have abandoned their withered crops and gone to live in towns.   May and June are usually India’s hottest months and temperatures regularly exceed 40C in the run-up to the monsoon rains. But the severity of this year’s heat has been been unprecedented. Rivers, lakes and dams have dried up in many parts of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat states.   The heatwaves have also made life intolerable in many cities. Indian weather officials warned last week of more frequent heatwaves as the scorching temperatures triggered power cuts, after demand for air conditioning and fans greatly exceeded supply.   Vietnam has suffered its worst drought in nearly 100 years with record low river flows and salinisation of fresh water supplies. Because of low water in the Mekong river and its tributaries, saltwater intrusion started two months earlier than usual and reached 20km to 30km further inland than normal.   As a result, more than 429,500 hectares of crops were damaged, severely hitting rice production. According to the UN, 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of rice paddy are still under threat and 300,000 households have had no income for many months.   More than 10,000 households in 11 provinces have had to be supplied with bottled water, and water purification tablets.   Mongolia   This winter, Mongolia suffered a particularly severe dzud, or winter of snow, blizzards and temperatures as low as minus 50°C. It has been a disaster for tens of thousand of herder families who have lost around 40% of their herds and seen more than 1 million livestock die, primarily due to starvation or from the cold itself. More than 2.5 million cattle are expected to die by the end of the year. The knock-on effects are seen in children’s education, unemployment and financial losses.   Cambodia   Nearly 250,000 hectares (617,763 acres) of unique flooded forest around the ecologically vital Tonle Sap lake have been devastated by fire since January. The lake is the most important breeding ground for many species of fish which migrate into the Mekong river and provide thousands of Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese communities with food.   According to Chhéng Phén, the director of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Inland Fisheries Institute (IFReDI), the fires will reduce fish production next year. Fish forms 80% of the protein in Cambodians’ diet.   The exceptionally severe drought has also left tens of thousands of farmers unable to plant rice crops. Annual rains have come late, exacerbating the drought, and exports of Asia’s staple food are expected to be the lowest in many years. Although water has been brought in to help farmers plant, the rice industry now fears that the arrival of La Niña will bring devastating floods.   Some 2.5 million farmers people were affected by the dry spell, which also led to the deaths of cattle, monkeys and tonnes of fish, said the National Center for Disaster Management (NCDM).   Myanmar   Monsoon rains are expected to start within days but it may take months before the full effects of the deepest drought and highest temperatures in living memory are over. Water shortages are common in April and May but this year more than 2,000 villages have been left desperate for drinking water, with dried up wells, ponds and rivers. Inle, the country’s second largest lake, suffered from unprecedented low water levels and farmers have been unable to plant crops. The Magway, Mandalay and lower Sagaing regions, known as the “dry zone”, have been especially hard hit.   The Philippines   The Philippines depends on rice imports from Vietnam and Thailand, but prices are expected to rise dramatically as both these countries have been hit hard by droughts and crop losses. In a country where rice accounts for about nearly a quarter of all poor people’s spending, any price increases or shortages will impact hard. Farmers have warned of more crop damage later in the year when La Niña, the counterpart of El Niño, could develop and bring intense rains.   More than 5 million people, many on the island of Mindanao, have been severely affected by drought and heatwaves. Nearly 200,000 farmers are said by government to have lost crops.   Indonesia   Indonesia has seen failed harvests, increased hunger, and severe floods and landslides. The El Niño conditions peaked in January and coincided with the main growing season for maize and the planting season for rain-fed paddy rice. Heavy rains have now started, resulting in widespread flooding and landslides that have caused many deaths.   Latest estimates suggest nearly 25% of the main rice crop was not planted by the end of December 2015 in eastern Indonesia, Java and Sulawesi. The drought is said by the World Food Programme to have affected about 22 million people who rely on agriculture. More than 1 million are expected to need food aid. Income losses have been reported for 80% of households. The worst effects are expected to be felt after July.   Nearly 500,000 people – half of that figure living in the poor eastern province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) – are said by the UN to be in need of food, with a further 700,000 at risk of food insecurity. If the late, heavy rains cause flooding, food access could become problematic for the people in the most affected provinces, say humanitarian groups, and crops could be hit by landslides and flooding.   Timor-Leste   Severe drought delayed crop planting and has significantly reduced yields, and left many communities seriously short of water. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, nearly half the households across the country are likely to experience hunger, with around 120,000 people severely affected.   In February the UN’s World Food Programme said 40 million people in rural areas and 9 million in urban centres who live in the drought-affected parts of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland will need food assistance in the coming year.   In addition, 10 million people are said by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) to need food in Ethiopia, and 2.8 million need assistance in Guatemala and Honduras. http://www.unocha.org/el-nino Visit the related web page
	U.S. Congressman introduces legislation for Financial Transactions Tax by Take On Wall Street Coalition, Robin Hood Tax   3 November 2016   French Parliament votes to strengthen national financial transactions tax   Despite their success in the negotiations for the European Robin Hood Tax reaching a major milestone less than a month ago, France has wasted no time in strengthening their own financial transactions tax (FTT) in the meantime.   Introduced in 2013, their national FTT currently raises about €1bn every year. But last week, they really raised their game.   After a big push from charities and trade unions, MPs in the National Assembly voted to improve their tax in the following ways:   By increasing the current tax rates from 0.2% to 0.3%, considerably more revenue would be raised;   By taxing additional types of transactions, including intra-day trades (a speculative form of trading where shares are bought and sold on the same day);   By committing to spending a greater amount of its additional funding to help the world’s poorest people.   In fact, this improvement to the tax could more than double its contribution to the aid budget (from €500m to €1.125bn).   This is an important victory for the campaign: especially the allocation of more FTT money to fight poverty. Where France is leading, other countries can follow. This is particularly important as ten countries (including France) move ever closer to finalise an ambitious regional Robin Hood Tax. http://bit.ly/2fvhzoK   July 2016   U.S. Congressman introduces legislation for Financial Transactions Tax.   Washington, D.C.—Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) has introduced legislation that would levy a 0.03 percent tax on transactions of stocks, bonds and derivatives to discourage the same speculative financial trading that led to the 2008 Wall Street collapse and 2010 ‘Flash Crash’. Revenue could be directed to programs that strengthen Main Street American families.   The Putting Main Street FIRST Act: Finishing Irresponsible Reckless Speculative Trading would provide billions of dollars in revenue each year by taxing three basis points, or three pennies for every hundred dollars, on most financial trading including stocks, bonds, and other transactions.   According to the Joint Committee for Taxation, the tax would raise $417 billion over ten years, which could be used to fund national priorities such as free higher education or job-creating infrastructure repair.   The legislation is supported by the AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Communications Workers of America, and Public Citizen.   “Thanks to the reckless greed of Wall Street over the past few decades, the American economy is a grossly unbalanced playing field,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio. “The only way we can level it is if we rein in reckless speculative financial trading and curb near-instantaneous high-volume trades that create instability in the stock market and our national economy. These financial practices have no intrinsic value, and exist to make a quick buck for already-wealthy speculators. If we want to give middle-class families a fair shot at a strong economy that works for all Americans, we need to put Main Street FIRST.”   “The ‘Putting Main Street First Act’ will help encourage long-term investing, fund badly needed public investment and make our tax code fairer for working people,” said AFL-CIO Director of Policy Damon Silvers.   “Given the massive costs of the financial crisis and its devastating impact on families across the country -- and on the wealth of minority communities in particular -- it is long past time for Wall Street to pay its fair share in taxes, said Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform.   “We applaud Representative DeFazio''s financial transaction tax proposal; a Wall Street speculation tax would not only help move our financial markets away from dangerous high-frequency trading, but also raise significant revenue to address unmet needs.”   “This tax is a great way to raise money for the federal government by making the financial sector more efficient,” said Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The cost of the tax will be fully covered by the savings from reduced trading. This means that the ordinary investor will be left unharmed by this tax. The only people who feel the impact will be the short-term traders and the financial intermediaries.”   “Our Take on Wall Street coalition is determined to end to the finance industry’s practice not paying its fair share of taxes and sticking working families with the bill. We’re proud to join with Congressman DeFazio in putting working families and Main Street first, by setting a small fee on the billions of dollars of Wall Street trade that happen every day. Not only would this raise more than $400 billion to help families and communities, it would put the brakes on risky Wall Street behavior that threatens our economy,” said CWA President Chris Shelton.   “This bill is good policy and good precedent,” said Lisa Gilbert, Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division. “Not only would taxing Wall Street trades grow revenue, it would stop the sorts of high-speed trading that adds volatility to our markets and increases costs for everyday investors and the public. Reining in Wall Street by stopping dangerous speculation is the right thing to do, and Public Citizen applauds Representative DeFazio and other champions for their support of this critical reform.”   July 2016   Financial Transactions/Wall Street Speculation Tax picks up Steam.   The idea of putting a small “Robin Hood” tax on financial transactions has been kicking around for a while, but in the last month the idea has picked up some real steam.   The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), also called a “Wall Street Speculation Tax,” proposal asks for a small tax on financial transactions. Such a tax would slow down extreme speculation while raising money to pay for essential public services. The idea has been called a “Robin Hood Tax” because it takes from the rich. The FTT is a very tiny tax. Some proposals have suggested a tax of just three hundredths of a percent – a mere 30 cents on a $1,000 stock transaction.   This small tax would raise a lot of money, largely from automated “high-frequency trading.” This is an extreme practice of using computers to place extremely high volumes of stock orders at extremely high speeds, buying and selling the same shares sometimes in a fraction of a second. As much as half or more of all stock trading volume now comes from this high-speed trading. This practice makes extreme profits from a few traders but increases “volatility” (risk) in the market while doing nothing that benefits the economy.   A small FTT would make high-speed trading more costly, slowing it down while raising money for public services. For stocks, bonds and other financial transactions, the tax would be so small as to be practically unnoticed, while still raising significant sums because of the volume of trading.   An FTT has been endorsed by the 2016 Democratic Party Platform draft, which says:   “We support a financial transactions tax on Wall Street to curb excessive speculation and high-frequency trading, which has threatened financial markets. We acknowledge that there is room within our party for a diversity of views on a broader financial transactions tax.”   Hillary Clinton’s financial services reform proposal include a piece of the idea, applying it only to high-frequency trading:   Impose a tax on high-frequency trading. The growth of high-frequency trading has unnecessarily placed stress on our markets, created instability, and enabled unfair and abusive trading strategies. Hillary would impose a tax on harmful high-frequency trading and reform rules to make our stock markets fairer, more open, and transparent.   Bernie Sanders proposed an FTT on “high-speed trading and other forms of Wall Street speculation; proceeds would be used to provide debt-free public college education.” He had also supported previous FTT proposals, the 2011 and 2013 Harkin-DeFazio bills calling for a 0.03 percent tax on the sales of stocks and bonds.   A year ago Jared Bernstein explained the benefits in a New York Times op-ed, “The Case for a Tax on Financial Transactions,” writing:   An itty-bitty, one-basis-point transaction tax (a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point, or 0.01 percent) would raise $185 billion over 10 years… That would be enough to finance an ambitious expansion of prekindergarten programs for 3- and 4-year-olds and restore funding of college assistance for low-income students.   What’s more, a financial transaction tax could significantly reduce the amount of high-frequency trading.   A one-basis-point tax on $1,000 worth of stock would cost the stock trader a dime. A $100,000 trade would generate a tax of only $10.. 75 percent of the liability from the tax would fall on the top fifth of taxpayers, and 40 percent on the top 1 percent. The tax would also fall more on high-volume traders than on long-term investors, of course.   This week Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced a FTT bill. His bill would raise $417 billion over 10 years, which could be used to fund national priorities like free higher education or job-creating infrastructure repair. At a news conference DeFazio said:   “Thanks to the reckless greed of Wall Street over the past few decades, the American economy is a grossly unbalanced playing field,” said Rep. DeFazio. “The only way we can level it is if we rein in reckless speculative financial trading and curb near-instantaneous high-volume trades that create instability in the stock market and our national economy. These financial practices have no intrinsic value, and exist to make a quick buck for already-wealthy speculators. If we want to give middle-class families a fair shot at a strong economy that works for all Americans, we need to put Main Street first.”   The legislation is supported by the Take On Wall Street Coalition: http://takeonwallstreet.org/pass-the-wall-street-speculation-tax/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaign-with-us/robin-hood-tax http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/democrats-add-robin-hood-tax-their-platform http://www.robinhoodtax.org/ Visit the related web page
	View more stories