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Global Barter Stimulus
for Global Economy
Ifay F. Chang, Ph. D. TLC Information Services PO Box 944,
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
The world is
experiencing an unprecedented global financial and economical crisis,
which is threatening to lead many countries into a deep depression. All
the major economical powers are seriously affected hence each country has
earnestly rushed to devise an immediate stimulus program to pump her
economy to avoid a depression. No doubt, any stimulus is better than no
stimulus but the effectiveness of each stimulus program seems to be
unpredictable due to the global scale of this current economical crisis
and the complex interdependency of all the major economical powers,
namely the major international trading partners. In this paper, the
author thinking outside-of-a-box is proposing a global cooperative
stimulus program to bring the global economy back to vitality. The
central thesis of this program is to achieve the following main objectives
immediately and cost-effectively. The first one is to eliminate the credit
problem now infested in global and domestic financial institutes, which is
stifling all economical activities, most critical of all, the
international and domestic trade and property financing. The second
objective is to restore confidence quickly and globally to revitalize the
international trades among major trading countries, which is the essential
means to stimulate the economy of all trading partners, hence the global
economy. The third objective is to
buy time and offer an opportunity for the world manufacturing and
services industries to adjust their over-capacity problem and transform
the industries to meet the real global needs in elevating the standard
of living. The author calls
this proposed program, The Global Barter Stimulus Program. (GBSP for
short)
The GBSP proposes that
the major international trading countries, such as G20 members, immediately convene to develop a
stimulus program by simply pledging to barter goods and services from each
other in a magnitude (dollar value) equal or more than 110% of the 2007 or
earlier
trading figures. This government-backed pledge has three goals:
1. Stimulate a growth
economy for each participating country by mutual support,
2. Stabilize jobs in
manufacturing and services by providing credit and liquidity to finance
manufacturing and trades and but time for transformation if needed, and 3. Restore confidence in businesses, home buyers and consumers worldwide by engaging in a cooperative global economical stimulus program that has the potential to be sustained.
Like many
international cooperative programs, there will be differences in opinions
rooted in self-interest. However, this global economical crisis is so
severe; hopefully many countries would be more willing to participate to
share the benefit of a rapid global recovery than to risk a long
self-destructing economic scenario. In fact, this crisis may be an
opportunity to bring countries together to soften the resistance of
dealing with some of the global issues such as conservation of energy,
global warming, product safety, work environment, epidemic disease
control, etc. etc. United States being the biggest international trading
partner is in a right position to initiate and lead this Global Barter
Stimulus Program, which can be a more effective High Level Governmental
Solution to the world’s economy than engagement in micro-managing various
domestic stimulus packages.
The GBS program can be
kicked off via a summit meeting of the top fifteen or twenty trading partners in the
world. ( http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/top/top0811yr.html
) The organizing country prepares and sends an agenda and a proposed preliminary document of understanding on how to participate and administer the GBS program (GBSP Document) to all invited participants. Each participating partner may bring a delegate including other not invited country/partner as an observer. Prior to the meeting
each invited GBS partner/country is requested to prepare a Barter List
(category, dollar amount, specific requirements and possible trading
partners) which lists essentially what goods and services each country
pledges to barter with what goods and services from another country if
certain specific conditions are met. The lists will be shared among all
trading partners and made publically accessible. During this meeting,
first invited partners review, discuss, revise and approve the GBSP
Document, then begin discussions and negotiations to barter until each
country has bartered most of her listed barter categories with other
countries. The end result of the bartering and the pledges guarantees a positive
economical projection.
The GBS process should be made as transparent as possible as an effective stimulus program; press and observers are invited so the process may be televised globally for the benefit of the world. The GBS trade lists with government pledges are the essence of the Global Economical Stimulus. Each participating country will fulfill her pledge, hence will stimulate each partner’s domestic economy; collectively the GBS partners will stimulate the world economy. GBS not only will stimulate the near-term global economy but also will provide opportunities for participating partners to plan for growth in a cooperative way hence allowing a GBSP to be sustainable yearly to achieve long-term benefit.
Footnote: A physical venue may be needed for this program. For example, the $450M Bird's Nest in Beijing may be an appropriate structure to house such a program so that a meaningful Global Bartering Stimulus will lead to a sustainable global economical growth and world development.
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