Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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grow they collapse. Corporations are therefore at the mercy of this growth
imperative, and those setting the agenda are the banks.
In his book The Grip of Death, Michael Rowbotham shows that if money is
created as interest­bearing debt it leads inevitably to growing wealth disparity,
increasing collective debt and dependence on economic growth. This in turn
leads to export warfare as countries compete to reduce indebtedness, and to the
irrational growth of world trade, devastation of the environment, continuing
centralisation of corporate power and the erosion of democracy. 2
Defining Globalisation
There are two types of globalisation, one that is worth striving for and another
that needs to be banished. The first is internationalism, the concept of the world
as a global village made possible by instant communication and rapid travel,
which holds the promise of shared knowledge, cultural interaction and a
tolerant, cooperative, peaceful world. This sort of globalisation brings great
benefits.
Corporate globalisation, on the other hand, is the worldwide spread of the
philosophy of free trade, export­led development and free flow of capital.
Global corporations want unlimited access to raw materials and markets, and
globalisation is the process through which they obtain these privileges.
Corporations and the supranational agencies therefore exert pressure on nation
states to bring down their trade barriers, to deregulate and to open their
countries to free capital flow. They want the world to be a borderless
playground for their benefit.