Rethinking FinanceAlternative voices for a new financial architecture

What we do

The global financial and economic system is in crisis. Existing economic policies and institutions have overseen an economic system scarred by high levels of poverty and inequality, which is contributing to an
environmental catastrophe. Blind faith in the virtues of markets, and inadequate public control, regulation and accountability of finance are at the heart of the financial crisis. Before the financial crisis, people across the world were already suffering from the effects of rising food prices, inadequate essential services and the threat of climate chaos. There can be no return to business as usual. Fundamental change is needed.

The question is whether the policy makers in charge are able and willing to reform the current global financial architecture in the right direction and to a sufficiently fundamental degree. So far, official reform proposals are moderate at best and the decision process lacks transparency and excludes many countries and large parts of society.

Rethinking finance addresses these shortcomings. It puts forward alternative ideas and analyses, provides information about and comments on latest events, and gives an overview of civil society and other peoples' activities. Rethinking finance is a website of several international civil society organisations and individuals that contribute to its content, keeping it a place of lively debate and up to date information.

Who we are

Bretton Woods Project

The Bretton Woods Project works is a networker, information-provider, media informant and watchdog to scrutinise and influence the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Through briefings, reports and the bimonthly digest Bretton Woods Update, it monitors projects, policy reforms and the overall management of the Bretton Woods institutions with special emphasis on environmental and social concerns. By encouraging information exchange and debate, it seeks to move the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and IMF) away from simplistic approaches to development. Read more...

Casino Crash

Casino Crash is an initiative of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands and the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington DC, USA. The aim of the blog is to provide a space for critical analysis of the financial crisis. TNI and IPS, made up of academic scholars from around the world, have long been warning of the dangers of the financial bubble. Read more...

Debtonation

Debtonation is a blog about the financial crisis written by Ann Pettifor, author and analyst of the global financial system, and co-author of the Green New Deal. She predicted an Anglo-American debt-deflationary crisis back in 2003, and is known for her work on sovereign debt and international finance, including Jubilee 2000. Currently she is a fellow of the new economics foundation and director of Advocacy International. Read more...

Eurodad

EURODAD (European Network on Debt and Development) is a network of 55 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 18 European countries working on issues related to debt, development finance and poverty reduction. The Eurodad network offers a great platform for exploring issues, collecting intelligence and ideas, and undertaking collective advocacy.
The network has recently focussed on multilateral debt cancellation, debt sustainability, aid quality, conditionality and harmonisation, and export credit debts. Work is continuing on these issues and increased attention is being given to illegitimate debt and to tracking aid spending by the different European countries. The main institutions targeted by the Eurodad network are European governments, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Read More..

Focus on the Global South

Focus on the Global South combines policy research, advocacy, activism and grassroots capacity building in order to generate critical analysis and encourage debates on national and international policies related to corporate-led globalisation, neo-liberalism and militarisation. Its overall goals are to: dismantle oppressive economic and political structures and institutions; to create liberating structures and institutions; to promote demilitarisation and peace-building, instead of conflict. These three goals are brought together in the paradigm of deglobalisation. This term describes the transformation of the global economy from one centred around the needs of transnational corporations to one that focuses on the needs of people, communities and nations and in which the capacities of local and national economies are strengthened. Read more...

Choike.org

Choike is a portal dedicated to improving the visibility of the work done by NGOs and social movements from the South. It serves as a platform where citizen groups can disseminate their work and at the same time enrich it with information from diverse sources, which is presented from the perspective of Southern civil society. Choike contains a special project on IFI-related issues from a Latin American perspective: IFIs Latin American Monitor. Choike and IFIs Monitor are projects of the Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM), based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Read more...