On Monday, the Vatican called for creation of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to regulate the world’s financial institutions. As Reuters reported, “The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.”
The Vatican got very specific in its recommendations. It condemned the “idolatry of the market” and called for global wealth redistribution, asking nations of the world to participate in an “ethic of solidarity.” In a passage that could have been ripped from Marx, the Vatican stated, “If no solutions are found to the various problems of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundation of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid.”
This is wrongheaded in the extreme. By impoverishing the middle and upper class in order to press for greater “fairness,” the socialism implicitly supported by this document pushes a utopia of equality in poverty.
But the Vatican’s call for a “central world bank” is telling. It shows where countries that want to cut the U.S. down to size are putting their efforts – into multilateral financial schemes. China, in language creepily mirroring that of the Vatican, called months ago for “international supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars” and the creation of a “new, stable and secured global reserve currency.” Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have called for a new basket of currencies that would act as the global reserve. Read the rest on:
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