World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The number of displaced persons in the world is the highest ever recorded by the UN High Commissioner on Refugees:  60 million.  These people have been displaced by conflicts in their own countries and the number of refugees–who have fled their own countries–in 2014 reached 14.4 million.  The largest number of refugees come from Syria, but six of the main sources of refugees are African countries.  The circumstances of these displaced persons are miserable.

There were large protests throughout Great Britain against the austerity programs proposed by  the newly empowered Conservative government.   The protesters were a loose amalgam of groups who do not wish to see any further budget cuts to public sector services.  The fear is that with its large majority in Parliament, the government will seek to balance the budget at the expense of vulnerable parts of the population.  According to Reuters:

“Since winning the election, finance minister George Osborne has said he wants government departments to make extra cuts this year and to commit future governments to run budget surpluses during normal economic times.

“The government also plans to reduce spending on social security benefits by a further 12 billion pounds ($19 billion), arguing that high levels of public debt make Britain vulnerable if there is another global financial crisis.”

One wonders if the British government will pay attention to the recent IMF report that suggests that austerity programs rarely work.

Apparently, frantic negotiations are going on over the weekend between Greece and the troika as both sides try to avoid a Greek default.  If these talks do not yield a compromise, then many expect that Greece will be forced to implement capital controls on its banks in order to prevent people from withdrawing their money out of Greek banks to avoid losing money in the case of a default.  If the talks fail, then it is likely that Greece will have to take action on Monday.  So we should all watch to see what happens on Monday–we could witness a genuine bank run if it appears as if reconciliation is hopeless.