Today I went to the first national screening of the new documentary Let’s Make Money which comes to Swiss movie theaters on January 22nd, 2009. The film made by the director of We Feed the World, Erwin Wagenhofer, seeks to explain the enormously complex financial system of today’s world - timing couldn’t be better! In its 109 minutes the movie portraits e.g. the mercyless emergin markets investor Mark Mobius, pictures the declining cotton production in Burkina Faso, demonstrates the strategy of tax evasion through offshore locations and shows in many more illustrative examples the unfairness of the neoliberal system.

Next to the scandalous stories I was particularly shocked by the apparently negative involvement of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Assuming only a fraction of what the movie showed is true, I really worry about the doubtful role these international institutions have played and maybe still do. By so-called economic hit mans such as John Perkins poor countries are basically blackmailed by WB and IMF to liberalize their economies and privatize public institutions (luckily for the institutions, there are voices calling Perkins a conspiracy theorist).

In general I believe Let’s Make Money is a great movie asking the right questions - even if the answers are maybe not always that perfectly staged. More information about Let’s Make Money and its background is documented in the press folder.

Also interesting in this context: Sukuma, a great new competition intends to find the most creative ideas on how to visualize issues of the Millennium Development Goals and on Fairtrade.

While Obama almost reached the highest spoke of the worldwide political career ladder, I try to take the first step by running for the Bernese Parliament on November 30th, 2008. Have a look at my new politics website and order the fresh peppermint chewing gums if you’re a Bernese resident!