This has reduced both the relevance and the role of the United Nations. The financing issue is less about money and more about political control, the study says, calling for some version of the Tobin tax, say on international foreign exchange transactions or stock market transactions, and some charges on the use of the global commons, are possible means of such independent financing. It would ensure that the United Nations provides an institutional mechanism for consultations on global economic policies and also, wherever necessary, the international regulatory authority. The number of humanitarian crises, with their legacy of death, displacement and destruction, has risen dramatically over the past decade, the study says. There is still no system in place to take care of, let alone prevent, complex humanitarian emergencies.
Some new problems are a direct consequence of globalization.
It is time to reform the reformers, the study says. Both institutions were created to manage the international payments system and assist in reconstructing Europe at a time shaped by memories of the great depression. This conception also recognized the logic of international collective action in situations where markets did not work and there was a role for government intervention. The world has changed since then. So have the Bretton Woods institutions.