Calls to make changes to our international financial system are being heard. Will they be listened to? Photo: itspaulkelly (Flickr)

Mass unemployment, an overwhelming sense of unfairness and a loss of hope need no translation. Even without written demands, the sentiments of Occupy Wall Street have been interpreted through similar protests in 941 cities in 82 countries - and counting.

Global leaders are taking note. And they agree: A lot has gone wrong in the banking sector. While the basic purpose of the financial sector must remain intact, it’s gotten off track. After all, we still need a secure place to store our money, we still need credit and loans, and advice on how to grow our nest eggs. We need banks.

Can we hit the reset button?

The global financial crisis we’re in is incredibly complicated, and it’s not going away soon. And sadly, there’s no reset button. But changes are needed and changes are happening.

In forthcoming posts, we’ll explore the origins of the crisis, key players, innovative solutions, how the decisions made by developed world financial sectors affect the global poor, how local protests affect global politics, and where we go from here. And we hope to hear your thoughts, too.

Our Series Begins:

An historical look at "too big to fail," in four acts:

•      Act 1: The battle over the lessons of the Great Depression.
•      Act 2: The first bailout leads to the next, and the next.
•      Act 3: The value and perils of deregulation.
•      Act 4: Banking crises go global.

Surrounded by financial chaos, developing nations start throwing up barricades

For China, flush with cash, the financial crisis may mean political opportunity

Europe's financial troubles worry its neighbors

Amid financial crisis, China is the new champion for carbon reduction

East Africa seeks to learn from the Eurozone's mistakes

A new model for Middle East economic practices starts with Tunisia, Libya

Bank transfer day: A symbolic move

Related Past Posts:

Microfinance and the Economic Crisis: What to Believe?

A Triple Threat: Food, Fuel and Financial Crises in the Developing World

One Big Deal

The IMF Boosts Financial Aid to Poor Countries

Rural China Could Gain from Financial Crisis

Goodbye Piggy Banks, Hello Working ATMs: Why the Middle East May be More Sheltered from the Global Financial Crisis

Social Workers Getting to the Root of Debt

The EU-IMF team's arrival in Dublin was watched by both local news and civilian protestors. Photo: William Murphy (flickr)

As of November Ireland joined the ranks of Greece and Portugal as the latest European country to accept a bailout. The country’s economic crisis of 2008 led individuals and companies to begin pulling their funds from Irish banks, with net result of 70 billion euros withdrawn in 2010.

The proposed $113 billion IMF loan prompted protests in Dublin, says The Guardian. Not unexpectedly, some are viewing Ireland's economic situation as part of one homogenous crisis.

But is it really logical to group Ireland troubles with Greece, Spain and Portugal? Given the domino effect occurring in Europe concerning bailouts, the parallels seem unavoidable, however The Financial Times finds the comparison illogical.

Ireland is nothing like Greece. Back in 2007, Ireland’s net public debt was just 12 percent of gross domestic product. This compares with 50 percent in Germany and 80 percent in Greece. Spain, too, had net public debt in 2007 at just 27 percent of GDP."

Ireland in reality is unlike the other European nations that have accepted bailouts. As The New Yorker explains, Ireland’s economy went sour for different reasons than Greece and Portugal. A combination of the property market’s collapse and bailing out the banks sent Ireland into this economic pit.

It’s more realistic to compare Ireland with Iceland, argues a recent article from The Economist. The article suggests the government of Ireland would do well to learn from the more conservative approach taken by Iceland's government in repairing their economy. Iceland didn’t elect to bail out its banks and saw a 15-percent drop in GDP, compared with Ireland's 14-precent drop in GDP despite bailing out their banks. Iceland, however, not being a member-country of the European Union was spared the political pressure the government of Ireland felt to accept an IMF bailout.

Ireland's economic issues, according to The New Yorker, have shown that their membership to the EU may very well be their plight. And in reality the advice streaming from Germany, France and the United Kingdom has been of little help. Cutting government spending and raising taxes reduces demand in the economy, which makes recessions worse, explains The New Yorker.

Ireland doesn't have an economy that will yield positive results from the advice dispensed by their European counterparts according to. NPR notes that when a nation as small as Ireland — with a population 4 million — has an unemployment rate of 14 percent, it makes a noticeable dent in the workforce [discuss]. According to The New Yorker, the country is in dire need of both foreign and government investment to create jobs and combat unemployment. Unfortunately neither are possible given Ireland's shaky economic condition and the government's consistent inability to stabilize the crisis.

Yesterday, the The Financial Times wrote about plans to sell Ireland's debt in the form of euro zone bonds. But will this really stem the crisis? The Financial Times argues that instead of improving the situation, this will put other euro zone members attempting to sell their bonds at a disadvantage.

Hostage takings, vandalism and attempted assault sound like charges on a rap sheet for a hardened criminal. But they're the collective crimes of people who've been laid off recently.

Workers in the French factories for 3M and Sony — enraged about the size of severance packages for laid-off workers — held their bosses captive last month. The captured CEOs actually ended up bargaining with the kidnappers, while the police — not wanting to incense the workers even more — promptly responded by doing ...nothing.

Just last week, workers at a Caterpillar plant in France held their bosses captive as well. They, too, were looking for better treatment for laid-off coworkers. In another incident, workers at the French luxury retail company PPR surrounded their CEO's car and blocked roads so he couldn't escape. This time police did intervene and escorted François-Henri Pinault to safety.

Across the Channel in the United Kingdom, people are outraged with the multimillion dollar pension package given to former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Fred Goodwin. One group was so upset that it vandalized Sir Goodwin's house and car.

An ominous e-mail from the vandals threatened more attacks:

We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money, and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless. This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning.

Joining in the spirit of protest, as many as 5,000 protesters gathering in London's financial district on the first day of the G-20 summit, expressing discontent over the financial crisis, climate change and war. Several demonstrators threw projectiles and forced their way into an RBS branch through broken windows.

Bert Klandermans, a professor of applied social psychology at Amsterdam's Free University, offers a psychological explanation for why some people are expressing their frustration in this way.

Anger is an emotion that spurs collective action ... [It's] an emotion that results from feeling that somebody is responsible for something, and could have acted differently ... [For many] the bankers did it wrong, and they did it wrong because they were greedy. That's what makes people angry.

Frustrated by executive compensation and the economy, protesters broke windows of an RBS branch in London. Photo: Camus Live Art (flickr)