Global Auction of Public Assets

Global Auction of
Public Assets: Public
sector alternatives to the infrastructure market & Public Private
Partnerships by Dexter
Whitfield

380 pages, Spokesman Books, Nottingham. England. ISBN 978 0 85124 773 1

This book explains why public infrastructure has a vital
role in economic development, increases productivity, generates employment and
improves community well-being.

However, Public
Private Partnerships and the global infrastructure market, financed by
investment and pension funds, are fuelling a new era of public asset sales. A
secondary market has emerged in which schools, hospitals and roads are traded
like commodities. Yet, globally,
nearly 1,000 PPP and privatisation projects, valued at over US$500bn, have been
terminated or radically reduced. Most PPP projects have little or no democratic
control or transparency, are costly, poor value, lack innovation and
flexibility, reduce employment and exaggerate risk transfer.

Global Auction of
Public Assets demonstrates why new public investment priorities are needed
with radical changes in global financial markets and the abandonment of the PPP
model. It sets out a strategy for building trade union and community alliances.