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Philippines: The Marcos debt
5 November 2018 - by Eduardo C. Tadem
Another compelling argument against the “hero’s burial” for Ferdinand Marcos was his corruption-ridden mismanagement of the country’s debt. At the height of martial law in 1977, he issued Presidential Decree 1177 mandating the automatic appropriation for debt service, thus starting the process that (...) -
Chinese geopolitics: continuities, inflections, uncertainties
30 October 2018 - by Pierre Rousset
For Beijing, the era in which the European powers shaped the world was only a parenthesis before the story returns to its “normal”, Sinocentric course. China has become the second world power. Chinese geopolitics, however, has entered a phase of adaptation to an uncertain world. The conflict (...) -
Argentina in turmoil
24 October 2018 - by Jérôme Duval
After Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced, on 3rd September, a brutal austerity plan under IMF supervision, the people hit the streets to express their anger at rising prices and budget cuts. Seventeen years after the 2001 crisis in Argentina, the Macri government, which came to (...) -
Ukraine: Between a rock and IMF conditionality
16 October 2018 - by Bretton Woods Project
Alarm bells ring about Ukraine’s ability to meet IMF conditionality UN expert criticises IMF anti-corruption privatisation push In September, IMF staff visited Ukraine to discuss the next tranche of its $17.5 billion loan programme, first approved in March 2014 (see Observer Spring 2014, (...) -
A critical look at China’s One Belt, One Road initiative
10 October 2018 - by Martin Hart-Landsberg
China’s growth rate remains impressive, even if on the decline. The country’s continuing economic gains owe much to the Chinese state’s (1) still considerable ability to direct the activity of critical economic enterprises and sectors such as finance, (2) commitment to policies of economic (...) -
The IMF and World Bank: Aiding and abetting inequality in Asia
10 October 2018 - by Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development
Despite economic growth, inequality in Asia deepens Fiscal neoliberalism imposed by IFIs continues to exacerbate inequality Civil society renews calls to hold World Bank and IMF to account for their actions Asia continues to draw attention as the “most important engine of global growth,” (...) -
African governments’ debt payments double in just two years
8 October 2018 - by Jubilee Debt Campaign
• Debt problems on the African continent are increasing, with external government debt payments doubling in two years • The private sector is the largest source of loans, accounting for 32% of debt owed and 55% of interest payments • China accounts for around 20% of debt owed, and 17% of interest (...) -
Sri Lanka: Does microfinance really empower women?
2 October 2018 - by Cat’s Eye
As women were deemed to be thrifty, able to manage with meagre resources and responsible borrowers, they became the targets for such predatory lending. We are witnessing large protests across the war-torn regions in the north and east, urging the Government to restrict the activities of (...) -
Microfinance: Does it empower women?
18 September 2018 - by Independent collective of feminists
We are witnessing large protests across the war-torn regions in the north and east, urging the Government to restrict the activities of microfinance companies offering loans to poor women at exorbitantly high interest rates. Women’s groups in other parts of the country are also voicing their (...) -
China to take over Zambian international Airport for debt repayment default; neocolonialism?
11 September 2018 - by Richard Krah
Signing a contract with China is like, ascribing to the boiling frog effect; a fable describing a frog being boiled alive slowly. If you drop a frog suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put that same frog in a vessel of water and start heating the water gradually, it will (...) -
National Dialogue on Kenyan Debts Must be Preceded by Citizen’s Debt Audit
10 September 2018 - by David Calleb Otieno
The Kenyan Peasants League (KPL) in collaboration with the Kenyan Social Movements for Abolition of Illegitimate Debts welcome the announcement by National Super Alliance (NASA) leaders Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka calling for a national dialogue on Kenyan debts that is already (...) -
The politics of quantitative easing and the increasingly negative consequences they have on developing countries
20 August 2018 - by Myriam Vander Stichele
QE programs were implemented by the central banks to stimulate the Western economies after the financial crisis of 2008. Central banks bought bonds with newly created money that was earmarked for circulation among the banks and financial markets. The QE programs have culminated in, among other (...) -
A Brief History of the Relations between the World Bank, the IMF, the US Government and Nicaragua
14 August 2018 - by Eric Toussaint
Central America is considered by the US government as part of its own exclusive sphere of influence. The policies adopted by the World Bank in terms of granting loans to the countries of the region are directly influenced by the political choices of the US government. The case of Nicaragua and (...) -
Sri Lanka: Debt Trap and Mega Development
14 August 2018 - by Ahilan Kadirgamar
Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is again talk of the town. Is the country overly indebted to China? Are we borrowing too much from international capital markets? Or are we financing ourselves into trouble with multi-lateral agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and Asian (...) -
Nicaragua: The evolution of the regime of President Daniel Ortega since 2007
13 August 2018 - by Eric Toussaint
In order to win the presidential election of November 2006, Daniel Ortega succeeded in making his election acceptable to the ruling classes, and in particular to the COSEP (Superior Council for Private Enterprise), the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, represented by Cardinal Obando y (...) -
Conflicts between Latin American Countries and Transnational Corporations
10 August 2018 - by Jorge Marchini, Josefina Morales, Gabriela Roffinelli
Political positions and laws on foreign investment have been polarized into two opposing perspectives. On the one hand, there is the assumption that foreign direct investment (FDI) is essential for the economies of peripheral countries to take a leap toward development, prompting FDI promotion (...) -
Nicaragua in Pain
7 August 2018 - by Claudio Katz
Writing about Nicaragua is as painful and sad as it is indispensable. Memories of the Sandinista Revolution are still alive for the generation that lived through it. To remain silent would be an affront to those who took part in that memorable insurrection against Somoza. Events of recent (...) -
Nicaragua: the story of the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regime
26 July 2018 - by Eric Toussaint
The violence against demonstrators protesting against brutal neoliberal policies is just one of the reasons why different social movements have condemned the Nicaraguan regime led by Daniel Ortega and the Vice-president Rosario Murillo. The left has many more reasons to denounce the policies of (...) -
Nowhere to run – The worst refugee crisis since the second world war
4 July 2018 - by Sushovan Dhar
Warsan Shire, a 24 year old Kenyan-born Somali poet, writer and educator based in London, in her debut book, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (2011) observes, “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” Three years back, the photographs of Aylan Kurdi sent us shock-waves. The (...) -
The mixed fortunes of Argentina’s 2005 and 2010 debt restructurings
28 June 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, Maud Bailly
In June 2018, Argentina signed a loan agreement with the IMF. We therefore republish a useful excerpt of an interview given by Eric Toussaint to Maud Bailly in 2014, which focuses on the process of the Argentine debt restructuring in the wake of the country’s suspension of debt payments between (...) -
The IMF is back in Argentina: “an economic and social crisis, even more serious than the present one, looms large on the horizon”
27 June 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, Sergio Ferrari
1. The vicious circle of illegitimate debt grapples the Argentine people once again 2. IMF’s $ 50 billion loan surpasses Greece’s previous record Sergio Ferrari from Berne, Switzerland interviewed Eric Toussaint, international debt specialist After more than a decade of Argentina’s official (...) -
“You dropping BRICS from above? We’re throwing bricks from below!”
26 June 2018 - by The BREAK the BRICS Coalition
The rapper Ewok captured the spirit of progressive social forces in South Africa with his condemnation of [BRICS] elite politics at a March 2013 protest outside the Durban International Convention Centre, South Africa: “You dropping BRICS from above? We’re throwing bricks from below!” For the (...) -
The method in the madness: Uganda’s budget 2018 is divorced from reality
19 June 2018 - by Mary Serumaga
The report of the Auditor General (AG) for 2016–2017 is another catalogue of systemic theft, embezzlement and wastage of public goods. In this, it is similar to audit reports going back at least two decades. It appears that incompetence as much as theft are responsible for the seeming inadequacy (...) -
Argentina: Macri’s Neoliberal Fantasies
13 June 2018 - by Claudio Katz
In the middle of his term, Argentinian president Mauricio Macri cannot hide the monumental abyss between his promises and reality. The promise was of an influx of dollars to lower inflation, with high growth, job creation, an entrepreneurial boom and eradication of social assistance. A drastic (...) -
BRICS in Africa: “You are either at the table or on the menu”
5 June 2018 - by Patrick Bond
At a Johannesburg BRICS think tank, scholars get drunk on their own rhetoric South African academics and think tanks met on 28-31 May 2018 for deliberations leading to the July 2018 BRICS heads of state summit to be hosted by South Africa. Most of these scholars believe that the BRICS (...)
CADTM
COMMITTEE FOR THE ABOLITION OF ILLEGITIMATE DEBT
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