Austerity/Structural Adjustment

Economic policies imposed by the IMF in exchange of new loans or the rescheduling of old loans.

Structural Adjustments policies were enforced in the early 1980 to qualify countries for new loans or for debt rescheduling by the IMF and the World Bank. The requested kind of adjustment aims at ensuring that the country can again service its external debt. Structural adjustment usually combines the following elements : devaluation of the national currency (in order to bring down the prices of exported goods and attract strong currencies), rise in interest rates (in order to attract international capital), reduction of public expenditure (’streamlining’ of public services staff, reduction of budgets devoted to education and the health sector, etc.), massive privatisations, reduction of public subsidies to some companies or products, freezing of salaries (to avoid inflation as a consequence of deflation). These SAPs have not only substantially contributed to higher and higher levels of indebtedness in the affected countries ; they have simultaneously led to higher prices (because of a high VAT rate and of the free market prices) and to a dramatic fall in the income of local populations (as a consequence of rising unemployment and of the dismantling of public services, among other factors).

“Austerity driven economic reforms affect women more than men”

14 September 2023 - by Balasingham Skanthakumar, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Lakmali Hemachandra

Dr. Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky was the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights between June 2014 and April 2020. He was previously a sovereign debt expert of the United Nations Conference on (...)
Chile: 50 years after the disgrace Neoliberalism at gun point

7 September 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Roberto González Amador

The coup against the government of Chile’s constitutionally elected president Salvador Allende, which marks its fiftieth anniversary this year, brought to a brutal and violent stop the course of several Latin American countries towards welfare (...)
How debt may help explain the political economy of European migration policies

31 August 2023 - by Felipe Milin, Irene Valde

Introduction The year 2023 brings once again a catastrophic toll in terms of the victims of European migration policies. On 22 June 2023, a decrepit trawler from Libya sank off the Peloponnese, leaving hundreds of victims. On 13 July 2023, (...)
Pakistan : The IMF deal and its critics

24 July 2023 - by Sushovan Dhar

Pakistan is on the precipice of a financial crisis. The population struggles to cope with ever-dwindling purchasing power, foreign reserves dwindle, inflation soars, and the country faces widespread unrest. Tensions are high as forthcoming (...)
The IMF’s conditional loan and its cost

18 July 2023 - by Farooq Tariq

On July 12, 2023, the International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board approved a larger-than-expected conditional loan worth $3 billion for Pakistan. The loan, known as a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), was hailed as a great victory for Pakistan by the (...)
A World To Win

30 June 2023 - by Jawad Moustakbal, Jeremy Corbyn, Aline Piva , Walter Baier, Gabriel Mocho Rodríguez, Francesca Emanuele

Jawad Moustakbal of CADTM-ATTAC Morocco spoke alongside Jeremy Corbyn, Aline Piva (Progressive International), Walter Baier (President, Party of the European Left), Gabriel Mocho Rodríguez (International Transport Workers’ Federation), Francesca (...)
3 questions to Sushovan Dhar on the disastrous train accident in India

22 June 2023 - by Sushovan Dhar, Robin Delobel

The fatal train disaster in the eastern state of Odisha on June 2 is the country’s worst in more than 25 years. Indian Prime Minister Modi has blamed the local railway employees, as was done in Greece after the recent accident. However, can the (...)
Deeper than ever, the crisis leaves capitalism out of breath

20 June 2023 - by Eric Toussaint

CADTM : Are we witnessing a crisis This is a major crisis of the globalized capitalist system, the worst crisis since those of the years 1914-1945 Éric Toussaint : Yes. All the warning lights are flashing: there is a very significant economic (...)
Next Time, Dammit, Just Default

12 June 2023 - by James K. Galbraith

The debt deal is now law. Far-right Republicans were unhappy, because it doesn’t cut spending by enough. Center-left Democrats (there are no far-left Democrats in Congress) are unhappy, because they got nothing: It’s all concessions to win (...)
The Debt Deal Is a Tragedy

31 May 2023 - by James K. Galbraith

Two men emerged from the Oval Office. One of them, President Joe Biden, said of the deal they’d just reached that it “reduces spending while protecting critical programs for working people and growing the economy for everyone.” The other, House (...)
Ukraine: Resisting creditors

23 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar

Sushovan Dhar: What can be said about Ukraine’s debt 15 months after Russia invaded its territory? Éric Toussaint: I must first of all insist that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an unjustifiable and morally unacceptable act of aggression. Faced (...)
Greece: another chapter

22 May 2023 - by Michael Roberts

The Greek election results validate Michael Roberts’ analysis and projections. Unfortunately, the right has triumphed because Syriza is not a real alternative [ed.]. Greece has a general election today. The conservative New Democracy party (...)
The Fitch rating agency downgraded France’s rating.

France Shown Yellow Card

13 May 2023 - by Yvette Krolikowski

On Friday 28 April 2023, the Fitch financial rating agency downgraded France’s rating from AA to AA- with ’stable outlook’. The agency said, “Political deadlock and (sometimes violent) social movements pose a risk to Macron’s reform agenda and could (...)
Resisting the Shock Doctrine: Ukraine, Debt, and Reconstruction

12 May 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar, Ashley Smith, Yuliya Yurchenko

A discussion of Ukrainians’ struggle to cancel their country’s debt as part of the global movement against neoliberalism. In the midst of Russia’s imperialist war, Ukraine’s left, unions, and popular movements have struggled to cancel their (...)
France: What happens when Macron has already been defeated but the great popular movement has not yet won?

9 May 2023 - by Yorgos Mitralias

After almost four months (!) of enormous mobilizations by the workers’ and popular movement, unprecedented in post-war France (!), the conclusion of the French unions’ struggle against the pension (anti-)reform might appear to be obvious: the (...)
What’s the problem with pensions?

1 April 2023 - by Michael Roberts

The recent massive demonstrations against the Macron administration in France forcing through so-called pension reforms reveals the determined attempts of pro-capitalist governments in all the major economies to cut real wages when we are old (...)
The pension crisis (France): Faced with social anger, Macron replaces legitimacy with police batons

29 March 2023 - by Léon Crémieux

With the coup de force of article 49.3 on 16 March, Macron and his government have provoked a new impetus of popular mobilization in all its forms: renewable strikes, blockades, demonstrations and even the movement of university and high school (...)
May 1968 - March 2023!

27 March 2023 - by Yorgos Mitralias

At a time when those who declare, even among the French elites (!), that we are witnessing the emergence of a “new May 68” are multiplying, while noting that in the country now reigns .... “an insurrectional atmosphere”, one can now reasonably ask: (...)
Youth mobilize against Macron’s scorn

27 March 2023 - by Maxime Perriot

One week after the French government used article 49,3 of the Constitution to impose its reform of the retirement age thus short-circuiting the parliament, popular mobilization has intensified and seen an important increase in the number of (...)
Macron’s up against the wall, let’s not let the 49.3 save him

20 March 2023 - by Léon Crémieux

Macron and his government have just attempted to force their way through on 16 March, by trying to impose their law on pensions without any vote in the National Assembly by using Article 49.3 of the Constitution, a real “hold-up”, allowing them to (...)
Greece: The infamy of a predicted terrible rail disaster

6 March 2023 - by Yorgos Mitralias

The following could be a dark humor joke, but it is a very real story and, above all, emblematic of this neoliberal and dilapidated Greece of the first half of the 21st century. Only a few hours before the terrible rail disaster of 28 (...)
The aftermath of Sri Lanka’s economic crash

5 March 2023 - by Meera Srinivasan

As the island nation eagerly awaits a provisional IMF package to chart its path to economic stability, it is currently witnessing a new wave of protests, mainly by workers and professionals, as people’s economic hardships increase. The government (...)
Haiti, which questions ?

27 February 2023 - by Mireille Fanon-Mendès France, Boubacar Boris Diop

For many years, Haiti has been destabilized by a political crisis, to which must be added the humanitarian, socio-economic and security crises, to the point that the current Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, appointed two days before the (...)
From Lebanon to Sri Lanka through Latin America and Egypt: Public debt today and in the history of capitalism

26 February 2023 - by Eric Toussaint, Anis Germany

The present interview with Éric Toussaint aims at constructing a common position about debts and their payment. It also helps to understand the part played by debt and its mechanisms in the extraction of resources of the South by the North at an (...)
Our Future is Public: Santiago Declaration for Public Services

26 January 2023 - by Collective

From 29th November to 2nd December over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society (...)