Debt in History

In memory of Patrice Lumumba, assassinated on 17 January 1961

17 January 2021 - by Eric Toussaint

On 17 January 2021, we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961). After a resounding victory in the first real elections in which the Congolese participated, Patrice Lumumba became Prime Minister of (...)
Regrets, Apologies and Repair for Belgium’s Colonial Harms

3 December 2020 - by Valerie Arnould

Former colonial countries appear increasingly willing to engage in processes akin to transitional justice in order to confront the legacies of their colonial past. In this blog post, Valerie Arnould discusses recent initiatives in Belgium meant (...)
CADTM - 30 years of struggle against debt

16 November 2020 - by CADTM, Chris Den Hond

CADTM - Committee for the Cancellation of Illegitimate Debt = 30 years of struggle against debt Badly impacted by COVID-19, our meeting days largely took place online, with activists contributing from countries such as DRCongo, Morocco, Sri (...)
Liège Revolution: 1789-1794

26 October 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In the wake of the French Revolution that broke out on 14 July 1789, the Liège Revolution began on 18 August of the same year. The people of Paris seized the Bastille on 14 July and the people of Liège took the Town Hall and the Citadel on 18 (...)
David Graeber (1961-2020): The Relevance of his Thought and his Struggle

16 October 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

The generally accepted idea that a debt must be repaid, with interest – which supposedly covers the risks taken by the bank, must be radically challenged. David Graeber did that through a historical analysis that takes into account humanity’s (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 20)

Presidents Barber Conable and Lewis Preston (1986-1995)

20 August 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
Some historical illustrations of decisive actions relative to banks

16 August 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

What a government does or fails to do relative to banks has far-reaching consequences on the course of a country’s history. The Paris Commune made the mistake of not taking control over the Bank of France The seat of the Bank of France, its (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 19)

The World Bank and the IMF: the creditors’ bailiffs

14 August 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
Caribbean reparations movement must put capitalism on trial

5 August 2020 - by Ajamu Nangwaya

From chattel slavery to the current period of neocolonial flag independence, the Caribbean labouring classes have yet to exercise substantive power over the political institutions that govern their lives. A system of popular assemblies with the (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 18)

The Mexican debt crisis and the World Bank

4 August 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 17)

The World Bank saw the debt crisis looming

21 July 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
Reply to the letter by Philippe, King of the Belgians, about Belgium’s responsibility in the exploitation of the Congolese people

8 July 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

On 30 June 2020, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the former Belgian Congo’s independence, the news went viral over the planet: Philippe, King of the Belgians, had conveyed regrets for the colonial past, and particularly for the time (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 16)

The debt trap

1 July 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 8)

Why the 1953 cancellation of German debt won’t be reproduced for Greece and Developing Countries

27 March 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
Russia: Origin and consequences of the debt repudiation of February 10, 1918

11 February 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In February 1918, the repudiation of the debt by the Soviet government shocked international finance and sparked off unanimous condemnation by the governments of the great powers. This decision of repudiation was intrinsic to this first big (...)
Rosa Luxemburg and debt as an imperialist instrument

6 February 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In her book titled The Accumulation of Capital, published in 1913, Rosa Luxemburg devoted an entire chapter to international loans in order to show how the great capitalist powers of the time used the credits granted by their bankers to the (...)
The Debt System - book review

17 December 2019 - by Phil Armstrong

The Debt System argues that international debt is a system of exploitation of poorer countries, which should be regarded as illegitimate, finds Phil Armstrong This book tells a story of exploitation and the use of indebtedness by western (...)
Nicaragua 1979-2019

18 July 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Nathan Legrand

THE NICARAGUAN GOVERNMENT’S violent repression against demonstrators protesting its brutal neoliberal policies, resulting in more than 300 people being killed by regime forces since April 2018, is only one of the reasons why various leftist (...)
Interview

In the debt system, it’s the people that lose out

5 July 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Cristina Quintavalla, Vittorio Lovera, DIRE - news agency

Eric Toussaint, who presented the Italian version of his book The Debt System in Rome on 18 June 2019, holds that it is possible to “repudiate the dictatorship of the financial markets... Coercion by debt is an integral part of the global (...)
India and the Colonial Debt

4 April 2019 - by Sushovan Dhar

The English East India Company, as is well known, obtained, besides the political rule in India, the exclusive monopoly of the tea-trade, as well as of the Chinese trade in general, and of the transport of goods to and from Europe. But the (...)
Nicaragua: The other revolution betrayed

5 January 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Nathan Legrand

The violent repression against demonstrators protesting brutal neoliberal policies, which resulted in more than 300 people being killed by regime forces since April 2018, is just one of the reasons why different leftist social movements have (...)
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 (...)
Summary of The Debt System A History of Sovereign Debts and their Repudiation

10 October 2018 - by Víctor Manuel Isidro Luna

The book The Debt System. A History of Sovereign Debts and their Repudiation will be published later in 2018 by Haymarket in Chicago https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1234-the-debt-system . The original French edition has been published in (...)
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 (...)
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 (...)