Debt in History

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 when Leopold II owned the Congo as a personal (...)
The debt trap

1 July 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 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 interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
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 will be 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 interests of the world’s populations. The WB and (...)
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 movement for social emancipation which rattled the (...)
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 countries of the periphery to exercise economic, (...)
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 powers to enrich themselves at the expense of other (...)
Presidents Barber Conable and Lewis Preston (1986-1995)

10 August 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 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 interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
The World Bank and the IMF: the creditors’ bailiffs

4 August 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 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 interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
The Mexican debt crisis and the World Bank

22 July 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 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 interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
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 social movements have condemned the Nicaraguan regime (...)
The World Bank saw the debt crisis looming

17 July 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 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 interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
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 capitalist system. It is more than a simple opposition (...)
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 coasting trade of India and between the islands, as (...)
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 condemned the Nicaraguan regime led by President (...)
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 (...)
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 novembre 2017 in Paris (...)
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 (...)
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 (...)
Éric Toussaint: “There is a disposition in the world’s masses for radical left proposals”

7 May 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

On 16 April 2018, Éric Toussaint was invited to speak about the role of the central banks and the banking sector at a seminar organised by Sampreeti – Sanskriti, a cultural association linked to the All India Reserve Bank Employees Association (AIRBEA, the main trade union of the Indian central (...)
We struggle against illegitimate public and private debt which are at the core of the capitalist system

6 April 2018 - by Eric Toussaint

The seventh CADTM South Asia regional workshop started in Colombo (Sri Lanka) on April 6, 2018, with participants coming from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Japan, Belgium and France. Around forty people, most of them being representatives of social movements (peasants’ (...)
How international investment agreements have made debt restructuring even more difficult and costly

19 March 2018 - by Yuefen Li

International investment and trade agreements are legally binding international treaties which give investors an additional layer of legal protection on top of the host country law and contract law. However, little efforts have been made in ironing out the interface between these different (...)
History shows that it is legitimate to repudiate “odious debt”

16 February 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, Vittorio De Filippis

Eric Toussaint interviewed by Vittorio De Filippis Published in the French daily Libération on 19 December 2017. Eric Toussaint is the international spokesperson for the CADTM ( Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt). In his latest book Le systeme dette. Histoire des dettes (...)
Russian debt repudiation, 100 years on

12 February 2018 - by Eric Toussaint, Nathan Legrand

On 10 February 2018, we celebrate the centenary of the repudiation of illegitimate debts by the soviets on 10 February 1918. 2017 marked the centenary of the Russian revolution, the first revolution in history to overthrow capitalism with an international socialist revolution as a wider (...)
Debt is a determining factor in History

12 December 2017 - by Eric Toussaint

Sovereign debt has been a crucial factor in a series of major historical events. From the early 19th century, in Latin American countries such as Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, struggling for independence,as well as Greece when seeking funds for its war of independence, these nascent countries (...)
Haiti: From trafficking to debt

11 November 2017 - by Jérôme Duval

This Caribbean country is not in debt, it is a creditor. It is France which owes it money. Explanation by Jerome Duval, of CADTM. Translated by Jenny Bright. Poverty in colonised countries has greatly increased due to a transfer of debt: the debts incurred by the colonial powers to the World (...)