Category: Odious Debts

Acknowledgements

(March 18, 2009) Friends and colleagues have been exceptionally generous in helping me finish this book. Margaret Barber deserves special thanks for her painstaking research, and for her good cheer throughout. I am also especially grateful to Susan Fitzmaurice for her artistic judgement and for her commitment to the complicated task of producing this book. Both made an otherwise stressful job a joy.

Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption, And the Third World’s Environmental Legacy

(March 18, 2009) We’ve all heard of the Third World’s debt crisis, of hopelessly poor nations unable to pay their debts, and of the human suffering and environmental consequences of their desperate predicament. Amid emotional calls from some to forgive the debt outright come the sober solutions from bankers and bureaucrats, with their seemingly unending stream of Brady and Baker Plans, and bewildering variants of them.

Ecuador hangs tough

(January 1, 2009) After months of threats, the government of Ecuador has made good on its promise to forego payment of foreign loans deemed illegitimate by the country’s debt audit commission. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced that his country would not be paying $30.6 million interest due Dec. 15 on its 2012 global bonds after the commission claimed the debt had been ‘illegally’ acquired by past administrations.

Glitch in the System

(December 23, 2008) Ecuador’s Conscientious Default. When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis. In fact, it wasn’t even the first time for Ecuador. The small South American country did so just 10 years ago, at a time when the economy was reeling from natural disasters and a drop in oil prices.

Manifesto for Ecuador and for creation of a global network against illegitimate debt

(December 4, 2008) Latin America and the Caribbean are still paying the colonial tribute. The foreign debt, contracted under illegitimate, deceptive, illegal or corrupt terms, undermines the sovereignty of the peoples and forces them to hand over all their wealth. Odious debts, contracted by dictatorships, designed to subjugate and repress, combine with expansive debts: those that paradoxically, the more they are paid off, the more they grow. These debts were not contracted by the people but against them.

GAP Questions World Bank Financial Cyber-Security

(November 20, 2008) Letter Sent to Bank President Questions Failure to Sanction Misconduct (Washington, D.C) – In the wake of recent news reports demonstrating serious breaches of the World Bank’s information security system, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) has sent a letter to Bank President Robert Zoellick requesting an accounting of steps taken to address the issue.