Creditors

BRICS BANK: DOING DEVELOPMENT DIFFERENTLY?

by Brunn Nagara

12 April 2013

The annual Brics summit held during the week in Durban, South Africa, focused on what that muscle can do - challenge the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the way development finance is conducted, as well as the Western dominance that has prevailed in both Bretton Woods institutions. More

GLOBAL FINANCIAL FLOWS, AID AND DEVELOPMENT

by Eurodad

30 March 2013

This paper - written by Eurodad for CONCORD’s Aidwatch coalition - sets out all the financial resources potentially available for development. It examines their key characteristics and discusses their poverty and sustainable development impacts, as well as the implications for aid. More

KEY ISSUES IN THE ORGANIZATION OF AND GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN FINANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: LESSONS FROM RECENT EXPERIENCE

by Ylmaz Akyuz

2 February 2013

A fundamental question raised by recurrent fi-nancial crises in mature and emerging econo-mies is how to ensure that the financial markets and institutions serve growth and development rather than being a constant source of instability and disrup-tion in pursuit of self-interest. This is not only a ques-tion of how best to regulate the existing institutions and markets, but also how to restructure and organ-ize them. More

NEW BLOW TO BANKING SYSTEM

by Martin Khor

31 July 2012

The still-developing LIBOR scandal is the latest and biggest blow to the credibility of big banks and their regulators, and should catalyse broad-ranging reforms to the financial system. More

GREECE ALREADY DEFAULTED ON THE CREDITORS’ TERMS; WHAT THEY FEAR IS DEFAULT ON THE DEBTOR’S TERMS

by Christina Laskaridis

19 May 2012

What is being witnessed in Greece is a full blown example of being trapped in the debtor’s prison of current sovereign debt resolution mechanisms, where creditors are both judge and jury More

NOT HOME YET

by James Surowiecki

3 August 2009

Even as the economy seems to be stabilizing, mortgage delinquencies continue to rise, with nearly two million foreclosure filings already this year More

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLDMAN SACHS

by Robert Zevin

28 May 2009

The Bush administration and the Obama administration have simply abandoned the principles that worked for Roosevelt through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in the first days of his administration, that worked in the Savings and Loan Crisis in the early 90’s, that worked in Sweden as well at the same time and that have been understood by capitalist central bankers for 150 years. Save the depositors not the bank owners or bondholders. More

HAS BERNANKE PULLED THE ECONOMY BACK FROM THE BRINK?

by Mike Whitney

12 May 2009

Digging out of the current recession won’t be easy. The wholesale credit system will have to be rebuilt, just as the financial system will have to be re-regulated and reset at a lower level of economic activity. That means higher unemployment, smaller GDP, and falling demand. More

PAKISTAN IS NOT OUT OF THE WOODS

by Abdul Khaliq (CADTM Pakistan)

4 May 2009

In view of country’s never-ending economic woes and more importantly the roaring threat of Taliban’s possible access to nuclear assets of Pakistan, the Friends of Pakistan-Group of 31 countries and international agencies gathered in Tokyo on 17 April 09 to pledge $5.28 billion for uplift of social sector in Pakistan. More

IMF/WORLD BANK SPRING MEETINGS: FINANCE MINISTERS IN WASHINGTON FAIL TO DELIVER ON G20 PROMISES

by Eurodad

29 April 2009

Impoverished countries don’t know yet on how much they will count and the extent to which the IMF will grant this finance at reasonable terms and avoid making past mistakes. More

IMF PREDICTS A HISTORICAL RECESSION IN 2009

by OID-IDO

22 April 2009

The International Monetary Fund is predicting a "severe recession" of global proportions in 2009 and a "gradual" recovery in 2010. According to the World Economic Outlook, GDP will shrink by 1.3% in 2009 before growing again by 1.9% in 2010. More

IMF EMERGENCY LOANS: GREATER FLEXIBILITY TO OVERCOME THE CRISIS?

by Eurodad

22 April 2009

Despite promising IMF rhetoric about greater flexibility in fiscal and monetary policies because of the current crisis, IMF loans in Romania, Latvia and Armenia show that practice is not in line. The Fund is still pushing tight fiscal policy and single-digit inflation. More

USA: NEW WAVE OF HOUSINGS FORECLOSURES

by Mike Whitney

21 April 2009

Due to the lifting of the foreclosure moratorium at the end of March, the downward slide in housing is gaining speed. More

REGULATIONS DO NOT PREVENT CAPITALIST CRISES

by Rick Wolff

16 April 2009

From FDR to Obama, capitalist crashes brought state interventions into the economy that always included new or increased regulations. Immediately after (and sometimes already during) every phase of regulation, boards of directors and major shareholders of many US corporations began to undermine that regulation. More

THEIR CRISIS, OUR CHALLENGE

by David Harvey

14 April 2009

The term ‘national bail-out’ is therefore inaccurate, because they’re not bailing out the whole of the existing financial system - they’re bailing out the banks, the capitalist class, forgiving them their debts, their transgressions, and only theirs More

ROMANIA: PUSHED BY CRISIS INTO DUBIOUS BORROWING

by Claudia Ciobanu

9 April 2009

It remains unclear whether the IMF deal will bring to Romania the cushioning it needs against the global financial crisis, especially if the government does not pursue a coherent anti-crisis strategy. The political leaders themselves seem uncertain of the consequences of the IMF deal. More

"TOXIC ASSETS" OF US BANKS: WHY THE GEITHNER PLAN WILL FAIL

by Patrick Madden

27 March 2009

The Geithner plan assumes that the toxic assets that the banks hold can be detoxified to re-start lending; it assumes that there is no problem with the fundamentals of the global economy More

GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD : BILLIONS MORE FOR FAILED BANKS

by Dean Baker

25 March 2009

As a result, the banks are likely to still have several hundred billion of bad assets on their books even after this plan has been put in place. The Obama administration will then be forced to go to Congress with yet another bailout proposal More

EUROPEAN NGOS MEET THE EU WORLD BANK EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS IN BRUSSELS

by Eurodad

24 March 2009

This week European NGOs met the EU World Bank Executive Directors on the occasion of their annual visit to Brussels. On the table for discussion there were the issues of the Bank’s response to the financial crisis, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) supported oil projects in Ghana. More

OBAMA DIALS DOWN WALL STREET CRITICISM

by Monica Langley

24 March 2009

In recent days, in spite of public furor over huge bonuses paid at American International Group Inc., the administration has concluded that it needs the private sector to play a central role in fixing the economy. More

EUROIFINET LAUNCHES A POSITION PAPER ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND CAPITAL FLIGHT, DEBT AND IFIS

by Eurodad

12 March 2009

The paper highlights that there is a broad, global systemic crisis with environmental, social, economic and democratic dimensions; and that there is a need for new structures and a new paradigm More

WHATEVER’S HAPPENED TO GLOBAL BANKING?

by C.P. Chandrasekhar & Jayati Ghosh

7 March 2009

The call for nationalization of banks in developed countries, even if for a temporary period, marks a potential ideological shift. Even staunch free market advocates are declaring that nationalization is inevitable. This article examines the factors explaining this acceptance of public ownership and the implications that this has for the future of banking regulation. More

EUROPE’S FINANCIAL REGULATION “WISE MEN” UNWANTED SAY PROTESTERS

by Alex Wilks- Eurodad

2 March 2009

Sheriff or cowboy? That was the question that we raised on the De Larosiere Group as their report on European financial regulation was launched yesterday. Eurodad staff joined colleagues from Corporate Europe Observatory and Friends of the Earth to dress up in checked shirts and hats and parade outside the European Commission’s Berlaymont building. More

THE DEBT IN FIGURES

by Damien Millet- Eric Toussaint

27 February 2009

A necessary tool to understand the current global crisis, the data collected here by Damien Millet and Eric Toussaint (CADTM) should enable us to make sense of one of the basic reasons for the international situation, as seen from the viewpoint of the global South. From the 1960s to today’s global crisis, the international network of the CADTM has constantly kept a critical eye on the world economy and the mechanisms of domination that affect it. Analysing various statistics is essential to (...) More

TIME FOR PERMANENT NATIONALIZATION

by Fred Moseley

24 February 2009

But there is a better alternative, a more equitable, “taxpayer friendly” option: Permanently nationalize banks that are “too big to fail” and run these banks according to public policy objectives (affordable housing, green energy, etc.), rather than with the objective of private profit maximization. The nationalization of banks, if it’s done right, would clearly be superior to current bailout policies because it would not involve a massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to bondholders. More

THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK ALSO WITH BILLIONAIRE LOOSES DUE TO MORTGAGES MESS

by News Agency

14 February 2009

The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the largest lender for projects including roads and power plants in Latin America, lost $1.9 billion on mortgages and other securities as part of an unusually aggressive investment strategy, according to internal bank documents obtained by The Associated Press. More

JUST SAY ’’NO’’ TO THE CREDIT RATING AGENCIES

by Gerald Epstein

9 February 2009

The credit rating agencies have got us, coming and going. First they help cause the biggest economic calamity since the 1930’s. And now they tell us we can’t take the fiscal measures needed to get us out of this mess. Meanwhile, they are laughing all the way to the bank (that is, if they can find one that is still solvent). Why are we still listening to them? More

HOW SERIOUS IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ABOUT NATIONALIZING BANKS?

by Mike Ellis

29 January 2009

Not very. Speaking to reporters today, newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner all but dismissed the idea outright: More

DEBTOR-CREDITOR RELATIONS IN GOOD TIMES AND BAD

by Susanna Mitchell

18 November 2005

The issues paper prepared by Financing for Development Office at the United Nations in preparation for the multi-stakeholder consultations on sovereign debt for sustained development states that ‘The expectation is that stake holders will want to focus their discussions on practical and realizable policies and processes for managing external sovereign debt.’ If these discussions are to have any lasting value, however, they require a dual focus. Creditor-debtor relations do not exist in a (...) More

WILL US DEBT LEAD TO MASS DEFAULTS?

by John Dillon

28 September 2005

This paper suggests that a looming global financial crisis caused by the USA’s own huge debts may create conditions for mass defaults or repudiations of illegitimate debts by Southern governments.
The United States of America is the world’s largest debtor. The US net international investment position, a broad measure of indebtedness that includes private foreign investment as well as bonds and loans, reached $2.48 trillion at the end of 2004. This is the amount by which gross foreign-owned (...) More

LOAN-LAUNDERING?: DEBT ARREARS CLEARANCE AND THE AVOIDANCE OF CREDIT OR RESPONSABILITY

by Gail Hurley

14 September 2005

In 1978, Erwin Blumenthal (an IMF-man appointed to run Congo’s central bank) reported that large amounts of lenders’ cash had gone missing and that there was "no chance, I repeat no chance, that [Congo’s] creditors will ever recover their loans." Congo’s foreign debt then stood at $5 billion. Nevertheless, in the 1980s, after Blumenthal left, the World Bank, IMF among other northern creditors lent Mobutu almost US$5 billion more. In this case however the international financial institutions (...) More