Debt Relief Initiatives

FROM THE ARAB REVOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL AUSTERITY

by Third World Network

3 May 2013

To highlight some of the complex dynamics and challenges of the IMF’s role in the Arab region, in a context of continuing popular uprisings that are calling for social and economic justice and for transforming the national development paradigm, and to link it to the waves of austerity across Europe, the US and other regions, a panel discussion titled “From the Arab Revolutions to Global Austerity,” was held on the sidelines of the spring meetings (19-21 April) of the IMF and World Bank. More

CYPRUS : AS THE FINANCIAL CRISIS DEEPENS, WILL THE LESSONS BE LEARNT?

by Martin Khor

12 April 2013

The Cyprus crisis has again shown that over-dependence on the financial sector and an unregulated and liberalised financial system can cause havoc to an economy. 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

CYPRUS - WHOSE CRISIS?

by Petros Kosmas

29 March 2013

Cyprus’s banking sector did not grow so recklessly and to an unsustainable size in order to best serve Cypriots’s social and economic needs. 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

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

GREECE: THE NEO-COLONIAL LOAN AGREEMENT EXPLAINED

by Leonidas Vatikiotis

2 April 2012

This is a suicidal term, preventing the government from using the legal tools that even the creditor friendly Papademos government activated in order to turn an insufficient voluntary participation to the bond swap into a coercive one. More

WE CONDEMN THE DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN ON THE GREEK DEBT AND THE RESCUE PLAN BY PRIVATE CREDITORS

by Damien Millet, Yorgos and Sonia Mitralias, Eric Toussaint, Renaud Vivien (CADTM)

12 March 2012

For the CADTM, this new plan is a hoax: while claiming to rescue Greece it actually saves the day for private creditors though they are largely responsible for the Greek debt. More

ROMANIA: THE NEXT GREECE?

by News Agencies

27 June 2010

Romania’s economic evolution remains uncertain and the application of austerity measures announced by the government is a condition for future installments of the loans from EU and IMF, More

EUROZONE CRISIS IS SELF-INFLICTED

by Mark Weisbrot

28 May 2010

The populations now suffering under EU-imposed austerity must have a real and credible threat of leaving the euro More

NEW REPORT FINDS IMF AGREEMENTS HAVE INCLUDED POLICIES THAT COULD WORSEN ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN IN 31 OF 41 COUNTRIES

by Mark Weisbrot, Rebecca Ray, Jake Johnston, Jose Antonio Cordero and Juan Antonio Montecino.

7 October 2009

A new discussion paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research finds that 31 of 41 countries with current International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreements have been subjected to pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies that, during the current global recession, would be expected to have exacerbated economic slowdowns. More

THE BAILOUTS REVISITED

by Marty Wolfson

15 September 2009

Who got bailed out and why? Is there any alternative to “Too Big to Fail”? If we want to help the people who are suffering in this crisis and recession, then we should make financial policies with them directly in mind. Just throwing money at the banks will not get the job done. More

THE DEFLATING ECONOMY

by Mike Whitney

13 August 2009

There should be a modest uptick in GDP in either in the 4th quarter 2009 or the 1st quarter 2010. This will mark the end of the current 20 month-long recession, but not the end of the crisis. The blip in growth doesn’t mean that the troubles are over or that the economy is on the way to recovery. It simply means that Obama’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus is beginning to kick in, giving a boost to consumer spending and generating short-term economic activity. Regrettably, when the stimulus (...) More

US BANK BAILOUT TO COST $23.7 TRILLION

by Andre Damon

22 July 2009

The federal government’s bailout of Wall Street may cost $23.7 trillion, according to a statement given to Congress Monday by the lead overseer of the Treasury’s bailout program, Neil Barofsky, special inspector-general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). More

SOME USD 5 TRILLION ON FINANCIAL SUPPORT SINCE THE CRISIS BEGAN, BUT ALMOST NOTHING HAS REACHED THE MOST VULNERABLE COUNTRIES

by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

22 July 2009

Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said that Capital flows to poorer states and export earnings have together collapsed by USD $2 trillion since the credit crunch began. "This is an alarming trend, and it’s not a result of their own doing." More

US CONGRESS DIVIDED ON THE NEED OF A NEW STIMULUS PACKAGE

by Bill Laforme

9 July 2009

A debt has started to develop in Washington on the and the viability or not of second federal stimulus package as, despite the massive deficits piling up in recent months, the economy is not reacting. More

ARE EASTERN EUROPE PROBLEMS GOING TO SPILLOVER?

by Nouriel Roubini

11 June 2009

The collapse of the Thai baht in July 1997 helped spark the Asian financial crisis. Could events in Latvia spawn a similar contagion? Eyes are focused on this small Baltic economy—amid growing talk of a devaluation—because of the potential for spillover effects into its fellow Baltic states, Sweden and the broader Eastern European region. More

EUROPEAN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS CALL FOR NEXT JUNE 1-3 UNITED NATIONS SUMMIT (G- 192)

by European Cross-Sectoral Network on the Combined Crises

14 May 2009

A call to UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development (1- 3 June 2009), and especially the European leaders attending the event to focus on reforms that directly benefit people and the planet. 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

USA: CALCULATING THE LOSSES OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

by Billy Wharton

30 April 2009

The resulting losses have not just been financial. Significant social stress produced by the financial shock has translated into externally and internally directed violence. More

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS MENACES 2015 MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

by Amin Ahmed

25 April 2009

The global financial crisis is imperilling attainment of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and creating an emergency for development, warned an IMF-World Bank report released on Friday. 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

ECUADOR OFFERS TO BUY BACK PUBLIC BONDS AT 70% DISCOUNT

by News Agencies

21 April 2009

Ecuador offered to repay holders of defaulted bonds as little as 30 cents on the dollar. Yhe proposal was launched as a resolution for the 2012 and 2030 Global Bonds More

THE CRISIS IS FAR FROM OVER

by Michel Husson

19 April 2009

The degree of coordination among the capitalist authorities (governments, banks, IMF, sovereign wealth funds, European institutions, etc.) is advancing under the pressure of the emergency. But it is not enough to make us envisage the establishment of a new Bretton Woods. More

G20: HOW NOT TO RULE THE WORLD

by Jayati Ghosh

13 April 2009

Not much could have been expected from this G20 Summit. Despite the urgency of a global economy going rapidly over the cliff, there is still too much disagreement about most issues among the members. Even so, the resulting communiqué released with so much fanfare is deeply disappointing. 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

CHINA WILL LEND ECUADOR USD 1 BILLION FOR ENERGY INVESTMENTS

by Stephan Kueffner

6 April 2009

China will lend Ecuador $1 billion for investments in the oil, refining and electricity industries, Economy Minister Diego Borja said. More

LATIN AMERICA : ARGENTINA AND CHINA TO SIGN INEDIT $10.2 BLLLION CURRENCY SWAP DEAL

by News Agencies

31 March 2009

Argentina and China have tentatively agreed to swap equivalente $10.2 billion worth of their currencies to enable South America’s second-largest economy to avoid using dollars in trade between the nations, banking officials said Monday. More

CZECH REPUBLIC AND HUNGARY: FINANCIAL CRISIS TAKES POLITICAL TOLL

by Zoltán Dujisin

30 March 2009

The weak governments in Hungary and the Czech Republic have fallen, raising questions on the future of liberal economic reform and the influence of the U.S., the European Union and Russia in the region. 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

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

NO RETURN TO NORMAL

by James K. Galbraith

21 March 2009

Why the economic crisis, and its solution, are bigger than you think. More

HAS THE ECONOMY GONE OVER THE EDGE?

by Lee Sustar

19 March 2009

The epicenter of the crisis remains the U.S. financial system, where "zombie" banks—that is, insolvent ones like Citigroup—continue to swallow hundreds of billions in government funds, even as they are unable or unwilling to make new loans themselves. More

WILL IMF LOANS HURT THE POOR THIS TIME AROUND?

by Bretton Woods Project

15 February 2009

While the IMF undertakes high-speed reviews into its lending instruments and conditionality, it continues to make crisis loans with heavy conditionality that may adversely impact the poor in developing countries. More

JUBILEE SOUTH- ACTIVITIES IN WORLD SOCIAL FORUM 2009

by Jubilee South

28 January 2009

Jubilee South will be participating in numerous activities during the coming edition of the World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil, and we invite you to join us!! More

FROM DEBT TO DEVELOPMENT

by Lidy B. Nacpil

18 November 2005

Development is a concept and a process that encompasses all of the dimensions of human life - economic, political, social, cultural, emotional, spiritual, gender and sexual, as well as the interaction of humanity with the earth and environment. All of these dimensions are interrelated and mutually influencing. It is thus impossible to address the question of social development without taking into account the economic context and economic requirements for fulfilling social development (...) More

THE G8 2005 - WHAT ARE THE LESSONS?

by Jubilee Research

11 July 2005

The Gleneagles Summit was a litmus test of the G8’s ability to make a positive contribution to making the world a better place if it had the will to do so - and it has failed miserably. Even with key global issues at the top of the agenda, a chair professing strong commitment to achieving progress on them, and unprecedented popular pressure on the G8 leaders to do so in their own countries and elsewhere, the G8 still proved incapable of making any commitment to fulfil its past promises, let (...) More