G8 - Debt forgiveness for poorest nations

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by dannubis
and in the other news, how's wolfie doing at the head of the IMF ?

about as well as could be expected, considering he is head of the world bank, NOT the IMF, and that i mentioned his title in the OP

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
Just curious, is Wolfy supportive of Bush or Blair's policy (Bush wants a debt amnesty, while Blair wants the rich countries to take over third world debt, so that these states can still take out loans)?

And props to Blair's Africa aid campaign (and I ask again why oh why can't we have him instead...).

IIUC the debt relief is being provided BY the lending agencies, with the rich countries then making good the losses at the lending agencies, so the agencies can still make loans. Im not entirely sure how this maps to the distinction you mention, or what side Wolfie took.

I DO think Wolfie is supportive of the further Blair initiative to increase development aid, but I dont have cite to that effect.

I also note that in addition to the 18 countries getting immediate relief, a further 9 are eligible if they complete certain reforms, and are at various stages of completion. a further 15 billions would be required to provide debt relief for them.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


I think theres a growing consensus that help to the poorest countries should be in the form of aid, not loans. But that was not the case a couple of decades ago - when it was assumed that growth in the poorest countries would be faster.

Also, the 1970's was the era of the Club of Rome, which led a lot of people to believe that countries like Tanzania and Brazil would become wealthy just because of the fact that they were sitting on commodities like oil, copper, etc. The continually rising prices of these commodities would easily support debt servicing, which made it easier for the World Bank etc to make loans that were considered excessive even at the time.

And let's not forget that Robert MacNamara, America's most successful failure, was in charge of the WB at the time.

[chequita guevara]

Hmmm, we'll forgive your debt if you open your legs to international capital's phalus.

[Ramo]

IIUC the debt relief is being provided BY the lending agencies, with the rich countries then making good the losses at the lending agencies, so the agencies can still make loans. Im not entirely sure how this maps to the distinction you mention, or what side Wolfie took.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/politics/10debt.html

The debt relief negotiations had been bogged down for months over which of two possible methods should be used to eliminate the debt. One approach, favored by Britain, was for the rich nations to take over responsibility for repaying the debts. The second method, favored by the United States, was for the loans to be written off entirely by the lenders.

The article notes that apparantly Blair agreed to a compromise where the lenders get some of the money back.

[Bereta_Eder]

that forgiving the debts is like the killer saying he wont kill you very much.
they still have to abaide by the mosntrous world bank economic programs that are designed to suck them dry.

the killer cant be a philantropist

[dannubis]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


about as well as could be expected, considering he is head of the world bank, NOT the IMF, and that i mentioned his title in the OP

sorry mr perfect, i mistyped.
and now, any word on what this guy is up to ?

[Bereta_Eder]

and how fitting that blair leader of the country of the most barbaric colonialism leads the effort. that's insult to injury!


meanwhile exploitation of the 3rd world by the "west" has incerased 5 fold the last decade.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by dannubis


sorry mr perfect, i mistyped.
and now, any word on what this guy is up to ?

hes visiting Africa, this week.

IMF for World Bank - thats some typo? Do you have "mavis beacon teaches typing CD's over there?

[Sandman]

It's certainly a good step.

[Saras]

Originally posted by paiktis22
and how fitting that blair leader of the country of the most barbaric colonialism leads the effort. that's insult to injury!


meanwhile exploitation of the 3rd world by the "west" has incerased 5 fold the last decade.

2/10

[Bereta_Eder]

take out the dionysian aspect and it's pretty apollonian

[Lawrence of Arabia]

1) there already are debt forgivness programs at the world bank
2) if debt forgiveness worked, you wouldnt see countries got back into massive debt. the last round of debt forgivness saw $30 bn in forgivness (this was in the 70s or 80s) to a set of countries, who then turned around and got themselves back into debt to the tune of $40 bn.

[MrFun]

Re: G8 - Debt forgiveness for poorest nations

Originally posted by lord of the mark
To qualify nations must be both poor and must meet certain standards on economic and political reforms. Some other countries that are currently disqualified cause of lack of reforms, may become qualified.

In other words United States will not want the G8 nations to forgive debts of socialist countries or any other country that has a liberal government, right?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

heres the problem - forgiving debt doesnt change a country's incentive to a) go back into debt and b) not pay it off.

so the same thing happens again.