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Death and taxes: the true toll of tax dodging  new

At a time of switchback stockmarkets and fears of global meltdown, the world economy in 2008 is an uncertain and nervous place. Will more banks collapse? Will the housing market crash? Can recession, or depression, be avoided?

http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/reports.aspx?id=2280

(Added: Fri May 16 2008   Hits: 1)

Jamaica's Debt: Exploring Causes and Strategies [pdf]  new

Jamaica's present debt burden arose between 1996 and 2003. A year by year decomposition of the growth of the debt over that period is used to identify the main factors responsible (CaPRI, 7 May 2008).

http://www.eurodad.org/uploadedFiles/Whats_New/Reports/CaPRI_Debt_Report.pdf

(Added: Mon May 12 2008   Hits: 3)

Arrears Clearance: Loan Laundering and Creditor Co-Responsibility

This paper explores how the international community currently deals with arrears clearance operations, in particular to the international financial institutions (IFIs). Currently, for all developing countries the total amount of external debt in arrears stood at US$130bn in 2003. This paper examines several recent cases of arrears clearance operations, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Haiti and Nigeria. In many cases, these arrears should not be cleared in the first place because the debts are odious or illegitimate in origin. In addition, current approaches to the problem have several other very serious knock-on effects, including the negative impact on countries' overall levels of indebtedness to the international financial institutions; the implications on countries' policy space or autonomy; the impact on donor aid budgets and on poor countries' very scarce financial resources. The proposals for reform are not radical but are politically achievable, not to mention essential. (Eurodad, April 2006)

http://www.eurodad.org/uploadstore/cms/docs/arrears_clearance_final_version_w_coversheet.pdf

(Added: Thu Sep 21 2006   Hits: 121)

"A truckload of nonsense"

The G8 plan to save Africa comes with conditions that make it little more than an extortion racket. George Monbiot, Tuesday June 14, 2005, The Guardian. An aura of sanctity is descending upon the world's most powerful men. On Saturday the finance ministers from seven of the G8 nations (Russia was not invited) promised to cancel the debts the poorest countries owe to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The hand that holds the sword has been stayed by angels: angels with guitars rather than harps.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1505927,00.html

(Added: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 262)

"What Are the Channels Through Which External Debt Affects Growth?" (pdf)

(From Eldis) By Pattillo, C.; Poirson, H.; Ricci, L. / International Monetary Fund (IMF), Working Paper 2004. This paper investigates the channels through which debt affects growth, specifically whether debt affects growth through factor accumulation or total factor productivity growth. It also tests for the presence of nonlinearities in the effects of debt on the different sources of growth. We use a large panel dataset of 61 developing countries over the period 1969-98. Results indicate that the negative impact of high debt on growth operates both through a strong negative effect on physical capital accumulation and on total factor productivity growth. On average, for high-debt countries, doubling debt will reduce output growth by about 1 percentage point and reduce both per capita physical capital and total factor productivity growth by somewhat less than that. In terms of the contributions to growth, approximately one-third of the effect of debt on growth occurs via physical capital accumulation and two-thirds via total factor productivity growth. The results are generally robust to the use of alternative estimators to control (to different extents) for biases associated with unobserved country-specific effects and the endogeneity of several regressors, particularly the debt variables. In particular, the results are shown to be compatible with a simultaneous significant effect of growth on debt ratios, as suggested by Easterly (2001). (The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate).

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2004/wp0415.pdf

(Added: Mon Mar 15 2004   Modified: Tue Jun 14 2005   Hits: 213)

'Changing Course: Alternative Approaches to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Fight HIV/AIDS [PDF]

With this report, ActionAid International USA is sends a message to the global community that the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-led consensus which has dominated economic development policy in the poor world for 25 years is not sufficient to meet the MDGs. Indeed, in many cases, the IMF-imposed macroeconomic policies used in poor countries are hindering both achievement of the Goals and an effective fight against HIV/AIDS.

http://www.actionaidusa.org/imf.php

(Added: Mon Sep 26 2005   Hits: 150)

100 Percent Debt Cancellation? A Response from the IMF and the World Bank

By IMF and World Bank Staffs, July 2001. This note considers the implications of proposals to cancel 100 percent of multilateral debt. First, it sets debt relief in the context of a broad strategy to fight poverty. Second it looks at the existing approach to poor country debt relief through the HIPC Initiative. Third, it turns to the fundamental question of what would be gained by such a proposal. Finally, the implications for development finance are looked at, including who would end up paying.

http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2001/071001.htm

(Added: Fri Jul 23 2004   Modified: Tue Jun 14 2005   Hits: 192)

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice is a coalition of over 200 U.S. grassroots, women's, solidarity, faith-based, policy, social - and economic- justice, youth, labor and development organizations dedicated to the profound transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Network works in solidarity with over 185 international partner organizations in more than 65 countries. Through education and action, the Network is committed to transforming the international financial institutions' policies and practices, to ending the outside imposition of neo-liberal economic programs, and to making the development process democratic and accountable. We were founded in 1994, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the World Bank and IMF. We focus on action-oriented economic literacy training, public mobilization, and policy advocacy.

http://www.50years.org/

(Added: Tue Aug 06 2002   Modified: Tue Jun 14 2005   Hits: 256)

A Case for Debt Relief (pdf)

This paper takes a human development approach to debt relief by concerning itself with the question of whether debt relief has aided development and poverty reduction when it has been applied and whether in can do so effectively in a greater number of places. The key questions are whether debt relief has been effective and, if it has, how it could now be expanded to include more countries. The report is divided into three sections. Part I: The effectiveness of debt relief contains individual case studies (Tanzania and Zambia) outlining improvements and advancements in poverty reduction that have been made possible by debt relief. Part II: The need for additional debt relief uses three case studies (Indonesia, the Philippines and Bangladesh) to examine where debt relief is still needed in order to fight poverty and assist development in those case study countries. Debt relief, it is found, is more useful than aid. (Jubilee Australia, May 2006)

http://www.jubileeaustralia.org/files/_730_reports/A%20Case%20for%20Debt%20Relief.pdf

(Added: Fri May 19 2006   Hits: 164)

A fresh start for Iraq: The case for debt relief [PDF] 326 KB

Oxfam briefing paper (May 2003). The reconstruction of Iraq is one of the most urgent challenges facing the international community. Ordinary Iraqis have suffered gross violations of human rights, along with one of the most dramatic deteriorations in living standards ever recorded. Now unsustainable debt threatens to undermine reconstruction efforts. This briefing paper argues that the country's debt is unpayable, but also that that there are wider moral and legal grounds for reducing Iraq's debt burden.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/debt_aid/downloads/bp48_iraqdebt.pdf

(Added: Mon Aug 01 2005   Modified: Mon Nov 07 2005   Hits: 163)

A Game As Old As Empire

AlterNet, February 16, 2005. The author of the gripping new book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, reveals how the U.S. became the world's largest superpower: by forcing developing countries into debt.

http://www.alternet.org/story/21245

(Added: Fri Feb 18 2005   Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005   Hits: 520)

Advancing the Odious Debt Doctrine (PDF)

By Ashfaq Khalfan, Jeff King and Bryan Thomas. CISDL Working Paper (2003). This study commenced in February 2000 for the Canadian Ecumenical Jubilee Initiative, with a view to assisting the various movements, both in the North and South, that advocate the cancellation of illegitimate Southern debt. The study is primarily, though not exclusively, concerned with legal avenues for cancelling odious debts, and addresses the following objectives: • To define what constitutes odious debt • To craft a solid argument for the cancellation of odious debt under international law • To examine the economic and social rights approach towards debt cancellation • To examine the various institutions that may be used to cancel illegitimate debts • To analyse possibilities for the cancellation of odious debt from the lens of international public policy.

http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/publications/Advancing_the_Odious_Debt_Doctrine.pdf

(Added: Thu Jun 19 2003   Modified: Tue Jun 14 2005   Hits: 210)

An Ounce of Prevention: G8 policy failures on conflict (pdf)

World Vision, 2004. A new World Vision report shows the accumulated debt of 16 of the world's worst war-torn countries could be wiped away for less than planned debt relief for one country: Iraq. The collective failure of international institutions - in particular G8 countries - to take conflict prevention seriously has contributed to the deaths of 14 million people and the displacement of 19 million people over the last four decades in 16 selected countries.

http://www.justice-and-peace.org/PolicyAdvocacy/pahome2.5.nsf/allArticlesHome/7A3B91803DF96B5B88256EA60053D5C7?OpenDocument

(Added: Mon Jun 28 2004   Modified: Wed Jul 12 2006   Hits: 345)

Argentina and the Fund: From Triumph to Tragedy

From the Institute for International Economics, Policy Analyses In International Economics (67). In this policy analysis, former IMF Chief Economist Michael Mussa addresses the obvious question: What went wrong in Argentina and what important errors did the IMF make in either supporting inappropriate policies or in failing to press for alternatives that might have avoided catastrophe?

http://bookstore.iie.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=343

(Added: Thu Oct 10 2002   Modified: Tue Sep 26 2006   Hits: 296)

Arrears Clearance: Loan Laundering and the Case for Creditor Co-Responsibility

This paper explores how the international community currently deals with arrears clearance operations, in particular to the international financial institutions. Currently, for all developing countries the total amount of external debt in arrears stood at US$130bn in 2003. The regions most in arrears difficulties are Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. This paper examines several recent cases of arrears clearance operations, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Haiti and Nigeria. Current approaches to the arrears problem only serve to support the skewed and highly conditional (re)engagement of countries with the international community. This perpetuates the debt-poverty and dependency trap many developing nations find themselves in. (Gail Hurley, Eurodad - European Network on Debt and Development, April 2006)

http://www.eurodad.org/uploadstore/cms/docs/arrears_clearance_final.pdf

(Added: Fri Jun 02 2006   Hits: 229)

Asian Financial Crisis - 10 years on

In July 1997, massive capital flight from Thailand precipitated what is now known as the Asian financial crisis. Focus on the Global South was in the thick of the crisis, looking at the impacts first hand from our base in Thailand and analysing the political and economic fallout from every level and angle. Ten years on, unfinished condominiums and abandoned expressways sprouting rusty foliage from pillars of reinforced concrete scar Bangkok's skyline, constant reminders of the crash. But these days, alongside the ruins of 1997, taller, bigger and ritzier apartment buildings are springing thanks to a new property boom which, like the earlier one, will most probably end in a crash. On the face of it, Thailand does not appear to have learned much in the past ten years. Or has it? In this issue of Focus on Trade, Chanida Chanyapate and Alec Bamford look at attempts to inject Buddhist principles into economic thinking, replacing the "smirk of capitalism" with the "serene smile of sufficiency economy". Also in this issue, Walden Bello looks at how the key players in the crisis -- the financial markets, the national governments and the international financial institutions -- have fared in the past ten years while CP Chandrasekhar analyses new trends in the global financial system. His conclusions are grim and worrying. (Focus on the Global South, 27 July 2007).

http://www.focusweb.org/asian-financial-crisis-10-years-on-2.html?Itemid=1

(Added: Mon Jul 30 2007   Hits: 166)

Assessing the G8 Debt Proposal & Its Implications

By Soren Ambrose Solidarity Africa Network in Action (Nairobi, Kenya) & 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice (Washington, DC, USA) August/September 2005. This report is in two parts. The first is a close reading of the G8 debt plan and some of the interpretations and proposals about the plan that have emerged since July. The second is an analysis of its implications.

http://www.focusweb.org/content/view/664/27/

(Added: Fri Nov 11 2005   Modified: Thu Sep 07 2006   Hits: 159)

Beard On Fire (1)

Z-Net Sustainer article, September 11, 2002. Today, I am stunned when otherwise intelligent, informed folks wonder what the Seattle, Washington, Genoa and Prague protestors have against the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and globalization in general. Leave aside the fact that not one of the countries that accepted IMF money has experienced long-term economic stability, even as they amassed huge debt owed to the IMF and other creditors. Leave aside issues of national, state or local sovereignty, which the IMF, World Bank and WTO - non-democratic, non-representative - suborn outright in favor of corporate interests.

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2002-09/11boudreau.cfm

(Added: Tue Sep 24 2002   Modified: Tue Jun 14 2005   Hits: 212)

CAFTA Rules on Sovereign Debt: Cementing the Chains of Debt

The rules of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) have been widely criticized by debt campaigners for embodying a model of development that is certain to maintain, if not worsen, the debt woes of its developing country members. Yet according to this document, CAFTA rules that directly govern the treatment of sovereign debt have received relatively little attention and exposure. In fact, by extending to sovereign debt the application of rules elaborated in the context of investment agreements and with the aim of protection of foreign investors (such as Most Favoured Nation, National Treatment and investor-state arbitration), CAFTA spares no effort to close all possible exits to the debt problems of Central American countries. (By Aldo Caliari, Center of Concern, May 2006)

http://www.coc.org/pdfs/coc/CAFTAandDebt.pdf

(Added: Tue May 23 2006   Hits: 158)

Call For Change : How the UK Can Afford to Cancel its Share of Third World Debt (Word)

Jubilee Debt Campaign & World Development Movement March 2004 Written by Ashok Sinha (JDC) with additional material by Martin Powell (WDM). Based on data supplied by Jubilee Research. Funded by Tearfund and WDM. Jubilee Debt Campaign and the World Development Movement have reviewed the latest data on poor country debts. The results show that, after existing commitments on debt relief are delivered, the 42 HIPC-eligible countries will still be left with a total multilateral debt of $34.9 billion (£18.6 billion). We find that it would cost the UK only £1.3 billion to unilaterally write off our share of this outstanding debt. Spread over the ten-year countdown to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, that is equivalent to £2.85 per person a year. Other rich nations would face similar costs meeting their share of remaining multilateral debt. Poor countries must have full debt cancellation - multilateral as well as bilateral - as an essential first step towards meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. It is also the only policy that stands a realistic chance of allowing poor countries the financial 'fresh start' that they have been promised. We argue that the UK must commit itself to financing its share of cancelling multilateral debt in support of meeting the MDGs.

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=472

(Added: Fri Apr 16 2004   Modified: Wed Jan 10 2007   Hits: 179)

Can the World Bank Enforce its Own Conditions?: The World Bank and the Enforcement Critique of Condi

World Learning / School for International Training (SIT) (2002). By M. A. Thomas. In this paper, Thomas discusses one widely accepted challenge to conditionality, which she calls "the enforcement critique." Enforcement critics posit that conditionality has failed because borrowers do not comply with conditions. They claim that borrowers do not comply with conditions because the Bank's own drive to lend prevents it from enforcing conditions effectively. Accordingly, some enforcement critics argue that conditionality must be abandoned in favor of selectivity, a strategy in which donors would lend to governments that already have good policies and institutions in place. Thomas argues that there is not yet sufficient evidence to support the enforcement critique, which, if true, would call into question the Bank's ability to fulfill its mandate. Thomas demonstrates that more research is urgently needed. On the other hand, critics of conditionality have adequately shown that there are several types of conf licts of interest surrounding loan approvals, and reforms may be needed to address the problems these conf licts present.

http://www.worldlearning.org/pidt/docs/wl_pp3.pdf

(Added: Mon Feb 10 2003   Modified: Tue Jun 14 2005   Hits: 235)

Contradicting Commitments: How the Achievement of Education for All is being Undermined by the International Monetary Fund

This ActionAid paper reveals the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) role in constraining countries from increasing public expenditure in education to meet the Education For All (EFA) goals and the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The findings are based on research and country case studies undertaken by ActionAid International offices in Guatemala, Bangladesh, India, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone during 2004-05.

http://www.actionaidusa.org/imf.php

(Added: Mon Sep 26 2005   Modified: Mon Nov 26 2007   Hits: 158)

Cut the Strings! Why the UK government must take action now on harmful conditions attached to debt cancellation

Debt cancellation comes with harmful strings attached. The world's poorest countries are told they must open up their markets, cut vital public spending, and privatise basic services if they are to get any debt relief. If governments don't comply, cancellation is delayed or withheld. If they do - often against the wishes of their people and their parliaments - it is all too often disastrous. The strings attached to debt relief have benefited countries and companies in the North, but frequently they strangle the poorest. (Jubilee Debt Campaign, CAFOD, Action Aid, Christian Aid and World Development Movement, September 2006)

http://jdc.webbler.org/download.php?id=306

(Added: Wed Sep 20 2006   Hits: 122)

Debt and education

The ongoing debt crisis in poor countries has had and is still having a severe impact on access to education. This briefing explores the impact of debt and debt cancellation on education in poor countries. (Jubilee Debt Campaign UK, April 2007)

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=3198

(Added: Thu Dec 20 2007   Hits: 70)

Debt and health

Produced with Health Unlimited and Oxfam, the briefing looks at the impact of the debt crisis on access to healthcare in poor countries, as well as the positive results for health provision of the debt cancellation that some countries have received. (Jubilee Debt Campaign UK, December 2007)

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/download.php?id=589

(Added: Thu Dec 20 2007   Hits: 71)

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