Odious Debts

Author : Patricia Adams
Publisher : London ; Toronto : Earthscan Canada
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Odious Debts written by Patricia Adams and published by London ; Toronto : Earthscan Canada. This book was released on 1991 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of how Third World debt accumulated to its current staggering levels. It examines the role of the different participants responsible among both the lenders and the borrowers and looks at the consequences for the debtor countries.

Author : Léonce Ndikumana
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1848134606
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Africa's Odious Debts written by Léonce Ndikumana and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Africa's Odious Debts, Boyce and Ndikumana reveal the shocking fact that, contrary to the popular perception of Africa being a drain on the financial resources of the West, the continent is actually a net creditor to the rest of the world. The extent of capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable: more than $700 billion in the past four decades. But Africa's foreign assets remain private and hidden, while its foreign debts are public, owed by the people of Africa through their governments. Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce reveal the intimate links between foreign loans and capital flight. Of the money borrowed by African governments in recent decades, more than half departed in the same year, with a significant portion of it winding up in private accounts at the very banks that provided the loans in the first place. Meanwhile, debt-service payments continue to drain scarce resources from Africa, cutting into funds available for public health and other needs. Controversially, the authors argue that African governments should repudiate these 'odious debts' from which their people derived no benefit, and that the international community should assist in this effort. A vital book for anyone interested in Africa, its future and its relationship with the West.

Author : Jeff King
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107128013
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Doctrine of Odious Debt in International Law written by Jeff King and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book outlines how odious debts are not legally binding under international or domestic law, contrary to widely held legal opinion.

Author : Jason Manolopoulos
Publisher : Anthem Press
ISBN 13 : 0857287710
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Greece's 'odious' Debt written by Jason Manolopoulos and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Critically examines the economic, historical and psychological dynamics that have combined to create an existential crisis for the European Union."--Publisher description.

Author : Yvonne Wong
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857935038
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sovereign Finance and the Poverty of Nations written by Yvonne Wong and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ''Yvonne Wong''s book is one of the best treatments of the Odious Debt problem in the literature. It is thorough, balanced and yet manages to be creative. I have already used an early version in my International Debt class and the discussions that were generated were excellent. For anyone seeking to tackle this age old problem, I highly recommend this book.'' Mitu Gulati, Duke University, US''With some excellent historical research and important analysis of "odious debt" accumulation and sovereign debt restructuring mechanisms in modern times, this book is placing the issue of "odious debt" at the heart of International law. Thus, it will prove an indispensable companion to any scholar or policy-maker who wishes to gain a multi-prismatic understanding of "odious debt" illegality and its implications for the welfare of entire nations.'' Emilios Avgouleas, University of Edinburgh, UK''Whenever a strict application of the law produces a result that is at variance with a general sense of what is morally right, trouble is surely in the offing. This is the central thesis of Yvonne Wong''s Sovereign Finance and the Poverty of Nations. When is it legally permissible, when is it ethically acceptable, for a sovereign borrower to disavow a debt incurred in the name of the sovereign state, but not for its (or its citizens'') benefit? And if debts incurred by unscrupulous politicians in one era can be disowned by their successors later on under gauzy notions of "illegitimacy" or "odiousness", what will prevent future unscrupulous politicians from casually dishonoring sovereign obligations that they would just prefer not to pay? These are deep waters, legally and morally. Wong has given us a fascinating insight into one of the most disquieting issues in international financial law.'' Lee C. Buchheit, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, US''This book provides a very valuable contribution to the discussion about odious debts in that it, quite successfully, structures the often rather elusive argumentation. By developing a new and stringent approach to the emergence of a valid legal concept of odious debts, the author presents a fresh perspective to its underlying evaluations and allows, thus, a re-consideration of the need for effective rules in this context. This book will certainly influence fundamentally the future debate of odious debts.'' Christoph G. Paulus, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Germany''Saddam Hussein was overthrown and executed, but his successors to power are still liable for the debts that he contracted for the nation. Odious regimes can create debts without consent or benefit of their citizens who must subsequently repay them. This fact puzzles both international law specialists and intellectuals who read magazines like The Economist. Theresult seems wrong, but the right solution is elusive. Yvonne Wong''s important and timely book solves some of the puzzles by using methods and theories from international law, economics, and political science. It explains the law and politics inherent in sovereign debt arrangements, and proposes a new legal framework for odious debt.'' From the foreword by Robert CooterNational debts incurred by illegitimate regimes against the best interests of the citizens is a serious problem of international economics and politics. These sovereign debts, often referred to as odious debts, deplete the public purse and create an ongoing financial liability that serves to constrain investment and economic growth, and conspires to keep millions in poverty. This important and timely book explains the legal principles and politics involved in the issue of odious debts, and sovereign debt arrangements more generally. The author goes beyond abstract arguments and proposes legal rules and international regulation that should be put in place to create the right incentives to stop the transmission of odious debts. Her proposal is for a registration scheme for sovereign debt, and the imposition of positive duties on financiers who provide loans to sovereign borrowers.Sovereign Finance and the Poverty of Nations will appeal to students, academics, debtactivists, policymakers, international finance practitioners and anyone with a general interest in sovereign finance affairs.

Author : Éric Toussaint
Publisher : Haymarket Books
ISBN 13 : 1642590169
Total Pages : 243 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Debt System written by Éric Toussaint and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A compelling explanation of the deep-seated mechanisms at work in the international credit system” from the coauthor of Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank (Counterfire). For as long as there have been rich nations and poor nations, debt has been a powerful force for maintaining the unequal relations between them. Treated as sacrosanct, immutable, and eternally binding, it has become the yoke of choice for imperial powers in the post-colonial world to enforce their subservience over the global south. In this ground-breaking history, renowned economist Éric Toussaint argues for a radical reversal of this balance of accounts through the repudiation of sovereign debt. “Since 2008 CADTM has campaigned for ‘a new doctrine of illegitimate, illegal, odious, and unsustainable debt’ cancellation. This doctrine includes considerations of whether the debtor state is democratic, whether it respects human rights, whether the debt is incurred within the framework of ‘structural adjustments’ (enforced austerity), and includes all debts incurred to pay back previous odious debts. On grounds of global social justice, The Debt System makes a strong case for this new doctrine.” —Against the Current “This work has much to commend it; it provides detailed analyses of the impact of indebtedness in several nations . . . The author shows that, contrary to orthodox arguments, debt repudiation can be both justified and successfully carried out. I recommend the book wholeheartedly.” —Counterfire

Author : Odette Lienau
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674726405
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Sovereign Debt written by Odette Lienau and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-18 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conventional wisdom holds that all nations must repay debt. Regardless of the legitimacy of the regime that signs the contract, a country that fails to honor its obligations damages its reputation. Yet should today's South Africa be responsible for apartheid-era debt? Is it reasonable to tether postwar Iraq with Saddam Hussein's excesses? Rethinking Sovereign Debt is a probing analysis of how sovereign debt continuity--the rule that nations should repay loans even after a major regime change, or else expect consequences--became dominant. Odette Lienau contends that the practice is not essential for functioning capital markets, and demonstrates its reliance on absolutist ideas that have come under fire over the last century. Lienau traces debt continuity from World War I to the present, emphasizing the role of government officials, the World Bank, and private markets in shaping our existing framework. Challenging previous accounts, she argues that Soviet Russia's repudiation of Tsarist debt and Great Britain's 1923 arbitration with Costa Rica hint at the feasibility of selective debt cancellation. Rethinking Sovereign Debt calls on scholars and policymakers to recognize political choice and historical precedent in sovereign debt and reputation, in order to move beyond an impasse when a government is overthrown.

Author : Pierre Penet
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198866356
Total Pages : 371 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sovereign Debt Diplomacies written by Pierre Penet and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Sovereign Debt Diplomacies aims to revisit the meaning of sovereign debt in relation to colonial history and postcolonial developments. It offers three main contributions. The first contribution is historical. The volume historicises a research field that has so far focused primarily on the post-1980 years. A focus on colonial debt from the 19th century building of colonial empires to the decolonisation era in the 1960s-70s fills an important gap in recent debt historiographies. Economic historians have engaged with colonialism only reluctantly or en passant, giving credence to the idea that colonialism is not a development that deserves to be treated on its own. This has led to suboptimal developments in recent scholarship. The second contribution adds a 'law and society' dimension to studies of debt. The analytical payoff of the exercise is to capture the current developments and functional limits of debt contracting and adjudication in relation to the long-term political and sociological dynamics of sovereignty. Finally, Sovereign Debt Diplomacies imports insights from, and contributes to the body of research currently developed in the Humanities under the label 'colonial and postcolonial studies'. The emphasis on 'history from below' and focus on 'subaltern agency' usefully complement the traditional elite-perspective on financial imperialism favoured by the British school of empire history.

Author : Jerome E. Roos
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691184933
Total Pages : 398 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Why Not Default? written by Jerome E. Roos and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How creditors came to wield unprecedented power over heavily indebted countries—and the dangers this poses to democracy The European debt crisis has rekindled long-standing debates about the power of finance and the fraught relationship between capitalism and democracy in a globalized world. Why Not Default? unravels a striking puzzle at the heart of these debates—why, despite frequent crises and the immense costs of repayment, do so many heavily indebted countries continue to service their international debts? In this compelling and incisive book, Jerome Roos provides a sweeping investigation of the political economy of sovereign debt and international crisis management. He takes readers from the rise of public borrowing in the Italian city-states to the gunboat diplomacy of the imperialist era and the wave of sovereign defaults during the Great Depression. He vividly describes the debt crises of developing countries in the 1980s and 1990s and sheds new light on the recent turmoil inside the Eurozone—including the dramatic capitulation of Greece’s short-lived anti-austerity government to its European creditors in 2015. Drawing on in-depth case studies of contemporary debt crises in Mexico, Argentina, and Greece, Why Not Default? paints a disconcerting picture of the ascendancy of global finance. This important book shows how the profound transformation of the capitalist world economy over the past four decades has endowed private and official creditors with unprecedented structural power over heavily indebted borrowers, enabling them to impose painful austerity measures and enforce uninterrupted debt service during times of crisis—with devastating social consequences and far-reaching implications for democracy.

Author : Emmanuel O Oritsejafor
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000384586
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Africa and the Global System of Capital Accumulation written by Emmanuel O Oritsejafor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-04-17 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa and the Global System of Capital Accumulation offers a groundbreaking analysis of the strategic role Africa plays in the global capitalist economy. The exploitation of Africa’s rich resources, as well as its labor, make it possible for major world powers to sustain their authority over their own middle-class populations while rewarding African collaborators in leadership positions for subjecting their populations into poverty and desperation. Middle-class obsessions such as computers, mobile phones, cars and the petroleum that fuels them, diamonds, chocolate – all of these products require African resources that are typically obtained by child or slave labor that helps to generate billionaires out of foreign investors while impoverishing most Africans. Oritsejafor and Cooper demonstrate that "primitive accumulation," believed by both Adam Smith and Karl Marx to be a process that precedes capitalism, is actually an integral part of capitalism. They also validate the thesis that capitalism incorporates racism as an organizing tool for the exploitation of labor in Africa and on a global scale. Case studies are presented on Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Congo, Tanzania, Somalia, Angola, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, and South Sudan. There are also chapters analyzing the interests of Russia and China in Africa. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African politics, development, and economics.