[stop-imf] Invitation to an online forum on the third world debt crisis

[Robert Weissman]

>From the Worldwatch Institute:

Please join us for an online forum on the third world debt crisis

As the leaders of the world's most powerful nations gather in Genoa,
Italy--and as thousands of protestors throng the streets--join us for a
global, electronic conversation on one of the most disturbing issues
within the debate over globalization, the third world debt crisis.

Do the world's poorest countries need immediate release from the
"chains of debt"? Or will that just let corrupt dictators off the hook?
What can be done to prevent another crisis? If those questions trouble
you, please join us to discuss them.
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Sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute and Communications for a
Sustainable Future

WHEN: July 18-25, embracing the July 20-22 G-8 summit in Genoa. The
best time to subscribe is now, before the forum opens.

WHAT: David Roodman, the author of a new Worldwatch Institute report--
Still Waiting for the Jubilee: Pragmatic Solutions for the Third World
Debt Crisis--will participate in this online global forum. To learn
more about the report and the forum, visit
    http://csf.colorado.edu/sustainable-economics/third-world-debt.
Copies of the report, paper and electronic, are available for a small
fee at
    http://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/WWP0155.

WHO: Everyone is encouraged to join. The forum will be moderated.
Archives of the proceedings will be publicly available. It will help to
read the Worldwatch report beforehand, but please participate even if
you do not read it.

HOW: To subscribe, visit
    http://csf.colorado.edu/sustainable-economics/third-world-debt. Or send
a one-line message containing "subscribe sustainable-economics" to
majordomo@csf.colorado.edu.
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Background
The global debate over the third world debt crisis will crescendo on
July 20-22 as the heads of the world's eight leading industrial nations
(G-8) gather in Genoa, Italy. The host of the summit, the government of
Italy, has vowed to put the debt crisis at the top of the agenda. And
Drop the Debt, a London-based successor to Jubilee 2000 (the campaign
that forced rich-country politicians to respond to the debt crisis in
the late 1990s), has set its sites on a "New Deal on Debt" from the
Genoa summit (see http://www.dropthedebt.org/action/genoa.shtml).

Since World War II, the richest countries have lent the poorest ones
hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it in the name of democracy,
freedom, and development. Yet scores of the borrowing countries are now
mired in debt and poverty--some 47, according to World Bank benchmarks,
all but 10 of them African. Together, they owe $422 billion, or $380
per person, a substantial sum for them, but just 11 months of military
spending for western governments. Responding to pressure from
nongovernmental organizations, creditor governments have recently
offered to cancel up to 55 percent of the debt they are owed by 41 poor
debtors. In return, they are demanding that debtors implement market-
oriented "structural adjustment" economic policies and design poverty-
fighting plans in consultation with civil society groups.

Many rich-world politicians now want to put debt cancellation behind
them. But many non-governmental groups are calling for more. Both
sides, Roodman argues, may have unrealistic expectations about how much
good such programs are doing and can do. On the one hand, almost all of
the debt set for cancellation would never have been repaid anyway, so
canceling it will not make much financial difference. On the other
hand, debtor governments uncommitted to the policies that creditors are
demanding in return for debt cancellation will generally implement the
policies only in the breech. To expect much more is to ignore the
lessons of history.
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Do you agree? Disagree? Join David July 18-25 for a lively discussion.
Visit
    http://csf.colorado.edu/sustainable-economics/third-world-debt
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To encourage others to join, please circulate this invitation.
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To learn more about the Worldwatch Institute and Communications for a
Sustainable Future and the, the event's sponsors, visit
    http://www.worldwatch.org and http://csf.colorado.edu.
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Questions? E-mail debt_forum@worldwatch.org

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