Who owes who?
50 questions about world debt
- ISBN: 9781842774274
- Editorial: Zed Books
- Fecha de la edición: 2004
- Lugar de la edición: Liège. Bélgica
- Colección: Global issues
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 20 cm
- Nº Pág.: 185
- Idiomas: Inglés
Using 50 questions and answers, this book explains in a simple but precise manner how and why the debt impasse for developing countries has been arrived at. Illustrated with figures, maps and tables, it details the roles of the various actors involved, the mesh in which indebted countries are caught, the possible scenarios for getting out of the impasse, and the various alternatives to future indebtedness. It also sets out the various arguments - moral, political, economic, legal and environmental - on which the case for a wholesale cancellation of developing countries' external debt rests. It replies to the range of possible objections and proposes new ways of financing development at both local and international level. 'As this fine study demonstrates, lucidly and persuasively, the debt that is strangling much of the world is largely a "scam". In significant measure, it is an ideological fiction, devised in the service of wealth and power, with no legitimacy or moral force. With skill and precision, the authors unravel the layers of deceit and distortion that conceal the ugly reality, and provide an important tool for liberating the great mass of suffering people who are caught in these shackles. It is a very important achievement.' - Noam Chomsky