It is indeed a zero sum game because the finite limiting factor is the amount of exchange value in the world, as predicted by the marxist law of value.
Yes it is good that campaigners campaign for debt relief, but we must move on. Campaigning for debt relief is a political trap which repeatedly scapegoats the debtor countries as indigent instead of addressing the need to control the *whole* global economy.
There should be campaigning to move debt repayments to a global development fund to which debtor countries can apply for their infrastructure.
Fantastic? Just look at this report. The leaders of the world economy simply do not know what to do in the case of Niger and Mali. The danger is they will just dismiss them as basket cases, or sadly deserving poor, and concentrate on what they think are bigger questions. Once more the problem will have been successfully projected onto the scapegoats.
Chris Burford
London
At 00:35 11/04/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Report Points To Failings In Debt Relief Initiative
>http://www.worldnews.com/?t=print.txt&action=display&article=6616102
>
>WorldNews.com, Mon 9 Apr 2001
>World Bank News Roundup.
>
>Several poor countries risk building up unsustainable debt levels despite
>receiving debt relief under the high-profile international initiative,
>according to an analysis prepared by the World Bank, the Financial Times
>(p.4) reports.
>
>A report prepared for the governing boards of the World Bank and IMF
>suggests that some countries - including Malawi and Niger - may not achieve
>the target debt-to-export ratios which the initiative is intended to
>deliver.
>
>The problem has arisen as a result of falls in the terms of trade - the
>ratio of export to import prices - for these countries. Niger, for example,
>has been hit by rising oil import costs and recent falls in the world price
>of uranium, one of its main exports. The amount of debt relief on offer was
>calculated using debt-to-export ratios over the past three years, when
>Niger's export earnings were temporarily boosted by a jump in uranium
>prices.
>
>The debt relief process is designed to reduce the net present value of each
>country's external debt to 150 per cent of exports. Critics argue that the
>amount on offer should be reassessed when the country qualifies for full
>relief, rather than being fixed when it enters the initial stage of the
>process.
>
>The debt sustainability report is being discussed by the governing boards of
>the two institutions. Discussions so far have yet to provide a solution, and
>the issue seems likely to be passed on to finance and development ministers
>at the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington in three weeks.
>
>
> http://www.worldnews.com/?t=print.txt&action=display&article=6616102
>
>
>
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