International Debt Crisis

In this book, Ann Pettifor examines the issues of debt affecting the 'first world' or OECD countries, looking at the history, politics and ethics of the coming debt crisis and exploring the implications of high international indebtedness for governments, corporations, households, individuals and the ecosystem.

The global economy has experienced four waves of rapid debt accumulation over the past 50 years. The first three debt waves ended with financial crises in many emerging market and developing economies. During the current wave, which started in 2010, the increase in debt in these economies has already been larger, faster, and broader-based than in the previous three waves. Current low interest rates mitigate some of the risks associated with high debt. However, emerging market and developing economies are also confronted by weak growth prospects, mounting vulnerabilities, and elevated global risks. A menu of policy options is available to reduce the likelihood that the current debt wave will end in crisis and, if crises do take place, will alleviate their impact.

Eichengreen and Lindert bring together original studies that assess the historical record to see what lessons can be learned for resolving today's crisis.

This anatomy of financial crises shows that the debt crisis of the 1980s is not unprecedented and was even forecast by many Eichengreen and Lindert, bring together original studies that assess the historical record to see what lessons can be learned for resolving today's crisis. They offer a wide variety of approaches to negotiation over defaulted loans between creditors and debtors. The questions addressed are central to any informed discussion of the current debt crisis. Are periods of enthusiastic international lending commonly followed by default and market collapse? If so, why? What are the warning signs of impending crisis? What kinds of countries and loans are most susceptible to debt servicing difficulties? When default does occur, what are its economic and political consequences? Which approaches to negotiations between defaulting countries and their lenders are most likely to achieve a rapid resolution? Albert Fishlow compares international lending today with lending in the 1890s. Peter Lindert also isolates differences between international lending in the 1980s and lending in earlier times. Eliana Cardoso and Rudiger Dornbusch consider the efficiency of the lending process and the consequences and management of default for a debtor country. Chapters by Berry Eichengreen and Richard Portes, and by Jeffrey Sachs and Erika Jorgensen examine negotiations on international loans defaulted during the period between the two world wars. Vinod Aggarwal interprets the history of Mexico's debt crisis, and Charles Lipson considers the links between international financial relations and national security considerations. Barry Eichengreen is Professor of Economics at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. Peter Lindert is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis.

For dozens of developing countries, the financial upheavals of the 1980s have set back economic development by a decade or more. Poverty in those countries have intensified as they struggle under the burden of an enormous external debt. In 1988, more than six years after the onset of the crisis, almost all the debtor countries were still unable to borrow in the international capital markets on normal terms. Moreover, the world financial system has been disrupted by the prospect of widespread defaults on those debts. Because of the urgency of the present crisis, and because similar crises have recurred intermittently for at least 175 years, it is important to understand the fundamental features of the international macroeconomy and global financial markets that have contributed to this repeated instability. Developing Country Debt and the World Economy contains nontechnical versions of papers prepared under the auspices of the project on developing country debt, sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The project focuses on the middle-income developing countries, particularly those in Latin America and East Asia, although many lessons of the study should apply as well to other, poorer debtor countries. The contributors analyze the crisis from two perspectives, that of the international financial system as a whole and that of individual debtor countries. Studies of eight countries—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, and Turkey—explore the question of why some countries succumbed to serious financial crises while other did not. Each study was prepared by a team of two authors—a U.S.-based research and an economist from the country under study. An additional eight papers approach the problem of developing country debt from a global or "systemic" perspective. The topics they cover include the history of international sovereign lending and previous debt crises, the political factors that contribute to poor economic policies in many debtor nations, the role of commercial banks and the International Monetary Fund during the current crisis, the links between debt in developing countries and economic policies in the industrialized nations, and possible new approaches to the global management of the crisis.

“The IMF’s Role in the Prevention and Resolution of Sovereign Debt Crises” provides a guided narrative to the IMF’s policy papers on sovereign debt produced over the last 40 years. The papers are divided into chapters, tracking four historical phases: the 1980s debt crisis; the Mexican crisis and the design of policies to ensure adequate private sector involvement (“creditor bail-in”); the Argentine crisis and the search for a durable crisis resolution framework; and finally, the global financial crisis, the Eurozone crisis, and their aftermaths.

The debt crisis in perspective; Debt management in the late 1980s; Debt reduction and recontracting.

Contributes to a better understanding of the policy, economic, and legal options of countries struggling with debt problems.

Tackle the Third Worlds' debt problems.