Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank sixty questions, sixty answers

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Cover; Contents; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. HUMAN RIGHTS, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEBT; 1. What is meant by "developing countries"?; 2. Why is the term "development" ambiguous?; 3. What is the link between debt and poverty?; 4. What are the "Millennium Development Goals" (MDG)?; 5. What are the different kinds of debt for developing countries?; 2. THE ORIGIN OF THE DEBT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; 6. What part did private banks play in the development of developing countries' external debts in the 1960s & 1970s? 7. What part did the World Bank play in the development of the developing countries' external debts in the 1960s and 1970s?8. How does the World Bank function?; 9. What part did the governments of countries of the North play in the evolution of the developing countries' external debt in the 1960s and 1970s?; 10. How was the borrowed money used in the developing countries?; 3. THE DEBT CRISIS; 11. How did the price of commodities evolve during the last quarter of the twentieth century?; 12. What role did the evolution of interest rates play in the 1982 debt crisis? 13. Are the World Bank, the IMF, and private banks somehow responsible for the debt crisis?14. How did creditors respond to the debt crisis?; 15. Are there any similarities with the 2007 subprime crisis?; 4. THE IMF, THE WORLD BANK, AND THE LOGIC OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT; 16. How does the IMF function?; 17. What are the short-term or shock measures imposed by structural adjustment, and what are their consequences?; 18. What are the long-term or structural measures imposed by structural adjustment, and what are their consequences? 19. What is the impact of the IMF/World Bank logic on the world food crisis of 2007?5. OTHER INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS: THE PARIS CLUB AND THE WTO; 20. What is the Paris Club?; 21. Are all the developing countries treated in the same way by the Paris Club?; 22. What is undermining the Paris Club?; 23. What is the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO)?; 6. THE STRUCTURE OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES' DEBT; 24. Of what does the external debt of developing countries consist?; 25. How has the debt changed since 1970?; 26. Do developing countries repay debts? 27. What about the external public debt of developing countries?28. How are the debt-related financial flows directed?; 29. What about the domestic debt of developing countries?; 7. DECIPHERING THE OFFICIAL DISCOURSE ON DEBT RELIEF; 30. How did the debt relief initiative come about?; 31. What is the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative?; 32. Has the HIPC initiative achieved its goal?; 33. What was contained in the latest debt relief announced by the G8 in 2005?; 8. THE SHAM OF THE DOMINANT MODEL