Restructuration, Audit, Suspension and Abolition of the debt

Maud Bailly, Éric Toussaint — 2015-07-06T18:33:58Z

Debt restructuring has always been the result of economic and geopolitical calculation, rarely producing a favourable long-term outcome for the debtors; unless the creditors saw a strategic advantage for themselves in it says Toussaint. Sovereign debt “restructuring”, as it is now called by the IMF, the Paris Club and the big banking corporations, and more recently by the left in Greece, Portugal and Spain, is not a satisfactory expression, in fact using the actual term “restructuring” is dangerous, because the creditors have loaded it with what they want it to mean. He recommends that progressive governments place great importance on carrying out comprehensive debt audits (with popular participation), linked where necessary to suspension of payments. This audit must lead to the abolition of the part of the debt that is illegal, illegitimate, odious and/or ubsustainable and to imposing a reduction on the amount of the remainder. This remainder may be restructured, but in no way can a restructuring be considered, by itself, sufficient. Eric Toussaint was interviewed by Maud Bailly

- IV486 - July 2015 / Germany, Greece, Economy, Argentina, Ecuador, Iceland

International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Restructuration, Audit, Suspension and Abolition of the debt