CADTM - en

Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States since the Spanish-American War of 1898. Its trajectory has been exceptional. Along with Cuba, it was one of the last colonies of Spain in the Americas. After 1898 it became a colony of a power, the United States, which historically preferred noncolonial forms of domination. It remains a colony, decades after colonialism ceased to be the typical form of imperialist control.
In a series of decisions in 1901, known as the Insular Cases, the (...)

While the whole country has a strong desire for more social and fiscal justice, Emmanuel Macron has finally spoken out, after three weeks of silence, but refuses to change course.
Behind some “social” measures that hide a weakening of social protection and the refusal of a general increase in wages, Emmanuel Macron mainly confirmed the very important tax gifts made to the richest (ISF, Flat tax, Exit tax, etc.), his neoliberal agenda (pension, civil service and unemployment insurance (...)

One of the myths spread by the Greek government and its supporters abroad is that, unlike its predecessors, it does not resort to repression in the face of opposition and resistance to its policies. It is true that the Syriza government has never had to deal with mass mobilizations comparable in scale and duration to those that marked Greece from 2010 to 2012. However, social resistance to bail-out policies has not disappeared, even though it has been considerably weakened by the loss of (...)

Some consider that if you are involved in a movement against a tax (supposed, in theory at least, to redistribute wealth) rather than for higher wages, say (in the broad sense, including social security), you are part of a right-wing movement. This is not so: many revolutionary movements started because the burden of unfair taxes had become unbearable for a majority of the people.
The starting point of the French Revolution was the rejection by the people of the unfair tax policy imposed (...)

Today (6 dec 2018) the Financial Times has reported that a group of vulture funds have hired lawyer Lee Buchheit to argue for debt relief for Sudan. They hope that if the North African country gets debt relief from governments and multilateral institutions through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, it will enable the vulture funds to get a return on their debt.
Much of Sudan's current debt came from loans in the 1970s and early 1980s when the government was supported by western (...)

The Phenomenal Drain of Profits
Beginning in the 1970s, Puerto Rico's economy began to suffer a drain of profits, to the point where the measure of total income produced in the island, the Gross Domestic Product, began to separate dramatically from the measure of income that residents own, the Gross National Product or GNP.
This divergence owes itself to the extraordinary volume of profits that leave Puerto Rico into the hands of the foreign investors that control its economy. A third of (...)

On Monday, the World Bank Group released a new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, through which it aims to provide and mobilize $200 billion in support of countries' climate action over this period.
According to the Bank's press release, it will provide $133 billion in direct finance, and leverage $67 billion in private sector investment as part of the $200 billion target.
In response, the Big Shift Global coalition released the following statement:
In putting substantial resources (...)

Executive Summary
A dramatic withdrawal of central government funding in the last decade has exposed the crisis in local government. Austerity measures are forcing closures of youth centres and libraries, reducing bin collection and increasing council tax; the cuts are also forcing homeless people onto the streets and into crammed, sub-standard temporary accommodation and leaving disabled people and those in mental health crisis without adequate support.
Voluntary organisations plug the (...)

Financial firms are still fighting to get billions out of the bankrupt island as it tries to rebuild.
Ever since Hurricane Maria and Irma devastated Puerto Rico, a looming question has been what will happen to the island's $74.8 billion in debt, which had crippled its economy even before the storms hit. Protesters in major U.S. cities on October 3 called for the U.S. government to forgive the debt. Market analysts say repayment is unrealistic now that the island has suffered an estimated (...)

This is the second installment of a two-part series on the COFINA debt restructuring agreement for Puerto Rico.
If the COFINA agreement represents the continuous ruin of their country for the large majority of Puerto Ricans who are working people, for the bondholders, it constitutes a guarantee of immense profits on their investments.
The biggest beneficiaries of this agreement are the vulture funds that purchased the debt when bond prices fell significantly between 2014 and 2016. Among (...)

This is the first installment of a two-part series on the COFINA debt restructuring agreement for Puerto Rico.
A major deal around the restructuring of the largest portion of Puerto Rico's debt cleared an important legislative hurdle this month. As it stands, the deal will bestow massive profits on vulture funds at the direct expense of Puerto Ricans.
By our estimates, the small group of hedge funds driving the deal will make over $1 billion in profits. Puerto Ricans, meanwhile, continue (...)

Pakistan is perhaps the only country in South Asia with a history of repeated engagements with the IMF – 21 loan agreements since 1959. The last one was concluded in September 2016. Despite that, Pakistan's economic woes have not been resolved. Its economy is still in bad shape, with soaring debt, a widening current-account deficit and foreign exchange reserves falling to just around $9 billion, not enough to cover two-months' imports.
In the outgoing fiscal year, Pakistan's current account (...)

Pakistan is perhaps the only country in South Asia with a history of repeated engagements with the IMF – 21 loan agreements since 1959. The last one was concluded in September 2016. Despite that Pakistan's economic woes hasn't resolved. Its economy is still in worst shape, with the debt soaring, the current-account deficit is widening and foreign exchange reserves are falling with just around $ 9 billion at the moment, not enough to cover two-months' import bill.
In the outgoing fiscal year, (...)

Caribbean disaster insurance scheme receives $293 million in premium payments and grants, pays out $131 million in claims, with $105 million going as profit to global insurers Figures released ahead of climate change negotiations in Poland show that for the most economically damaging disasters in the 21st Century, in over 80% of cases government debt was higher two years after the disaster.
A climate insurance scheme in the Caribbean has received $293 million in premium payments and grants (...)

This Report examines the impacts of austerity in Greece on the right to food. It concludes that the Greek State and the Eurozone Member States violated the Greek people's right to food as a result of the austerity measures required by three Memorandums of Understanding (2010, 2012 and 2015). In other words, the austerity packages imposed on Greece contravened international human rights law.
In August 2018, the European Council celebrated the end of the third Memorandum of Understanding (...)

It is shocking to see that the right-wing government in power in Italy since Summer 2018 refuses to reduce the budgetary deficit while so-called left-wing governments bow to the constraints of austerity. It is now, when the peoples of the Eurozone are ever more disgusted by the policies imposed by European leaders and big capital, that the radical left should start fighting the structures of the European Union and the Eurozone. The time is ripe to expose their legitimacy crisis and use it (...)

The IMF does not pull any punches in its latest post on the IMF blog. It is really worried that so-called ‘leveraged loans' are reaching dangerous levels globally.
These loans, usually arranged by a syndicate of banks, are made to companies that are heavily indebted or have weak credit ratings. They are called “leveraged” because the ratio of the borrower's debt to assets or earnings significantly exceeds industry norms. The level of these loans globally now stands at $1.3trn and annual (...)

On 18 November 2008, The Financial Times exposed a massive deal being negotiated between Daewoo Logistics and the government of Madagascar. Through this deal, the South Korean company was seeking access to no less than 1.3 million hectares to grow maize for export back home while the local communities were uninformed. The breaking of this story helped lead to the overthrow of the Malagasy government a few months later, and woke the world up to an outrageous new trend of global land grabbing (...)

From ATTAC Argentina, we tell them “you will not be able to INTIMIDATE us”. ATTAC is an organization known worldwide for its activism against tax havens and money laundering. It is absurd and disgusting that a government filled with crooks, who have accounts abroad, tries to stain an organization like ATTAC by accusing it of money laundering. The small amounts received by ATTAC Argentina, as donations from renowned international organizations sharing our ideas have been received in accordance (...)

Against a backdrop of public protests, on 25 October the Argentinian government approved the 2019 budget including US$10 billion worth of cuts in essential areas such as education and public works. The next day, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the first review of a loan agreement paving the way for the disbursement of a tranche of US$5.7 billion to the debt-stricken country. At the same time, the Board gave the green light to increase Argentina's (...)