Stealing a Fortune from Debt Relief

by clorenz1 | February 15, 2007 at 01:58 pm | 542 views | add comment

GREG PALAST interview on Democracy NOW ( debt relief lie )

This is such a sick practice, it is a pretty simple structure, and the people involved are very connected to whomever holds the political power in the wealthiest countries. It just so happens Mr. Bush could end all of this by stopping his biggest political donors from buying debit relief for next to nothing, and then suing the same poor countries for the original money owed, making huge profits for themselves. Of course he initiated all of this when he gave his state of the union address, and asked Congress to help poor countries by putting up the money to purchase the debit.

And you thought we had made some real headway with when Bono brought the world together for debit relief...

In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush declared the United States was taking on the challenges of global hunger, poverty and disease, and urged support for debt relief, which he called the best hope for eliminating poverty. But what exactly are wealthy nations doing to reduce the debt of impoverished countries?

Today we take a close look at companies known as “vulture funds.” Vulture fund companies buy up the debt of poor countries at cheap prices, and then demand payments much higher than the original amount of the debt, often taking poor countries to court when they cannot afford to repay. For an in-depth look at this issue, we turn to a BBC Newsnight documentary by investigative reporter Greg Palast.