The Debt System: A History of Sovereign Debts and their Repudiation

by Eric Toussaint

Overview

For as long as there have been rich nations and poor nations, debt has been a powerful force for maintaining the unequal relations between them. Treated as sacrosanct, immutable, and eternally binding, it has become the yoke of choice for imperial powers in the post-colonial world to enforce their subservience over the global south. In this ground-breaking history, renowned economist Éric Toussaint argues for a radical reversal of this balance of accounts through the repudiation of sovereign debt.

Éric Toussaint, Senior Lecturer at the University of Liège, is President of Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts, Belgium. He is the co-author of Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank, Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608463091
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	04/23/2019
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Éric Toussaint, Senior Lecturer at the University of Liège, is president of Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts, Belgium. He is the author of “Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank, Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers.”.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface ix

1 How the South Paid for the North's Crises and for Its Own Subjugation 1

2 How Debt and Free Trade Subordinated Independent Latin America 11

3 In the Nineteenth Century, Mexico Proved That Debt Can Be Repudiated 27

4 Newly Independent Greece Had an Odious Debt Around Its Neck 51

5 Debt as a Means for Continued Domination over Greece 65

6 Debt as an Instrument of Colonial Conquest of Egypt 81

7 Debt; How France Appropriated Tunisia 91

8 Alexander Nahum Sack and Sovereign Debts 111

9 Odious Debt according to Sack and according to the CADTM 123

10 Debt Repudiations between 1830 and 1930 135

11 Mexico's Victory against Its Creditors (1914-1942) 153

12 The Repudiation of Debt by the Soviets 165

Conclusion 207

Chronology 209

Bibliography 219

Notes 225

Index 255

Works by Éric Toussaint Published in English 263

Editorial Reviews

"Since 2008 CADTM has campaigned for “a new doctrine of illegitimate, illegal, odious, and unsustainable debt” cancellation. This doctrine includes considerations of whether the debtor state is democratic, whether it respects human rights, whether the debt is incurred within the framework of “structural adjustments” (enforced austerity), and includes all debts incurred to pay back previous odious debts. On grounds of global social justice, The Debt System makes a strong case for this new doctrine." —Against the Current
"This work has much to commend it; it provides detailed analyses of the impact of indebtedness in several nations and a compelling explanation of the deep-seated mechanisms at work in the international credit system – a system which is designed to enhance the opportunity for exploitation of nations outside powerful capitalist sates. The author shows that, contrary to orthodox arguments, debt repudiation can be both justified and successfully carried out. I recommend the book wholeheartedly." —Counterfire

From the Publisher