Yesterday, Jeffrey Sachs, the man who engineered Russia’s economic meltdown, took a step closer to redemption by suggesting that Africa ought not to pay its debt. This is something that African groups have been saying for quite a while, but it seems that news organizations take you more seriously if you’ve been part of the problem first. (Being part of the problem is, of course, something with which I’m familiar, though I don’t seem to have reaped nearly as many benefits as Prof Sachs.)
The papers at the Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) earlier this year didn’t generate nearly as much fuss as Cde Sachs’ recent thoughts, but Eric Toussaint’s contribution pulled no punches.
…one thing is sure: the regions of the world which have been the most diligent in applying IMF and World Bank recommendations, namely sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Central and Eastern Europe are, according to your own figures, the regions that have experienced the most dramatic increase in absolute poverty.
Via Patrick B.