Predatory Lending

minorities, pointing out that banks cannot provide facts backing up their assertions that
they deny such loans to a high failure rate.
On the other hand, most financial institutions and some economists feel that all too
often, banks are accused unfairly of discrimination against minority owned businesses
when said business is simply not worth such a credit risk, and that no one would find
such a decision discriminatory if the business were not minority owned. These charges
of reverse racism or prejudicial analysis are a longstanding source of controversy in the
study of economic discrimination.
Global Economic Discrimination
An increasing number of economists and international commerce theorists have
suggested that economic discrimination goes far beyond the bounds of individuals or
businesses. The largest scale forms of economic discrimination, and the widest ranging,
affect entire nations or global regions. Many consider that an open world economic
system (globalization), which includes world bodies such as the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), World Bank, and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD), places countries at risk by practicing explicitly discriminatory techniques such
as bilateral and regional bargaining, as well as asymmetrical trade balances and the
maintaining of cheap force labor. Trade policies like the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) are often
regarded as financial measures serving to economically oppress third world nations.
This could include:
Unfavorable terms for monetary support from world banking institutions
Coercive diplomacy to supplant local, regional or national leaders in favor of
those who will act as demanded by foreign investors
Increased prices for supplying basic medical supplies to nations based on ethnic
or religious basis
Refusal of trade agreements
Restrictive trade agreements
Page 94 of 181