CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

“I Don’t Understand” and “Don’t Tell Anyone” 257
out from under your ability to repay, and in so doing they lost the claim to
their money, and you’re going to make certain they understand this in very
clear terms.
This analogy parallels what has happened in well over a hundred countries
across the globe over the past 40 years. With one minor variation. As
often as not, the head of the country was involved in the ripoff as well.
Bankers and businesspeople can argue that they would never do this kind of
thing in their own countries. But the rules stop at the border, and tens of
thousands of them have done it in other lands. They may squirm uncomfortably
with the bluntness of this comparison, but unfortunately it hits
home because it’s true.
Many bankers find it acceptable to subvert poor countries, while insisting
that poor countries have to pay off or sustain their debts in order to be
creditworthy in the future. The arrogance of this position is breathtaking.
And with this, the issue of debt relief is at an impasse. Hanging like a Damocles
sword over the negotiators is instant demise to anyone on either side
who ventures into the minefield of past transgressions, money that has been
intentionally moved out of poor countries into western banks. The fact is,
the borrowers stole the money and the lenders helped them steal it and neither
side can say so. In my judgment this is the ugliest chapter in international
commerce since slavery.
Countries home to most of the world’s population are in, quite literally,
a debtor’s prison. The World Bank, IMF, and the Paris and London clubs say
dance to our tune and we’ll relieve three, maybe four or five percent of your
debt. The impoverished countries watch their citizens live and die in desperate
straits, as they attempt to do Washington’s bidding. This is no way to
open the twenty-first century. Chapter 12 offers suggestions on how to
break the deadlock.
WHAT IF?
Of the $500 billion a year in illicit proceeds that I estimate pass annually
from developing and transitional economies into western accounts, suppose
that reasonable steps can keep a good part of these funds in these poorer
economies. What if the money stayed home legally rather than going abroad
illegally? What could it do? What could it buy?