CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

Spreading Prosperity 353
Then we can trust the system to stimulate growth and spread income, giving
everyone a stake in shared prosperity.
“. . . WHEN YOU PAY ME WHAT YOU OWE ME”
Foreign debt—a trillion-and-a-half-dollars—hangs like a death sentence
over developing and transitional economies. They incurred the debt and,
through illegal financial transfers, the West received from poorer countries
money that could have been used for debt repayment. In fact, western countries
cooperated in pulling out far more than the total debt burden. There
has to be a solution to the debt problem.
Before offering my approach I share a last story. First, let me make clear
that neither I nor any company of mine has ever failed to pay a bank debt. I
always insisted on borrowing terms that included no penalty for prior payment,
and can recall only twice when I was even delayed in meeting a bank
obligation. Once was when a factory in Nigeria that I largely owned burned
to the ground. The next morning I called on the manager of the bank extending
the company working capital funds, assured him of repayment out
of insurance proceeds, and added my personal guarantee to the company’s
note. We imported new machinery and were up and running in rented facilities
in three months and rebuilt an expanded plant shortly thereafter. Years
later Citibank paid me a high compliment. On an unprocessed loan application
for a million dollars, I was asked if I wanted any of it immediately. I
said yes, $250,000 would allow us to begin one piece of business promptly.
The next day I was handed the check, weeks before the signature documents
were prepared. With my father a banker, the last thing I would ever do is fail
to pay a bank debt.
Having said this, there was a situation where I reneged on an account
payable. One of my companies entered into an arrangement with the
Nigerian subsidiary of a major Italian corporation, whereby we purchased
from them and they contracted to provide services to us. To make a long
story short, we performed and they didn’t. I asked their managing director
to come see me and forewarned him that his division manager was not
fulfilling the contract and that hell was going to break loose if he didn’t
force compliance. For whatever reason the situation continued. Okay, I