Iraq's Shrinking Debt

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 23, 2004 | Editorial

[OESY]

Just a few months ago, resolution of Iraq's gigantic debt seemed pretty much insurmountable. But with almost no media fanfare, special Presidential debt envoy James A. Baker III has been making notable progress.

In December, the former Secretary of State visited Iraq's main European creditors and Japan, winning promises for major debt reduction. Now it's the Arab world's turn to make its contribution to a stable, free Iraq. Early this week Mr. Baker won general debt forgiveness promises from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, and yesterday he reportedly got the same from the biggest Arab creditor, Saudi Arabia. While no numbers were disclosed, the size of the haircut is expected to be large.

[OESY]

Just a few months ago, resolution of Iraq's gigantic debt seemed pretty much insurmountable. But with almost no media fanfare, special Presidential debt envoy James A. Baker III has been making notable progress.

No media fanfare? I wonder why.

[Petronski]

What are they drinking over at the WSJ? The amount of repayment that represents the original loan amount is "principal," not "principle."

[Guillermo]

principle

Arghh! It's "principal!"

[Petronski]

Two seconds!

[Guillermo]

I would expect a mistake like that to come outof NewsMax or World Net Daily.

But the WSJ?

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Then there's the Muslim practice of not charging explicit interest; that opens the door to having creditors write off interest but not principle.

The Muslims wrote off their principles when they became Wahabbis.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks, OESY. We'll try to give this important news a bit more coverage.
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Just a few months ago, resolution of Iraq's gigantic debt seemed pretty much insurmountable. But with almost no media fanfare, special Presidential debt envoy James A. Baker III has been making notable progress.

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Freedom, ping!

[serurier]

Thank you send this post to me .

[Cap Huff]

Haircut? Maybe I'm just ignorant of financial lingo. Several billion would indeed amount to a big haircut.

[Petronski]

"Haircut" refers to the appearance of the daily price charts. When a price or number falls significantly, the measurements shown on the chart are much shorter, like a haircut.

That's been my guess as to the origin of the term.

[Cap Huff]

Thanks. One bit of my ignorance wiped away.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this news that has been spiked by the Left Wing Lunatic Mediots around the world who control most of the media.

[Grampa Dave]

Once again spell checkers strike!

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[blackie]

Iraq's Shrinking Debt ~ Bump!

[maica]

I wish we would the words "thousand million" instead of "billion," as the British do. So many people just see a billion as a bit more than a million.

Where did Russia get six thousand five hundred million dollars to lend to Iraq? I thught they were a needy nation!