Posted on 09/23/2005 7:44:59 AM PDT by ckilmer
Wolfowitz Wavers on Debt-Relief Plan World Bank's Financial Viability Cited By Paul Blustein Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, September 23, 2005; Page D05 Paul D. Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, voiced concern yesterday about a plan unveiled amid much fanfare this summer to cancel the debts of the world's poorest nations, saying it could weaken the bank's finances.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
One helpful suggestion would be that someone refer the ild to Wolfowitz with the suggestion that countries would need to pass property standards created by the ild in order to qualify for debt relief. The ild's url is: http://www.ild.org.pe/eng/contenido.htm
The following is a blurb from the ild web site:
WHO WE ARE
Four billion people in developing and post-Soviet nations —two thirds of the world's population— have been locked out of the global economy: forced to operate outside the rule of law, they have no legal identity, no credit, no capital, and thus no way to prosper. The Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), based in Lima, Peru, has created a key that can open the system to everyone — a time-tested strategy for legal reform that offers the majority of the world's people a stake in the market economy.
The ILD does not only design strategies and projects. It implements them: over the past 18 years, we have created and managed legal property systems that have moved hundreds of thousands of businesses and real estate holdings from the underground economy into the economic mainstream. (See Achievements.)
RECOGNITION
The Economist listed the ILD as one of the two most important think tanks in the world; according to the Telegraph of London, the ILD has created one of the four big ideas in modern times for improving the lot of the world's poor. Time magazine named the ILD as one of the five most important innovators of the twentieth century in Latin America. Ronald Coase, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, has called the ILD's work "powerful and completely convincing." Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man, has said that the ILD's methodology "constitutes one of the few new and genuinely promising approaches to overcoming poverty to come along in a very long time." Praise has come from across the political spectrum —from Bill Clinton and Bill Bradley to Vladimir Putin, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Recently, former President Clinton stated that he thought "the most promising anti-poverty initiative in the world was the one being advanced by the ILD". (For additional responses to our work by academics and the international media, see Press and Academic Reviews.)
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
In 1996, the ILD expanded its activities to the international arena, and political leaders around the world began seeking our help. We are now working with the governments of Egypt, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, and Tanzania. (See Recognition by World Leaders and International Organizations.)
The ILD has received requests from the political leadership of some 30 countries around the world. (See Annex 10 for a detailed list.) We expect the current rate of demand for our services to continue for the foreseeable future.
WHY DO GOVERNMENTS OF DEVELOPING AND FORMER SOVIET NATIONS CALL ON THE ILD?
The ILD addresses the most pressing economic and social problem they face: the failure of current market-oriented reforms to benefit the majority of the population.
The ILD provides heads of state with a straightforward and non-ideological explanation for why even the most well-intentioned market reforms will fail: their nations lack a property law that is accessible to the poor and that allows both physical and intellectual assets to be converted into capital.
The ILD provides a manageable program for building an inclusive property system that focuses on the needs of the poor and middle classes and provides nations with strategies to build widespread support for the reforms and to overcome the resistance of vested interests.
the us should pull out of the world bank. that will dry up their endless source of cash and force them to be responsible.
the us should pull out of the world bank. that will dry up their endless source of cash and force them to be responsible.
the US is the primary source of capital for the world bank.
the problem is that the places to which the US extends loans don't have the intellectual property infrastructure to support the loans. the money is poured down the toilet. and will go to the same place again unless legal and cultural property infrastructure is created to support the loans.
the world bank is an exercise in pouring taxpayers money down a rathole. it hasn't done anybody any good, and has done many a world of harm. why perpatuate this monster?
our taxpayers work hard for their dollars and they shouldn't see them wasted.
What countries are to have their debt forgiven?
Update:
IMF writes off poor countries' debt
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050925/bs_nm/group_debt_dc
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