Free Republic

The world has averted a systemic debt crisis amid the pandemic. However, the poorest developing countries continue to face significant debt problems, raising global worries over multiplying debt traps by creditors like China. Addressing the rising risk of a systemic debt crisis in developing countries is one of the key themes at this week’s virtual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Economists believe tackling debt vulnerabilities in poor nations is critical for preventing divergent recoveries around the world. Hence, IMF and World Bank officials are calling for extending debt relief for the most vulnerable...

When I was a young doctor working in poor countries, I made a casual observation that old people in them did not seem to suffer very often from dementia. It occurred to me that properly conducted surveys, of the kind that I was not suited to performing, might be valuable, because a difference in the incidence and prevalence of dementia in various countries might offer a clue to the cause of the disease. As populations throughout the world age, this is a matter of increasing importance.But was my initial casual observation true? And, if true, might the explanation not be...

The United States plans to double aid-for-trade grants to devleloping countries to $2.7 billion per year by 2010, a U.S. government spokeswoman said on Wednesday. She said U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record) would announce the proposed increase in a speech on Wednesday to the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong. The U.S. offer to increase the grants its provides developing countries to boost their exports is part of a proposed trade deal to open up agriculture, goods and services markets around the world. The United States provided $1.34 billion in aid-for-trade grants in 2005,...

J'accuse! I hate to condemn a colleague this way, but our tax dollars are going to pay an indolent New York journalist for not growing wheat on the West Coast. Could there be a worse indictment of American agricultural policy, rendered even more scandalous by the new $180 billion farm bill signed by President Bush? Actually, there is a worse indictment. By inflating farm subsidies even more, Congress and the Bush administration are impoverishing and occasionally killing Africans whom we claim to be trying to help. Last week at the G-8 summit conference in Canada, Mr. Bush and other world...