Debt

The International Monetary Fund Underdevelops Africa

May 23, 2025 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Africa, Debt, Economic Instability, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sudan

At the start of 2025, Sudan registered an alarming debt-to-GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio of 252%. This means that the country’s total public debt is 2.5 times the size of its entire annual economic output. It is not hard to understand why Sudan is in such dire straits: as we outlined in last week’s newsletter, the country has been engulfed in a conflict for decades, which has severely disrupted any possibility of economic growth and financial stability. Yet, in a way, Sudan – one of the richest countries in terms of resources but poorest in terms of household income and wealth – is also representative of what has been happening on the African continent.

President Trump’s Proposal To Eliminate Income Taxes: Can It Be Done?

May 9, 2025 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Create! Debt, Donald Trump, Finance and the Economy, Tariffs, Tax Cuts

In February, President Trump said that tariffs would generate so much income that Americans would no longer need to pay income taxes. The latest plan, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is to abolish income taxes for people who earn less than $150,000 yearly. That move would affect roughly 75% of workers, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. On its face, this could narrow the wealth gap by boosting disposable income for low- and middle-income households without raising taxes on the wealthy — a politically clever alternative to progressive tax hikes.

Imagine You Are A Poor Nation, Trapped By Debt And Strangled By Climate Change

May 9, 2025 John Feffer, Resilience. Strategize! Climate Adaptation, climate crisis, Debt, Global South

Imagine you are a low-income country. You suffer from a heavy debt burden. You’ve been trying to catch up to the more affluent countries for decades, but you’ve been unsuccessful, mainly because of that debt hanging around your neck like a giant millstone. And you are spending more and more of your precious resources dealing with the effects of climate change, from rising waters to superstorms, a crisis that you played only a small part in creating in the first place. You face a terrestrial version of the three-body problem. These three “bodies”—debt, development, and climate change—impact your country in difficult-to-predict ways.

200 Hundred Years Ago, France Strangled Haitian Revolution With Inhumane Debt

April 25, 2025 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. Educate! Debt, France, French colonialism, Haiti, Haitian revolution, History

On a stormy August night in 1791, Dutty Boukman (1767–1791) and Cécile Fatiman (1771–1883) conducted a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman in northern Saint-Domingue, in the French-owned part of Hispaniola. Boukman was captured in Senegambia (now Senegal and The Gambia), and Fatiman was the daughter of a woman from the Congo (as Aimé Césaire wrote) and a man from Corsica. Their ceremony amidst over two hundred enslaved Africans was the catalyst for a mass uprising across the French plantations. Boukman, in Kreyòl, spoke words that were passed down through memory for generations and eventually entered the history books.

France Must Compensate Haiti

April 20, 2025 Florencia Abregú, People's Dispatch. Resist! Debt, France, French colonialism, Haiti, Haitian revolution, Multinational Security Support, Reparations

April 17, 2025 marked two centuries since one of the most unjust episodes in modern history: the forced collection of an illegitimate debt that France imposed on Haiti as a condition for recognizing its independence. On April 17, 1825, King Charles X signed an ordinance forcing the nascent republic to pay 150 million gold francs – equivalent to about USD 21 billion today – plunging the country into a cycle of poverty, dependence, and violence that continues to this day. Amid an unprecedented humanitarian and political crisis, social organizations, political parties, and human rights defenders from Latin America and the Caribbean have submitted letters to French embassies demanding historical reparations.

Haiti And The Global Movement For Reparations

April 13, 2025 Mildred Trouilot Aristide, Resumen English. Create! Debt, Foreign Intervention, Haiti, Reparations, Sovereignty

Since November 11th travel to and from Haiti has become difficult. A shooting at the capital’s airport triggered an immediate ban by the US government on all US flights. Our border with the Dominican Republic has been closed for over a year. International travel from Port-au-Prince involves either a 6-7 hour bus ride to Cape Haitian or a 40-minute helicopter shuttle that can run up to 2,500 US dollars. From there a local airline flies to Miami – at a significantly increased ticket price. The country is facing an extraordinary situation. The capital (and some provinces) are under siege by heavily armed paramilitary forces. They are responsible for an untold number of killings, kidnapping, rapes, acts of arson and pillage.

Militarizing The Ledger, Colonizing The Future

April 7, 2025 Arnie Saiki, Onibaba. Create! Debt, Finance and the Economy, History, Military Industrial Complex, United Nations, US Hegemony, US Imperialism

When we begin to examine U.S. hegemony, the Military-Industrial Complex often serves as the shorthand for understanding the entangled relationship between investment capital, militarism, neocolonial extraction, and unipolar power. But to truly unravel this system, we must look deeper into how the Military-Debt Nexus is legitimized—not only through ideological alignment or geopolitical pressure, but through institutional mechanisms such as trade agreements, national accounting rules, and debt-financed militarization. The intersection between military expenditure and global trade is not incidental; it forms the core infrastructure of compliance and control, shaping everything from resource acquisition to sanctions enforcement, all under the veil of economic normalcy.

McKinley Or Lincoln? Tariffs Vs. Greenbacks

April 7, 2025 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Create! Debt, DOGE, Donald Trump, Finance and the Economy, History, Tariffs

President Trump has repeatedly expressed his admiration for Republican President William McKinley, highlighting his use of tariffs as a model for economic policy. But as critics note, Trump’s tariffs, which are intended to protect U.S. interests, have instead fueled a stock market nosedive, provoked tit-for-tat tariffs from key partners, risk a broader trade withdrawal, and could increase the federal debt by reducing GDP and tax income. The federal debt has reached $36.2 trillion, the annual interest on it is $1.2 trillion, and the projected 2025 budget deficit is $1.9 trillion – meaning $1.9 trillion will be added to the debt this year. It’s an unsustainable debt bubble doomed to pop on its present trajectory.

Puerto Rico Protests Against Higher Education Cuts

March 29, 2025 Jonathan Ng, Truthout. Resist! Austerity, Debt, Education, Puerto Rico

This February, President Luis A. Ferrao Delgado of the University of Puerto Rico resigned after attempting to suspend 64 educational programs. The measure targeted core disciplines such as history, philosophy and comparative literature, stunning the university community and provoking bitter opposition. Eleven days of protests followed, compelling Ferrao to reverse the decision before stepping down. The university showdown is the latest chapter in a two-decade struggle against austerity, as Puerto Rico grapples with a debt crisis and economic stagnation.

Javier Milei Deepens Argentina’s IMF Debt Trap With ‘Emergency’ Loan

March 10, 2025 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Argentina, Debt, Donald Trump, IMF, Javier Milei, Latin America, Neoliberalism

Argentina’s President Javier Milei is a self-declared libertarian and “anarcho-capitalist” who has completely subordinated his country to the United States. In a previous article, Geopolitical Economy Report showed how Argentina’s real economy is in severe crisis under Milei. 53% of the population is in poverty, and manufacturing and construction are collapsing amid rapid deindustrialization. However, the stock market has boomed, enriching Milei’s oligarch backers — although even the financial sector took a hit after Milei promoted a crypto scam that caused thousands of his own supporters to lose millions of dollars.

‘Quantitative Easing With Chinese Characteristics’

February 9, 2025 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Create! Banks, China, Debt, Finance and the Economy, History, Infrastructure, Public Banks

China went from one of the poorest countries in the world to global economic powerhouse in a mere four decades. Currently featured in the news is DeepSeek, the free, open source A.I. built by innovative Chinese entrepreneurs which just pricked the massive U.S. A.I. bubble. Even more impressive, however, is the infrastructure China has built, including 26,000 miles of high speed rail, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station, the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world, 100,000 miles of expressway, the world’s first commercial magnetic levitation train, the world’s largest urban metro network, seven of the world’s 10 busiest ports, and solar and wind power generation accounting for over 35% of global renewable energy capacity.

Trump’s Tariff Threats Could Destabilize The Global Economy

January 26, 2025 Michael Hudson, Geopolitical Economy. Educate! BRICS, Canada, Debt, dollar, Donald Trump, Finance, Mexico, protectionism, Tariffs, Trade

Trump told the Davos Economic Forum January 23: “My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth.” Otherwise, if they continue to try and produce at home or in other countries, their products will be charged tariff rates at Trump’s threatened 20%. To Germany this means (my paraphrase): “Sorry your energy prices have quadrupled. Come to America and get them at almost as low a price as you were paying Russia before your elected leaders let us cut Nord Stream off.”

Time Is Running Out To Cancel Debt For Aging Borrowers

December 17, 2024 Lily Greenberg Call, In These Times. Resist! Debt, Debt Forgiveness, Education, Seniors

A group of student loan borrowers aged 50 and up traveled from around the country to Washington, D.C., on December 11, setting up rocking chairs outside the Department of Education. Dressed in ponchos and beanies to protect against the frigid rain, they passed out cross-stitch kits and signs reading “Knit-In for Debt Cancellation,” sharing their personal debt stories amidst chants of “Biden, don’t forget, cancel student debt.” These protesters are all members of the Debt Collective, the first union of debtors in the country, and they came to Washington with a message for President Joe Biden: Cancel student debt for borrowers over 50 years old before Donald Trump takes office in January.

How To Escape The Federal Debt Trap

December 9, 2024 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Create! Debt, Finance and the Economy, Inflation, Money

The U.S. national debt just passed $36 trillion, only four months after it passed $35 trillion and up $2 trillion for the year. Third quarter data is not yet available, but interest payments as a percent of tax receipts rose to 37.8% in the third quarter of 2024, the highest since 1996. That means interest is eating up over one-third of our tax revenues. Total interest for the fiscal year hit $1.16 trillion, topping one trillion for the first time ever. That breaks down to $3 billion per day. For comparative purposes, an estimated $11 billion, or less than four days’ federal interest, would pay the median rent for all the homeless people in America for a year.

It’s Up To Us To Demand A Jubilee To Wipe The Debts Of The Masses

October 28, 2024 Braxton Brewington, Truthout. Strategize! Debt, Finance and the Economy, Jubilee, Student Loans

Ahead of another fraught election cycle, 40 million Americans could see their “October surprise” approaching well in advance: a massive student loan bill. When the Biden-Harris administration resumed student debt payments in October 2023 after a nearly four-year pause, they implemented a one-year grace period. This “on ramp” would spare debtors of the harsh consequences of a missed or late payment — such as falling into default, hits to one’s credit, Social Security and wage garnishment or capitalized interest. A year later, those punitive measures have resumed, plunging debtors back into the throes of the student debt crisis.

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