Monét Copper from Jubilee is walking us through the history of debt and its impact on people in developing countries

The debt crisis began, she tells us, in the 1960’s. The U.S. spent a lot more money than it earned, so we printed more. The eventual impact was that banks had a lot more money, and to make even more money, they started to loan that money to developing countries.

With the surplus of money to loan, banks didn’t thoroughly research who they were lending to or if countries could realistically pay the money back.

In the late 70’s, interest rates rose significantly. The U.S. was headed into a recession and many of these banks started to call these countries, saying they needed the loans paid back. Many countries just couldn’t pay them.

International banks stepped in, like the IMF and the World Bank, and designed plans to help them pay off the loans. These banks set up “structural adjustment programs” and “conditionalities.”

This meant, they started to change people for things they didn’t use to have to pay for, like water and electricity, and that they were changed user fees for things like school and healthcare. For a poor family, these fees often meant that their children no longer went to school, sick people didn’t get care, and since a family couldn’t afford clean water, they’d bath and cook in dirty, contaminated water. Perhaps their loans being paid off, but at what costs?

In 2005, the G-8 cancelled the debt for 21 countries in the global south. But it was only for 21 countries.

A study by the Jubilee Debt Campaign shows that a minimum of 61 more countries need debt cancellation in order for the world to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals.

A couple of Jubilee’s main asks:

-The G-8 debt deal only included 3 banks. Jubilee wants all the major international financial institutions to commit to debt cancellation.

-An end to conditionalities.

-Debt Audits: Jubilee wants the world to look at how much of this money was lend to dictators? How much was illegitimate? How much was odious? And how much can we cancel?

So what can we do? Support the Jubilee Act.

Monét passed out some documents about debt and the act, which you can find below.

-Why Drop the Debt 1
-Why Drop the Debt 2

-Jubilee Act FAQ
-Jubilee Act Summary