The Progressive

/367/ Don’t Pay Them Back ft. Jerome Roos


Listen Later

Podcast: Bungacast (LS 49 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)
Episode: /367/ Don’t Pay Them Back ft. Jerome Roos
Pub date: 2023-10-10

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization



On sovereign debt and taking back control.
 
The leading candidate in Argentina's election this month wants to avoid defaulting on the country's debt at all costs. But back in 2001, after a mass revolt, Argentina reneged on its debts – one of the very rare cases over the past 70 years of unilateral default. 
 
Why are nations so eager to pay back creditors nowadays, especially when it means endless austerity and little prospect of economic development?
 
We talk to scholar Jerome Roos about his book, Why Not Default? and discuss a range of cases: Mexico, Greece, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Ghana - and of course Argentina. We find that the old free market system used to accept that reneging on your debts was a risk creditors had to take. No longer: transnational institutions make sure that creditors get paid every time. 
 
How might countries free themselves from international financial dictatorship?
 
For part two of the interview and the After Party, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
 
Links:
Why Not Default?: The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt, Jerome Roos
  • Memoria del saqueo (Social Genocide), film on 2001 debt crisis and uprising in Argentina (many versions available online)
  • /83/ Now It’s Syrizous (episode on Syriza's defeat in Greece)
  • The World in One Country: Greece, Jonas Kyratzes (part of ep.200)


    The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bungacast, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    The ProgressiveBy The Syllabus / Listen Notes