The Coming First World Debt Crisis

by Ann Pettifor

In this book, Ann Pettifor examines the issues of debt affecting the 'first world' or OECD countries, looking at the history, politics and ethics of the coming debt crisis and exploring the implications of high international indebtedness for governments, corporations, households, individuals and the ecosystem.

Genres: Economics

190 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2006

About the author

Ann Pettifor is a director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME), Honorary Research Fellow at the Political Economy Research Centre at City University (CITYPERC), and a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, London.

She is best known for correctly predicting the Global Financial Crisis in several publications including The New Statesman (Coming soon: the new poor) and her 2006 publication The Coming First World Debt Crisis.

Pettifor's background is in sovereign debt. She was one of the leaders in the Jubilee 2000 debt campaign which succeeded in writing off $100 billion of debts (in nominal terms) owed by 35 of the poorest countries. She is also Executive Director of Advocacy International, which advises governments and organisations on matters relating to international finance and sustainable development.

She recently published Just Money: How Society Can Break the Despotic Power of Finance.

Reviews

[Juston Fenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's amazing that this book was published in 2006. Pettifor accurately predicted the cause & effect of the GFC missed by neoclassical orthodox economists. Fantastic!

[Darius · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book after seeing Pettifor on TV, being credited for predicting the current (2007-onward) credit crises. I guess it serves me right that I did not research who the author was. I thought the book was going to be about economics, or that it would throw some light on the nature and extent of the current crisis. Instead, it is a diatribe from someone who seems to be Marxist-Christian-ecologist.

I did find it interesting that modern Marxists are now speaking with praise of certain classes of businessmen, and even extolling their profit-making. However, this praise is reserved only for those who make "real" things. It is a vague term that is an expansion of the Marxist theory of value, updated to include knowledge work...except financial intermediation.

The book is a rant about modern "usury". I made it into about 30 pages but was falling asleep. So, I've listed my copy on Amazon. I'm writing this review because I don't want anyone buying it with the wrong impression.

The book would be a valuable addition to any college student preparing a paper where he would like to argue about the evils of "globalization", how bankers are usurers who are driving us to exhaust the planets resources, or how the gold standard was like a corset. For everyone else, it's pretty much useless.

[Pedro L. Fragoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got to know of Ann Pettifor from her debate with James Rickards (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsuGt...) and I'm waiting for her new book (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...). Meanwhile, this one was prescient, wise and as it happens, mostly ignored. And it is even more relevant now than when it was written. Full of righteous anger, totally justified and vindicated—and about to be vindicated again, for sure and shame.

[Pezerinno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good on the surface but ultimately misses the point deep down.