The Debt System: A History of Sovereign Debts and their Repudiation

by Éric Toussaint

For as long as there have been rich nations and poor nations, debt has been a powerful force for maintaining the unequal relations between them. Treated as sacrosanct, immutable, and eternally binding, it has become the yoke of choice for imperial powers in the post-colonial world to enforce their dominance over the global south. In this ground-breaking history, renowned economist Éric Toussaint argues for a radical reversal of this balance of accounts through the repudiation of sovereign debt.

Genres: Economics, History, Finance, Politics, Theory, Nonfiction, Academic

280 pages, Paperback

Published April 23, 2019

Reviews

[Shena Cavallo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very important, useful read but am not sure it had to be so boring. Maybe that's asking for too much for a book about international debt.

[Julien · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is important and Toussaint tells it well. Highly researched and carefully put forth. This book broaches a topic that is all too often forgotten or put aside in discussions and analysis of global power, conflict, and progress. In order to accurately shape one's world view, it is necessary to have a close-to forensic understanding of the global economy and the events that have shaped it's lifespan. Toussaint offers a critical contribution in this domain. This book shines a much needed light on the systems of exploitation and corruption that have shaped the world as we know it.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to Hudson in ...And Forgive Them Their Debts, the means of amassing wealth and power known as debt bondage goes back more than 5000 years. In this work, Toussaint shows how that practice has been incorporated into the modern nation state system over the last two centuries.

Toussaint starts with the birth of the Latin American nations, following just after the defeat of Napoleon, where the British loaned the new nations capital (on extremely usurious terms) to buy British goods. He then illustrates how such practices have carried over into our era, and how our financial system is inextricably tied to the history of of this national debt bondage. Let others forever be poor so we can forever be rich.

Toussaint also argues these odious debts should be repudiated, and shows through detailed historical analysis how such debts have been repudiated in the past.

This book is arguably far too short for such a large subject, but offers a very good perspective on what is generally a little understood topic.

https://www.cadtm.org/

[Viral · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent piece of historical analysis, showing how international debt networks and cycles hold developing nations hostage to extract value into the pockets of the banking elite of the Global North. Each chapter details different historical instances in the last 300 years, and also how these countries dealt with (or didn't deal with) the crises that were induced by international capital. A bit dry, but valuable.

[M B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very informative and rigorously well-researched, but sadly dry and bland in its prose