Lap 3 Day 4International Debt

Grace Ruhbeck

Lord our God, we come to you as poor, heavily burdened people who often do not know where to turn. But we have trust in you, for you are love. Your love sinks deep into our lives, righting what is wrong and making amends for our blundering. And so we are joyful and await your grace and your help on all our ways. Bless us, and help us find what is right in every situation, to your praise and your honor. Amen.

Prayer

Formulate an argument against how international debt is currently used and create a new international debt policy that is socially just (founded on SJ criteria).

Daily Learning Goal 3.3

Debt means “something that is owed or that one is bound to pay or to perform for another.”

What is Debt?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zPyZZIvwCc

Countries need money to build things such as roads, public services, health clinics, and even to manufacture weapons, so they borrow it with interest.

What is the International Debt Crisis?

The public debt in the United States is $11,776,173,770,492.

For India is $1,027,559,562,842. For China- $1,361,286,885,246. For Australia-$395,486,885,246. For France-$2,344,578,688,525. For Italy- $2,468,106,010,929.

Higher Debts

The public debt for Nicaragua is $4,313,661,202.

For Panama- $14,136,612,022. For Mali- $3,327,322,404. For Moldova- $1,300,000,000. For Ghana- $15,004,918,033. Now, the countries are mostly done paying

off the loan, but they are now just paying off the interest.

Lower Debts

Public Debt

It dates back to the 1970s and 1980s when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quadrupled the price of oil in 1973.

OPEC nations deposited a lot of their wealth in commercial banks.

The banks made loans to developing countries without monitoring how the loans were used. Meanwhile as inflation grew in the U.S., tight monetary policies were adopted and it contributed to a sharp rise in interest rates and a worldwide recession.

Causes

Also, more wealthy countries loaned money with high interest rates to the poorer countries.

Causes Continued

Countries are spending so much money trying to pay off their debts that they don’t spend any of it on education, healthcare or public needs, therefore the condition of the country declines.

Some countries overuse land to make cash crops

Countries also resort to manufacturing and selling illegal products.

Effects

A few possible solutions to this problem would be:◦ To cut funding for things such as education,

welfare, war efforts and healthcare.◦ Raise tariffs and taxes

Do you have any possible solutions? Do you think we will ever get out of debt?

Why or why not? Discuss and post on the blog.

Possible Solutions