Today's issue of The International Herald Tribune has a fascinating article on 'vulture' investors -- funds which purchase debt of third world countries for pennies on the dollar and then sue in Western courts to try to recover the money. 'Vulture' investors take advantage of others' generosity by buying up the debt of countries which are currently being considered for debt forgiveness. Once the countries' other debt is forgiven and the seniority of the vultures' debt rises to the top, they swoop in for the kill.
Most people in the development community would place vulture investors just above Pol Pot in a ranking of moral worth. Yet, as the IHT points out, there is at least one positive effect of the vultures attempts to recover their debt: they put the spotlight on corrupt leaders. In their zeal to prove that the countries whose debt they own are capable of footing the bill, vulture investors spend a lot of time and effort to uncover instances of corruption by the countries' leaders.
0 comments:
Post a Comment