Éric Toussaint – författare

The World Bank is a controversial organisation. It is widely viewed with suspicion, as the international economic arm of the US, in thrall to the President who is responsible for appointing the head of the Bank.Eric Toussaint gives a highly readable account of just why the World Bank has become so powerful. In short, clear chapters he shows how the bank operates, who funds it, and what it sets out to promote. The Bank's main purpose is to grant loans to all the newly independent states of the developing world, to help them on their journey to recovery after colonial occupation. In reality, the conditions imposed on these states - including enforced privatisation of all public services, and enforced neo-liberal rules on trade - mean that the Bank has become the new colonial authority in everything but name.

In 1944, the Bretton Woods Conference ushered in a new international economic order. The World Bank emerged as one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world, and a new colonial authority in all but name. But how does it operate, who funds it, and what agenda does it work to promote?In The World Bank: A Critical History, Eric Toussaint answers all of these questions and more. Offering up a highly readable yet uniquely authoritative account, the book analyses the World Bank from its beginnings to the present day. Chapters on gender, climate and the pandemic era complement the peerless research that informed Toussaint's 2007 classic, The World Bank: A Critical Primer, and provide the reader with a truly contemporary, definitive text.Seven international case studies illustrate the impact of World Bank policy, and Toussaint also explores the political, economic and strategic motives of the US government with regard to the World Bank. The book concludes with a proposal for replacing the World Bank, IMF and WTO with new, multilateral and democratic institutions.

What role did sexual assault play in the conquest of America? How did American attitudes toward female sexuality evolve, and how was sexuality regulated in the early Republic?Sex and sexuality have always been the subject of much attention, both scholarly and popular. Yet, accounts of the early years of the United States tend to overlook the importance of their influence on the shaping of American culture. Sex and Sexuality in Early America addresses this neglected topic with original research covering a wide spectrum, from sexual behavior to sexual perceptions and imagery. Focusing on the period between the initial contact of Europeans and Native Americans up to 1800, the essays encompass all of colonial North America, including the Caribbean and Spanish territories.Challenging previous assumptions, these essays address such topics as rape as a tool of conquest; perceptions and responses to Native American sexuality; fornication, bastardy, celibacy, and religion in colonial New England; gendered speech in captivity narratives; representations of masculinity in eighteenth- century seduction tales, the sexual cosmos of a southern planter, and sexual transgression and madness in early American fiction. The contributors include Stephanie Wood, Gordon Sayre, Steven Neuwirth, Else L. Hambleton, Erik R. Seeman, Richard Godbeer, Trevor Burnard, Natalie A. Zacek, Wayne Bodle, Heather Smyth, Rodney Hessinger, and Karen A. Weyler.

Governments of the most industrialised countries have dramatically increased their public debt to bail out the private banks after the most disastrous economic and financial meltdown in capitalist history since the 1930s. Paying debts and reducing fiscal deficits have become the perfect pretexts to enforce austerity measures everywhere. The Troika (European Commission, ECB and IMF) and all EU governments have launched an unprecedented attack on people's social and economic rights. This book will enable the reader to understand how the crisis developed: the consequences of deregulating the banking system, the logic underpinning private banks' responses, and the crimes they perpetrate on a daily basis with the collusion of governments and central banks. It argues for socialisation, rather than 'nationalisation', of the banking sector so that it becomes a proper public service under citizen control and monitoring. It argues for the cancellation of illegitimate public debt that largely results from bank bail-outs. It uses simple straightforward language to make it possible for anyone to understand the current crisis and see coherent alternatives to the current policies.

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 subservience 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.Éric Toussaint, Senior Lecturer at the University of Liège, is President of Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts, Belgium. He is the co-author of Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank, Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers.

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 subservience 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.Éric Toussaint, Senior Lecturer at the University of Liège, is President of Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debts, Belgium. He is the co-author of Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank, Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers.

Using 50 questions and answers, this book explains the debt impasse for developing countries in a simple but precise manner. It details the roles of the various actors involved, the mesh in which indebted countries are caught, the possible scenarios for getting out of the impasse, and the various alternatives to future indebtedness. It also sets out the various arguments - moral, political, economic, legal and environmental - on which the case for a wholesale cancellation of developing countries‘ external debt rests. It replies to the range of possible objections and proposes new ways of financing development at both local and international level.

Using 50 questions and answers, this book explains the debt impasse for developing countries in a simple but precise manner. It details the roles of the various actors involved, the mesh in which indebted countries are caught, the possible scenarios for getting out of the impasse, and the various alternatives to future indebtedness. It also sets out the various arguments - moral, political, economic, legal and environmental - on which the case for a wholesale cancellation of developing countries' external debt rests. It replies to the range of possible objections and proposes new ways of financing development at both local and international level.

Using 50 questions and answers, this book explains the debt impasse for developing countries in a simple but precise manner. It details the roles of the various actors involved, the mesh in which indebted countries are caught, the possible scenarios for getting out of the impasse, and the various alternatives to future indebtedness. It also sets out the various arguments - moral, political, economic, legal and environmental - on which the case for a wholesale cancellation of developing countries' external debt rests. It replies to the range of possible objections and proposes new ways of financing development at both local and international level.

In the last decade neoliberal policies have created debt and global impoverishment on a massive scale. In this updated edition of his internationally recognised book, Toussaint traces the origins and development of the crisis in global finance.

Så länge det har funnits rika och fattiga länder har skuld varit ett effektivt sätt att bibehålla deras ojämlika förhållanden. Historikern, statsvetaren och författaren Eric Toussaint tar oss genom statsskuldernas historia från 1800-talet till 2000-talet. Han visar hur det globala Syd betalat för sina skulder till Nord genom historien med sin egen underkastelse. Han tar exempel från Latinamerika efter frigörelsen från kolonialväldena, där han också beskriver Mexiko som ett exempel på att skulder kunnat avvisas. Genom boken fyller han på med fler exempel på att det går att förkasta skulder utan att förlora tillgången till internationell kredit. Toussaint analyserar också doktrinen om oberättigade skulder som lanserades av Alexander Sack i början av 1900-talet. Samtidigt som Toussaint finner stora begränsningar i Sacks doktrin, visar han hur den påverkat rörelser runt om i världen som bekämpar orättfärdiga skulder. En av de rörelserna är CADTM, Kampanjen för avskaffande av oberättigade skulder, som Toussaint själv var en av initiativtagarna till. I bokens slutsatser konstaterar Toussaint att det inte är de skuldsatta länderna i Syd som orsakar skuldkriserna. Kriserna bryter ut i de mäktigaste kapitalistiska länderna och deras regeringar påtvingar skulderna på fattigare länder. Skulderna är oberättigade och måste förkastas, hävdar Toussaint. Han tar Grekland som 2015 accepterade långivarnas diktat som exempel på de förskräckande sociala effekterna av fortsatt skuldbetalning. Toussaint har skrivit en rad böcker om det globala finansväldet, skuldkrisen och Grekland 2015. Han har varit verksam vid World Social Forum och deltog i Sanningskommissionen om Greklands statsskuld. Den här boken är den första som publiceras på svenska. Förord till boken har skrivits av Patric Saurin, författare och aktiv i den fackliga organisationen Sud Solidaires vid den franska storbanken BPCE. Svenskt förord har skrivits av Larsolov Olsson. Boken innehåller även en kronologi över skuldernas historia, en litteraturförteckning och ett register.