The Broadbent Institute (https://broadbentinstitute.ca/), a progressive Canadian think tank, recently published an insightful paper by Roy Culpeper, Past Chair of the Group of 78, on the current debt crisis facing low- and middle-income countries. The paper argues that the most recent wave of debt began in 2010 and has persisted for the last fifteen years, threatening the social and economic well-being of developing countries to an unprecedented degree. Domestic and external debt service now equals the combined total spending on education, health, social protection and climate in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Culpeper makes the case that development has become financialized: market-based financing, often at exorbitant interest rates, is supplanting public financing, but paving the way to debt distress and, increasingly, to default. Pathways out of the debt crisis, he writes, include debt restructuring, domestic resource mobilization, international tax cooperation and reform, and reforming the international financial architecture. Access the full paper here: https://perspectivesjournal.ca/this-time-it-is-worse/
