Thursday, April 19, 2007

90 - Shameless Right-Wing Greed: How Vulture Funds Prey On Impoverished Third World Nations

Today we're going to discuss an incredibly immoral way to make huge sums of money: vulture funds which prey on destitute Third World nations. As you might imagine, there's a strong right-wing connection.

First I'll give you an overview of the vulture fund process. Next we'll go over some specific examples of vulture funds in action. Finally we'll discuss the right-wing connection to all this, aside from the obvious element of unbridled, unconcerned-with-moral-implications greed.

The overview.

In the Third World debt arena, vulture funds

are companies which buy up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off, then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest.

According to investigative reporter Greg Palast, "political muscle" and "bribery" are also employed by the vulture funds to secure the money they seek.

As you can imagine, any money collected by the vulture fund is that much less funding for education, health care, nutrition programs, or other efforts by a Third World government to improve the lives of their poor majority.

Gordon Brown is the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, akin to our Secretary of the Treasury. Speaking to the UN in 2002, he declared:

We particularly condemn the perversity where vulture funds purchase debt at a reduced price and make a profit from suing the debtor country to recover the full amount owed - a morally outrageous outcome.

Let's go on to some specific examples. A vulture fund preying on Zambia has been in the news lately...

For all the rest of the details, including how George W. Bush could stop these vulture funds with a stroke of his pen, please listen to the podcast.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!!)

Jack Clark 3:25 PM [+]
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