GEOG 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: International Monetary Fund, Debt Crisis, Government Debt
Document Summary
One of the most pressing global crises of the 1980s and 1990s and helped define global north and south. Debt crisis returned viciously in 2008 to hammer the global north. Strong regionalization to the debt map in 1980"s: latin america afflicted with high debts. Public debt per person, 2013: us has about 20% of total world debt, 16/1/15: us national public debt: . 1 trillion, prc and japan hold over trillion each. Problem continued after the 80s: brazil, mexico and argentina have large debts, debts are still there today and are increasing. Background causes: end of bretton woods world economic order, 1971. Recognition of rise in fascism, accompanied economic collapse. Desire to establish world economic order to diminish fascism. Depended on us geopolitical hegemony: rise of unregulated eurodollar market in london. Deposited in european banks and off-shore american banks. Looked to new borrowers in the developing world, especially locations with commodity(oil in the 1970s)
