Debt Vultures Shot for Chanukah


Greg Palast’s story, Debt Vultures Shot for Chanukah, explains one way capitalists can make money.

Dr. Eric Hermann, who, for a couple pennies on the dollar, secretly bought the right to collect a $6 million debt owed by Liberia.

Hermann and his flock of vulture partners demanded Liberia pay $43 million—a devastating sum for that nation—or he would, in effect, block aid funding for that nation’s recovery from civil war. The nation was now Hermann’s economic hostage.

Read the article to see how this story had a happy ending.

I don’t think that this story is too far different from what happens in this country with some individual  and corporate debts.

Of course there is also the opposite end of the spectrum where the public (through its government)  steps in to buy the debt of a risky business to let the perpetrators off the hook for their risky behavior. See yesterday’s post, Eating The Irish.

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