Crash Course Economics

Since March 2020, 80 IMF lending arrangements have been approved. These arrangements arise in an era of historical global debt levels. The world is witnessing an insufficient and inadequate multilateral response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which will lock a large number of countries in a decade-long crisis of debt and austerity.What are the effects of growing debt piles for the public heath care sector in the Global South?How can we prevent that IMF austerity measures will arrest development efforts in the next decade?Which institutional changes are needed at the level of International Financial Institutions to avoid policy responses that create new debt traps?Daniel Munevar is a Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer supporting Eurodad's work on debt justice. He is interested in the analysis of the links between debt sustainability and the 2030 Agenda. Before joining Eurodad in 2020, Daniel worked for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and advising the Ministries of Finance of Colombia and Greece on debt related issues. Daniel has a Masters degree in Public Policy from the University of Texas in Austin. He speaks Spanish, English and a bit of Swedish.María José Romero is Policy and Advocacy Manager for Eurodad's work on publicly-backed private finance and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). Her role involves research and analysis, advocacy and monitoring policy developments. She joined Eurodad in 2012 and before that she worked at the secretariat of the Latin American Network on Debt, Development and Rights (LATINDADD), based in Peru, on tax justice and development finance. While in Uruguay, her home country, she was for five years Coordinator of the IFIs Latin American Monitor project at the Third World Institute (ITeM), where her main roles were networking and policy monitoring at a regional and global level on IFI-related issues and development finance. She is currently a PhD candidate in Development Economics at SOAS, University of London, with a research project on the global promotion of public-private partnerships in health and education. ---About Crash Course EconomicsCrash Course is a platform designed to open up debate on how we can move out of the current crisis and make the necessary steps towards achieving social, economic, ecological and regenerative justice.Crash Course is inviting global experts to break down complex issues in lay terms and make them accessible to all so that we can understand how to shape our economic system for a just recovery and future.Website: https://crashcourseeconomics.org/Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/g54ZMDYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu3cbKwed48Bu7dkQDVjRQATwitter: https://twitter.com/CrashEconomics

Dominic Brown will discuss the strategies being proposed by popular movements in the Global South to confront their debt. He will reflect on current movements and their demands from a historical perspective with a focus on South Africa – his home country. Brown will demonstrate how debt issuance in the Global South is often used to implement neoliberal and austerity policies, and discuss how this tendency can be stopped from the bottom up.Is there a perspective for collective opposition from the side of ‘Southern’ countries towards the new debt crisis that is looming now that the pandemic is locking down economies? To what extent do the current campaigns build on the former ones? What lessons can be drawn from the Jubilee 2000 Debt Cancellation Campaign? How does the issue of debt connect to other issues, such as inequality and poverty? And how does debt unite different social struggles? Which theory of change underlies all these movements that fight for global justice and redistribute change?Dominic Brown is Economic Justice Programme Manager at the Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC). AIDC was formed in 1996 in response to the democratic transition in South Africa and the new opportunities and challenges it brought those seeking greater social justice within the democracy.Over the years AIDC has played a leading role in various civil society responses to ongoing inequality including facilitating the launch and building of the South African Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign, and the Right to Work Campaign.---About Crash Course EconomicsCrash Course is a platform designed to open up debate on how we can move out of the current crisis and make the necessary steps towards achieving social, economic, ecological and regenerative justice.Crash Course is inviting global experts to break down complex issues in lay terms and make them accessible to all so that we can understand how to shape our economic system for a just recovery and future.Website: https://crashcourseeconomics.org/Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/g54ZMDYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu3cbKwed48Bu7dkQDVjRQATwitter: https://twitter.com/CrashEconomics

Ewa Karwowski will guide us through ways to quantify and recognize financialization in the global south. Also we will discuss why this particular theoretical frame may be useful to look at contemporary issues that developing countries face and how it is related to structural issues.Ewa Karwowski (University of Hertfordshire) is focused on the operations of large corporations, particularly how firms' behaviour has changed in a financialised setting. Her expertise centers on finance, financialisation and development.---About Crash Course EconomicsCrash Course is a platform designed to open up debate on how we can move out of the current crisis and make the necessary steps towards achieving social, economic, ecological and regenerative justice.Crash Course is inviting global experts to break down complex issues in lay terms and make them accessible to all so that we can understand how to shape our economic system for a just recovery and future.Website: https://crashcourseeconomics.org/Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/g54ZMDYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu3cbKwed48Bu7dkQDVjRQATwitter: https://twitter.com/CrashEconomics

Expert Ingrid Kvangraven discusses Dependency Theory, contrasting it with neoliberal approaches in economic development. She explains how core countries benefit at the expense of periphery countries, emphasizing the need to challenge the dominant global economic system. The conversation explores the historical context of capitalism in South Korea and Indonesia, highlighting the role of dependency theory in understanding global inequalities and economic development paths.

Andew Fischer discusses how debt, dependence, and development intertwine in global economics. They explore historical constraints on late developing countries, external accounts management, trade deficits, industrialization challenges in the Philippines, and the impact of global value chains. The conversation also touches on capital controls, debt crises, and the future focus on dependency theory and underdevelopment in the global economy.

Daniela Gabor discusses using monetary policy to prevent austerity, historical shifts in central banks' role, structural changes for green economies, implications of monetary financing on climate crisis, and challenges in green industrial policy implementation.

Expert in monetary policy, Pablo Bortz, discusses the impact of past QE on the Global South, debt levels, and current crisis-led monetary policies. The talk covers policy areas to mitigate effects, central banks role, global monetary policy mandate, and transitioning to inclusive central banking policies.

Benjamin Braun discusses central banking, finance, and power dynamics with Sara Murawski and Rodrigo Fernandez. They delve into the post-2007 financial web, distributional effects of Fed's actions post-Covid-19, ideology's role in monetary systems, and the need for reform in international finance governance.

Jens van 't Klooster discusses central bank independence, democratic control, and progressive monetary policies. They explore the historical origins of central bank independence, the challenges of embedding central banks in democratic structures, and the need for democratic control. The conversation delves into what progressive monetary policies would entail and the necessary ingredients for change.