If you have an interest in this, you might want to read "In Banks we Trust" by Penny Lernoux. Getting a bit dated, as it was written in the early '80's, as I recall, but relevant background info. -r.w. On Fri, 1 Nov 1996, Hard Media wrote:

Oh Oh. I said bad things about Americans...in trouble now.

Anyways. Here are some figures:

"In the 20 year period between 1970 and 1989, the external debt of developing nations grew from $68.4 billion to $1 283 billion, an increase of 1846 per cent. Debt service payments increased by 1400 per cent and were in excess of $160 billion by the end of the 80s."

by the way most of this debt is concentrated in South American.

Zaid