This exploratory issue paper begins with a statement by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, which outlines what a well-functioning global financial system would achieve, followed by his dry statement that the current global financial system does none of these things. The paper...

An examination of the evolutionary stages of the debt problem in developing countries, with a discussion of how U.S. banks and financial markets have adjusted to accommodate it and some proposed solutions to the problem.

This paper is a general discussion of debt conversions in heavily indebted developing countries. The paper first describes the three different types of transactions that are commonly called debt conversions. Next the paper discusses programs that have been established in Chile, Brazil, Mexico,...