The Changing Geography of Debt and IMF&apos;s Involvement: From Global to European South

Theofanis Papageorgiou, null; Iason Rousopoulos, null; Sotiris Koskoletos, null

doi:10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.7.4.0451

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World Review of Political Economy

Volume 7, Issue 4

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The Changing Geography of Debt and IMF's Involvement: From Global to European South

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Author(s): Theofanis Papageorgiou , Iason Rousopoulos , Sotiris Koskoletos

Publication date (Print): Winter 2016

Journal: World Review of Political Economy

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Greece, debt, IMF, biopolitics, eurozone

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Abstract

The risk reassessment process having taken place after the outburst of the crisis of 2008 highlights the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a last resort lender. In this article, we try to evaluate the fiscal and political presuppositions of the IMF's recent history toward crediting countries, focusing particularly in the case of Greece. We try to unravel the specific neoliberal dogma suppressing the Greek people, and the practices through which it succeeds in this direction, concluding that debt accumulation is acting rather as a disciplinary force than as a request for repayment. Furthermore, we focus on the issues that come up along with debt relief process, and the policy shifts in the IMF's history, arguing that different strategies of capital are unfolding: a moderate New Keynesianism based on the capitalist “utopia” of the unburdened state, and another offensive neoliberalism based on an antagonistic relationship between the creditor and the debtor with reference to “biopolitics.”

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Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): worlrevipoliecon

Title: World Review of Political Economy

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 2042891X

ISSN (Electronic): 20428928

Publication date (Print): Winter 2016

Volume: 7

Issue: 4

Pages: 451-473

Article

Publisher ID: worlrevipoliecon.7.4.0451

DOI: 10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.7.4.0451

SO-VID: 6c81bd19-b4d5-4108-bdd8-65ac098ad232

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History

References

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Papageorgiou, T., and P. G. Michaelides. 2016. “Joseph Schumpeter and Thorstein Veblen on Technological Determinism, Individualism and Institutions.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 23 (1): 1–30.
Papageorgiou, T., P. G. Michaelides, and J. G. Milios. 2010. “Business Cycles Synchronization and Clustering in Europe (1960–2009).” Journal of Economics & Business 62 (5): 419–70.
Paquet, L., M. Roussel, and Y. Lafrance, eds. 1989. Les Présocratiques: Bibliographie analytique (1879–1980) , vol. 2. Montreal: Bellarmin.
Pasquinelli, M. 2015. “Italian Operaismo and the Information Machine.” Theory, Culture & Society 32: 49–68.
Peet, R., and E. Hartwick. 2009. Theories of Development: Contentions, Arguments, Alternatives . New York: The Guilford Press.
Pisani-Ferry, J., A. Sapir, and G. Wolff. 2013. EU-IMF Assistance to Euro-Area Countries: An Early Assessment . Bruegel Blueprint 19. Belgium: Bruegel. http://bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/imported/publications/1869_Blueprint_XIX_-_web__.pdf .
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Agamben, G. 2009. What Is an Apparatus and Other Essays . Translated by D. Kishik and S. Pedatella. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

[2] Andersen, Ø. 2008. Aristoteles: Poetikk [Introductory essay]. Oslo, Norway: Vidarforlaget AS/Vidarforlaget.

[3] Arestis, P., and M. Sawyer. 2013. Economic and Monetary Union Macroeconomic Policies: Current Practices and Alternatives . Houndsmill and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[4] Barro, R. J., and D. B. Gordon. 1983. “Rules, Discretion and Reputation in a Model of Monetary Policy.” Journal of Monetary Economics 12 (1): 101–21.

[5] Beiner, S., W. Drobetz, M. M. Schmid, and H. Zimmermann. 2006. “An Integrated Framework of Corporate Governance and Firm Valuation.” European Financial Management 12: 249–83.

[6] Bello, W. 2006. “The Capitalist Conjuncture: Over-Accumulation, Financial Crises, and the Retreat from Globalisation.” Third World Quarterly 27 (8): 1345–67.

[7] Bird, G. 2007. “The IMF: A Bird's Eye View of Its Role and Operations.” Journal of Economic Surveys 21 (4): 683–745.

[8] Butler, J. 2000. Antigone's Claim: Kinship between Life and Death . New York: Columbia University Press.

[9] Callinicos, A. 2011. “The Crisis of Our Time.” International Socialism 132 (Autumn). http://isj.org.uk/the-crisis-of-our-time/.

[10] Campbell, T. C. 2011. Improper Life: Technology and Biopolitics from Heidegger to Agamben . Minneapolis, MN, and London: University of Minnesota Press.

[11] Charbonneau, M., and M. P. Hansen. 2014. “Debt, Neoliberalism and Crisis: Interview with Maurizio Lazzarato on the Indebted Condition.” Sociology 48 (5): 1039–47.

[12] Comaroff, J., and J. L. Comaroff. 2001. Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism . London: Duke University Press.

[13] Devlin, R., and R. French-Davis. 1995. “The Great Latin American Debt Crisis: A Decade of Asymmetric Adjustment.” Revista de economia política 15 (3): 117–42.

[14] Dreher, A. 2004. “A Public Choice Perspective of IMF and World Bank Lending and Conditionality.” Public Choice 119 (3–4): 445–64.

[15] Dugger, W. M. 1979. “Methodological Differences between Institutional and Neoclassical Economics.” Journal of Economic Issues 13 (4): 899–909.

[16] Edwards, S. 2003. “Debt Relief and the Current Account: An Analysis of the HIPC Initiative.” The World Economy 26 (4): 513–31.

[17] Evans, H. 1999. “Debt Relief for the Poorest Countries: Why Did It Take So Long?” Development Policy Review 17 (3): 267–79.

[18] Felix, D. 1990. “Latin America's Debt Crisis.” World Policy Journal 7 (4): 733–71.

[19] Foucault, M. (1966) 1970. The Order of Things . Andover, Hants: Tavistock.

[20] Gilpin, R. 2011. Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[21] Gitlin, T. 1994. “Prime Time Ideology: The Hegemonic Process in Television Entertainment.” In Television—The Critical View , edited by Horace Newcomb, 574–94. New York: Oxford University Press.

[22] Griffiths, J., and K. Todoulos. 2014. “Conditionally Yours: An Analysis of the Policy Conditions Attached to IMF Loans.” European Network on Debt and Development. http://eurodad.org/files/pdf/533bd19646b20.pdf.

[23] Gulli, B. 2013. “A Second Innocence: Deactivating the Debt Machine.” Reviews in Cultural Theory 4 (2): 53–55.

[24] Gunter, B. G. 2002. “What's Wrong with the HIPC Initiative and What's Next?” Development Policy Review 20 (1): 5–24.

[25] Hadjimichalis, C. 2009. “Uneven Geographical Development and Socio-Spatial Justice and Solidarity: European Regions after the 2009 Financial Crisis.” European Urban and Regional Studies 18 (3): 254–74.

[26] Hadjimichalis, C., and R. Hudson. 2014. “Contemporary Crisis across Europe and the Crisis of Regional Development Theories.” Regional Studies 48 (1): 208–18.

[27] Harvey, D. 2010. “The Enigma of Capital and the Crisis this Time.” American Sociological Association Meetings, Atlanta, August 16.

[28] IMF (International Monetary Fund). 2010. “Greece: Staff Report on Request for Stand-By Arrangement.” IMF Country Report No. 10/110, May 5.

[29] Janssen, R. 2010. “Greece and the IMF: Who Exactly Is Being Saved?” Working paper, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London.

[30] Lapavitsas, C., A. Kaltenbrunner, D. Lindo, J. Michell, J. B. Painceira, E. Pires, J. Powell, A. Stenfors, and N. Teles. 2010. “Eurozone Crisis: Beggar Thyself and Thy Neighbour.” RMF (Research on Money and Finance) Eurozone Reports. http://www.researchonmoneyandfinance.org/index.php/publication/eurozone-reports/32-first-rmf-report-on-the-eurozone-crisis-beggar-thyself-and-thy-neighbour.

[31] Lazzarato, M. 2012. The Making of the Indebted Man: An Essay on the Neoliberal Condition . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[32] Lears, T. J. 1985. “The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities.” American Historical Review 30 (3): 567–93.

[33] McWhorter, L. 2012. “Review on Campbell, Improper Life: Technology and Biopolitics from Heidegger to Agamben.” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews . http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/29756-improper-life-technology-and-biopolitics-from-heidegger-to-agamben/.

[34] Michaelides, P. G., T. Papageorgiou, and A. T. Vouldis. 2013. “Business Cycles and Economic Crisis in Greece (1960–2011): A Long Run Equilibrium Analysis in the Eurozone.” Economic Modelling 31: 804–16.

[35] Moss, T. 2006. “Will Debt Relief Make a Difference? Impact and Expectation of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative.” Working paper, no. 88. Washington, DC: Centre for Global Development.

[36] Nissanke, M. 2010. “Reconstructing the Aid Effectiveness Debate.” In Foreign Aid for Development: Issues, Challenges, and the New Agenda , edited by G. Mavrotas, 63–93. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[37] Obstfeld, M., J. C. Shambaugh, and A. M. Taylor. 2004. “The Trilemma in History: Tradeoffs among Exchange Rates, Monetary Policies and Capital Mobility.” NBER working paper, no. 10396, March. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

[38] Pagoulatos, G. 2003, Greece's New Political Economy: State, Finance and Growth from Post-war to EMU . London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[39] Papageorgiou, T., I. Katselides, and P. G. Michaelides. 2013. “Schumpeter, Commons, and Veblen on Institutions.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 72 (5): 1232–54.

[40] Papageorgiou, T., and P. G. Michaelides. 2016. “Joseph Schumpeter and Thorstein Veblen on Technological Determinism, Individualism and Institutions.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 23 (1): 1–30.

[41] Papageorgiou, T., P. G. Michaelides, and J. G. Milios. 2010. “Business Cycles Synchronization and Clustering in Europe (1960–2009).” Journal of Economics & Business 62 (5): 419–70.

[42] Paquet, L., M. Roussel, and Y. Lafrance, eds. 1989. Les Présocratiques: Bibliographie analytique (1879–1980) , vol. 2. Montreal: Bellarmin.

[43] Pasquinelli, M. 2015. “Italian Operaismo and the Information Machine.” Theory, Culture & Society 32: 49–68.

[44] Peet, R., and E. Hartwick. 2009. Theories of Development: Contentions, Arguments, Alternatives . New York: The Guilford Press.

[45] Pisani-Ferry, J., A. Sapir, and G. Wolff. 2013. EU-IMF Assistance to Euro-Area Countries: An Early Assessment . Bruegel Blueprint 19. Belgium: Bruegel. http://bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/imported/publications/1869_Blueprint_XIX_-_web__.pdf .

[46] Rachiotis, G., D. Stuckler, M. McKee, and C. Hadjichristodoulou. 2015. “What Has Happened to Suicides during the Greek Economic Crisis? Findings from an Ecological Study of Suicides and Their Determinants (2003–2012).” BMJ Open 5 (3): 1–6. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007295.

[47] Reinertsen, A. B. 2015. “A Wild Multiple Apparatus of Knowing Discussion: Waiting Pentimento Intra-Observation.” Qualitative Inquiry 21: 623–27. doi:1077800414566685.

[48] Reinhart, C. M., and K. S. Rogoff. 2010. “From Financial Crash to Debt Crisis.” NBER working paper, no. 15795. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

[49] Rogers, C. 2012. The IMF and European Economies: Crisis and Conditionality . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[50] Sachs, J., A. Tornell, and A. Velasco. 1996. “Financial Crises in Emerging Markets: The Lessons from 1995.” NBER working paper, no. 5576. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

[51] Seitz, F., and T. Jost. 2012. “The Role of the IMF in the European Debt Crisis.” Working paper, HAW im Dialog-Weidener Diskussionspapiere, no. 32. https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/56452.

[52] Sotiropoulos, D., J. Milios, and S. Lapatsioras. 2013. A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and Its Crisis: Demystifying Finance . Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy. London: Routledge.

[53] Stiglitz, J. 1999. “Whither Reform? Ten Years of the Transition.” Paper presented at the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, Washington, DC: The World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/448681468741326292/pdf/multi-page.pdf.

[54] Terranova, T. 2015. “Introduction to Eurocrisis, Neoliberalism and the Common.” Theory, Culture & Society 32 (7–8): 5–23. doi:10.1177/0263276415597772.

[55] Toporowski, J. 2010. Why the World Economy Needs a Financial Crash and Other Critical Essays on Finance and Financial Economics . London and New York: Anthem Press.

[56] Vilanova, J. C., and M. Martin. 2001. The Paris Club . London: Debt Relief International Ltd. http://www.dri.org.uk/pdfs/EngPub3_Paris_Club.pdf.