The genius of the World Bank’s conditional lending was that it was virtually risk-free for the creditors. The World Bank sells bonds on Wall Street, allowing commercial banks and private investors to buy global South debt. These ‘innovative debt products’, as the Bank calls them, are simultaneously safe (usually AAA rated) as well as high yielding, with returns of up to 15 per cent.16 How is the Bank able to deliver such large and secure returns? Because it wields direct power over its debtors. Through structural adjustment conditions, the Bank can force debtors to channel all their available
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Usury
