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"Washington and others have opposed a more ambitious plan to raise an extra $50 billion in aid money by issuing bonds using future development budgets as collateral."
Which made me realize that for all the hype, I've very little idea about what we're actually proposing here. $50 billion thrown into the aid pot by whom? The entire G8 or just the US?
$50 billion a year, or over what time period?
And "By issuing BONDS using FUTURE DEVELOPMENT BUDGETS as collateral"? Future development of what? That sounds like pretty hypothetical collateral to me. I'd want those bonds to be paying a pretty hefty interest rate before I'd buy into that scheme!
And another series of questions came up today at work....who's getting this aid money? What NGOs? What's the approval process? Who decides? In George Bush's America, do only "faith-based" NGOs get funding...and do I want to be supporting some variant of missionary work?
Does anyone know where to look to begin to unravel these issues? All shortcuts appreciated, because unraveling this stuff sure seems like it could take some time! Perhaps I just have to go back to keeping the Financial Times and The Economist around for bathroom reading.
If in the end I'm being asked as a taxpayer to float $50 billion in federal bonds, based on a mirage of collateral, with the funds going to Christian missionaries....I'm not so sure I'm OK with that.
PLUS....does fearless leader have the authority to pledge anything meaningful at the G8 anyway? He doesn't really have the "power of the purse" - Congress has to appropriate and disburse the cash. Sure, he can make Executive Agreements, but I doubt there's that kind of serious money in the State Dep't slush fund....