ABSTRACT
The growth of long-term, large-scale movements of finance capital is a part of a larger picture of externally controlled industrial and commercial investments linked to public finance. The debt crisis is only one aspect of a larger crisis of world capitalist development. The dynamics of international debt peonage are intimately tied to the dependent structures of Third World productive systems. Studies of major loan recipients such as Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Zaire indicate that, although bank capital does not necessarily contribute to the growth of productive resources, it has contributed to exacerbating the inequalities. One crucial necessity in interpreting and understanding the dynamics of indebtedness and repayment is the demystification of the interactions by going beyond "national" units and identifying the class actors who play the game. Thus, bank policies are linked to societal, structural, and governmental changes that transcend simple financial transactions and encompass the political economy as a whole.
