Introduction

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part shows that financial intermediaries in developing states frequently are not neutral and that national planners frequently have misunderstood the nature of various types of rent and their variable contribution to growth and development policies. It examines Brazil's development policies that have concentrated aggregate national product in areas which makes eventual repayment extremely difficult. The part suggests that systemic and structural problems associated with debt lead to impoverization of borrowing countries and perhaps to marked instability in the functioning of the world monetary and economic systems as well. It also suggests that the appropriate use of financial intermediaries in the channeling of economic rents. The part provides some ways in which financial policy may be explicitly linked to planning in developing countries to foster structural change and development.