ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews several issues in international economic policy through the lens of practical ethics. Ethical issues arise in every aspect of economics and economic policy making. The chapter focuses on the ethics of international advice and assistance. To be sure, policies within the affected countries did contribute to the crisis: corruption and inadequate financial regulation played their part. Advisors face ethical issues. Government bureaucrats and elected officials face ethical issues, such as those associated with corruption. Ethical issues associated with repaying debts, and debt enforcement, are longstanding, and complicated. Debt forgiveness has become the subject of enormous public discussion. Many countries have to spend a huge fraction of their export earnings to service their debt, leaving little remaining to spend on improving the plight of the poor. The debt overhang impedes growth and poverty reduction. Countries with high rates of population growth have a hard time increasing incomes, and thus face a greater prospect of increasing poverty.
