Africa/Global: Sell the Gold, Free the Poor

When historians look back over the past 25 years, one of the great crimes they will identify is the Third World debt crisis. Now, finally, the rich countries have agreed to cancel the debts of the poorest countries to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. But they continue to differ over how to do it. It is now clear a compromise agreement among the rich countries over cancellation of IMF debt can only be reached if the sale of IMF gold is a component of the financing package for debt cancellation. But a decision to sell some of the IMF's stock of gold is being blocked by the gold industry.