James T. Callahan: “I think we all agree, Mr. Chairman, that the World Bank and the regional development banks have made a lot of bad loans…”

“I think we all agree, Mr. Chairman, that the World Bank and the regional development banks have made a lot of bad loans that cannot be repaid. There are many decent and honorable people, including the leaders of our churches, who are asking Congress to support forgiveness of these poor countries' mountain of debt, and I commend them and I want to work with them. In fact, it is largely fiction that these loans are being repaid right now. That debt burden is one of the main causes of poverty and of HIV/AIDS in many, many poor countries is just not true. It is not the only one. It is a fact that these countries are forced to take out new loans in order to pay back their old loans. There is a vicious cycle of ever-increasing unsustainable debt. The debt left behind by bad loans is mortgaging the future of these poor countries and it should be forgiven by those who made the bad loans. Worst of all, the challenge of dealing with this cycle of bad debt exhausts the time and energy of the capable men and women who lead some of these countries.”