Selling Money

Many third-world (for lack of a perfect term) nations acquired debt burdens twenty and thirty years ago which, to this day, are one reason they have a difficult time providing basic education, health care, and similar services to their citizens. I assumed that the loans made to these nations were well-thought-out investments made by experienced bankers until I read this book. The author, as a very young man, was entrusted with making enormous loans from an Ohio bank to entities in the Philippines. Borrowers would send female escorts to pick up representatives from lending institutions at airports . . . you can take it from there. Filipinos are still paying off these fruitless loans. S.C. Gwynne went on to become a journalist.