Debt has been choking the world's weakest economies and blocking economic progress for billions of the world's poorest countries. Governments borrowed money in the past for development projects, but often corrupt leaders stole the proceeds. To pay off the interest and principal, governments have been forced by creditors to slash their social spending. Even so, the debt burden continues to grow, placing the poorest countries in a kind of debt bondage. Campaigns such as Jubilee 2000 have demanded debt forgiveness, and a few debts have been canceled, but still the debt burden grows larger.
             Immediate and comprehensive debt cancellation is necessary for impoverished countries to participate in the global economy as anything but a permanent underclass. World Bank figures for 1999 show that $128 million is transferred daily from the sixty-two most impoverished countries to wealthy countries, and that for every dollar countries receive in grant aid, they repay $13 on old debts (Ambrose, November 2001). Much like a credit card, America loans this money and as time passes, interest on these loans grows extensively. When figured, a credit balance of one-thousand dollars would take approximately three years to pay off, paying the minimum payment due each month. Some of these countries cannot even afford to pay the interest alone on these loans, so how are they ever going to get out of debt?
             For countries that have endured decades of severe indebtedness, poverty, and subordination to the international financial institutions (IFIs) economic policies, comprehensive cancellation of their outstanding debt is necessary if their people are ever going to gain democratic control of their economic destiny (Ambrose, November 2001). Part of that cancellation should consider the legitimacy of the current debt. Debts that were incurred for failed economic programs and non-performing transportation pro
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