Vulture fund

A griffon vulture, miffed about being compared with crooks. Vultures are, after all, merely scavengers, not criminals, and have a useful purpose.

The dismal science Economics

Economic systems

$  Free market   €  Social democracy   ☭ Socialist economy

Major concepts

Monetary policy Income redistribution Gift economy Georgism Gambling

The worldly philosophers

Amartya Sen Hans-Hermann Hoppe Brad DeLong W. E. B. Du Bois v - t - e

“”The Bank has already delivered more than $40 billion in debt relief to 30 of these countries...thanks to this, countries like Ghana can provide micro-credit to farmers, build classrooms for their children, and fund water and sanitation projects for the poor. Yet the activities of vulture funds threaten to undermine such efforts... the strategies adopted by vulture funds divert much needed debt relief away from the poorest countries on earth and into the bank accounts of the wealthy."

—Danny Leipziger, World Bank Vice President, 2007

Vulture fund is the popular nickname for a type of profiteering aimed at impoverished countries.

Circling the carcass

Vulture fund investors set up a private equity fund for the sole purpose of literally robbing from the poor and giving to the rich. A typical modus operandi of vulture fund operators is as follows:

1. A group of investors purchases the debt of an impoverished nation that is on the verge of monetary collapse.
2. The investors then wait for the United States and/or other wealthy nations to send humanitarian (monetary) aid to that country.
3. The investors then sue said impoverished nation in an effort to force that nation to hand over the humanitarian aid as payment.

Examples

On 8 April 2010, the United Kingdom became the first country to limit the amount that vulture funds can collect. Under the new law, vulture funds cannot collect payments that the World Bank deems unsustainable.

On September 9, 2014, the United Nations voted on a treaty for a new process to deal with bankruptcy of sovereign nations. The vote passed 124-11 in favor, with 41 abstentions. This resolution has been lauded as "historic" due to the UN finally taking measures to protect nations from predatory vulture funds.

Participants in vulture funds

• Apollo Global Management
• Paul Singer

External links

• "From New York to Liberia, Investigative Journalist Greg Palast Tracks Vulture Funds Preying on African Debt" Includes 46 minute video.