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Isaac Diabo published Eric LeCompte quoted on The Guardian on recent IMF announcement in Press 2021-08-03 14:48:42 -0400
Eric LeCompte quoted on The Guardian on recent IMF announcement
Eric LeCompte was quoted in The Guardian on the International Monetary Fund's recent announcement finalizing the allocation of $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full article.
What they said about the IMF announcement
Following the news about the IMF’s allocation of $650billion in Special Drawing Rights - some campaigners are calling for rich nations to donate their share to poorer countries.
Eric LeCompte, executive director at Jubilee USA Network, a US religious development organization, said developing countries need more aid to get over the crisis prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Wealthy countries receive most of these emergency reserves and must donate them to developing countries."
Read more here.
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Isaac Diabo published Accounting Today quotes Eric LeCompte on corporate tax increases in Press 2021-07-30 11:10:58 -0400
Accounting Today quotes Eric LeCompte on corporate tax increases
Eric LeCompte is quoted on Accounting Today on how the U.S. and other countries are moving forward on increasing tax rates on multinational corporations. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
Corporate tax increases move closer to reality
By Michael Cohn
Earlier this month, G-20 leaders agreed on a plan to impose a minimum tax rate of 15% on corporations and to keep companies from shifting their profits to low-tax countries. New data released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicated that multinational corporations have continued to shift their profits to other countries despite record low tax rates.
Advocates for raising corporate tax rates are hoping the OECD and the G-20 will go even further in their negotiations. “To some degree, the devil is in the details,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, a coalition of more than 750 religious groups and organizations. “We don’t really have a final plan yet, but the commitments that we have are very important. The plan calls for a minimum global corporate tax of at least 15%. That’s where negotiations are starting. Certainly we don’t believe that’s going to be enough, but it’s a good start, and we’re really hoping that with continuing negotiations, we’re able to get above 20% for a global minimum corporate tax."
“A big part of moving forward is trying to get the entire world on board,” said LeCompte. “At this point [over] 130 countries have endorsed the OECD working proposal on these tax issues, but we have a number of countries big and small that have not signed on or endorsed it yet."
Read more here.
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Isaac Diabo published Alabama political reporter features Eric LeCompte on lifting vaccine patents in Press 2021-07-28 10:11:03 -0400
Alabama political reporter features Eric LeCompte on lifting vaccine patents
Eric LeCompote was interviewed by the Alabama Political Reporter on the WTO's meeting this week to consider temporarily lifting vaccine patent protections. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
WTO to meet to consider temporarily lifting vaccine patent protection
By Brandon Moseley
The World Trade Organization is meeting to discuss waiving vaccine patents to make it easier for countries to access COVID vaccines. The global trade body will review the proposal to waive pharmaceutical vaccine patents as part of a menu of trade pandemic response policies.
Eric LeCompte is the executive director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. “Not enough vaccines are getting to developing countries,” said LeCompte. “Part of the solution is supporting countries to produce the vaccines that they and other countries desperately need.”
LeCompte is advocating on behalf of this proposal as well as others under consideration and debate this week at the WTO.
According to the United Nations, wealthy countries received 82 percent of the COVID-19 vaccine doses, while poor nations received less than 1 percent. LeCompte told APR that, “75 percent of the total vaccine dosages manufactured to date have gone to just ten countries – the wealthiest countries.”
Read more here.
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Isaac Diabo published Eric Lecompte Featured in Podcast "Cable a tierra" on Debt Relief Importance in Press 2021-07-27 09:17:44 -0400
Eric LeCompte Featured in Podcast "Cable a tierra" on New Debt Relief Efforts
Nuestramerica.TV's Cable a tierra with James Mencias features Jubilee USA's executive director Eric LeCompte on the new issuance of Special Drawing Rights to aid developing countries with debt relief. Click here to listen to the episode.
EP. 4 Dinero sin deuda: ¿Es posible?
By James Mencias
Selected Statements from Eric LeCompte
"We are looking at the issue of Special Drawing Rights right now in which we are working towards the issuance of $650 billion new SDRs. That means, right away, that there will be $224 billion available for middle- and low-income developing countries.
"It is incredibly exciting because most of these countries can make use of these new available resources for the acquisition of vaccines, debt payments, tackling poverty, or funding social programs.
"About $420 billion of the new SDRs will go to the developed world. Nonetheless, there is a process moving forward in the International Monetary Fund in which those new reserve funds will be donated to the developing world so that more resources are available to fight the pandemic."
Click here to listen to the full episode.
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Isaac Diabo published Eric LeCompte quoted in the Khaleej Times on World Bank's crisis response in Press 2021-07-20 10:57:46 -0400
Eric LeCompte quoted in the Khaleej Times on World Bank's crisis response
Eric LeCompte was quoted in the Khaleej Times on the World Bank's largest-ever crisis response of $157 billion to help fight COVID-19. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
World Bank Group deploys over $157b to fight Covid
By Issac John
The World Bank Group has deployed over $157 billion — its largest-ever crisis response yet — to fight the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health, economic and social fronts during the past 15 months.
This “unprecedented level of support” represents an increase of more than 60 percent over the 15-month period prior to the pandemic, the bank said on Monday.
Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious-affiliated development group Jubilee USA Network, said that the IMF action would allow developing countries to immediately receive more than $200 billion in support.
“Wealthy countries who receive emergency reserves they don’t need should transfer those resources to developing countries struggling through the pandemic,” LeCompte said.
Read more here.
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Isaac Diabo published New York Times Features Jubilee USA and Eric LeCompte on IMF's $650 Billion Aid Plan in Press 2021-07-09 11:17:55 -0400
New York Times Features Jubilee USA and Eric LeCompte on IMF's $650 Billion Aid Plan
Eric LeCompte and Jubilee USA featured in the New York Times on the IMF's backing of $650 billion in global reserve funds to help developing countries. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
I.M.F. Board Backs $650 Billion Aid Plan to Help Poor Countries
By Alan Rappeport
The International Monetary Fund took a step on Friday toward easing widening global inequality and helping poor nations access vaccines, saying that its executive board approved a plan to issue $650 billion worth of reserve funds, which countries can use to purchase vaccines, finance health care and pay down debt.
Jubilee USA Network, a non-profit organization that advocates for debt relief for poor countries, praised the move by the I.M.F. and called on wealthy countries to do more to help.
“This is the biggest creation of emergency reserve funds that we’ve ever seen and developing countries will immediately receive more than $200 billion,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network. “Wealthy countries who receive emergency reserves they don’t need should transfer those resources to developing countries struggling through the pandemic.”
Read more here.
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Sudan Qualifies for Debt Relief
The International Monetary Fund approved a debt relief process for Sudan, according to the country's finance ministry. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, a debt relief process created in the early 2000s, will wipe out 85% of Sudan's debt, reducing debt from $50 billion to $8 billion.
"Sudan needs debt relief as the country emerges from 17 years of conflict and almost half of Sudan's people live in poverty,” said Eric LeCompte, the Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network, which campaigned for the HIPC process more than 20 years ago. “Debt relief for Sudan means reducing child poverty and growing the country's economy."
In March, the United States loaned $1.1 billion to clear Sudan’s debt payment arrears to the World Bank and convened creditors to secure debt relief. A process also moved forward to cut Sudan's IMF debt in arrears.
“As Sudan struggles with the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus, debt relief is a critical resource for recovery," shared LeCompte.
Sudan is the 38th country to benefit, out of 39 countries eligible for the HIPC initiative. Eritrea is the remaining country.
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Isaac Diabo published Bistandsaktuelt Features Aldo Caliari on the IMF's New $100 Billion to Developing Countries in Press 2021-06-28 15:14:12 -0400
Bistandsaktuelt Features Aldo Caliari on IMF's New $100 Billion to Developing Countries
Aldo Caliari and Jubilee USA are featured in the Norwegian newspaper Bistandsaktuelt on the IMF's new $100 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to developing countries. Read an excerpt in English below, and click here for the full story.
IMF Will Secure $100 Billion to Developing Countries in Crisis
By Asle Olav Rønning
Aldo Caliari, head of policy-making at Jubilee USA Network , an organization that works to help debt relief for developing countries, says the planned expansion of the IMF's SDRs is a step forward. He points out that a number of actors have worked intensively for more than a year from the time the proposal first came out until it is now time to adopt it.
At the same time, he believes the needs are even greater than what is now on the table. SDRs are not a precise tool, because they are a scheme that applies to all countries.
Jubilee USA Network argued for an SDR allocation of 300 billion dollars precisely because of the skewed distribution, where only about a third of the amount goes to developing countries, Caliari writes in an email to Bistandsaktuelt.
He refers to estimates from the IMF that low-income countries alone will need $200 billion to get through the pandemic, and another $250 billion to return to the same development path for economic growth as high-income countries.
Read more here.
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Isaac Diabo published Eric LeCompte Featured in Reuters on New IMF Trust in Press 2021-06-14 11:12:49 -0400
Eric LeCompte Featured in Reuters on New IMF Trust
Reuters features Eric LeCompte and Jubilee USA Network on the IMF's new trust regarding pandemic aid and climate change.
Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
Exclusive - IMF eyes new trust to provide aid to broader group of countries - Georgieva
By Andrea Shalal
The IMF expects its board to formally approve the $650 billion SDR allocation in August, paving the way for member countries to donate their unneeded reserves to others in need.
The previously unreported new trust could help broaden the effort and make funds available to more countries, and for broader initiatives, in line with global goals for combating climate change.
Eric LeCompte, an adviser to the United Nations and executive director of Jubilee USA Network, said the IMF’s work on the new trust marked “significant progress” for many middle income countries also hit hard by the pandemic.
“It means that more countries with needs can get aid and resources to get through the pandemic,” he said.
Read more here.
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Isaac Diabo published Collegeville Institute Features a Personal Profile of Eric LeCompte in Press 2021-05-28 14:59:42 -0400
Collegeville Institute Features a Personal Profile of Eric LeCompte
The Collegeville Institute features a personal profile of Jubilee USA Network's Eric LeCompte, titled "All is Possible". Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
All is Possible - A Profile of Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA
By Catherine Hervey
When he was five or six years old, Eric LeCompte accompanied his parents to church and noticed the face of a suffering person in the sanctuary. He asked his parents who it was, and his mother told him it was Christ, the Son of God. His father added that we’re all children of God, and Eric decided something: if that was what happened to the children of God, he didn’t want to be part of it.
Today, Eric is the executive director of Jubilee USA, an interfaith network of more than 650 religious groups working to address the structural causes of global poverty and inequality by advocating for debt relief for impoverished nations. Eric is, by all accounts, very much involved with the suffering he saw on the face of Jesus.
“If one of us is suffering, we are all suffering,” Eric says. And suffering, in all its myriad forms, is something he describes in the simplest terms: so many of us don’t have enough. Eric’s advocacy for the poor is based on the Jubilee year of the Torah—the fiftieth year when debts were forgiven, the enslaved liberated. These are the kinds of practices, Eric believes, that ensure we all have enough, because for many of the world’s most impoverished people, basic necessities like health care and education could be much more accessible if nations weren’t spending so much capital on debt payments. In Jubilee economics, Eric says, “We all have enough. We provide for each other and we’re protected from having too much.”
That striking choice of words—that the wealthiest of us need protection from having too much—seems at once radical and absolutely true. It brings to mind all the warnings about the perils of wealth in scripture, and also the work of social scientist Brené Brown, whose research indicates that the opposite of scarcity is not actually abundance but simply, as Eric says, enough.
Growing up as the oldest of four children in a working class family on the South Side of Chicago, Eric has his own personal experience with deprivation. “As a child, there were times when my parents were out of work, when our family did not have enough. And certainly that has been an incredible influence on my life, to ensure that all people have enough.”
Eric says his sense of calling didn’t materialize in any particular moment, but over a lifetime of daily prayer. For years he carried a copy of a sermon he heard preached while he was a student at Saint John’s. It was a sermon delivered by now Abbot John Klassen about the martyrs of Algiers, monks who served the local population in Algiers for years before they were killed, knowing each day the risks they were taking. Eric puts the message of the sermon this way: “The great sacrifice of the cross is not faced in just one moment. The great sacrifice comes after bearing small daily crosses, taking small daily risks and sacrifices that prepare us for greater action, greater risk, and perhaps the greatest sacrifice, of our lives.”
Read the full article here.
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Isaac Diabo published Reuters Quotes Eric LeCompte on Debt Relief for Chad under G20 Common Framework in Press 2021-01-28 12:49:38 -0500
Reuters Quotes Eric LeCompte on Debt Relief for Chad under G20 Common Framework
Reuters quotes Eric LeCompte on G20 debt relief for the country of Chad. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
Chad becomes first country to ask for debt overhaul under G20 common framework
By Andrea Shalal
“This is the first test of the G20 debt reduction process and the process must deliver serious relief for Chad,” said Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA Network, a charity that focuses on reducing poverty.
Chad has officially requested a debt restructuring, the first country to do so under a new common framework agreed by a Group of 20 major economies last year, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
Read the full article here.
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Isaac Diabo published Easy Treasury Secretary Confirmation Expected for Janet Yellen in Press 2021-01-19 16:09:07 -0500
Easy Treasury Secretary Confirmation Expected for Janet Yellen
Washington DC –Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen appeared for her Senate confirmation hearing and is expected to face an easy confirmation.
Eric LeCompte, the Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and who works closely with US Treasury, releases the following statement on Janet Yellen:
"What a historic moment as Janet Yellen will be the first woman serving as Treasury Secretary."Amazingly, Yellen will be the first person to serve in the Holy Trinity of US finance. She chaired the president's Council of Economic Advisers, the Federal Reserve, and will take the helm of Treasury.
"Yellen is the Treasury Secretary we need to confront the severe economic impacts spurred by the coronavirus.
"In her Senate confirmation hearing, she clearly articulated that too many working people, poor people and people of color are experiencing the worst economic impacts of the pandemic.
"Her proven track record is the experience we need to combat growing inequality and argue for big stimulus packages going forward."Yellen knows that significant stimulus is urgently needed now to grow our economy and address poverty and inequality.
"Yellen is in lockstep with current Fed analysis that stimulus must move forward quickly.
"She will need to take these strong domestic positions on stimulus policies and apply them on a global level as the developing world faces lost decades of development.
"I have no doubts that she will work well with the IMF, G7, and G20 to promote global stimulus and financial crisis resolution processes.
"More broadly, Yellen advocates stronger policies to address the intersection of economic issues and climate change.
"Yellen has strong views on tackling tax evasion and corruption in our financial system."
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Isaac Diabo published Religious Leaders Press Congress on Puerto Rico Relief, Jobs and Child Poverty in Press 2020-12-18 15:56:02 -0500
Religious Leaders Press Congress on Puerto Rico Relief, Jobs and Child Poverty
Washington DC – As Congress negotiates a coronavirus stimulus bill, Puerto Rico and US religious leaders met with Congress leaders on job creation, disaster relief and food benefits for Puerto Rico.
"Nearly 60% of our children, US citizens, live in poverty in Puerto Rico. Our children are in vital need of Congressional action. The suffering our children face from the high level of poverty, the recurring natural disasters and now COVID-19, can only be described as tragic," wrote leaders of Puerto Rico Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Christian (Disciples) and Evangelical Churches to Congress over the summer. The Puerto Rico Council of Churches, Catholic Charities (Caritas) and the General Bible Society also joined the letter, resent to Congress this week.
Puerto Rico Catholic Archbishop Roberto González, one of the letter signers, joined US religious groups to meet with Republican leaders on priority actions for the island. The meetings organized by Jubilee USA Network encouraged authorization of $1.2 billion for the Nutrition Assistance Program that benefits 1.5 million people on the island. The House of Representatives passed a stimulus package that approved the funding, but that package did not pass the Senate.
“Before the pandemic hit Puerto Rico, the island wrestled with disaster recovery, high child poverty rates and a debt crisis,” said Jubilee USA Network Executive Director, Eric LeCompte. "Congress must move forward food assistance and efforts to support job creation for Puerto Rico."In response to the calls for job creation, President Trump expressed support this fall for increasing pharmaceutical jobs on the island.
"In the mid-2000s, Puerto Rico lost over 100,000 good jobs to India and China. This loss led to our current debt crisis and many of the economic challenges we now face, further exasperated by a series of natural disasters. Given the constraints that exist in global supply chains and critical needs faced by all US citizens, current stimulus plans should include measures to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs immediately to Puerto Rico and revive Puerto Rico's failing and debt-burdened economy," wrote Puerto Rico religious leaders in their letter to Congress.
Read the Jubilee Puerto Rico Religious Leader Letter to Congress here.
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Isaac Diabo published WSJ Features Eric LeCompte on New Debt Crisis Plan in Press 2020-11-17 10:28:52 -0500
WSJ Features Eric LeCompte on New Debt Crisis Plan
The Wall Street Journal quotes Eric LeCompte on a new debt framework in efforts to ensure China's participation in a debt restructuring that could resolve Zambia's default. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
Africa’s First Pandemic Default Tests New Effort to Ease Debt From China
A new framework to resolve debt crises in developing countries, meant to ensure that Chinese and private creditors share the burden of providing relief, faces a key test after Zambia became the first African nation to default during the coronavirus pandemic.
Finance ministers from the Group of 20 major economies said Nov. 13 that they had come up with a new process for restructuring the debts of the world’s poorest countries, which now owe billions of dollars to Chinese state-owned lenders and Western fund managers that snapped up their dollar-denominated bonds in the years before the pandemic.
Under this common framework, which G-20 officials lauded as a breakthrough after months of resistance from Beijing, Chinese lenders will participate in debt restructurings alongside rich, mostly Western nations. Private creditors will also be asked to provide relief on similar terms.
“The framework was designed for the problems Zambia is now facing,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA, a nongovernmental organization that lobbies for poor-country debt relief.
Read more here.
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Isaac Diabo published Eric LeCompte is Quoted in Devex on G20 Debt Framework in Press 2020-11-16 13:00:34 -0500
Eric LeCompte is Quoted in Devex on G20 Debt Framework
Eric LeCompte is quoted in Devex on the G20's debt relief framework. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
G20 Releases Debt Framework Details
WASHINGTON — The G-20 group of leading economies agreed to a debt framework to help countries pursue debt restructuring or forgiveness, building off of its Debt Service Suspension Initiative and recognizing that some nations may need additional relief, according to a communique released after an extraordinary meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors Friday.
“There is no doubt this is incredible progress,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network. “This process is a step forward that includes more actors and will expedite relief and reduction.”
Another concern is that the framework only applies to DSSI countries, leaving out middle-income countries, which in some cases are also facing significant debt burdens, LeCompte said, adding that he hopes the agreement could potentially be expanded to a broader group of countries down the road.
When the G20 Leaders’ Summit takes place this month, the debt framework is likely to be part of a broader communique and will likely be highlighted by leaders, LeCompte said.
Read more here.