January 28, 2021
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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January 27, 2021
Bond Buyer consults Eric LeCompte on the bond negotiations for Puerto Rico. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
Puerto Rico bond negotiations slog toward seventh year
By Robert Salvin
In July someone usually far from the bondholders’ general outlook, Director Eric LeCompte, foreshadowed the bondholders’ October position, when he told The Bond Buyer that all the debt restructuring should have been completed.
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January 27, 2021
Crux features Eric LeCompte on Biden's decision to stop the construction pipeline project in Alberta. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
Environmental activists cheer Biden’s decision to stop pipeline project
By John Lavenburg
In a conversation with Crux, Eric LeCompte, called Biden’s decision “a step in the right direction to lessen our need on fossil fuels and start the move towards a greener economy.”
LeCompte acknowledged this was an expected move Biden had promised, but hopes there will be more prudence from the administration in the future.
“We have to move forward with the decisions that are win-win decisions that look at both workers and the economy as well as climate issues,” he said. “What’s going to be important for the Biden Administration as they move forward is to really be thoughtful as they move towards a greener economy and what they have to do to mitigate job loss in the short term.”
With the decision made, LeCompte said it would be “incumbent upon the Biden Administration to move forward on new green jobs sooner rather than later” to offset the job losses of the transition to a greener economy.
He also noted this increases the need for a new stimulus package.
“What needs to happen, and this is beyond just the pipeline issue, but it’s about delivery to workers in the new stimulus package. That’s where these workers can see real extended relief,” LeCompte told Crux.
Read the full article here.
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January 27, 2021
Washington DC - Chad became the first country to officially seek debt reduction under a G20-established coronavirus response process. In the fall, the G20 approved the “Common Framework for Debt Treatment beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative.” Up to 73 of the world’s poorest countries could seek support under the mechanism.
"This is the first test of the G20 debt reduction process and the process must deliver serious relief for Chad," stated Eric LeCompte, the Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network. "Before the coronavirus struck, half of Chad's people lived in poverty and 20% of Chad's kids would never live to their fifth birthday."
Before the G20 authorized the new debt framework, the G20 stopped debt payments for poor countries like Chad. Private creditors and commercial banks refused to stop collecting debt payments as countries suffered from the coronavirus.
“Roughly half of Chad’s debt is in the hands of private creditors,“ noted LeCompte, a UN finance expert. “One of the biggest tests of the new G20 debt reduction process will be whether or not the private sector will be pushed to participate."
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January 25, 2021
Washington DC - The US Senate voted to confirm Janet Yellen as Secretary of Treasury.
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 the confirmation of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen:
"Beyond being the first female Treasury Secretary, Yellen is the first person to serve in the trifecta of US finance.
"She chaired the president's Council of Economic Advisers, the Federal Reserve and now takes the helm of Treasury.
"Yellen is the Treasury Secretary we need to confront the severe economic impacts spurred by the coronavirus.
"During her Senate confirmation, 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.
"Janet 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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January 22, 2021
U.S. News quotes Eric LeCompte on how the Biden Administration can approach trade policy to benefit Main Street over Wall Street. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.
Joe Biden’s Economic To-Do List
By Tim Smart
Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA, an interfaith network of religious and advocacy groups, says Biden needs to distinguish himself from the pro-corporate, pro-market economic policies of the Trump years.
"Biden must show rural and working people that he prioritizes Main Street before Wall Street," LeCompte says. "Biden needs to focus on trade policies in different ways than previous Democratic administrations did. His policies must prioritize growing American jobs in trade agreements as opposed to growing the value of corporate stocks with trade agreements."
Read more here.
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January 20, 2021
Friends,
Our many efforts with the new Biden Administration are moving forward very, very quickly.
Today - after his inauguration, one of the first executive orders that President Biden will issue, is to extend our student debt payment suspension through September. The action will benefit 45 million Americans and ease the suffering too many feel because of the coronavirus economic crisis. Biden also supports Jubilee USA's proposals for student debt cancellation.
Right after the election, Jubilee USA began high-level meetings with the Biden Transition Team. We invited several of our founding national religious institutions to sit with us and the Biden Transition Team leaders for International Treasury, Domestic Treasury, the US Trade Representative, Puerto Rico, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve, Bank and Financial Regulation.
During our Biden meetings we covered all of our efforts to address inequality, end poverty, coronavirus response and stopping financial crises.
The issues we worked on with Biden's team include: student debt, stimulus plans, trade agreements and access to medicine, debt relief and global bankruptcy, accessing global reserve funds (Special Drawing Rights), climate finance, tax evasion and corruption, Puerto Rico, G7/G20 emergency actions, responsible lending, financial stability, universal basic income, development aid, US and international child poverty reduction and much, much more.
Read and share our initial Biden Transition Team memo about all of our efforts to win a Jubilee across the United States and around the world.
Your partnership and actions are crucial in the coming weeks and months. In recent months your actions propelled and won some of our coronavirus response campaigns, Puerto Rico disaster aid, student debt relief and passing Jubilee's Corporate Transparency Act. Together, we organized hundreds of religious communities and the largest faith, labor, environmental and human right groups on our coronavirus response efforts. Your actions moved the Trump Administration to take stronger positions on debt relief than any other G20 country.
Our bipartisan and interfaith efforts, together, are critical so our country, world and planet emerge from the coronavirus crises with resilience - a world where we all have enough and can live in dignity.
Onward,
Eric
Eric LeCompte
Executive Director
Twitter: @Eric_LeCompte
www.jubileeusa.org/support-us
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January 20, 2021
Washington DC – President Biden will extend the freeze on student debt payments as one of his first executive actions after his inauguration. The Department of Education will be directed to continue the student debt payment suspension through September.
“Extending the suspension of student loan payments translates to relief for millions of people suffering from the crisis,” said Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte, whose organization pressed Congress and the Trump Administration on initial student debt relief actions.
Forty-five million Americans holding student debt will benefit from Biden's executive order. Last spring, the CARES Act stimulus package suspended student debt payments until September of 2020, a measure the Trump White House extended twice but was due to expire on Thursday.
"Suspending student debt payments is a necessary first step," stated LeCompte. "I'm grateful that President Biden already supports additional proposals for student debt cancellation."
In addition to student loan payment relief, Biden will sign 14 additional executive actions during his first day in office.
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