Overexposed: U.s. Banks Confront The Third World Debt Crisis

Raúl Madrid's Overexposed represents the first in-depth study of the involvement of U.S. banks in the Third World debt crisis. Based on extensive interviews with commercial bankers, the book examines the decision-making process at U.S. banks that led to the lending boom of the 1970s and early 1980s as well as the role the banks played in the management of the debt crisis. Madrid argues that banks, particularly the largest U.S. institutions, played a much larger and more active role in the development and management of the crisis than is commonly believed. A comprehensive appendix contains detailed profiles of the seven largest lenders to the Third World, including data on their developing country exposures, profits, and debt conversion activities.

About the Author

Raúl L. Madrid is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica. He was formerly a foreign affairs analyst with the Investor Responsibility Research Center in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of which he wrote Overexposed . Madrid is coauthor of U.S. Arms Exports: Policies and Contractors , a book on U.S. arms transfer policy, and he has written numerous articles and reports on related foreign policy issues.