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Tell the Treasury Secretary What's on Your Heart

December 1, 2008 - President Elect Obama and his new economic team, including Treasury Secretary-designate Timonthy Geithner, have a huge job ahead of them. They will be facing down a growing economic crisis and recession in the United States from day one.

But while we must work for economic justice at home, we must also not forget our brothers and sisters across the globe in this time of need.  That’s why Jubilee USA has launched a new campaign – the What’s On Your Heart? Campaign.

As the book of Matthew tells us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…”  As the Torah reminds us, "Do not close your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother".

In this new campaign we will welcome new Treasury Secretary Geithner to his position by telling him what’s on our hearts as Jubilee people in these difficult times.

From now until January 20, we will be collecting hand-written notes on hearts, postcards, and online letters from you to Treasury Secretary-designate Geithner telling him which Jubilee issues are on your heart in this time of crisis. We will deliver all of these messages to him when we welcome him to his new position sometime just before Valentine's Day.

Learn more about this campaign and take action with your congregation or community today!

Jubilee Makes Policy Recommendations to New Administration

Jubilee USA has developed policy recommendations for the Obama transition team.

The recommendations are mainly directed at the US Department of Treasury and address policy towards multilateral development banks and the IMF, poor country debt relief, and sustainable and responsible lending policies for poor countries.

Jubilee Act Update

Jubilee is gearing up for the reintroduction of Jubilee Act in 2009. Thanks to the commitment and hard work of our grassroots, we celebrated 2008 with the passage of the act in the House of Representatives and the Senate Foreign Relations committee. We were so close, but in the end it did not reach a full Senate vote. Stay tuned for updates.

The Jubilee Act would cancel impoverished country debt, prohibit harmful economic and policy conditions, mandate transparency and responsibility in lending, call for a new legal framework to restrict predatory “vulture funds,” and call for a U.S. audit of odious and illegitimate debts. To read more, click here.

Stop Vulture Culture Campaign

Together with Africa Action and TransAfrica Forum, Jubilee USA has launched a campaign to stop the harmful practices of vulture funds that prey on poor countries. Jubilee welcomes the introduction of the Stop VULTURE Funds Act (H.R. 6796), a bill in the House of Representatives that would prevent vulture funds from making excessive profit off the debt of the world's poorest nations.

‘Vulture fund’ is a name given to a company that seeks to make profit by buying up debt in default on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar, then trying to recover up to ten times the purchase price, often by suing impoverished countries in U.S. or European courts. Some vulture funds target failing companies, but our coalition is focused on those that target the sovereign debts of impoverished countries.

Briefing Notes: Jubilee USA Releases Policy Reports

Read the first five in a series of six new issue BRIEFING NOTES that Jubilee USA will be releasing this year. These short policy papers are designed to provide quality background information on some of the key policy issues that Jubilee is working on. Also, access our policy archive for past policy papers.

  • JAN.08 BRIEFING NOTE ONE: Expanded Debt Cancellation: A Key Tool to Fight Global Poverty reviews the literature and makes the case for expanded debt cancellation beyond the current HIPC Initiative. DOWNLOAD
  • FEB.08 BRIEFING NOTE TWO: Recent Development on IMF Gold Sales and Debt Cancellation, looks at recent proposals from the IMF to sell some of its gold and the implications for debt campaigners. DOWNLOAD
  • FEB.08 BRIEFING NOTE THREE: Are IMF and World Bank Economic Policy Conditions Undermining the Impact of Debt Cancellation? contains the latest information on IMF and other economic policy conditions such as privatization that are limiting the benefits of debt cancellation. DOWNLOAD
    • APRIL.08 BRIEFING NOTE FOUR: Vulture Funds & Poor Country Debt: Recent Developments & Policy Responses explains the activity of vulture funds, identifies countries at-risk and what a coalition of organizations, including Jubilee USA, is doing to publicize and curtail vulture fund activity. DOWNLOAD
    • APRIL.08 BRIEFING NOTE FIVE: Recent Developments On Odious & Illegitimate Debt explores the latest developments on the issue of odious and illegitimate debt highlighting the push for the cancellation of Iraq’a debt, which was led by the United States, and Ecuador’s precedent-setting debt audit. DOWNLOAD
    • JUNE.08 BRIEFING NOTE SIX: World Bank Group Resources & Debt Cancellation identifies how the World Bank could mobilize up to $23.4 billion total of its additional resources by 2020 which could be used to cover the cost of expanded World Bank debt cancellation without compromising the Bank's operational capacity or financial strength. DOWNLOAD

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