Big Structural Adjustments with Fadhel Kaboub

In this episode, Fadhel Kaboub from <a href="http://personal.denison.edu/~kaboubf/index.htm">Denison University</a> joins us to talk about monetary sovereignty (or lack thereof) in formerly colonized countries. <br/><br/>Highlights<br/><br/>France and the CFA<br/><br/>On December 26, 1945, to the official creation of the Franc of the French Colonies in Africa (FCFA) in their 15 colonies. <a href="https://historicly.substack.com/p/nato-government-by-organized-mob">As we have covered before, France bullied these colonies into </a><a href="https://historicly.substack.com/p/nato-government-by-organized-mob">agreeing</a><a href="https://historicly.substack.com/p/nato-government-by-organized-mob"> to continue to the CFA</a>, after &#8220;independence&#8221;<br/><br/>France forced these 14&#160;African into a treaty where they must put: 65% of their foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury and another 20% to "repay" France for their benevolent colonialism. The CFA countries only ever have access to 15% of their own money! And if they want to borrow money, they need to borrow it from private French Bankers at Commercial rates. <br/><br/>Most of these countries are mineral rich. Under the, &#8220;Treaty for Independence",France gets the right of first refusal for any mineral contract. Only if France says they don&#8217;t want to extract resources, these countries can make contracts with others to mine. <br/><br/>Why don't these colonies break the treaties? <br/><br/>Well, France has thought of that too. Within the treaty, France has an exclusive contract to sell weapons and also train the military in the former colonies. <br/><br/>The treaties also give France the authority to "pre-deploy" French troops for "peace-keeping" purposes. This means that if a country&#8217;s leader tried to get out of this, well, the French pre-deployed troops can force a coup at anytime! <br/><br/>Trade Deficits<br/><br/>Food Sovereignty<br/><br/>Most colonies were designed to produce one crop and they would import their food