Bankrupting third-world countries

Today governments have created a legal status of interim bankruptcy, which allows corporations to dispense with lender and employment rights without losing their corporation. All they have to do is reorganize themselves. The Third World debt situation could at any time have been erased in just such a calm and orderly manner. Commentators would point out that many of these indebted nations have incompetent, self-serving governments and don't deserve such an opportunity. But surely that is also the case of many troubled corporations.

-- John Ralston Saul