1. Why did the governments of less-developed countries tend not to productively invest the money they borrowed?
2. How can protectionist policies wipe out the gains of comparative advantage in international trade?
3. What are some of the political impediments to development in LDCs?
4. Why did colonized nations fail to develop domestic industries even after they attained independence?
5. Why have some nations prospered while others failed to develop?
6. How did the national boundaries of post-colonial nations differ from those of the colonial powers themselves?
7. Why did the US and many other nations agree to adopt a gold standard under the “Bretton Woods System”?
8. What was the original purpose of the International Monetary Fund? How have its functions changed in recent years?
9. How did developing nations hope to pay back the money they borrowed from the World Bank?
10. How did US monetary policy in the early 1980s contribute to the debt crisis in developing countries?
11. What has been the effect of “structural adjustment programs on indebted nations? What consequences of this can you identify in current events?
12. If "austerity programs" have been so disastrous and unpopular, why have nations not simply defaulted on their foreign debts?
