UN General Assembly
1988

But when it is a multilateral and vertical crisis, between North and South, the condemnations come much more swiftly and painfully. There was one such crisis in the 1930s. At that time the creditor countries refused and most debtor countries responded quickly and simply. They refused to pay their debts. A few did pay like Argentina, where British leverage could administer sanctions. But for the rest of the debtors no sanction was to be feared. There was no hegemonic Power to enforce international contracts. When most of the debtors refused to pay, the world economy did not collapse. The debtors could not pay and the creditor Governments chose to look the other way. There was only the impulse to create the institutions that would provide the framework for international economic relations.