Italian bank to sue Iraqi gov't $1 billion...

[stargazer1968]

guess this wasn't a forgiven "debt".

http://biz.yahoo.com/law/050808/9314df043d10675baf50468040c12419.html?.v=1

[Davidie]

Debit forgiveness is rarely a blessing as it make others reluctant to ever invest in them ever again. Iraq isn't going to get most of it's debit forgiven the Americans will only manage to persuade some governments to forgive a bit and that's all. If it were all to be forgiven, you know, just written of and a line drawn under it, then investers wouldn't touch the place with a barge poll.

Say you lent someone $1,000 not as a faviour but as a business transaction to make your $1,000 back plus say $50 interest, and they declared themselves bankrupt and your entire $1,000 was lost (forgiven) would you loan money to them again?

[BABYBULL24]

Uh... these loans were made to Sadam Hussein and his government. Last time I checked Sadam was walking around in his boxers, eating Doritoes and listening to Sinatra behind bars....Leave it to the Italians-send them some Olive Oil and be done with it.

[stargazer1968]

That is what I think I was thinking, that all debts from the "Saddam" era were to get washed. Guess I misunderstood.

[Tyreds Tale]

definetly need to include the saddam factor for any iraq debts, but Davidie has a point that a lot of thedebts did not directly relate to the regime, and investors want to be assured this sort of thing wont happen again.

Wait until the constitution and election, and oil starts flowing. Then investors & countries will easily forgive and forget. ;)