Obstacles to altruism

FREE MARKETS HAVE been blamed for many things, but last month they were implicated in something new: blocking debt relief for tsunami-hit countries.

The problem arose after G7 finance ministers decided that to help out the affected countries they would not expect debt repayments from them for at least a year. Since they owe the Paris Club of bilateral creditors $5 billion this year, the gesture was more than merely symbolic.

Yet doubts were soon raised about the likelihood of full implementation. France's finance minister, Hervé Gaymard, told Radio France Internationale: "Some countries, for example Thailand, do not wish to benefit from this moratorium simply because ... they don't want their name to be downgraded on financial markets."

Meanwhile, the Economist said of Thailand that "to delay its repayments may send the wrong signal to the capital markets, it fears, suggesting that [it] is a mendicant country unable to...