Economist Mark Weisbrot Will Join Joseph Stiglitz in Discussing New Commission Report

Washington, DC — Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Co-Director and economist Mark Weisbrot will join other members of the Jubilee Commission of Experts at the Vatican today to discuss the Commission’s new publication, “The Jubilee Report: A Blueprint for Tackling the Debt and Development Crises and Creating the Financial Foundations for a Sustainable People-Centered Global Economy.” The conference is being organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) and Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD). The conference will be livestreamed beginning at 3:00 a.m. EDT/9:00 a.m. CEST.

“The report provides an evidence-based case that unsustainable debt is dragging the developing world into a default on the future. These crises are  stalling development, worsening inequality, and undermining progress on climate goals in the Global South,” said Weisbrot. “The international financial system, especially institutions like the IMF, needs serious reform. Decisions that affect the lives of billions of people cannot continue to be made by a handful of powerful governments.”

Weisbrot will join CEPR Advisory Board member and Jubilee Commission Chair Joseph Stiglitz, former Minister of Economy for Argentina Martín Guzmán, our Senior Research Fellow Jayati Ghosh, and other commission members at the Vatican in discussing the report and what the international community can do to address the debt, development, and climate crises affecting many low- and middle-income countries around the world.

The report will provide an assessment of the current situation and outlines reforms to the international financial architecture aimed at achieving sustainable debt levels while enabling investments in health care, education, and climate adaptation in Global South countries.

The conference builds on an initiative of the late Pope Francis in the lead-up to the 2025 Jubilee Year, as the Church emphasizes its call for justice. As PASS and IPD note, “Pope Francis has emphasized debt as a central priority,” stressing that “the current financial architecture is inadequate … and urgently requires global reforms.” 

At the June 2024 conference co-organized by PASS and IPD, Pope Francis called for an international debt restructuring mechanism and urged financial leaders to “follow an international code of conduct with ethical standards that can guide dialogue.”

“It is not just any kind of financing that is useful to people, but one that implies a shared responsibility between those who receive it and those who provide it,” said Pope Francis. “In the wake of mismanaged globalization, and in wake of the pandemic and wars, we find ourselves faced with a debt crisis that mainly affects the countries of the global South, causing misery and distress, and depriving millions of people of the possibility of a dignified future.”

Pope Leo XIV declared at his inauguration on May 18, 2025: “In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest.” 

“We saw in 2021 what the IMF could do when they’re directed to provide financing in a positive way,” Weisbrot said. “They provided hundreds of billions of dollars without any debt, without conditions, and without any costs to governments — more than all the development aid of that year.”

See more info on the Commission, the conference, and the report here.