reparations

Where are the war reparations the US is paying Iraq for storming in and destroying everything?

On top of that most of that debt was because of reparations for the previous largest military conflict.

If Germany had to repay reparations from 1945, it would probably be repaying WWI debt to this day.

Also, in addition to the financial debt from war reparations, after WWI, Germany had it's colonial holdings stripped.

Germany had to loan money to pay the reparations the allies demanded for the losses in WW1.

And yet, even to this day they refuse to pay the mere 28 million to individuals as war reparations.

So then instead he hears mention of financial reparations and lists of apologies.

The only example of 'external debt' Piketty is talking about is war reparations.

Also, there was quite a bit of reparations going on after WW2.

The Nazi narrative was all about reclaiming what was rightfully the German people's land and resources after they were depressed by the reparations from WWI.

Actually, plenty of people are saying that, including the Syriza government who unwisely kept bringing up World War II reparations over the last few months.

There is nothing else suggested there - it's all war reparations.

> He's conflating "war reparations" with "external debt" War reparations are a type of debt.

Also "pieces of national territory as collateral" has not worked out very well during say WW1 reparations -- it just encourages far right politics.

And even when the war reparations were being decided on, there were plenty of people on the victor's side saying "whoah, this is ridiculous!".

"Making 50% of the reparations" is considerably more than "never paid their debts", and while on favourable terms, we're also talking about half of Germany doing this - the country was torn in two, and was at the pointy end of the Cold War.

Reparations to help restore the economies of those countries that the Third Reich had looted and pillaged and left in ruins.

Reparations that arguably led to the nazis taking power in the first place.

Reparations and the restrictions on Germany after the first world war led to someone like Hitler gaining power so why repeat the situation?