Fifteen Minutes of Financial Fame: The Story of Marc A. Helie the Man Who Broke Ecuador

Abstract

The problem of Ecuadorian foreign debt may be studied through many different points of view, Le.: legally, financially, socially, etc. The main difficulty with al! this approximations is that, being directed to specific groups, it fails to reach the rest of people. This article is a somewhat light overview of an important financial episode in Ecuador's history but from an historic perspective, warmer and far from cold tecnicisms, is just a small tale of greed, a small chapter in the life of a man: Marc Hélie whom, in the name of the financial market transparency and integrity, almost brought a country to its knees but, in the end, only found himself excluded from the markets he vowed to defend.