![Oil tanker on the ocean.](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/oiltanker_ocean.jpg?quality=75&w=500)
![Oil tanker on the ocean.](https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/oiltanker_ocean.jpg?quality=75&w=500)
Research
BPEA | 1998 No. 11998, No. 1
“HISTORY,” JAWAHARLAL NEHRU famously observed, “is almost always written by the victors. ” Financial history, it seems, is written by the creditors. When a financial crisis arises, it is the debtors who are asked to take the blame. This is odd, since a loan agreement invariably has two parties. The failure of a loan usually represents miscalculations on both sides of the transaction or distortions in the lending process itself.