Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF and currenty a professor at MIT Sloan,
gets it right:
The IMF is founded on the premise that it represents cooperation between all of the countries of the world. The reality is that it stands for and operationalizes US power, in cooperation with America’s closest allies.
Anyone who doubts that should review a recent letter orchestrated by the Bretton Woods Committee, addressed to Congressional leaders on behalf of an impressive array of former Republican and Democratic cabinet secretaries. The first paragraph reads, “The IMF has always been a valuable tool for advancing US national interests globally.”The US does not dictate what happens at the IMF, but it does have a disproportionate influence.
The letter Johnson cites states this:
The IMF has always been a valuable tool for advancing U.S. national interests globally, from helping navigate the Latin crisis of the 1980s to supporting the Arab Spring countries today with policy advice, technical assistance, and financial support. During the recent, unprecedented financial crisis, the IMF intensified support for affected countries and helped to stabilize their economies and maintain growth. It is important that the United States support the Fund, because of the returns it brings to our nation going forward.
In February, before the coup even occurred in Ukraine,
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a group at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco:
At the core they have an economic crisis and they are going to need to deal with it. And the mechanism that's best for Ukraine to deal with it would be to come to the IMF and have a package where they put in place economic reforms where they get the support that they need in exchange for the steps to fix their economy.
From NYT on Thursday:
After three weeks of urgent negotiations with the interim government of Ukraine and in an atmosphere of great power competition, the International Monetary Fund announced on Thursday an agreement to provide up to $18 billion in loans over two years to prevent the country’s default.
It should be noted this money isn't going to the people of Ukraine. It is going to the banksters who have previously loaned money to Ukraine. And the loans will keep Ukraine under the thumb of the U.S.
The IMF~I Make Fraud.
ReplyDeleteIt is a monopoly power structure for loans ie they co-opt government power structures with money.
This scheme parallels activities put forth by Ivar Kreuger.
From 1925 to 1930, years when many countries in Europe were suffering after the First World War, Kreuger's companies gave loans to governments to speed up reconstruction.
As a security, the governments would grant him the match monopoly in their country. This means that Kreuger gained a monopoly in match production, sales, or distribution, or a complete monopoly. The monopoly agreements differed from country to country.
The capital was raised to a large extent through loans from Swedish and American banks, combined with issuing a large amount of participating debentures. Kreuger also often moved money from one corporation he controlled to another.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Kreuger
The man was a financial deviant and genius.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6350515-the-match-king
Shocking - What Pento Said To Get Him Erased From CNBC
ReplyDeleteWhat disturbed them and caused this censorship?
Today Michael Pento stunned King World News when he said he was entirely deleted from a CNBC interview (clip linked below). Pento believes his comments were determined to be too threatening to the powers that be, and a decision was made to erase him entirely from the interview. KWN shows the picture below which proves Pento was part of the CNBC interview, and Pento tells KWN exactly what he said
“This is shocking to me, but obviously somebody censored you in this clip today (linked below on CNBC). Your comments were deleted and you were entirely erased from the clip. Your name was deleted from the guest list, and all we see at one point is your face in a box on the screen to prove you were involved in the CNBC interview (see Pento in lower left-hand box where 5 people are pictured below).
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/3/28_Shocking_-_What_Pento_Said_To_Get_Him_Erased_From_CNBC.html
Bank ‘Russia’ refuses from foreign currency
ReplyDeleteJoint-stock bank "Russia" sent a notice to a number of U.S. banks to inform them about the move to close correspondent accounts in foreign currency and decided to work only with the Russian national currency.
The bank does not need financial support, not even from the Central Bank of Russia.
"In order to protect bank clients from unethical practices of foreign financial institutions, Bank "Russia" decided to work exclusively on the domestic market and only with one currency - the national currency of the Russian Federation - the ruble," the statement from the bank said.
Earlier, the U.S. authorities decided to impose sanctions on the bank. After that, Visa and MasterCard payment systems stopped servicing the clients of the bank without notice. Russian President Vladimir Putin, having learnt about the sanctions, opened a personal account in the bank. Many other Russian politicians, officials and ordinary citizens followed his example.
http://english.pravda.ru/news/business/28-03-2014/127209-bank_russia_foreign_currency-0/