The IMF is destroying poor countries

[Joanne98]

Thursday, 14 May 2009
"You don't have to do this." Those are the near-last words of several victims in the Coen brothers' classic film No Country for Old Men, as they try to convince the movie's unrelenting assassin that he should spare them. The assassin, played by Javier Bardem, finds this annoying, because in his mind these murders are pre-determined.



So it is with the IMF's continuing confrontations with its borrowers, with one government after another pleading: "You don't have to do this." Turkey and Latvia were in the news last week, having joined the roster of governments whose IMF disbursements are being withheld because they find it politically impossible to impose the required punishments on their citizens.

The IMF sees these measures as necessary and pre-determined – in most cases by the borrowing countries' having run-up unsustainable external or budget imbalances. But in fact the IMF has a long track record – dating back decades – of imposing unnecessary and often harmful conditions on borrowing countries.

Latvia missed a 200 million euro disbursement from the IMF in March for not cutting its budget enough. According to press reports, the government wants to run a budget deficit of 7% of GDP for this year, and the IMF wants 5%. Latvia is already cutting its budget by 40%, and is planning to close some public hospitals and schools in order to make the IMF's targets, prompting street protests.

Latvia's GDP crashed by 18% in the first quarter of this year, after a 10.3% drop in the preceding quarter. These are among the worst declines in the world. This indicates that the IMF's prescription is serious overkill. The purpose of IMF aid is supposedly to make any necessary adjustment easier, not worse.

In Pakistan, it would be surprising if the US Treasury, which is the principal overseer of the IMF, did not see a need to ease up on the contractionary IMF conditions there. The government of nuclear-armed Pakistan is facing serious political problems right now, having recently launched a major offensive against a growing Taliban insurgency. Slowing Pakistan's economy at a time when the global economic crisis is already doing that may not be the best policy from the point of view of political stability. The IMF has negotiated an increase in Pakistan's fiscal deficit from 3.4% to 4.6% of GDP, but is holding the line against lowering interest rates.

In almost all of its standby arrangements negotiated over the last year, the IMF has included conditions that will reduce output and employment in situations where economies are already shrinking.


Continued>>>
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6720/2/

[Robbien]

1. IMF orders Latvia to close schools in order that banksters are paid

IMF orders Iceland people to pay a 16% surtax on top of its sales tax in order that banksters are paid

IMF is pure evil

[ThomCat]

2. If you've read the book, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman"

you know that the IMF deliberately sets goals so steep and harsh that they require a country to implode in order to get that money. They require a country to sell off all their resources and bring down every trade barrier so that first world nations can come in and own everything of value.

In order to get a loan to buy enough food, or fuel, or medicine to survive this year a country is required to give away everything of worth that they have so that their national wealth is crippled in the future, sucking all future profits into international pockets.

This guarantees that a country will be forced into poverty for years to come. Which means they will need more loans in the future. Which means they can be forced to sell off more resources to get that loan.

The IMF is a total scam, and was deliberately intended to be a scam from the very beginning. :(

It is a shame that so many countries didn't find that out in time, or were pressured politically into doing business with the IMF.

[dgibby]

3. And it's just a matter of time before they come for us!

[Joanne98]

4. Yep

[truedelphi]

8. You stole my comment. Already there are some vague rumblings that

The World Bank and the IMF will have a role to play in this economic mess.

We need to work hard to get a third party candidate(s) who will return this country back to us before it is too late.(Given that the Demcoratic Party no longer stands for the workers, or gfor their economic interests.)

When the IMF gets here, you can say good by to your drinking water, to the protections on our coast lines now banning oil drilling, etc. The IMF rapes whatever country it "helps" and the people see their lives go downhill in short order.

[Vidar]

5. Absolutely right on that!

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Isn't that its real purpose?

Keep everyone down all the time?

"IMF -- Dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making sure that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt"

-- Bruce Cockburn (Call It Democracy -- circa 1985)

[Wednesdays]

7. K&R

:kick:

[yowzayowzayowza]

9. IMF dirty MF

Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

http://cockburnproject.net/songs&music/atcid.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68zccrskOqQ

[Triana]

10. It's their job. n/t

[Karenina]

11. K&R!!!