Missing the Downturn

[Donnachaidh]

http://counterpunch.org/baker06222011.html

That's what people around the world should have been asking when the IMF presented its latest assessment of the fiscal and economic prospects for nations around the world last week. Much of the world remains mired in the worst downturn since the Great Depression; a downturn that the IMF totally missed, as noted by the IMF's own Independent Evaluation Office.

This was not a minor mistake; this was a horrendous failing. It's comparable to the surgeon amputating the wrong leg or leaving his operating tools inside the patient. This is the sort of incredible mess-up that most people lose their jobs over and likely never find work again in the same field.

Yet, as far as the world knows, not one person at the IMF lost their job. In fact, it's not even clear that anyone missed a scheduled promotion. As far as anyone can tell, an economic downturn that ruined the lives of tens of millions of people around the world has had no impact whatsoever on the people who actually have the responsibility for preventing such calamities, at the IMF and in other major governmental and international financial institutions.

This makes the IMF's stance behind the continued drive for austerity in much of world especially infuriating. How can Greek workers feel about being told that they will have to work longer for smaller pensions by IMF economists who can retire with six-figure pensions in their early 50s? The vast majority of Greek workers do their jobs. The IMF economists failed at their job.

More at the link --

[nashville_brook]

1. it makes you wonder what their real mission is