Why It’s Time to Stop Trusting the IMF

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Posted by steved at 6:35 am
March 8, 2010

Why It’s Time to Stop Trusting the IMF


If you believe what the IMF says … you must be an executive with Goldman Sachs. No, wait, I take that back. You must be Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke. No wait you must be Hank Paulson and Alan Greenspan. Yeah, that’s who you would have to be to believe this little story:

Greece’s financial crisis is unlikely to spread to other eurozone countries with high debt levels, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said.IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said “there’s no reason” to expect that Spain and Portugal would also need to call for external support.

Because all the geniuses on Wall Street, and at the Federal Reserve, the IMF, the “City of London” are always right about their predictions which never contradict each other. Hmm, just for fun, I wonder what the IMF was saying about the global economy roughly 2½ years ago back in November 2007:

The International Monetary Fund is predicting continued and steady growth for the world economy in 2007 and 2008, despite a slow down in the US economy caused by problems in its housing market.The IMF expects global economic growth in the coming two years will approach five percent. The European economy is expected to pick up even more while China and India will continue to lead the global pack.

Guess they sure called that one right on the money, eh? ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/08/why-its-time-to-stop-trusting-the-imf/

[HeresyLives]

1. It's run by Europeans and Americans.

That's what has to change.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. When was the time to start trusting the IMF?

I mean, really. The IMF is the wealthy nations version of Vinny the loan shark whose crew will break our fucking knees if you do not pay back what you borrowed pluss 150% interest.

[G_j]

3. +1000

[DCKit]

5. Not to mention the conditions they put on those loans:

Privatize everything, kick the poor off their land, then give it to the multi-nationals and sign over your natural resources.

They work hand in glove with the World Bank and U.S. Aid and provide loans with full knowledge that the politicians in power at the moment will embezzle those funds and leave the people holding the bag when the party is over.

I have yet to find an instance where the involvement of any of these agencies has left a country with better financial or social conditions.

[Javaman]

4. I never trusted them to begin with. They use their loan practices to create debt slaves of

third world nations.

Fuck the IMF. They are nothing more than a modern version of the Rothchilds.