World Bank/IMF

[Scary Monster]

What are some good readings on the establishment, background and actions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank? I dont know much beyond the fact that they are responsible for much of South Africa's economic collapse in the 90's and Argentina (i think) in 2001, that they fuck over the third world, and that they can bring an entire country's economy to its knees. Im looking for material to counter neoliberalism and see globalization's direct impact on the world through the IMF and World Bank. Thanks in advance ;) :redstar2000:

[HEAD ICE]

Though a capitalist book, Bad Samaritans by Ha-Joon Chang seems like something you would be looking for. He spends a great deal of time on the World Bank and IMF and doesn't leave them with much of a moral leg to stand on. His book is also very well written and most lay people can understand it.

[Lyev]

Well I don't know an awful lot about it, but the IMF and World Bank were originally founded with noble causes; similiar to the UN, it was founded to try and bring stability after the economic (or humanitarian, in the case of the UN) devastation of World War Two. Now, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were both formed at the Bretton Woods Conference. Furthermore, IIRC, one of the initial qualms the left has with the formation of these two institutions is that they obviously formed on the USA's soil and the two most powerful countries coming out of WWII were the United Kingdom and the USA, therefore they dominated the negotiations at Bretton Woods. This meant that the terms and conditions of the two institutions in question were somewhat biased towards these two world powers (and inherently capitalistic).

From the 1940s (the IMF and World Bank were formed in December 1944) till roughly late 1960s, early 70s, these institutions seemed to do their jobs to an alright standard. It wasn't until the rise of neoliberalism, Friedman-ism and the Chicago School (and regimes like Pinochet and toppling of lefties like Allende) that they took a downward, capitalist turn. The World Bank claims to try and help developing countries, with leveraged loans so that infrastructure can be developed, purportedly. And the IMFs job is macroeconomic; stabilising exchange rates, sorting out balances of payments etc.. Now, there are two main problems with this. Firstly, as you probably know, there's a lot of corruption in the politicking of the third world. When development schemes put forward by the World Bank or IMF try to get off the ground, a lot of the benefits don't trickle down to the poorest of the poorest, those who need help the most; it's spent on cars and swimming pools for the ruling elite of a said country. The second main problem is that when the IMF and World Bank rush into an unstable economic environment, to "help" a struggling country, there will pretty much always be neoliberal, Friedman-influences conditions to go with this "help". I remember reading in Naomi Klein (try the Shock Doctrine by her, for a good read on this kinda thing) that there's an awful lot of right-wing Chicago School nutters in the IMF and World Bank. So, these "conditions" include privatisation and low trade tariffs, to try bring in unfettered, free market capitalism for then foreign investors and big, transnational corporations to swarm into this country.

That's as far as my understanding goes, and it's just info I've pieced together from reading bits and pieces here and there. I could be wrong or misleading in places (sorry if I am!) so maybe someone might need to clear up on that. But, basically the IMF and World Bank don't do what they say they are meant to do, and what they were originally set up to do; they run on the aphorism: "profit before people" as a lot of western, capitalist institutions do these days. At any rate, they probably bring less stability than they give. Here is a thread on globalisation: http://www.revleft.com/vb/globalization-good-badi-t59635/index.html?t=59635 and here is one on the IMF/World Bank: http://www.revleft.com/vb/world-bank-and-t59692/index.html?t=59692 Oh and on a related point, it will be interesting to see the IMFs and the World Banks role/reaction to the recent goings-on in Greece; if Greece goes under then so does Portugal, Spain and then Italy. The Euro is nowhere near as stable as everyone said it was going to be. And Grecians seem to be quite lefty, with a fairly confident workers movement, so there could potentially be a lot of resistance to any vulture capitalists that want to exploit the delicate circumstances. Anyway, just my musings, I hope I'm (mostly) right in what I'm saying :lol:

EDIT: I just thought of another point. Almost absolutely definitely, the reason that the countries that western insitutions like the IMF and World Bank are trying to help are neo-colonial and were abosutely pillaged by European imperialists and colonialists in the 19th century; this being the pretty sole cause for the third worlds immiseration and hardship, i.e. these countries wouldn't be so awfully poor if it wasn't for colonialism in the first place.