The IMF, Poverty, and Corruption

[Nolan]

Can anyone give me some good sources on how IMF policies create or encourage greater corruption and poverty in the third world? I know that they often suggest the privatization of public utilities, so leave that one out. Thanks.

[Ele'ill]

Yes, give me a moment.

Sorry- anyways- I found that reading from the actual source helped a great deal in understanding how the IMF operates. They're not necessarily 'sneaky' about what they do. http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm

http://www.imf.org/external/data.htm


Not a whole lot of information but a link anyways
http://www.globalexchange.org/



It looks like a lot of the anti-globalization web resources are gone.



There are plenty of documentaries on the topic.

[Steve_j]

Have a look at a few development/aid agencies and search their database. Many publish reports extremly critical of the IMF and their policies and include appropriate concrete examples.

[Nolan]

Bump

[Ele'ill]

http://imfresistance.org/

[Os Cangaceiros]

Well, loan agreements between the IMF/World Bank are negotiated between banking officials and a select group of individuals associated with whatever nation is receiving financial assistance. Often times these government officials are somewhat less than reputable, in regards to corruption and fiscal accountability. They've also often been unelected tenders of the public's financial largess, and not accountable to the people they're supposedly representing...the potential problems of this should be obvious. Some times the officials who receive loans benefit from thankful contractors, who include them in contracts/commisions. The IMF has often demanded certain preconditions for aid, specifically the establishment of a system of "export capitalism"; i.e. the construction/developement of facilities that are condusive to the export of certain commodities. Think docks, mines, lumberyards, various communication lines used to facilitate these entities, etc.)...what Bukharin wrote about many years ago continued to be relevant decades after he died. Not much is left for (and institutions like the IMF certainly aren't concerned about) the construction of a social safety net for the nation's poorest members. Ultimately global institutions such as the IMF take on the role of making sure that the major powers continue to operate within the world market in a "buyer's market"...they being the buyers, and the developing world being the sellers. It's really economic imperialism at it's "finest".

[Nolan]

Well, loan agreements between the IMF/World Bank are negotiated between banking officials and a select group of individuals associated with whatever nation is receiving financial assistance. Often times these government officials are somewhat less than reputable, in regards to corruption and fiscal accountability. They've also often been unelected tenders of the public's financial largess, and not accountable to the people they're supposedly representing...the potential problems of this should be obvious. Some times the officials who receive loans benefit from thankful contractors, who include them in contracts/commisions. The IMF has often demanded certain preconditions for aid, specifically the establishment of a system of "export capitalism"; i.e. the construction/developement of facilities that are condusive to the export of certain commodities. Think docks, mines, lumberyards, various communication lines used to facilitate these entities, etc.)...what Bukharin wrote about many years ago continued to be relevant decades after he died. Not much is left for (and institutions like the IMF certainly aren't concerned about) the construction of a social safety net for the nation's poorest members. Ultimately global institutions such as the IMF take on the role of making sure that the major powers continue to operate within the world market in a "buyer's market"...they being the buyers, and the developing world being the sellers. It's really economic imperialism at it's "finest".

Do you have any sources discussing this?

[Os Cangaceiros]

The works of Hardt & Negri, William Appleman Williams and David Korten could be helpful, I suppose, amoungst others.

[ComradeOm]

Joseph Stiglitz is certainly no Marxist or socialist but his Globalization and Its Discontents is an accessible and acute analysis of the IMF and how its neo-liberal policies contributed to the late 90s financial crises