[This is directed at BaSICCally regarding a discussion we were having but sending PM’s is such a hassle because of the limited amount of words per message.
Anyone else should feel free to add information or ask questions]
IMF stands for - International Monetary Fund.
The IMF, World Bank and WTO are central dictators in the global economy and are like the architects of the world economy. They are instruments of the capitalist powers; basically only concerned with maximizing profits and maintaining the domination of the US over 3rd world countries. The IMF in essence decides what countries are eligible for “loans” while the World Bank makes long term loans to devastated countries or very poor countries. The idea behind it is that they give money to “help” 3rd world nations and they must pay back these “loans” with extremely high interests rates, which means these countries are left in severe debt, always for a long period of time, for years and years, often very unrealistic terms and probably could never be repaid.
Now, the tricky part is that the IMF will only approve loans if these devastated countries accept certain agreements on top of the high interest rates they must pay back. This means that these countries are demanded to raise money by selling off public assets and companies or in other words- privatization and they have to cut social services like healthcare, education, childcare, etc in order to raise the money. They also demand that the 3rd world countries must be "free trade" countries which by cutting financial support to local industries and slashing trade barriers and tariffs or taxes. These countries also have to open up their economies to foreign business, remove any pre-existing restrictions on foreign investments, and allow corporations access to the workers and natural resources of the country at very, very low prices. The majority, if not all of the profits made by the foreign investors is allowed to go to home to the investors country, and not the country in need.
In short, the IMF and World Bank turn these 3rd world countries into repaying loan machines at very high interests rates (which most of the time can NEVER realistically be ever repaid) and at the same time suck the resources and economy dry and exploit the country for cheap labor and free trade.
This overwhelming debt has led to the poorest countries in the world spending enormous portions of their national incomes towards paying interest. Like I mentioned to you before with Lula in Brazil, who spends over half of their federal income repaying debt and interest to the IMF. This actually means that money is actually flowing from the world's poorest countries to the richest. I read in an article a while back that these 3rd world nations pay the western countries over 10 times more in debt repayment than they receive in "aid" from Western countries.
So let’s say if a country receives a small $50 million in aid for a natural disaster or something, they may end up paying back $80 million a year in debt repayments.
There are great examples of this if you search on the net. Even the World Bank will give you some facts, such as they say poverty in Africa increased by 50% between 1994 and 2000. Of course they don’t tell you why, but the obvious reason is because almost every nation in Africa entered into a “structural adjustment program” (help from the Word Bank, IMF etc.) in the 1980s and they are all stuck repaying debt.
So you can see why there is such a huge opposition in Latin America to the U.S, Free Trade, WTO etc. and this explains why socialism is more popular and desired to the people- they are the ones who have been hit the hardest by capitalism.
Anyone else should feel free to add information or ask questions]
IMF stands for - International Monetary Fund.
The IMF, World Bank and WTO are central dictators in the global economy and are like the architects of the world economy. They are instruments of the capitalist powers; basically only concerned with maximizing profits and maintaining the domination of the US over 3rd world countries. The IMF in essence decides what countries are eligible for “loans” while the World Bank makes long term loans to devastated countries or very poor countries. The idea behind it is that they give money to “help” 3rd world nations and they must pay back these “loans” with extremely high interests rates, which means these countries are left in severe debt, always for a long period of time, for years and years, often very unrealistic terms and probably could never be repaid.
Now, the tricky part is that the IMF will only approve loans if these devastated countries accept certain agreements on top of the high interest rates they must pay back. This means that these countries are demanded to raise money by selling off public assets and companies or in other words- privatization and they have to cut social services like healthcare, education, childcare, etc in order to raise the money. They also demand that the 3rd world countries must be "free trade" countries which by cutting financial support to local industries and slashing trade barriers and tariffs or taxes. These countries also have to open up their economies to foreign business, remove any pre-existing restrictions on foreign investments, and allow corporations access to the workers and natural resources of the country at very, very low prices. The majority, if not all of the profits made by the foreign investors is allowed to go to home to the investors country, and not the country in need.
In short, the IMF and World Bank turn these 3rd world countries into repaying loan machines at very high interests rates (which most of the time can NEVER realistically be ever repaid) and at the same time suck the resources and economy dry and exploit the country for cheap labor and free trade.
This overwhelming debt has led to the poorest countries in the world spending enormous portions of their national incomes towards paying interest. Like I mentioned to you before with Lula in Brazil, who spends over half of their federal income repaying debt and interest to the IMF. This actually means that money is actually flowing from the world's poorest countries to the richest. I read in an article a while back that these 3rd world nations pay the western countries over 10 times more in debt repayment than they receive in "aid" from Western countries.
So let’s say if a country receives a small $50 million in aid for a natural disaster or something, they may end up paying back $80 million a year in debt repayments.
There are great examples of this if you search on the net. Even the World Bank will give you some facts, such as they say poverty in Africa increased by 50% between 1994 and 2000. Of course they don’t tell you why, but the obvious reason is because almost every nation in Africa entered into a “structural adjustment program” (help from the Word Bank, IMF etc.) in the 1980s and they are all stuck repaying debt.
So you can see why there is such a huge opposition in Latin America to the U.S, Free Trade, WTO etc. and this explains why socialism is more popular and desired to the people- they are the ones who have been hit the hardest by capitalism.
