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… all members will be elected … and who selects those to elect ? I don’t know that the IMF is our friend . Where corporations tell nations what to do , the IMF .

Goddamn IMF.

They can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

The IMF was stop-gap creation at Bretton Woods where the U.S. blew the best chance in its history to create an international bank of banks (a la Keynes’s proposal) to modulate liquidity between all nations whenever needed and at a time when the U.S. would have benefited greatly in the short run and the U.S. and world in the long run. Instead, U.S. ultra conservatives prevailed and we got the IMF. It got away with it until the ’60s and Viet Nam debts, when it inevitably floundered and the rest of the Bretton Woods agreements on currency had to be scrapped by the early ’70s.

While the U.S. remained dominant, it (more like, U.S. based multi-national finance and corporate interests) could use it to bring developing nations “into line” with “laissez-faire” economic theory and “free trade” that left those developing countries at the mercy of big international corporate money.

Now we’re trapped in it and the powers that be (a mix of multi-national corps as well as semi- and pseudo-democratic centrally-run states) will fight it out (read find accommodation between them with the general welfare being the lowest priority – or a non-priority to seek its own level as “magic market” thinking sees it). And, SDRs are no substitute for currency coordination – just instruments for continuation of the power politics of the past.

The next time you read “the world is flat” think “the world is being flattened” for the benefit of only a precious few.

In conjunction with the BIS and World Bank, the IMF is – in layman’s terms, – The Death Star.

Have you ever have said: “It seems simple, why don’t they just. . . . yadda, yadda .. . . .and fix it “
The reason why it’s not going to ever be fixed, is because the solution is counter to the interests of these non elected, irresponsible institutions.
If you want to know why the world is shit, follow the money.
If you follow the money, no matter what country you are in, or what the politics are, you end up at the IMF, BIS, and the World Bank.
Poverty and War are their biggest investments, and their constituents have been at if for centuries.

Big deal. If the IMF hadn’t done it voluntarily, they would have been forced to anyway. The ‘rich’ western countries are bankrupt and will not be a source of new funding in the coming years. Emerging markets have managed to maintain financial viability and so will become important funders for the IMF.

Well said Turnip. There is a novel solution to the current ‘crisis’ – ordinary shlubs can just opt out and come up with their own financial system. It would hardly make a difference in their lives anyway if they swore off dollars and opted for direct barter or some other form of exchange. The ‘crisis’ exists for those with billions, as their ill gotten riches are in danger of evaporating if the American dollar craters (and takes the rest of the ‘system’ with it). For the majority of ‘middle income’ earners and lower, I cant see how their lives would change for the worse (how could it get worse?). The current financial system (stewarded by the IMF, World Bank, BIS and the like) relies on faith and nothing more. If you decided not to play ball, what could they do – shoot you? Your life would not change, but their lives would be radically altered. You can only be suppressed if you willingly put your neck down so someone can stomp their bootheel on it!

Tanks :]
I’ve been looking at professional barter systems, but it seems we are out of practice. Also, we are still legally liable for taxes on the arms length value of the barter, which needs to be remitted in FRN’s, so that necessitates some dollars.
What makes more sense, and what I find fascinating, is local independent and parallel currencies, like Berkshares, and Ithaca Hours. We’d know that all of those units of exchange would be kept local, and would not be ending up at Government Sachs, or as a CEO”s bonus.

a lot of thanks for sharing these instructive