The Real Purpose Of The IMF

international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Sunday July 13, 2014 13:00

by Luke Eastwood

An analysis of what the IMF is really about...

To much trumpeting the IMF have kindly agreed to help out desperate and war torn Ukraine. How wonderful they are we are all meant to think, but the truth couldn’t be more opposite.

The International Monetary Fund was set up in 1945, describing itself as an “organization of 188 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.”

This all sounds very laudable, but in reality the IMF has a very different purpose from that which is stated. If you look at the history of the IMF’s intervention in countries around the world you will see a trail of disaster and looting that repeats time and time again wherever they go.

The many countries that are involved are supposed to have some influence but this is proportional to their financial clout, which in truth means that the USA has most of the control of what happens and many countries have effectively no say at all.

My opinion of the IMF, concurs with that of John Perkins, author of ‘Confessions Of An Economic Hitman’, his views being that of an insider in the system and mine merely as an observer. He succinctly points out that major western nations use financial warfare to get what they want and gain influence over other countries – the IMF being one of the tools with which they do this.

Caribbean countries such as Jamaica have been destroyed by trade agreements and much the same thing has happened throughout Africa, South America and Asia at various times since world war II. What the IMF does is somewhat similar to a thug loan shark. The loan shark lends money to people who can’t afford to borrow so that the borrower ends up having to not eat to make the payments or face having broken legs.

In a more subtle way, the IMF behaves in a similar way. Countries are given a ‘helping hand’ as loans that they will have great difficulty paying back. In return for the loans the IMF wants interest and regular repayments and ‘restructuring’ of the country’s assets. What this actually means is the asset stripping of sovereign nations so that their economic wealth is transferred from the country’s/public’s ownership into private hands.

This has happened in Europe recently, with countries such as Greece, Portugal, Ireland and even Spain and Italy faced with the prospect of having to sell off national assets in order to finance repayment of loans to either the IMF or EU. Private consortiums, owned by the banks or oligarchs buy up a nation’s forests, coal industry, water supply etc so that instead of the country receiving income from its recourses the private company makes all the money off the backs of the increasingly impoverished population.

At the moment the Ukrainian people might welcome the IMF but you can be sure that in a short time the country will be financially raped and the population plunged into even worse poverty as a result of IMF ‘assistance’. Here in Ireland we are realizing the foolishness of the IMF/EU bailouts that is making life increasingly difficult for ordinary citizens while the government ponders selling off our resources.

Any country with sense (like Iceland) would show the IMF the door and find a better way of clawing its way out of economic problems. Iceland is a perfect example of how a country could solve its own problems – but no-one in the media talks about this – the corpocracy does not want anyone else getting the same idea. Surely, if every nation took the same actions the corporate take over of sovereign nations would fall flat on its face wouldn’t it?