IMF

IMF IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.

When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.

As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).

The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.

http://imf.org

Can the IMF Be Trusted on Argentina?

21 February 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

After the IMF mission to Argentina agreed with President Fernandez that the foreign debt is unsustainable, international debt campaigner Eric Toussaint tells teleSUR that the Fund is not to be trusted.
Concerning the founding of the Bretton Woods’ Institutions

19 February 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

Series : Bretton Woods, the World Bank and the IMF: 70th anniversary
IMF and World Bank complicit in ‘austerity as new normal’, despite availability of alternatives

12 February 2020 - by Bretton Woods Project

Summary Austerity projected to affect 5.8 billion people by 2021 UN offers handbook on alternative financing options IMF and World Bank continue to cling to unnecessary and harmful fiscal orthodoxy In October, a report by Matthew Cummins and Isabel Ortiz, entitled Austerity: The New (...)
After the Argentina debacle, the IMF endorses weakening capital controls in Ecuador

20 December 2019 - by Lara Merling

The IMF is backing a tax reform bill in Ecuador that will enable capital flight and further austerity. Over the past year, a rebranded IMF returned to Latin America with promises of loan agreements that would be different than the dreaded “structural adjustment programmes” of the past. Behind (...)
Argentina: facing another debt crisis

18 December 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

After four years of brutal neoliberal policies under Mauricio Macri as President, Argentina is again facing a major debt crisis. Let us remember that when Macri started his mandate in December 2015 he accepted all the injunctions formulated by a New York magistrate, who had ruled in the favor (...)
The accomplices to austerity are also responsible for human rights violations

21 November 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

The question is not whether austerity plays a role in violating human rights but how big a role it plays: how much of an impact it has on indicators such as mortality rates, employment, equality, health, housing and levels of violence. Adjustment and austerity measures are often among the (...)
Corporate debt, fiscal stimulus and the next recession

23 October 2019 - by Michael Roberts

The debt owed by corporations in the major economies has risen since the end of the Great Recession in 2009. With global growth slowing and the prospect rising of an outright global recession recurring ten years after the last one, the debt held by corporations may soon become so burdensome to (...)
Does BRICS Banking offer an Alternative to the IMF and World Bank? Pessimistic Signals from South Africa

21 October 2019 - by Patrick Bond

1. Introduction After their 1944 birth at a New Hampshire hotel, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank turned 75 years old this year, long past a reasonable retirement age. For the sake of global financial management, most reformers’ hopes rest in changing the character of the (...)
Bretton Woods Institutions’ neoliberal over-reach leaves global governance in the gutter

18 October 2019 - by Patrick Bond

This week, the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will again be held in Washington, DC, with back-slapping now that the Bretton Woods twins have reached age 75 (they were founded at a New Hampshire hotel in 1944). And with more passion than in recent years, there (...)
Ecuador: Brutal economic decisions (“paquetazo”)

11 October 2019 - by Diego Borja Cornejo

With a stubborn position that borders on political suicide, the government of Lenin Moreno, during the seventh day of massive and combative Popular Unemployment, has preferred to repress thousands of indigenous, students, settlers and workers who have risen throughout the country, by employing (...)
The World Bank’s accounts

23 September 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
Tunisia’s Truth Commission vs France, the IMF and World Bank

8 September 2019 - by Olfa Belhassine

On July 16, Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) sent two memorandums calling first on France and then on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to apologize and pay reparations to Tunisian victims. It says they all have a “share of responsibility” in colonial violence and social (...)
The Meltzer Commission on the IFI at the US Congress in 2000

30 August 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
James Wolfensohn switches on the charm (1995-2005)

21 August 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
The World Bank and the IMF: the creditors’ bailiffs

4 August 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
Theoretical lies of the World Bank

23 June 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and (...)
The World Bank and the IMF in Indonesia: an emblematic interference

17 June 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and (...)
The World Bank and the Philippines

22 May 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and (...)
World Bank and IMF support to dictatorships

6 May 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and (...)
South Africa: The support of the World Bank and the IMF to the Apartheid regime

29 April 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Patrick Bond

The World Bank and the IMF were accomplice of the apartheid for decades. They violated the UN embargo against the racist regime at the helm of South Africa. Between 1958 – 1968, the World Bank loans made possible the financing of the “pro-White” projects : a thermal power plant (Eskom) which (...)
A delicate moment

17 April 2019 - by Michael Roberts

The IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington this weekend revealed again that the world economy is slowing down and the prospect of an outright recession is getting much higher. The IMF economists cut their outlook for global growth to the lowest since the global financial crisis of 2009 amid a (...)
Crisis deepens as global South debt payments increase by 85%

9 April 2019 - by Jubilee Debt Campaign

- External debt payments by developing country governments grew by 85%, as a proportion of government revenue, between 2010 and 2018 For the countries with the highest payments, in two-thirds public spending is falling The largest cuts were in Egypt, Cameroon, Angola and Mongolia, all of (...)
Why the Marshall Plan ?

25 March 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
SUNFED versus World Bank

18 March 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)
Early conflicts between the UN and the World Bank/IMF tandem

12 March 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the (...)