Funding our Enemies
By Capital Thinking • Issue #1069 • View online
Do you know anything about the International Monetary Fund?
Haha. No, you don’t.
Stop pretending. Let me help you.
The IMF steals US dollars and sends them directly to Russia, China, and Iran. WTF?
1. The IMF was formed in July 1944 at the US Bretton Woods Conference in the US. The end of WWII was in sight and the Normandy landings had succeeded.
2. The IMF’s primary mission was once to provide stability in the international monetary system focused on such arcane things as exchange rates for currency. Seems tame?
3. This has now grown to include economic stability, the management and avoidance of economic and financial crises, and raising the standard of living. Globally.
4. The IMF publishes a lot of research on the global economy, financial markets, and outlooks both for large countries and regional economies.
5. In the end, the IMF gives out money. Lots of money. Gobs of money. And, the US either directly provides it or provides an unequivocal guaranty from the US Treasury which means American taxpayers.
6. The IMF will blow a lot of smoke up the world’s ass that its assistance is loans, but they are literally giving away money — no interest loans, no repayment “loans” and something called Special Drawing Rights or SDRs.
Who’s running the show, Big Red Car?
There are 190 member countries and the IMF has a staff of 2,700 persons from 150 countries headquartered in Washington, DC.
There is an Executive Board of 24 Directors representing a cross section of funders and “borrowers.”
Biggest borrowers are Argentina, Egypt, Ukraine, and Pakistan. Largest “precautionary loans” went to Mexico, Chile, and Columbia.
It cost $303,000,000 to run the IMF to achieve their newly revised mission: Promote international monetary cooperation;Facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade;Promote exchange stability;Assist in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments; and,Make resources available (with adequate safeguards — give me a minute to stop laughing) to members experiencing balance-of-payments difficulties.
[Extra credit question: See anything that serves American national security interests?]
Can you bottom line it, Big Red Car?
Yes, dear reader, forgive me.
In 2021, the IMF provided to: