From the BBC we see a reminder of the comments after the London G20
More info here on the London G20 Communique
The International Monetary Fund returns BBC NEWS
“The IMF is back”.
Those were the words of the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, after the G20 summit in London.
That summit saw a proposal for a trebling of its resources for lending to countries hit by the financial crisis.
The G20 proposal was for the IMF to have access to $750bn (£513bn) – to spell it out; three quarters of a trillion dollars.
That massively increased supply of funds is a response to a hefty increase in demand for the IMF’s help, which comes in the shape of loans.
BBC NEWS | Business | The International Monetary Fund returns.
Geithner asks for more to go to the banksters and the press focuses on Protesters?
Geithner pushes for more money for IMF lending – AP
WASHINGTON – As protesters clashed with police on Washington’s streets, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged world finance officials meeting near the White House on Saturday to ante up more to help countries wrung by the recession.
Geithner said major progress toward bolstering the International Monetary Fund “must be an important outcome of these meetings. The international community should act quickly.”
More than 100 demonstrators angered by how world leaders have handled the economic crisis took on police outside the headquarters of the IMF and World Bank, which are holding their spring meetings this weekend.
Always…“act quickly” and Yes, I would say more than 100… probably More than 100 Million…
Authorities used batons and pepper spray when activists tried to march onto a prohibited street, and several people were pushed to the ground by police. The protesters swarmed officers unexpectedly, and police had to respond, said D.C. police Capt. Jeffrey Harold.
Better CLUB the crap out of the 100 because of the “PROHIBITED STREET”…
In early April, leaders from the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations pledged to provide $1.1 trillion in new resources to international lending institutions, including $500 billion for the IMF. President Barack Obama is seeking congressional approval for up to $100 billion, matching commitments for the same amount made by Japan and the European Union. But the full $500 billion hasn’t yet been pledged.
Geithner pushes for more money for IMF lending.
First, Reform the I.M.F.
By MARK WEISBROT April 24, 2009The International Monetary Fund turns 65 this year. Until the current economic crisis, it had reduced its workload drastically to a near-retirement level — its total loan portfolio plummeted by 92 percent in four years. But like many senior citizens, the Fund has kept working past retirement age — and is now expanding its responsibilities.
The I.M.F. has a track record that seems to have been almost completely ignored in discussions of a proposed $750 billion increase in its resources. Nearly 12 years ago, a financial crisis hit Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The word “contagion” became part of the financial reporting lexicon as the crisis spread to Russia, Brazil, Argentina and other countries.
The I.M.F.’s response was roundly criticized at the time. Jeffrey Sachs, then at the Harvard Institute for International Development, called the Fund “the Typhoid Mary of emerging markets, spreading recessions in country after country.”
In the Asian crisis, the I.M.F. failed to provide desperately needed foreign exchange when it was
most needed; it then imposed policies that worsened the downturn. It did the same in Argentina, and lent tens of billions of dollars to prop up an unsustainable exchange rate, which inevitably collapsed along with a record sovereign debt default. After that experience, many middle-income countries piled up reserves so that they would never have to depend on the Fund again.
No one at the I.M.F. was held accountable for the mistakes that caused so much unnecessary unemployment, lost output and poverty. Nor were any major reforms introduced. The Fund has 185 member countries, but a handful of rich members — mostly the U.S., Europe and Japan — have a solid majority, and the U.S. Treasury is the Fund’s principal overseer.
But they have got their act together now… right?
The I.M.F. claims that it has changed. But a look at nine “standby arrangements” — its basic short-term loan agreement — negotiated since last September reveals some of the same mistakes it made in the last crisis. All the agreements provide for spending cuts, despite the I.M.F.’s avowed commitment to a worldwide fiscal stimulus.
read the rest here… Op-Ed Contributor – First, Reform the I.M.F. – NYTimes.com.
Well, I feel better now knowing that the IMF and World Bank will save the financial crisis for the world as the have in Asia and Argentina… joe
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