The IMF and Washington’s South American politics

(what the GEAB said in September 2019)

In reality, the IMF is not up to the refinancing challenge implemented by its creators. Indeed, how can it face the 22 trillion US public debt and repeated threats of US non-payment? Nor is it able to cope with the debt problems of the major European states or, even less so, of China. All these large countries have to manage their problems differently, playing on their inevitability as investment destinations rather than on real debt reduction strategies.

The IMF, therefore, is used to help small countries that are struggling with debt problems commensurate with their size and thus also small (among the 10 largest loan recipients in 2015 were countries like Ivory Coast [0.98 billion], Kenya [0.90 billion] and Tunisia [1.1 billion]). The Greek crisis has started to test the limits of the IMF, which will be only one of the contributors with 48 billion euro out of a total of 242.8 billion (271 billion USD). Portugal managed to slip in and get 25 billion while Ireland got 5 billion. And in 2014, it was Ukraine that poked its nose in and received nearly 10 billion. Thus, in 2015, not only did most of the IMF’s lending go to Europe,[13] but the IMF reached its very limit, justifying its opening to China in the same year… this is an execrpt from the GEAB 137 / Sept 2019. Read more