Confessions of an Economic Hit Man?

[Dr. Zaus]

So this guy says he is an "economic hit man" who gets third world countries enslaved to the IMF by offering bribes to their leaders to barrow money. He says a lot about "so then they can take their pound of flesh if the small country doesn't behave" but he never explains what that 'pound of flesh' is.

He also fails to look at the dramatic difference in infant morality rates between countries that do and don't take IMF loans. Finally he fails entirely to see how often the debt-holding countries forgive loans.

I am not saying that it is better to loan a foreign nation money for life-saving projects rather than give it to them. But if it is a loan and then the money is spent in a way truly useful to the people, instead of stolen by the government; then we can forgive the loans so that the tin-pot dictators in charge have even more wealth by helping their people.

 

[JSt0rm]

the problem is they are giving up something real "oil,diamonds, water" for something thats not real "paper money" The banks just take the deposit from the fed leverage it 10x then deposit it again and leverage it again 10x then let some 3rd world country "borrow" it so that we can take their real things. Get it?

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Originally posted by: JSt0rm01
the problem is they are giving up something real "oil,diamonds, water" for something thats not real "paper money" The banks just take the deposit from the fed leverage it 10x then deposit it again and leverage it again 10x then let some 3rd world country "borrow" it so that we can take their real things. Get it?

I understand how the fractional bank lending system leads to wealth consolidation by the banks.

What I don't understand is why taking out a lone for a public works projects that have a higher return on investment than the interest is a bad idea?

 

[gingermeggs]

Why don't those countries just print up the money like the USA currently is?

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Originally posted by: gingermeggs
Why don't those countries just print up the money like the USA currently is?

Hyper inflation occurs if you print money without taxing it back out.

 

[Craig234]

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" is a book very worth reading. You really don't begin to do it justice with the summary. It also spawned or inspired a couple sequels that are good.

It's a book better read than summarized; the readers here are encouraged to look up info on it. You don't sound like you have read the book?

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Originally posted by: Craig234
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" is a book very worth reading. You really don't begin to do it justice with the summary. It also spawned or inspired a couple sequels that are good.

It's a book better read than summarized; the readers here are encouraged to look up info on it. You don't sound like you have read the book?

It is much more entertaining... I was pointing out logical incoherency.. as you've read it to I'd like it if you could address my issues with the guy.

 

[Phokus]

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Sama...&qid=1247342101&sr=8-1

"Bad Samaritans" is a good read as well.

It explores how developing countries fare worse under the trade liberalization policies of the IMF and how hypocritical countries like the US is for advocating it when we don't follow it ourselves (just look at the bank bailout).

It also explores how countries like Japan and South Korea had their economic miracles BECAUSE they didn't practice trade liberalization at first and they protected their industries greatly until they were mature enough to compete against the outside world economies.

 

[FlashG]

Originally posted by: Craig234
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" is a book very worth reading. You really don't begin to do it justice with the summary. It also spawned or inspired a couple sequels that are good.

It's a book better read than summarized; the readers here are encouraged to look up info on it. You don't sound like you have read the book?

Craig234, I looked at a number of his interviews per our discussion in my thread. At first I thought this guy was just another hack. Then I recalled the instances, from years ago, that he was referring to. A light bulb went off and I realized that this is for real.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: DixyCrat

Originally posted by: Craig234
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" is a book very worth reading. You really don't begin to do it justice with the summary. It also spawned or inspired a couple sequels that are good.

It's a book better read than summarized; the readers here are encouraged to look up info on it. You don't sound like you have read the book?

It is much more entertaining... I was pointing out logical incoherency.. as you've read it to I'd like it if you could address my issues with the guy.

you mcould address your own issues if you read the book YOURSELF....rofl..hahahaaa

 

[dali71]

I was under the impression that Democrats supported the IMF. Am I wrong in assuming this?

 

[First]

Originally posted by: DixyCrat

Originally posted by: gingermeggs
Why don't those countries just print up the money like the USA currently is?

Hyper inflation occurs if you print money without taxing it back out.

This literally doesn't make any sense. You could print money to the end of time and it wouldn't matter if a proportionally equal amount of people increased their transactions of U.S. dollars. That's why the U.S. has continued to drastically increase the money supply for the last 3 decades, basically ever since Mao died and China and India really started booming.

 

[cubeless]

Originally posted by: Evan

Originally posted by: DixyCrat

Originally posted by: gingermeggs
Why don't those countries just print up the money like the USA currently is?

Hyper inflation occurs if you print money without taxing it back out.

This literally doesn't make any sense. You could print money to the end of time and it wouldn't matter if a proportionally equal amount of people increased their transactions of U.S. dollars. That's why the U.S. has continued to drastically increase the money supply for the last 3 decades, basically ever since Mao died and China and India really started booming.

ahhh.. the global pyramid scheme... and no one's worried that at some point all this blather about leaving the dollar as the reserve (and default) currency (or some other reason) might come true, and the "proportionally equal amount of people increased their transactions of U.S. dollars" stops?

 

[First]

Originally posted by: cubeless

Originally posted by: Evan

Originally posted by: DixyCrat

Originally posted by: gingermeggs
Why don't those countries just print up the money like the USA currently is?

Hyper inflation occurs if you print money without taxing it back out.

This literally doesn't make any sense. You could print money to the end of time and it wouldn't matter if a proportionally equal amount of people increased their transactions of U.S. dollars. That's why the U.S. has continued to drastically increase the money supply for the last 3 decades, basically ever since Mao died and China and India really started booming.

ahhh.. the global pyramid scheme... and no one's worried that at some point all this blather about leaving the dollar as the reserve (and default) currency (or some other reason) might come true, and the "proportionally equal amount of people increased their transactions of U.S. dollars" stops?

The likelihood of it happening anytime in the near future is zero. The world literally cannot afford it happening. That's why the dollar hasn't tanked despite laymens predicting it would.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: dali71
I was under the impression that Democrats supported the IMF. Am I wrong in assuming this?

First, unfortunately, 'democrats' can include everything from the progressives like Bernie Saunders to the ones who have chosen to align with the corporatocracy.

Assuming you mean the progressives - they support the idea of what the IMF and World Bank are supposed to do in terms of 'helping' the poorer nations with development aid, but as is now widely understood, including largely by the institutions themselves, their policies often were destructive not helpful.

Part of this has its roots in the 'Chicago School of Economics' type policies that always called for slashing any social spending to the bone. Corporate agendas tended to push 'aid' for projects the countries might not need but which would benefit the corporations to sell them, and political interference could get people into power who would accept the aid and then turn around and hand it back to the foreign corporations, while slashing the money spent on the people.

There are a lot of good summaries on this, but one person to look for info from is Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner in Economics, former Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, and former Chief Economist of the World Bank. When he had a study done on the IMF, following US Treasury policies, and concluded they did a lot of harm, he was forced out by pressure from the US.

As Wiki summarizes:

As the World Bank began its ten-year review of the transition of the former Communist countries to the market economy it unveiled failures of the countries that had followed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shock therapy policies - both in terms of the declines in GDP and increases in poverty - that were even worse than the worst that most of its critics had envisioned at the onset of the transition. Clear links existed between the dismal performances and the policies that the IMF had advocated, such as the voucher privatization schemes and excessive monetary stringency. Meanwhile, the success of a few countries that had followed quite different strategies suggested that there were alternatives that could have been followed. The U.S. Treasury had put enormous pressure on the World Bank to silence his criticisms of the policies which they and the IMF had pushed.

So, in short, the progressives tend to view those organizations as having been corrupted and pushing harmful policies for the benefit of major corporations- even while they would support the organizations if they were actually helping the countries. That might be why it's a bit confusing.

Here is a link to various Stiglitz articles on the site Commondreams.org.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Evan: you are smart, no doubt, but please don't confuse the issue. I was explaining why Brazil can't print all the cash it wants without consequences.

to address your point:

Three definitions:
Volume of money: The number of dollars in the economy
Velocity of money: The number of times a year the average dollar changes hands
Average good: The price, in dollars, for all goods and services, on average (goes up, inflation, goes down, deflation)

ever since Mao died and China and India really started booming.

In the end the price of the average good is equal to the volume of money times the velocity of money divided by the number of goods(and services).

So if we increase the total wealth (goods and services) without increasing the rate at which we spend, then we can print more money.

If we make the same goods but spend slower then we can print more money.

BUT if we print more money when we slow our spending temporarily then we speed up our spending again then we will see inflation unless that extra money is taken out of the economy (via taxation or interest)

 

[miniMUNCH]

The US, Canada (when they can), and the EU take almost every opportunity they can to rape countries in Africa... IMF is just one tool.

There was a piece on the AP news wire (i think) a long while back investigating/explaining how US, Canadian, and EU concerns where engineering unrest in the DRC (Dem. Rep. of Congo) so that ore prices (particularly tantalum) were massively suppressed.

Companies were, and really still are, getting Ta and other metal ore from DRC for pennies on the dollar and turning massive profits in the sale of the refined metals. Tantalum as you may or may not know is the metal of choice used in ultra-capacitors used in cell phones, computer motherboards, etc. It is technologically very, very important and rather expensive. IT would be way more expensive if was not, for a time at least, being effectively stolen from the DRC.