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	Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the IMF
		The IMF was originally designed to promote international economic cooperation and provide its member countries with short term loans so they could trade with other countries (achieve balance of payments).
		The IMF's mismanagement of the Asian financial crisis plunged South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries into deep depression that created 200 million "newly poor." The IMF advised countries to "export their way out of the crisis." Consequently, more than US 12,000 steelworkers were laid off when Asian steel was dumped in the US.
		Under the IMF imposed economic reforms after the peso bailout in 1995, the number of Mexicans living in extreme poverty increased more than 50 percent and the national average minimum wage fell 20 percent.
	www.globalexchange.org /campaigns/wbimf/TopTenIMF.html (1436 words)

	IMF Surveillance
		A core responsibility of the IMF is to promote a dialogue among its member countries on the national and international consequences of their economic and financial policies.
		The IMF has a mandate under Article IV of its Articles of Agreement to exercise surveillance over the exchange rate policies of its members in order to ensure the effective operation of the international monetary system.
		IMF economists visit the member country to gather information and hold discussions with government and central bank officials, and often private investors and labor representatives, members of parliament, and civil society organizations.
	www.imf.md /imfsurveil.html (941 words)

	The IMF Formula: Prescription for Poverty
		Unless the IMF certified that an economy was being "restructured" and "maintained soundly," the world's public and private lenders would refuse to extend loans.
		The IMF decided that countries must now adhere to the policy package of structural adjustment, which essentially integrates national economies into the global market, enabling multinational corporations to access cheaper labor markets and natural resources, and increase exports.
		IMF internal studies reveal that many SAPs have failed to enhance economic growth, reduce fiscal and balance of payment deficits, lower inflation and reduce external debt.
	www.thirdworldtraveler.com /IMF_WB/IMF_Formula_PrescripPover.html (1805 words)

	Guardian Unlimited \| Comment is free \| Don't be fooled by this reform: the IMF is still the rich world's viceroy
		But while the value of the rich countries' quotas has risen since the IMF was founded in 1944, the value of the basic votes has not.
		Even reports by the IMF's ombudsman - the "independent evaluation office" - are censored by the management, and their conclusions are changed to shift the blame for the fund's failures to its client states.
		Needless to say, the IMF insists that the states it lends to must commit themselves to "good governance" and "transparency" if they are to receive its money.
	www.guardian.co.uk /commentisfree/story/0,,1864923,00.html (1296 words)

	Foreign Policy In Focus \| IMF Identity Crisis (Site not responding. Last check: )
		In all its operations, the IMF staff, operating under the firm oversight of its Board of Executive Directors, focused only on those macroeconomic and monetary variables that affected the state’s obligation to maintain its currency’s par value, leaving the member states free to choose policies needed to reach the agreed macroeconomic and monetary goals.
		Unless the IMF implements this comprehensive governance reform program, it is unclear that it will ever be able to effectively contribute to solving the complex monetary and financial challenges or the problems of poverty, inequality and inadequate governance which plague our world today.
		The middle income countries have withdrawn from IMF oversight because they don't have the resources to either repay their obligations to the IMF or because they have access to other sources of funds and not because they have agreed or been pursuaded to do so by non-state actors.
	www.fpif.org /fpiftxt/3777 (2111 words)

	Bretton Woods Project - IMF
		The World Bank and IMF continue to pressure developing country governments to overrule or sideline their legislatures; a far cry from the principles of good governance which the institutions themselves espouse.
		Many observers were sceptical when a few years ago the IMF embarked on a mission to respond to the "cries of the poor", in the words of its then head Michel Camdessus more...
		Highlights of a meeting where IMF staff outlined plans for a new facility for countries experiencing 'exogenous shocks', a new 'policy support instrument' to signal policy quality of non-borrowers, and reviewed the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, the Fund's lending vehicle for low-income countries.
	www.brettonwoodsproject.org /institution/imf/index.shtml (583 words)

	What's Wrong with the IMF (Site not responding. Last check: )
		While the IMF cites "reduction of world poverty" as one of its goals, its policies actually hurt the poor and exacerbate social inequality.
		The IMF excludes environmental ministries and members of parliament, even though they are affected by and expected to implement loan conditions.
		Until the IMF adopts major changes in the way it does business—reforming both its environmentally and socially shortsighted policies and its secretive decision-making processes—citizen groups will continue to protest.
	www.bankwatch.org /vademecum/ifis/wbgrp/imf.html (718 words)

	Selected Q & A from Recent IMF Hearings
		With regard to your [IMF] financial statements, we have a statement that says "each member has the option to substitute nonnegotiable or noninterest bearing securities for the amount of currency held by the fund in the general resources account that is in excess of one-quarter of one percent of the member's quota."
		The reason the IMF is starting to get interested in banking reform is that their assistance has become microeconomic bailouts of banks.
		The IMF quota increase will not be a net job creator in the United States economy, and Congressmen who base their vote on this argument alone are at best doing their constituents a disservice.
	www.house.gov /jec/imf/highlght.htm (3353 words)

	The IMF Deconstructed
		Yet, the IMF is about to repeat there the same grave error it commited in Russia: to protect the currency, the whole system is drained of liquidity (demonitized), interest rates are kep insanely high and the balance of payments deficit skyrockets, until the inevitable collapse.
		The IMF's deadly sin, yet to yield its grapes of wrath, is not to understand that economics is a branch of psychology and should be at the service of humans and society.
		The IMF is unethical because it espouses an abstract concept -free trade- that influences the complex process of "development" (too often defined with insufficient complexity) while being unconcerned with specific and local realities and interactions.
	www.geocities.com /Athens/Forum/6297/pp10.html (2144 words)

	IMF
		For both the ESF and the IMF rates of exchange were based upon the value of a currency in terms of U.S. dollars which had prevailed since the Gold Reserve Act of 1934.
		White’s proposals for the IMF were based on the ESF principle that all currencies are equivalent and that the goal of each fund was to stabilize exchange rates.
		If the IMF were transformed along the lines of the forgoing prescription, it would cease to function as an institution that offers cheap credit to countries in trouble that White had in mind and instead would become a lender with strict standards in conformity with the demands of market discipline.
	web.gc.cuny.edu /eusc/activities/paper/schwartz.htm (4055 words)

	How the IMF Props Up the Bankrupt Dollar System
		The original IMF idea was to pool a share of reserves of member states, which any single state could then borrow, in event of a short term payments crisis, to stabilize their currency.
		The IMF demands are often referred to as the Washington Consensus, the name given in 1990 by a US economist and IMF backer, John Williamson, to describe the IMF method of attack.
		IMF medicine almost always includes demands to privatize state industries, to slash public spending even on health and education, devalue the national currency against the dollar, and open the country to free flow of international capital-both in and, especially, out.
	www.serendipity.li /hr/imf_and_dollar_system.htm (3808 words)

	The International Monetary Fund - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The IMF accepted partial responsibility for Argentina's economic crisis, admitting to overlooking vulnerabilities and ignoring warning signs which "brought Argentina to its knees." Though this admission is an amazing step forward, it means little without the second step of donating money and labor toward rectifying the situation.
		The IMF completed extensive evaluations of its Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), finding that programs "fall considerably short of their potential." Recommendations include shifting authority to workers in the field, clarifying what the IMF itself is accountable for, and moving away from publishing documents to focus on policy.
		Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner blames the IMF for its role in the Argentine financial disaster, urging the institution to grant the country a grace period to recover.
	www.globalpolicy.org /socecon/bwi-wto/imfind.htm (5182 words)

	About IMF
		In addition to the events shown on the current IMF calendar, additional meetings and web conferences are added each year at the request of member companies to address topics of particular interest to them.
		IMF content provides a rich archive of real-world experience that members can draw upon as they address their issues and challenges.
		IMF provides access to one of the strongest benchmark database in the industry at a fraction of the price and time of a traditional benchmark exercise.
	www.theimf.com /about_IMF.aspx?ID=2 (317 words)

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		IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato responded earlier this month to a similar call made by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and pointed out that "it depends on the willingness of the members of the Fund, of the Executive Board.
		IMF spokeswoman Frances Anne Hardin told IRIN the IMF had revalued some of its gold to raise funds for debt relief in the past.
		The IMF sold up to 14 million troy ounces of gold to Brazil and Mexico in 1999/2000, "in a sale authorised by the Executive Board to generate about US $3 billion to help finance the Fund's contribution to debt relief and financial support for the world's poorest nations".
	www.irinnews.org /report.asp?ReportID=43859 (862 words)

	IMF boss blames World Bank and EU for Malawi blunder
		The IMF was part of this process, the IMF may not have been attentive enough; but the decision was with the World Bank and EU".
		Koehler replied saying that the IMF "is a financial institution, which means you have to have someone who provides capital - and voting based on capital provision is good for efficiency and delivery".
		On the IMF's proposed bankruptcy mechanism for indebted nations, the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism, Mr Koehler replied to John McFall MP, that the two tracks being pursued by John Taylor, deputy US Treasury Secretary, and IMF deputy, Anne Kreuger "were complementary".
	www.jubileeplus.org /worldnews/africa/malawi040702.htm (1098 words)

	IMF - "States of Unrest"
		The IMF has unprecedented power over these vulnerable countries and is often referred to as the 'Gatekeeper' because it determines whether to open or shut the 'gate' between a borrowing government and its creditors.
		Loans from the IMF are always conditional on the implementation of structural reforms, and countries seeking the IMF's international 'seal of approval' are always 'encouraged' to continue with SAP-style policies.
		The IMF notes "An acceleration of the implementation of structural reforms is urgently needed, including to tackle serious deficiencies in the provision of power, telecommunications and petroleum that are obstacles to growth." While stressing the need for an adequate privatisation framework, they urge that "there should be no delays in this urgent task".
	www.nadir.org /nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/unrest.htm (8642 words)

	IMF and World Bank (IFG)
		The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created at the Bretton Woods Meetings in 1944, where finance ministers from the countries emerging victorious from WWII met to design a new archtiecture for the modern international economy.
		After numerous reports blasting the IMF for worsening the Asian finanical crisis, exposing the Bank's failure to alleviate poverty (many accuse the Bank of actually creating poverty), and rampant corruption charges around both institutions, the IMF and World Bank are today under mounting public pressure to change their ways.
		The IFG Teach-In on the IMF and the World Bank on April 14, 2000 in Washington, D.C. explained how these institutions actually work, who controls them, who wins, who loses, and what people around the planet are doing to address their negative impacts on poverty, democracy, the environment, labor, human rights and other areas.
	www.ifg.org /analysis/imf/imf.htm (296 words)

	International Monetary Fund - SourceWatch
		The creation of the IMF was a ‘compromise’ between the proposals put to the Bretton Woods conference by head negotiators from England and the USA: John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White.
		At its establishment, the IMF was to given a number of interconnected roles, set out in Article 1 of its Articles of Agreement.
		IMF Staff, "The Logic of Debt Relief for the Poorest Countries," International Monetary Fund, September 2000.
	www.sourcewatch.org /index.php?title=IMF (1496 words)

	ZNet \| Argentina \| IMF Go To Hell
		And if deeper cuts are made to the public sector, as the IMF also is insisting, unemployed workers who account for between 20 and 30 per cent of the population, will have even less protection from the homelessness and hunger that has led tens of thousands to storm supermarkets demanding food.
		In a fit of shame and desperation, she pulled up her blouse and showed a group of foreigners the open wound and hanging tubes from a stomach operation that her doctor was not able to stitch up or dress due to lack of medical supplies.
		The international consensus is that the IMF should see Argentina's crisis not as an obstacle but as an opportunity: The country is so desperate for cash, it will do whatever the IMF wants, the reasoning goes.
	www.zmag.org /content/Argentina/klein_IMF.cfm (1041 words)

	The IMF Korea Bailout
		The IMF program contributes to fracturing the chaebols which are now invited to establish "strategic alliances with foreign firms" (meaning their eventual control by foreign capital).
		Since the onslaught of the debt crisis in the early 1980s, the IMF has played a central role in exchange rate policy often requiring indebted Third World countries to devalue their currency by 50 percent as a "pre-condition" for the subsequent negotiation of a loan agreement.
		In turn, the macro-economic reforms imposed in the context of the IMF sponsored bailouts are conducive to a dramatic collapse of the real economy leading to the impoverishment of millions of people.
	www.kimsoft.com /1997/sk-imfc.htm (2085 words)

	Structural Adjustment—a Major Cause of Poverty - Global Issues
		The IMF and World Bank are largely controlled and “owned” by the developed nations such as USA, Germany, UK, Japan etc. (The IMF web site has a breakdown of the quotas and voting powers.) The US, for example, controls 17 to 18% of the voting power at the IMF.
		The IMF and World Bank’s policies have indeed been heavily criticized for many years and are seen as unhelpful and sometimes, unaccountable, as they have resulted in an increased dependency by the developing countries upon the richer nations, as also mentioned at the top of this page.
		The IMF’s managing director, Michel Camdessus (the head of the IMF is referred to as its “Managing Director”), a short, neatly dressed former French Treasury bureaucrat, who once claimed to be a Socialist, is standing with a stern fact and crossed arms over the seated and humiliated president of Indonesia.
	www.globalissues.org /TradeRelated/SAP.asp (11353 words)

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