The World Bank is one of the two Bretton Woods Institutions which were created BY 44Free Nations in July,1944, to rebuild war-torn Europe after World War II. Later, largely due to the contributions of the U.S.A. Marshall Plan, the World Bank was forced to find a new area in which to focus its efforts.(BLOGGERS NOTE: PERHAPS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISBANDED, AS IT'S JOB WAS DONE, BUT LIKE ALL BUREAUCRACIES IT CREATES "MAKE WORK" TO EXTEND IT'S EXISTENCE!)
Now the body of bureaucrats that numbers over 138 nations, originally formed to accommodate the Marshall Plan, has decided to investigate the Country that was the founder of the organization. The IMF is going to examine the books of the U.S. Treasury.
The strange thing is that President Bush, who normally does not let United Nations Organisations dictate to him, has agreed to this outrageous interference in our sovereignty!
Officials with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have informed Secretary Bernanke about a plan that would have been unheard of in the past, a general examination of the US financial system.
The IMF's board of directors has ruled that a so-called Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) is to be carried out in the United States. It is nothing less than an X-ray of the entire US financial system.
From 1968-1981, the IMF focused largely on poverty alleviation. Begining in the '80's and into the 1990s, its main focus was both debt management and structural adjustment. Another word for redistribution of wealth!
Today the focus, which is little known outside of the "elites", is on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), goals calling for the elimination of poverty and the implementation of sustainable development.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were developed out of the eight chapters of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000. The eight goals and 21 targets include:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.
2. Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.
3. Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
4. Achieve universal primary education Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
5. Promote gender equality and empower women Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.
6. Reduce child mortality Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
7. Improve maternal health Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
8. Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health( aka contraception and abortion!).
9. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
10. Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
11. Ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.
These include removing tariffs and quotas for debt ridden third world countries, and by 2020 to significantly improve the lives of at least 100 million "slum dwellers"!
The majority of the stated goals are "mother's milk" that nobody can fault. But goals,5, 8 and 11 are contrary to a large portion of the population of the USA, and may be in conflict with the majority of Christians. Particularly the mandate to provide contraception and abortion to the world.
Number 11 can be interpreted as being in accord with the Kyoto protocols, and so far we have not agreed to hamstring our economy with the protocols.
Complaints, by Conservatives and Constitutionalists, are also directed toward the International Monetary Fund gold reserve being undervalued. At its inception in 1945,the IMF pegged gold at US $35 per Troy ounce of gold. In 1973 the Nixon administration lifted the fixed asset value of gold in favor of a world market price. Hence the fixed exchange rates of currencies tied to gold were switched to a floating rate, also based on market price and exchange. This largely came about because Petrodollars outside the United States were more than could be backed by the gold at Fort Knox under the fixed exchange rate system. The fixed rate system only served to limit the amount of assistance the organization could use to help debt-ridden countries. Current IMF rules prohibit members from linking the IMF success record is perceived as limited.[citation needed]
While it was created to help stabilize the global economy, since 1980 critics claim over 100 countries (or reputedly most of the Fund's membership) have experienced a banking collapse that they claim have reduced GDP by four percent or more, far more than at any time in Post-Depression history.The considerable delay in the IMF response to any crisis, and the fact that it tends to only respond to them or even create them rather than prevent them, has led many economists to argue for reform. In 2006, an IMF reform agenda called the Medium Term Strategy was widely endorsed by the institution's member countries. The agenda includes changes in IMF governance to enhance the role of developing countries in the institution's decision-making process. Source:Wikapedia
The "cart pulling the horse" arrangement, or the branches dictating to the tree what way to grow!
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