Resignation of Hany Kadry, a veteran deputy finance minister, could deal a blow to Egypt’s aspirations of securing a loan from the International Monetary Fund
▻http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/70339.aspx
#FMI
Resignation of Hany Kadry, a veteran deputy finance minister, could deal a blow to Egypt’s aspirations of securing a loan from the International Monetary Fund
▻http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/70339.aspx
#FMI
Increased tensions at G-20, IMF meetings - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/22/econ-a22.html
Increased tensions at G-20, IMF meetings
By Nick Beams
22 April 2013
Last weekend’s meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the G-20 saw further calls for policies to stimulate global economic growth. There were no concrete measures advanced to implement such a program, however, amid deepening divisions among the major powers.
While the discussions were not characterised by the air of crisis that accompanied some recent meetings, they were nonetheless dominated by the realisation that there is no economic recovery in sight and, instead, a deepening trend of stagnation and slump.
Lire ausi l’article de l’ancien ministre des affaires norvégien, Jonas Gahr Støre, paru dans le Monde diplomatique en 2012 :
EU, Greek government plan more mass layoffs, privatisations - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/19/gree-a19.html
On Monday the Greek coalition government and the “troika” of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank announced an agreement over the disbursement of a further loan instalment of €2.8 billion. The release of the tranche, from the overall loan package of €240 billion due at the end of last year, was delayed for months when previous talks broke down.
The troika’s statement noted, “Fiscal performance is on track to meet the program targets, and the government is committed to fully implement all agreed fiscal measures for 2013-14 that are not yet in place.”
Selon Eurostat, taux de chômage des jeunes de moins de 25 ans : 50 %
Dans son papier sur l’austérité au Portugal et en Hollande ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/131692, Marco Bertolini montre bien comment l’objectif des 3% de dépenses publiques condamne tous les pays de la zone euro à l’austérité perpétuelle : plus tu veux y arriver, plus tu serres le kiki et plus ça ralentit l’activité, crée du chômage, de la pauvreté et plus tes recettes diminuent et ton déficit se creuse... et hop, faut aller encore plus loin.
En gros, c’est un peu comme pour le roi nu : tant que personne ne crie que c’est de la connerie, les 3%, on va continuer à s’enfoncer.
D’un autre côté, faut bien comprendre que tout le monde ne s’enfonce pas...
L’austérité reste effectivement le plat principal, sans entrée ni fromage ni dessert de l’UE, quand bien même tout tend à prouver que c’est cette politique qui entretient et aggrave la situation économique de la zone euro.
IMF slashes world growth outlook - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/18/econ-a18.html
The International Monetary Fund downgraded its 2013 outlook for the world economy Tuesday amid mounting signs that the global slump is intensifying. In its latest World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said it expects global growth to reach 3.3 percent this year, compared to its January estimate of 3.5 percent. It left unchanged its projected growth rate of 4 percent for 2014.
FMI: Les manoeuvres de l’Egypte - Ahram Hebdo
▻http://hebdo.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/0/3/131/2344/FMI-Les-manoeuvres-de-l’Egypte.aspx
Depuis la révolution, le pays s’est lancé dans une spirale d’endettement étranger qui est passé en deux ans de pratiquement presque 6 à 38,8 milliards de L.E. Il est prévu que ce montant s’élève à 60 milliards de dollars vers la fin de 2013, selon la banque d’investissement EFG-Hermes.
Many politicians and analysts see the government struggling on for the rest of the year without an IMF loan, enduring a summer of power cuts and fuel shortages rather than risk an explosion of unrest by implementing subsidy cuts and tax rises before parliamentary elections expected to start in October.
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/17/egypt-imf-idUSL5N0D42RF20130417
European Union demands cuts after Portuguese court rules bailout unconstitutional - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/09/port-a09.html
Portuguese and European officials are demanding renewed social cuts amid a crisis unleashed by a ruling of Portugal’s constitutional court, declaring European Union (EU)-mandated budget cuts unconstitutional. These cuts were central to the governments’ €78 billion loan agreement with the “troika” (the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank) in 2011.
European Union imposes austerity bailout on Cyprus - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/09/cypr-a09.html
The loan terms dictated to Cyprus by the troika of the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are predicated on the destruction of the pay and conditions of the working class and an onslaught against vital social and welfare programs.
After the IMF finalised its €1 billion (US$1.3 billion) portion of the recent €10 billion loan to Cyprus, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a press release, “This is a challenging program that will require great efforts from the Cypriot population. We believe that it provides a durable and fully financed solution to the underlying problems facing Cyprus and provides a sustainable path toward a recovery.
John Perkins “Confession of an economic Hit man”
▻http://www.blueman.name/Des_Videos_Remarquables.php?NumVideo=4977#NAVIGATION
Statement on Cyprus by Olli Rehn European Commission Vice-President and #Christine_Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
▻http://reflets.info/statement-on-cyprus-by-olli-rehn-european-commission-vice-president-and-ch
Le #Fonds_Monétaire_International vient de publier un communiqué de presse que nous nous permettons de commenter, parce qu’il est plein de #Lulz… Press Release No. 13/102 April 3, 2013 The Cypriot authorities have put forward a multi-annual reform programme to address the economic challenges facing the country. Its goals are to stabilize the financial [...]
Cyprus’s Imminent Collapse — The American Magazine
▻http://www.american.com/archive/2013/march/cypruss-imminent-collapse
Cyprus’s Imminent Collapse
By Desmond Lachman 27/03/2013 03:00
Any calm bought by the IMF-EU bailout package for Cyprus will be short-lived. Cyprus is all but certain to experience an economic collapse over the next two years, and the country will again question whether it should remain in the euro.
One has to pity Cyprus. It is all but certain to experience an economic collapse over the next year or two at least on the scale of that recently experienced in Greece. Cyprus is being subjected by its European partners to the same recipe of severe fiscal austerity within a euro straitjacket that produced an economic depression in Greece. It cannot devalue its currency as a means to boost its tourist sector, and must also cope with the imminent collapse of its financial sector, which is overly dependent on catering to Russian depositors.
Based on data from 176 countries, IMF estimates energy subsidies at $1.9 trillion - equivalent to about 2½ percent of world GDP… Doesn’t even account for unprosecuted negative externalities such as pollution from cheap oil and cheap coal. ▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/imf-citing-trillions-in-government-subsidies-calls-for-end-to-mispricing-of-energy/2013/03/27/09957d6e-96e1-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_print.html
Egypt will not sign emergency IMF loan - cabinet
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/12/egypt-imf-idUSL6N0C45RU20130312
Is This Really the End of Neoliberalism? (2009)
by DAVID HARVEY
►http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/03/13/is-this-really-the-end-of-neoliberalism
Does this crisis signal the end of neo-liberalism? My answer is that it depends what you mean by neo-liberalism. My interpretation is that it’s a class project, masked by a lot of neo-liberal rhetoric about individual freedom, liberty, personal responsibility, privatisation and the free market. These were means, however, towards the restoration and consolidation of class power, and that neo-liberal project has been fairly successful.
One of the basic principles that was set up in the 1970s was that state power should protect financial institutions at all costs. This is the principle that was worked out in New York City crisis in the mid-1970s, and was first defined internationally when Mexico threatened to go bankrupt in 1982. This would have destroyed the New York investment banks, so the US Treasury and the IMF combined to bail Mexico out. But in so doing they mandated austerity for the Mexican population. In other words they protected the banks and destroyed the people, and this has been the standard practice in the IMF ever since. The current bailout is the same old story, one more time, except bigger.
What happened in the US was that 8 men gave us a 3 page document which pointed a gun at everybody and said ‘give us $700 billion or else’. This to me was like a financial coup, against the government and the population of the US. Which means you’re not going to come out of this crisis with a crisis of the capitalist class; you’re going to come out of this with a far greater consolidation of the capitalist class than there has been in the past. We’re going to end up with four or five major banking institutions in the United States and nothing else. Many on Wall Street are thriving right now. Lazard’s, because it specialises in mergers and acquisitions, is making megabucks. Some people are going to be burned, but overall it’s a massive consolidation of financial power. There’s a great line from Andrew Mellon (US banker, Secretary of the Treasury 1921-32), who said that in a crisis, assets return to their rightful owners. A financial crisis is a way of rationalising what is irrational – for example the immense crash in Asia in 1997-8 resulted in a new model of capitalist development. Disruptions lead to a reconfiguration, a new form of class power. It could go wrong, politically. The bank bailout has been fought over in the US Senate and elsewhere, so the political class may not easily go along – they can put up roadblocks but so far they have caved in and not nationalised the banks.
But this can lead to a deeper political struggle: there is a strong sense of questioning why are we empowering all the people who got us into this mess. Questions are being asked about Obama’s choice of economic advisers – for example Larry Summers who was Secretary of the Treasury at the key moment when a lot of things started to go really wrong, at the end of the Clinton administration. Why would you now bring in so many of the characters who are pro-Wall Street, pro-finance capital, who did the bidding of finance capital back then? Which is not to say that they aren’t going to redesign the financial architecture because I think they know it’s got to be redesigned, but who are they going to redesign it for? People are really discontented about Obama’s economic team, even in the mainstream press.
A new state financial architecture is required. I don’t think that all existing institutions like the Bank of International Settlements and even the IMF should be abolished; I think we will need them but they have to be revolutionarily transformed. The big question is who will control them and what their architecture will be. We will need people, experts with some sort of understanding of how those institutions do work and can work. And this is very dangerous because, as we can see right now, when the state looks to see who can understand what is going on in Wall Street, they think only insiders can.
European Authorities Still Punishing Greece - Can They Stopped?
▻http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations-a-states/general-analysis-on-states-and-their-future/52234-european-authorities-still-punishing-greece-can-they-stopped.htm
Greece is enduring an exceptionally long recession superintended by foreign actors, through the troika of the European Central Bank, European Commission, and International Monetary Fund. Official sources and independent observers rarely provide optimistic predictions about the Greek economy. Although European powers have desperately tried to preserve the integrity of their monetary union, there is some reason to believe that removing itself from the eurozone could be Greece’s best option. While the country’s seemingly intractable economic problems can provide a semblance of legitimacy to international technocrats sent to solve them, it may be that their “solutions” have been part of the problem.
By Mark Weisbrot
Al Jazeera
February 2, 2013
Alexis Tsipras has a tough job. He is leader of the Syriza Party of Greece, a left party that has risen meteorically in the past three years: from 4.6 percent of the vote in 2009 to 27 percent last June. It is now the most popular party in the country and Tsipras could be the next Prime Minister.
Unlike most of the eurozone’s leaders, he knows what is wrong with Greece and the eurozone, and so does his party: austerity. “We have become the guinea pig for barbaric, violent neoliberal policies,” he said at a forum at Columbia University Law School last week, in which I participated.
By underestimating the Keynesian fiscal multiplier, #IMF mistakenly justified #austerity policies, causing recession with devastating consequences
▻http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2013/wp1301.pdf
Subsidizing Starvation - By Maura R. O’Connor | Foreign Policy
►http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/11/subsidizing_starvation?page=0,0
Perhaps the most devastating example of this trade distortion, critics say, is Haiti. Since 1995, when it dropped its import tariffs on rice from 50 to 3 percent as part of a structural adjustment program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, Haiti has steadily increased its imports of rice from the north. Today it is the fifth-largest importer of American rice in the world despite having a population of just 10 million. Much of Haiti’s rice comes from Arkansas; each year, Riceland Foods and Producers Rice Mill send millions of tons of rice down the Mississippi river on barges to New Orleans, where the rice is loaded onto container ships, taken to port in Haiti, and packaged as popular brands such as Tchaco or Mega Rice. Haiti today imports over 80 percent of its rice from the United States, making it a critical market for farmers in Arkansas.
Development experts argue that while U.S. exports may feed people cheaply in the short run, they have exacerbated poverty and food insecurity over time, and subsidies are largely to blame. “The support that U.S. rice producers receive is a big factor in why they are a big player in the global rice market and the leading source of imported rice in Haiti,” said Marc Cohen, a senior researcher on humanitarian policy and climate change at Oxfam America. “If governments that preached trade liberalization in Geneva would practice it — and that includes reducing domestic support measures that affect trade — if everything was on a level playing field, that would be very helpful to Haiti.”
“You have a country which is 70 percent farmers and you’re importing 60 to 70 percent of your food,” added Regine Barjon, the marketing director of the Miami-based Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce, in reference to Haiti.
#agrobusiness #subventions #faim #alimentation #Haïti #Etats-unis #capitalisme #riz
President Mursi, IMF prepare austerity policies in Egypt - World Socialist Web Site
►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/09/egyp-j09.html
President Mursi, IMF prepare austerity policies in Egypt
By Johannes Stern
9 January 2013
On Monday Egypt’s Islamist government greeted International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials in Cairo to discuss terms of a $4.8 billion loan. President Mohamed Mursi, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil and new Egyptian finance minister Al-Mursi El-Sayed Hegazy met with IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department Director Masood Ahmed.
Both sides announced their commitment to conclude the deal in the coming weeks, and a technical team of the IMF will arrive in Cairo in the coming days. Hegazy, a US-trained economist appointed as finance minister by Mursi in a cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, announced that he was “completely ready to complete discussions” with the IMF.
Lessons from Latvia « iMFdirect – The IMF Blog
June 11, 2012 by iMFdirect
By Olivier Blanchard
►http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/2012/06/11/lessons-from-latvia
Le cynisme du Fonds monétaire international
In 2008, Latvia was widely seen as an economic “basket case,” a textbook example of a boom turned to bust.
From 2005 to 2007, average annual growth had exceeded 10%, the current account deficit had increased to more than 20% of GDP. By early 2008 however, the boom had come to an end, and, by the end of 2008, output was down by 10% from its peak, the fiscal deficit was shooting up, capital was leaving the country, and reserves were rapidly decreasing.
The treatment seemed straightforward: a sharp nominal depreciation, together with a steady fiscal consolidation. The Latvian government however, wanted to keep its currency peg, partly because of a commitment to eventually enter the euro, partly because of the fear of immediate balance sheet effects of devaluation on domestic loans, 90% of them denominated in euros. And it believed that credibility required strong frontloading of the fiscal adjustment.
IMF demands deeper austerity in Pakistan - World Socialist Web Site
Le Fonds monétaire internationale, toujours très visionnaire, applique donc toujours les mêmes recettes.
C’est en effet des mesures d’austérité dont le Pakistan à besoin...
►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/29/paki-d29.html
IMF demands deeper austerity in Pakistan
By Sampath Perera
29 December 2012
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month warned Pakistan of a looming foreign exchange crisis. The strongly worded statement foresaw a depletion of foreign reserves as in 2008, when the country’s government was forced to seek an emergency bailout.
The IMF executive board report made clear that further funding will require unprecedented budget cuts and pro-market “reforms” that will lead to further attacks on jobs, working conditions and living standards.
Soirée « ils nous prennent quand même pour des cons » | kitetoa
►http://reflets.info/soiree-ils-nous-prennent-quand-meme-pour-des-cons
Depuis qu’elle est responsable du Fonds Monétaire International (FMI), Christine Lagarde -qui s’était déjà illustrée dans le domaine en tant que ministre (elle déclarait en 2007 : « Je pense que le gros de la crise est derrière nous« ), ne manque pas une occasion de faire rire au travers de ses communiqués de presse triomphants à propos du énième sauvetage de la zone euro et de tel ou tel pays en difficulté. Il se trouve que Reflets a remis la main sur un vieil article d’Aporismes.com évoquant un communiqué du même type de Dominique Strauss-Khan à l’époque où il sévissait au Fonds. Étrangement, c’est exactement la même rhétorique. C’était en novembre 2010 à propos de l’Irlande : Press Release No. 10/452 November 21, 2010 Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today on Ireland : “I welcome the response from the European Union and euro-area Member States to the Irish Government’s request for financial assistance to safeguard financial stability. “At the request of the Irish authorities, the IMF stands ready to join this effort, including through a multi-year loan. An IMF team, currently in Ireland for technical talks, will now begin to hold swift (...)
No debt reduction for Greece
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/gree-n28.shtml
By Peter Schwarz
28 November 2012
Euro zone finance ministers finally agreed early Tuesday to the pay the tranche of loans to Greece that had been due since the summer. However, they rejected calls by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others, to reduce the debt of the highly indebted country.
This was the third attempt by the euro zone finance ministers to reach agreement on how to proceed in relation to Greece. Over the preceding two weeks, hours of meetings lasting into the wee hours of the night had been dominated by fierce differences among the euro zone countries and between the euro zone and the IMF.
IMF steps up pressure on Romanian government prior to election
Le FMI, plus nocif pour ls peuples que jamais
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/roma-n23.shtml
By Diana Toma and Markus Salzmann
23 November 2012
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has increased pressure on the Romanian government to implement further austerity measures prior to the country’s general election due to be held in December.
In 2009 the country was only saved from bankruptcy by a €20 billion [$US 25.6 billion] loan from the IMF. Since then the government in Bucharest has carried out a series of attacks on the living standards of the population. In March 2011, the IMF and European Union (EU) once again agreed to provide €5 billion in the form of emergency loans. Romania has been a member of the European Union since 2007, but is not part of the euro zone.
Further cuts leading to collapse of Greek health system
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/gree-o27.shtml
By Christoph Dreier
27 October 2012
Every newly released detail of the fifth Greek austerity package demonstrates that the European Union is prepared to resort to the most brutal measures to secure the profits of speculators. One of the hardest hit victims of the austerity program dictated by the EU and the IMF is the Greek health sector. In the heart of Europe a large proportion of the population is being deprived of any sort of health care.
On Wednesday a number of newspapers reported that the Greek government has agreed to a new austerity package with representatives of the IMF and the EU. A final decision will be made on Sunday. According to the reports, the package includes not only further cuts to wages and pensions and mass redundancies but also more cuts to the health system. Already decided are savings in health care totaling €2 billion. Part of this sum is to be achieved by laying off 10 percent of doctors and other staff in public hospitals.
European Union demands further cuts in Greece
Oui, vous avez bien lu : « l’UE exige de la Grèce encore plus de coupes budgétaires... »
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/gree-o05.shtml
By Christoph Dreier
5 October 2012
Last weekend, representatives of the troika—the European Central Bank (ECB), European Commission (EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—returned to Athens to discuss a third package of budget cuts with the Greek government.
Officially, the troika has the task of preparing a report on Greece’s budgetary situation for the European Union (EU) and IMF as the basis for agreeing to a further bank bailout to Greece’s creditors, amounting to €31.5 billion (US$41.6 billion).
jusqu’où vont-ils aller incroyable !!! et toujours les mêmes qui trinquent :
The budget involves social spending cuts of more than €7 billion for the next year. The largest sums are to be slashed from public employees’ wages (€1.1 billion) and pensions (€3.8 billion). Additional cuts are to be made in social welfare, health care, education and public services.
Egypt’s turmoil is a distraction from IMF economic agenda | Nick Dearden | Global development | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/sep/21/egypt-turmoil-distraction-imf-economic-agenda?intcmp=122
The storming of the US embassy in Cairo has diverted attention once again from the real issues facing Egypt. It couldn’t have come at a better time for those who want to convince the Egyptian people to accept an International Monetary Fund loan, and extend former president Hosni Mubarak’s liberalisation of the economy.
While the western media and politicians seem content to view Egypt through the prism of political rights versus Islam, the economic causes of the revolution, the waves of strikes and economic demands of the activists are barely discussed.
This allows the US and European governments to portray the $4.8bn IMF loan under negotiation, the “assistance” funds that will shortly start flowing into public-private “partnerships” and free trade zones being planned by the EU, as “gifts” to the Egyptian people. In recent days, highly critical rightwing commentaries about the US embassy incident have even suggested withdrawing such “gifts” until the Egyptian government can keep its people under control.
The diversion into religious tension is also helpful to economic conservatives in the Egyptian administration, who are intent on pushing through the IMF loan, repaying Mubarak’s odious debts and opening the country to western capital. It allows President Mohammed Morsi to stand firm against the US on issues that are more symbolic, while giving way to its economic agenda.
The IMF agenda is not popular. When it tried to negotiate a loan with the unelected interim military government last year, it was turned down on the grounds that the resulting IMF interference would be unacceptable.
At the time, the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said it was firmly against the loan. Today, in government, the party hierarchy is supporting it, despite serious doubts in the wider organisation, where many are rightly concerned that an IMF agenda is incompatible with Islamic principles of finance.