organization:international monetary fund

IMF urges “more clarity” on Ireland’s austerity plans

Le FMI n’hésite pas à dire de lui même qu’il a profondément revu ses modes opératoires et que ce n’est plus le grand méchant loup qui étouffait les pays endettés.

Aujourd’hui le FMi exige de l’Irlande de clarifier ses intentions pour ce qui concerne les coupes (forcément drastiques) dans les dépenses de l’Etat pour les quatre prochaines années. Il s’agit de rembourser une dette (immense) laissée en héritage par une banque (évidemment crapule) aujourd’hui disparue. Petite précision : les emprunts n’étaient pas garantis par l’Etat. Ce qui n’empêche pas l’UE et le FMI d’exiger que le peuple irlandais rembourse...

►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/sep2012/irel-s13.shtml
By Jordan Shilton

13 September 2012

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stepped up the pressure on the Fine Gael-Labour coalition in Dublin, demanding that it lay out detailed plans on how it will slash government spending over the next four years.

The move came as the government was forced to announce €260 million in emergency cuts to the health care budget to comply with the bailout terms of the troika—the IMF, European Central Bank (ECB) and European Union (EU).

The IMF, in its latest report on Ireland’s progress under the €85 billion programme the troika extended in 2010, criticised the government for not implementing deep enough cuts to welfare benefits, and urged the speedy adoption of a new property tax. The demands are in line with the approach being taken across Europe towards highly indebted states, with Greece and Spain in particular facing calls to deepen the attacks on the working class to bail out the banks.

#irlande #banque #crise-financière #crise-bancaire #fmi #ue #crapules

#Grèce #Crisefinancière #Crise #Europe #Zone-euro

EU representatives discuss withdrawal of Greece from the euro zone

►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/gree-j25.shtml

By Christoph Dreier
25 July 2012

A withdrawal of Greece from the euro zone is increasingly likely. In recent days, representatives of the “troika”—the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission, and the European Central Bank (ECB)—have signalled that they are willing to force Greece into bankruptcy if it does not impose further austerity measures.

Yesterday representatives of the Troika returned to Greece to review the progress of the austerity measures. According to media reports, continuing popular resistance, and especially the suspension of the austerity measures during the election campaign, led to a delay in the implementation of social cuts demanded by Greece’s creditors.

La troika arrive à Athènes pour préparer le pillage de la Grèce

Troika arrives in Athens to organise looting of Greece
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/gree-j05.shtml

By Robert Stevens
5 July 2012

The New Democracy-led Greek coalition government is meeting officials from the troika—the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—today.

Christine Lagarde, IMF’s managing director, marked the occasion with a stern warning to Athens that the austerity programme must continue. In an interview with CNBC Tuesday, Lagarde said, “I am not in a negotiation or renegotiation mood at all.”

Referring to reports that the Greek government is to present figures recording the social misery caused by years of austerity to press the case for a renegotiation of the country’s debt, she added, “I’m very interested in seeing what has been done in the last few months in terms of complying with the programme.”

IMF head: Greeks should pay their taxes
►http://www.aljazeera.com//news/europe/2012/05/20125267834909544.html

On children affected by the cuts, Lagarde said their parents needed to take responsibility.

“Parents have to pay their tax,” she was quoted as saying.

“I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education,” she said.

“I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens.”

Ouh là, Christine, t’oses!

A developing world of debt | Global development | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/15/developing-world-of-debt?intcmp=122

Years after debt campaigners succeeded in persuading the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and G8 to abolish debts worth billions of dollars owed by developing countries, figures show total external debts are once again on the increase.

Data in the World Bank’s global development finance 2012 report (pdf) shows total external debt stocks owed by developing countries increased by $437bn over 12 months to stand at $4tn at the end of 2010, the latest period for which data is available.

#dette #développement #cartographie

The ANC must show leadership and reverse patronage and corruption | Thabang Motsohi
►http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/thabangmotsohi/2012/04/19/the-anc-must-show-leadership-and-reverse-patronage-and-corruption

Post 1994, the ANC was virtually forced to adopt a neo-colonial socio-economic paradigm that was propagated by the World Bank and the IMF. We also adopted its values of selfish individualism and wealth creation. The outcome was never in doubt and we have now achieved the unenviable status of being the most unequal society in the world.

Without doubt there have been great changes in South Africa since the ANC took power in 1994. Millions of poor people have been lifted out of the poverty trap, thanks to welfare support payments. But contemporary South Africa manifests the shortcomings envisaged by Fanon and there is a dark underbelly because the socio-economic situation has worsened for the majority of the poor.

#afrique_du_sud #inégalités

How to Be a European (Union) Philosopher - NYTimes.com
►http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/how-to-be-a-european-union-philosopher

While it would be inappropriate to consider the austerity plans run by the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (recently grouped together as the “troika”) ideologically “racist,” they are certainly “metaphysically violent.” As Paul Krugman explained in a New York Times magazine article a few years ago, the problem with establishment economists is that they mistake mathematics for truth; they are “seduced by the vision of a perfect, frictionless market system [and] need to abandon the neat but wrong solution of assuming that everyone is rational and markets work perfectly.” The economists of the troika are not imposing violent austerity measures simply to politically dominate the European nations but rather to exclude any competing existential project, that is, any alteration to the troika’s vision of “the market.”

What price the new democracy ? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe - The Independent
►http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/what-price-the-new-democracy-goldman-sachs-conquers-europe-6264091.ht

Simon Johnson, the former International Monetary Fund economist, in his book 13 Bankers, argued that #Goldman_Sachs [aka “Vampire Squid”] and the other large banks had become so close to government in the run-up to the #financial_crisis that the US was effectively an oligarchy. At least European politicians aren’t “bought and paid for” by corporations, as in the US, he says. “Instead what you have in Europe is a shared world-view among the policy elite and the bankers, a shared set of goals and mutual reinforcement of illusions.”

This is The Goldman Sachs Project. Put simply, it is to hug governments close.

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article6264098.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/Pg-12-eurozone-graphic.jpg

Goldman Sachs, which has written over $2trn of insurance, including an undisclosed amount on #eurozone countries’ debt, would not escape unharmed, especially if some of the $2trn of insurance it has purchased on that insurance turns out to be with a bank that has gone under. No bank – and especially not the Vampire Squid – can easily untangle its tentacles from the tentacles of its peers.

IMF AND “FUEL SUBSIDY” REMOVAL IN NIGERIA by Izielen Agbon « A New Nigeria
►http://seunfakze.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/imf-and-fuel-subsidy-removal-in-nigeria-by-izielen-agbon

The prices of everything will increase, transport, housing, school fees, food, etc. The common man will not be able to survive. We will say no and oppose bad government policies. We will say no and oppose IMF (International Monetary Fund) policies.” Mrs. Ganiat Fawehinmi, Jan 3, 2012.

Is ‘Fuel Subsidy’ removal an IMF policy? Is Mrs Ganiat Fawehinmi right? Yes. The present ‘Fuel Subsidy’ removal is an IMF program/policy. The IMF has promoted and supported fuel subsidy removal as government policy in most developing nations. It is part and parcel of the IMF liberalization policies and programs which it imposes on developing nations whenever the opportunity arises. Let me explain. I will limit this analysis to the last 10 years (2002-2012) for brevity. I will focus on ‘fuel subsidy’ removal.

“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories…..” Amilcar Carbal . – Unity and Struggle.

IMF working papers and staff position papers are discussion tools for IMF policy formation. They start off with the usual disclaimer that the positions and conclusions in the papers are those of the authors and not of the IMF or its policies. These papers are circulated for discussions within IMF and the World Bank. Sometimes, an IMF executive board workshop or seminar is organized around the ideas expressed in them. These discussions, meetings, seminars and workshops form the foundations of IMF policies. So, all we have to do is find the roots of the fuel subsidy campaign in the past IMF working papers and the subsequent implementation of these policies in developing nations with special attention to Nigeria. I will proceed to do just that.

Europe plunging into recession
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/euro-j04.shtml

Europe plunging into recession
By Stefan Steinberg
4 January 2012

2011 was a year of austerity for Europe. At the behest of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, stringent programs imposing cuts in wages, pensions and social services, combined with the decimation of jobs, were introduced by governments across the continent.

These austerity measures, designed to pay for massive bailouts of the banks following the financial crash of 2008, are now plunging Europe into new economic and social turmoil. This is confirmed by the most recent economic figures, which indicate that 2012 will be a year of renewed recession in Europe.

Europe Récession Crisefinancière Dette

New group claims responsibility for firebombings
►http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_22/12/2011_419674

A previously unknown group calling itself «Zero Tolerance Organization» claimed responsibility Thursday for three firebomb attacks targeting Greek politicians.

In a statement posted on the alternative news website Indymedia, the group called on Greeks to «do away with the system,» saying the economic and political crisis and «the occupation of the country by the troika» — the ECB, the EU and the IMF — were proof of its failure.

Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not | Truthout
►http://www.truth-out.org/why-iceland-should-be-news-not/1322327303

But Icelanders didn’t stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money. […]

Today, that country is recovering from its financial collapse in ways just the opposite of those generally considered unavoidable, as confirmed yesterday by the new head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde to Fareed Zakaria. The people of Greece have been told that the privatization of their public sector is the only solution. And those of Italy, Spain and Portugal are facing the same threat.

They should look to Iceland. Refusing to bow to foreign interests, that small country stated loud and clear that the people are sovereign.  

That’s why it is not in the news anymore.

From the Greek Streets › IMF riots in Athens – a brief presentation of the work of Yiannis Biliris
►http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2011/10/31/yiannis-biliris/#comments

It proves quite difficult to write something about these photographs.

►http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DSC_0183_result.jpg

Perhaps because, from the start, I didn’t attempt to approach any truth that would be found ‘out there’ but instead the need to document my own ‘distortion of reality’emerged, almost pressingly. For some-not so paradoxical-reason, I wished the universe I would try to make to be totally opposed to the one projected by the Mass Media. I was informed by this attitude throughout the past two years. My lens was turned and available to everything except the perspective watched on tv every night I would get back home.

Photographing the clashes at the Athens city center becomes increasingly dangerous. Violence on the street grows, but in reality it is due to another kind of primordial violence. The rape inflicted on the social and personal grid of our everyday life, politics as the barbarian intruder in the realm of reality and the reverse Media reality as the enemy of truth. The attempt to inform or (counter-inform) takes place within a peculiar framework, and while on the street with a camera in hand, a person keeps their distance from the surrounding action, for better or worse. Between you and the event there is loads of stuff, the lens, the settings and so much more. In other words, one does not ‘live’ what is going on around them. Sometimes I look at some of my frames and wonder whether I ever stood behind that picture. On the other hand, there are those moments which pierce through the protective shield created by the camera. These are most probably the personal stories that have been registered inside, anything that hasn’t been documented on a frame for me to be able to share.

What will I not forget? Perhaps the sense of emergency of such situations. Something of an almost transcendental nature, exactly because it consists of an apparent weakness: when you are inside you don’t get the whole picture and when you find yourself far you have to trust in someone else’s perception of reality to get it. There were times when I took one step back as if a natural phenomenon was standing in front of me, one which a slight detail could alter definitively. All this is contrast-ridden. This is where one bears witness to the worst and best of human expression.

As epilogue, I will not try to be original talking about tomorrow, I will just try to envision my next pictures. What is the way out of the current dead-end? Don’t know. I can’t find unequivocal answers that could treat all. Everything is in motion. I think potentially we could emerge whole from this state of affairs-or maybe wanting. We will have to see. Only thing for sure is that in the aftermath all will be different. History is only linear when narrated.-before, it was a chaos of innumerable eventualities.

* I would like to thank Danae Leivada for here valuable help during the past two years.

– Yiannis Biliris

le slideshow
►http://seenthis.net/messages/38928

Angry Arab : An-Nahda’s neo-liberal policies
►http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/10/nahdas-neo-liberal-policies.html

So An-Nahd moved quickly to reassure Western governments. It said that it will retain the Finance Minister and the Governor of the Central Bank, both of whom are products of the World Bank and its policies. We know how highly the World Bank and IMF thought of the regime of Bin ‘Ali.

►http://fr.reuters.com/article/frEuroRpt/idFRL5E7LR5HJ20111027

Les islamistes tunisiens d’Ennahda, qui attendent la confirmation de leur victoire aux élections constituantes, sont enclins à maintenir à leurs postes le ministre des Finances et le gouverneur de la banque centrale dans un nouveau gouvernement, a indiqué jeudi un responsable du parti. « La tendance est de garder la même stratégie, sauf pour certains ministres dont la performance a été lamentable », a déclaré à Reuters Samir Dilou, membre du bureau exécutif d’Ennahda.

(via @angryarab et Ahmet)

SACSIS.org.za » News » The World » Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not
►http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/728.1

In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan. But the revolution (though not televised in the United States), would not be intimidated. With the support of a furious citizenry, the government launched civil and penal investigations into those responsible for the financial crisis. Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for the ex-president of Kaupthing, Sigurdur Einarsson, as the other bankers implicated in the crash fled the country.

But Icelanders didn’t stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money. (The one in use had been written when Iceland gained its independence from Denmark, in 1918, the only difference with the Danish constitution being that the word ‘president’ replaced the word ‘king’.)

IMF Advisor: Could See Eurozone ’Meltdown’ in 2 Or 3 Weeks
►http://www.businessinsider.com/imf-advisor-could-see-eurozone-meltdown-in-2-or-3-weeks-2011-10

“If they can not address [the financial crisis] in a credible way I believe within perhaps 2 to 3 weeks we will have a meltdown in sovereign debt which will produce a meltdown across the European banking system.
We are not just talking about a relatively small Belgian bank, we are talking about the largest banks in the world, the largest banks in Germany, the largest banks in France, that will spread to the United Kingdom, it will spread everywhere because the global financial system is so interconnected. All those banks are counterparties to every significant bank in the United States, and in Britain, and in Japan, and around the world.

This would be a crisis that would be in my view more serious than the crisis in 2008.... What we don’t know the state of credit default swaps held by banks against sovereign debt and against European banks, nor do we know the state of CDS held by British banks, nor are we certain of how certain the exposure of British banks is to the Ireland sovereign debt problems.”

►http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UGDTtqklSo

IMF projects Lebanon real GDP growth in 2011 at 1.5 percent
►http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2011/Sep-24/149559-imf-projects-lebanon-real-gdp-growth-in-2011-at-15-percent.ashx

The International Monetary Fund projected economic growth in Lebanon at 1.5 percent in 2011, down from an April forecast of 2.5 percent, and compared to growth of 4 percent in the Middle East & North Africa.

Lebanon’s projected growth rate in 2011 would make it the third-slowest growing economy in the MENA region behind Egypt at 1.2 percent and Tunisia at 0 percent, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. It also would be the 16th slowest growing economy in the world in 2011, as its growth rate is projected to be similar to that of Romania, Jamaica, and the United States.

The IMF also projected Lebanon’s real GDP growth at 3.5 percent in 2012 compared to 3.6 percent in the MENA region and 1.9 percent in the Mashreq countries. Lebanon’s projected growth rate in 2012 would make it the sixth slowest growing economy in the MENA region. Also, it would be the 62nd slowest growing economy globally and would tie with Albania, Montenegro, and Honduras.

Sondage

What purpose do the World Bank and IMF serve? Take the poll

« The Activists
►http://theactivists.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/what-purpose-do-the-world-bank-and-imf-serve-take-the-poll
#fmi

Standard & Poor’s Downgrade: How Debt Has Defined Human History - Speakeasy - WSJ
►http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/08/06/how-debt-has-defined-human-history

Yesterday’s much-anticipated S&P downgrade of U.S. treasury bonds is obviously a historic event.

Now, S&P might seem a peculiar choice as ultimate credit court, considering their decidedly less-than-stellar performance in the mortgage crisis—giving AAA ratings to a series of toxic derivatives that ultimately crashed the world economy, causing major financial institutions to have to be bailed out by the very government whose bonds they’ve just downgraded. But what’s the alternative? The IMF? It has troubles of its own, to put it mildly.

Maid in Strauss-Kahn case working as hooker

NEW YORK: The Guinean maid, who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, was also working as a prostitute, a media report has claimed.

►http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Maid-in-Strauss-Kahn-case-working-as-hooker-Report/articleshow/9085847.cms

Lagarde au FMI : même les écologistes russes n’en veulent pas ! | Mediapart
►http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/020611/lagarde-au-fmi-meme-les-ecologistes-russes-nen-veulent-pas?onglet=prolonge

Voici le texte intégral de la lettre adressée au FMI et à la commission européenne:
 
To the International Monetary Fund

To the European Commission

From the Movement in Defense of the Khimki Forest (Russian Federation)

 

Ladies and gentlemen!

We learned that after the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn heading the International Monetary Fund, French Minister of Economy and Finance, Christine Lagarde, emerged as the main candidate for this vacancy. Voting for a new head of the IMF should take place before June 30, 2011.

We would like you to know that in our view, Christine Lagarde is an unacceptable candidate for such an important position due to following reasons.

It was Lagarde in June 2009, who actively promoted the signing of an agreement between the French construction company Vinci and the Russian government about the French company’s participation in the construction of a section of the toll motorway Moscow – St. Petersburg 15 – 58 km across the Khimki Forest (and several other forests).

Investigations show that this project is a pure corruption affair of French company Vinci and dishonest Russian officials. As a result, money transfers from the Russian federal budget and state-controlled banks to offshore havens of Lebanon, Cyprus and British Virgin Islands (►http://bankwatch.org/documents/Vinci_oligarchs_taxhavens_Khimki.pdf). And independent expertise of Russian scientists (►http://ecmo.ru/data/April2011/expert_examination_en.pdf) proved that among 11 possible routing options the worst one was chosen. The motorway construction through the Khimki forest does not only violate federal environmental legislation of Russia and destroy the unique ecosystem of Khimki Forest, it won’t solve the existing transport problem. This construction will harm at least 1 million of people, who receive oxygen from Khimki Forest, and will only serve the enrichment of a small group of high-ranking Russian officials and their privileged business partners.

The project has already led to massive violations of human rights: severe beating, detainment and attempts to forge criminal charges against people defending the forest. Among the victims are also journalists.

At the time, when Christine Lagarde backed the project (June 2009), one of the most active Khimki Forest defenders, journalist Mikhail Beketov, was already beaten by ‘unknown’ thugs and became totally disabled for the rest of his life. After this attack his comrades organized a demonstration in front of the French Embassy in Moscow, requesting France to quit the project.

It’s hard to believe that Christine Lagarde didn’t know anything about this story. Probably the benefit from the deal outweighed any concerns about its impropriety?

There are even more facts about dubious non-transparent agreements between Christine Lagarde and the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

We believe that a person suspected in corruption affairs, openly violating legislation and human rights, shouldn’t become the head of the International Monetary Fund.

We request to recall the candidature of Christine Lagarde and don’t let her take part in the election of the International Monetary Fund director.

With respect,

Movement in Defense of the Khimki Forest, www.ecmo.ru , khimkiforest.org

#FMI #Lagarde #casserole

IMF loans: which country owes the most? (The Guardian)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/may/24/imf-loans-dominique-strauss-kahn?CMP=twt_gu

With the departure of the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, attention has focussed on the IMF. What does it do and who does it lend money to?

Dominique Strauss-Kahn : Bernard-Henri Lévy Defends IMF Director - The Daily Beast
►http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-16/bernard-henri-lvy-the-dominique-strauss-kahn-i-know

I do not know—but, on the other hand, it would be nice to know, and without delay—how a chambermaid could have walked in alone, contrary to the habitual practice of most of New York’s grand hotels of sending a “cleaning brigade” of two people, into the room of one of the most closely watched figures on the planet.

Oui, c’est encore meilleur en anglais. La VO :
►http://www.bernard-henri-levy.com/defense-de-dominique-strauss-kahn-18909.html

Ce que je sais c’est que rien au monde n’autorise à ce qu’un homme soit ainsi jeté aux chiens.

Argument qui ne s’use que lorsque BHL ne s’en sert pas :
►http://www.bernard-henri-levy.com/pourquoi-je-defends-polanski-2812.html

Ce lynchage est un trouble à l’ordre public autrement plus sérieux que le maintien en liberté de Roman Polanski.

Aujourd’hui classieux :

J’en veux à tous ceux qui accueillent avec complaisance le témoignage de cette autre jeune femme, française celle-là, qui prétend avoir été victime d’une tentative de viol du même genre ; qui s’est tue pendant huit ans ; mais qui, sentant l’aubaine, ressort son vieux dossier et vient le vendre sur les plateaux télé.

Alors que hier (on évitera de trop s’appesantir sur l’élégance de l’expression « passer sur le corps ») :

On a là des défenseurs des droits des victimes qui savent mieux que la victime ce qu’elle veut et ce qu’elle ressent. On est là face à des gens qui lui passeraient bien sur le corps, à la victime, plutôt que de lâcher leur proie et de renoncer à la délicate ivresse de punir. C’est honteux.

OK, fini de jouer. La démocratie, ça va bien deux minutes, mais après, il faut se souvenir de qui est le chef.

Il y a cinq mois, les Grecs votaient, et acceptaient de « renouveler leur confiance au parti au pouvoir », dans un scrutin en forme de « référendum sur sa politique de rigueur » :
►http://www.presseurop.eu/fr/content/news-brief-cover/388401-la-rigueur-confortee-dans-les-urnes

Les braves Grecs votaient donc « pour » la rigueur. Pour l’aspect démocratique, il fallait noter :

Le même jour, la mission de la “troïka” (Commission européenne, BCE, FMI) est arrivée à Athènes pour évaluer l’application du plan de rigueur et approuver ou non le versement de la troisième tranche du prêt de 110 milliards d’euros.

En clair : les bailleurs de fond s’étaient déplacé, mettant clairement l’aide internationale sous condition du vote en cours.

Maintenant, les américains et le FMI viennent siffler la fin de la partie en Égypte :
►http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-imf-missions-in-egypt-to-discuss-economic-aid/2011/04/05/AFnquWlC_story.html

U.S. and International Monetary Fund officials are in Cairo this week for talks on how to avert an economic crisis in a country where revolutionary fervor has left government finances reeling and cast a broad cloud of suspicion over the nation’s business class.

En effet, pour le FMI, il y a de quoi s’inquiéter :

Corruption investigations against former president Hosni Mubarak and other former high-ranking officials and business figures are proceeding as part of the country’s political transition. But they have also raised questions about whether the economic reforms championed by those such as Gamal Mubarak, the ex-president’s son who is due to be questioned in a corruption probe next week, will give way to a more government-oriented economy less open to global corporations and capital.

La conclusion à notre futur Président humaniste-de-gauche :

In Egypt “the macroeconomic situation was not that bad before the crisis. But it’s a country, like many in the Middle East, where beyond the macro figures the distribution was a big issue,” IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Tuesday. “The increase in prices of food and fuel understandably creates the temptation to help with subsidies. A big change is happening there with the push towards democracy; at the same time they must be careful not to create problems for their fiscal sustainability.”

L’article fait explicitement le lien, plusieurs fois, entre les suspicions de corruption qui touchent l’élite économique du pays et le déplacement du FMI (après la révolution, que vont devenir les entreprises détenues par des individus qui se sont enrichi grâce au système autoritaire, que va devenir l’affairisme que l’on appelle ici néo-libéralisme ?), et Strauss-Kahn fait mine de parler des subventions à la nourriture.

#FMI #Égypte #économie

Libya — ’yet one more battleground between the U.S. and China’
►http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/10220-commentary-libya-yet-one-more-battleground-between-the-us-and-china.htm

In their [Charlie] Sheen-style hysteria — with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton desperately offering “any kind of assistance” — Western politicians did not bother to consult with the people who are risking their lives to overthrow Gaddafi. At a press conference in Benghazi, the spokesman for the brand new Libyan National Transitional Council, human-rights lawyer Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, was blunt. "We are against any foreign intervention or military intervention in our internal affairs . . . This revolution will be completed by our people."

[...]

This tsunami of hypocrisy inevitably raises the question; what does the West know about the Arab world anyway? Recently the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised a certain northern African country for its “ambitious reform agenda” and its “strong macroeconomic performance and the progress on enhancing the role of the private sector.” The country was Libya. The IMF had only forgotten to talk to the main actors: the Libyan people.

[...]

Once again; it’s the oil, stupid. A crucial strategic factor for Washington is that post-Gaddafi Libya may represent a bonanza for U.S. Big Oil — which for the moment has been kept away from Libya. Under this perspective, Libya may be considered as yet one more battleground between the U.S. and China. But while China goes for energy and business deals in Africa, the U.S. bets on its forces in AFRICOM as well as NATO advancing “military cooperation” with the African Union.

The anti-Gaddafi movement must remain on maximum alert. It’s fair to argue the absolute majority of Libyans are using all their resourcefulness and are wiling to undergo any sacrifice to build a united, transparent, and democratic country. And they will do it on their own.

#Libye