Why Venezuela's pull-out of the IMF and The World Bank is a good thing

....

until i started working in the balkans with the emerging economies of former socialist countries, i confess to knowing little about the world bank and the international monetary fund and their enormous impact on their client countries... my learning curve was steep, let me tell you, and i was also stunned to realize just how little my fellow countrymen in the u.s. understood how these two enormously powerful institutions affect the global economy...

i posted earlier this week on ecuador's decision to expel their world bank country director, and have been following off and on venezuela's decision to pull out of both the world bank and the imf... i wasn't moved to make a post on venezuela until i read this on huffpo by mark weisbrot...

Venezuela's decision this week to pull out of the IMF and the World Bank will be seen in the United States as just another example of the ongoing feud between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Bush Administration. But it is likely to be viewed differently in the rest of the world, and could have an impact on both institutions, whose power and legitimacy in developing countries has been waning steadily in recent years.

[...]

[T]he resentment against the IMF and World Bank, and demands for change, are worldwide. The scandal over Paul Wolfowitz's leadership at the World Bank, which is about to topple the Bank's most unwanted president ever, is just the tip of the iceberg. Last month the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office stated that since 1999, nearly three-quarters of aid to the poor countries of Sub-Saharan Africa are not being spent. Rather, at the IMF's request, it is being used to pay off debt and accumulate reserves. This is a terrible thing to do to some of the poorest countries in the world, who desperately need to spend this money on such pressing needs as the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Venezuela's decision is likely to strengthen the hand of developing nations within the IMF and World Bank who are demanding serious reforms. Right now the United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, has more votes in the IMF than countries representing the majority of the planet. The world's developing countries, which bear the brunt of these institutions' mistakes, have little or no voice in their decision-making. Venezuela's move - and any other countries that follow - will show the IMF and World Bank that the option of quitting these institutions altogether is a real one.

i am delighted that these two enormously powerful institutions are finally getting some exposure for their generations-long exploitation of the world's underdeveloped and emerging economies... it's about goddam time...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet