The European debt crisis is far from over and is far from just "European"

i was sitting in the "breakfast" room of a motel on the california side of donner pass this morning watching today's matt lauer and his fellow-airheads deliver non-news news and reflecting on just how much shit we're fed at a time when there are more critically important things happening in the world than at any other time in my 62 years... the global financial house of cards continues its slow-mo train wreck but we're treated to martha stewart's tips on making bruschetta...

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the crisis in Greece could spread throughout Europe.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that every day lost in resolving Greece's problems risks spreading the impact "far away".

World financial markets, recovering slightly on Wednesday, have been badly hit by fears of contagion from Greece.

Mr Strauss-Kahn was speaking at a news conference in Berlin after trying to persuade reluctant German politicians to back the terms of a rescue deal.

But even as politicians were trying to resolve the crisis, Europe's debt problems were flaring elsewhere.

The Standard & Poor's ratings agency delivered more bad news by downgrading Spain's debt to AA from AA+.

yeah, i know... it's very old news that we don't get real news... our "news" outlets are 100% dedicated to keeping us pleasantly sedated with fluff and inconsequential nonsense... right now, for instance, i'm sitting in a rest area just west of the donner pass summit (i was turned back because they're requiring chains on all four truck wheels and all four trailer wheels and i have no intention of buying any), listening to npr out of sacramento present a "story" on ballroom dancing... god, we are sooo-o-o-ooooo screwed...

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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...

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Ecuador expels the World Bank Country Director

vs.



read the following carefully and, buried amidst all the rhetoric, see if you can spot the real reason why this might have happened...

The expulsion of the World Bank's representative from Ecuador is another political statement from President Rafael Correa, and the bank is still analyzing how to tackle the situation, one of its senior directors said.

[...]

"This is all part of Correa's political symbolism," said [Executive Director Otaviano Canuto], who overseas nine Latin American countries including Brazil and Ecuador.

"But the bank's intention, I can assure you, is to remain engaged as much as possible in Ecuador to fulfill its mission, which is reduce poverty," he said in Cambridge, where he was attending an MIT conference.

Ecuadorean Economy Minister Ricardo Patino, explaining the expulsion, said on Friday the World Bank had infringed on the country's sovereignty by not providing a satisfactory explanation for suspending a $100 million loan when Correa was economy minister in 2005.

found it yet...? good, cuz it hasn't been given yet...

Patino also said Ecuador wants to reduce its financial ties with the bank "to the minimum."

Canuto said the $100 million loan had been promised to Ecuador as part of a program to support a specific government policy regarding the use of oil revenues to pay foreign debt. When the government decided to change that policy, the program automatically expired, he said.

got it now...? of COURSE you do... "the use of oil revenues to pay foreign debt..."

in those few words you have the perfect summation of how the united states and the g7, working through institutions like the world bank and the imf keep countries like ecuador impoverished... we'll loan you the money, we'll pretty much tell you how you can spend it, and we'll also tell you where you have to get the money to pay us back... and because payback is tied to oil revenues, you have no choice but to continue to develop your oil resources, which most likely means granting exploration and drilling concessions to the world's oil giants... cool, huh...? thought you'd like it...

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Oy gevalt!

i've just finished my usual morning mosey through several newspapers and a half dozen or so blogs... i keep looking for something that'll give me a boost, something that says things are starting to turn in a more positive direction... no such luck...

i thought perhaps gonzales' amazingly inept and pathetic performance on thursday would stir some of the masses out of their somnolence, but, judging by the media and current blog postings, i'm seeing just more business as usual... george and gonzo (and don't forget wolfie) are going to sit tight and ride it out, their preferred modus operandi... i fully expect gonzo to still be attorney general a week from today and, quite likely, a month from today... if george dumps him, it will not be until he can make it look like HIS decision rather than as a response to the hearings and political pressure, the same way he disposed of rummy...

wolfowitz is following precisely the same course of action... the world bank board is hesitant to turn solidly against him because, after all, the u.s. president is where the world bank president nomination originates, and they're afraid of repercussions, just like our spineless congress... so, george continues to support wolfie just like he's supporting gonzo, and henry paulson, the treasury secretary and imf board member, is the only other administration official that could seriously threaten wolfie's tenure, and he's certainly not going to cross his boss...

meanwhile, dick cheney and karl rove, two of the darkest forces on the planet, go about fomenting their evil unchallenged...

this is not at all where i wanted our country to be in april 2007...

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