''Global reserve currency '‘not by fiat’'

From Hindu Business Line

''There is a need to bring more countries into the global economic decision making, according to the Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao.

“The global economic and financial crisis of 2008 exposed critical weaknesses in the structure of the international financial architecture as well as in its governance,” he added.

Global institutions can only be legitimate and credible if their vote share and governance structure reflect members’ share in the world economy, Subbarao said. Subbarao called for fast-tracking the agreement for the International Monetary Fund quota and governance reforms. “We should adhere to the timeline for completing the IMF quota reforms by January 2013, so that it serves as the basis for the 15th general review of quotas to be completed no later than January 2014,” he added.'' 

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''ERDOĞAN SUGGESTS SHIFT FROM DOLLAR TO GOLD''

From Sabah

''During his stay in Indonesia, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brought up an interesting suggestion for the International Monetary Fund.

Stating that although IMF assistance may appear to be a prescription for some nations, in fact quite the opposite, the fund has often caused serious problems for countries in trouble, Erdoğan asks why it is that the fund uses dollars instead of gold.

Expressing that he doesn't feel it is right for the IMF to act according to one nation's currency, Erdoğan states, "The IMF extends aid on a who, where, how and on what conditions bases. For example, if the IMF is under the influence of any single currency then what, are they going rule the world based on the exchange rates of that particular currency?''

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Egypt: ''Activists protest IMF loan''

From Daily News Egypt

''The statement added that the fight against this loan is not temporary and that it is a matter of life and death. The group added “we reject the loan through all peaceful methods as we are a generation that refuses having Americans and foreigners dictate conditions and policies to us.”

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''From hell to heaven: Egypt Islamists change tack on IMF loan''

From Ahram Online

''Once seemingly opposed to international borrowing, Islamist parties are now giving approval to Egypt's request for a $4.8 billion loan; Ahram Online compares the Islamists' stances to IMF funding before and after Morsi's election.''

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''The Hidden Costs of Egypt’s IMF Loan''

From URUKNET

"We still don’t know anything about the program under which Egypt will get the loan or the measures and steps that will be taken to cut government spending, reform fiscal policy and collect unpaid taxes," he said. With the amount to be borrowed now being put at $4.8 billion rather than the original $3.8 billion "we need to consider who will bear the burden of repayment."

Highly interesting is the fact that the FJP did not take issue with the loan on ideological grounds, given the Islamic prohibition on usury. Sawi argued that it is permissible to pay interest on loans under the expediency provisions of Islamic law, especially when alternative support from fellow Muslims is unavailable – "for example, when the wealth of the Gulf is spent on buying palaces in Paris rather than helping the poor on the Comoros Islands." Sawi added that he hoped it would one day become possible "to propose Islamic ways of providing finance to the international institutions."

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''Tunisia to Reject Odious Debt''

From The Real News Network

''If you watch The Real News, you might have seen a series we did a few months ago exploring the concept of odious debt. That's where a country's ruled by dictators, borrows money, in modern sense, from, usually, Western big banks, and those banks understanding and knowingly lend this money to this dictatorship knowing the money will not benefit the people of that country, knowing that that country's unlikely to be really capable of repaying these debts. And the concept of odious debt is that a subsequent government can declare these debts odious, that the banks should have known better, and not pay them back. Well, now an African country is apparently saying exactly that.''

video and text

''The Economic Collapse and the Neoliberal Onslaught''

From GRTV

''IMF Backs Full Reserve Banking!''

From Positive Money

''We’ve been in a state of mild shock since Saturday. We discovered one of the strongest advocates of full reserve banking in the institution where we would expect it least.

The International Monetary Fund has released a paper “The Chicago Plan Revisited” that supports the proposals of Irving Fisher – those which are the basis for Positive Money’s proposals - using state of the art economic modelling.

In their summary the authors Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhof write:

At the height of the Great Depression a number of leading U.S. economists advanced a proposal for monetary reform that became known as the Chicago Plan. It envisaged the separation of the monetary and credit functions of the banking system, by requiring 100% reserve backing for deposits.''

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"Ukraine turns to Chinese cash''

From Asia Times

''China has preliminarily agreed to lend more than US$7 billion to Ukraine. In addition, an agreement has been signed between the two countries’ central banks on a currency swap worth $2.4 billion.

Although it is likely to take months of talks to agree on the details of the projects to be financed by China, this can be roughly compared in scale to the volume of loans that Ukraine received from international financial institutions in 2008-2010, which helped the country survive the global financial crisis.''

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''IMF tells eurozone to turn on printing presses''

From EU Observer

''The euro crisis continues to weigh down the global economy, the International Monetary Fund said Monday (16 July), putting pressure on the European Central Bank to lower its interest rate even further and issue more cheap loans to the banks.

"There is room for monetary policy in the euro area to ease further. In addition, the ECB should ensure that its monetary support is transmitted effectively across the region and should continue to provide ample liquidity support to banks under sufficiently lenient conditions," the IMF said in its annual World Economic Outlook.''

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''IMF snub irks Zimbabwe''

From ZBC

''The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is not in a position to provide financial assistance to the economy in a move that has raised concern over its commitment to restore ties with Zimbabwe.

According to resolutions by a visiting IMF team, the Bretton Woods institution says it will restore funding after the repayment of outstanding debts of about US$200 million.

The move has however raised concern among stakeholders over the IMF’s continuous visits to the country with business experts calling on government to ignore the institution’s policies and advice.''

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''Power to China in the I.M.F. – Does This Mean Gold to be Mobilized?''

From Financial Sense

''While the B.R.I.C.S nations are contributing to the I.M.F.’s funding with the purpose of shoring up the global financial system, they’ve stipulated that they want more power in the I.M.F. China is contributing $43 billion, so as it races to become the world’s leading economic and financial nation it wants a bigger part of the decision making process, commensurate with its rising power. So the first question to be asked is, “Will it get it?”''

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''IMF: Their Firewalls, Our Money''

From World Policy Blog

''The IMF and its managing director Christine Lagarde are pleased with themselves for assembling country commitments for $430 billion in additional emergency-ish financing to bail out Europe. Lagarde calls her agency’s resources “firepower” to complement what the financial press likes to call the “firewall”: Moneys deployed in defense of the Euro, through mechanisms—one supposedly temporary, the other a permanent fiscal adjustment mechanism—created by European politicians.

One woman’s firewall is another’s slush fund, which is why U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers not only continues to warn against what she calls a “Euro-TARP” but also wants to rescind a standing $100 million commitment from the U.S. to the IMF. (That’s not likely to happen, but the U.S. has declined to contribute to the latest $430 billion IMF plus-up.)''

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''A Stellar Record of Failure: The IMF and Jamaica''

From NACLA

''As part of her election campaign, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced her intention of breaking ties with the British monarchy and becoming an independent republic. While no doubt a long overdue and symbolic act, in the wake of a newly released report on Jamaican debt by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR), a critical conversation about doing the same to the real (neo)colonial power in Jamaica—the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—should be a much higher priority of the Jamaican government.

While the economic fates and futures of entire nations hing on arbitrary indicators such as investor confidence and credit ratings, is Jamaica better off with the IMF or without it? Jamaica’s current economic situation is, to be blunt, bleak. Thus controversial questions must be raised over whether or not the IMF is actually providing the kind of help that Jamaica actually needs.''

 “Jamaica offers a stark example of the long-term costs that an excessive debt burden can impose on a developing country, especially when the interests of creditors are prioritized over the needs of the country as a whole,” it reads.''

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''IMF encourages Europe's economic suicide''

From The Telegraph

"Another vast pledge to save the euro, another chance lost to break the hold of Europe’s austerity mystics and force a shift in strategic direction.

“We’re north of a trillion dollars,” said Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s queen bee. Kudos to her for netting such sums in her Louis Vuitton handbag but what exactly does this achieve, given that Europe remains bent on committing “economic suicide” -- in the words of Nobel laureate Paul Krugman?"

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''Japan mulling $60 billion contribution to IMF''

From AFP via Al Arabiya

"Japan is considering lending about $60 billion to the International Monetary Fund to help strengthen a global firewall against contagion from the European sovereign debt crisis, Kyodo news agency said Sunday.

Tokyo is talking with some other key members of the IMF such as China and European nations to finalize their possible contributions to the multilateral lender, ahead of the Group of 20 finance chiefs’ meeting later this week in Washington."

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''Promise-breaking at the World Bank, Part 1''

From The Real News

"That 66th birthday month of his, March 2012, was auspicious for adding a little spice to his dreary life, but no, it just can’t last. Born in March 1946 alongside his evil twin, IMF, in Savannah Georgia, after conception in what must have been a rather sleazy New Hampshire hotel (the ‘Bretton Woods’) in mid-1944, the old geezer known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or much better by his nickname World Bank (but let me just use WB), really ought to be considering retirement."

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''Egypt asked IMF for $3.2 bln in support''

read more from daily news egypt...

"Egypt needs to secure foreign help to fill a budget shortfall after the economy was thrown into crisis following an uprising that ousted the country's president last February.

The previous army-backed interim government turned down an offer of $3 billion in financial assistance from the IMF last June but since then the country's funding problems have worsened and its currency has come under heavy pressure."

How Wall Street Banksters Captured Our Government: ''The Quiet Coup''

from 2009 simon johnson and the atlantic.........

"The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government"

"ONE THING YOU learn rather quickly when working at the International Monetary Fund is that no one is ever very happy to see you. Typically, your “clients” come in only after private capital has abandoned them, after regional trading-bloc partners have been unable to throw a strong enough lifeline, after last-ditch attempts to borrow from powerful friends like China or the European Union have fallen through. You’re never at the top of anyone’s dance card.

The reason, of course, is that the IMF specializes in telling its clients what they don’t want to hear. I should know; I pressed painful changes on many foreign officials during my time there as chief economist in 2007 and 2008. And I felt the effects of IMF pressure, at least indirectly, when I worked with governments in Eastern Europe as they struggled after 1989, and with the private sector in Asia and Latin America during the crises of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Over that time, from every vantage point, I saw firsthand the steady flow of officials—from Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, and elsewhere—trudging to the fund when circumstances were dire and all else had failed"...........READ MORE

G20-IMF admit the system is insolvent

from reuters.....

"The International Monetary Fund may need a capital injection of about $350 billion to give it more firepower to fight economic crises, an emerging market G20 source said on Friday"..........READ MORE