The history of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

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The IMF's Contract on the World: By Sue Bailey, Workers World, 4 January 1996. The number of people living in poverty in Latin America has nearly doubled since 1980—;40 percent of the population. Neoliberalism blames the economic crises of the 1970s on excessive government intervention in economic affairs and advocates the survival only of those companies that maximize profits with no environmental or social considerations.
Dissatisfaction Over IMF Policies: By Abid Aslam, IPS, 9 December 1997. Grassroots activists and left-wing scholars, who have lambasted the IMF for being secretive and coercive, now have been joined by free-marketeers and the political right - traditionally among the Fund's supporters. All have misgivings over the bank's ability to peddle a limited set of wares that seemingly bring only austerity to the masses.
Testimony of Walden Bello before Banking Oversight Subcommittee, Banking and Financial Services Committee, US House of Representatives: International Forum on Globalization, 21 April 1998. Hearings on the proposed $14.5 billion replenishment for the International Monetary Fund. The IMFs record in the Asian region does not inspire confidence in the institution nor in the possibility that the appropriated funds will be used wisely. I urge you to vote against the Clinton administrations proposal.
Financial warfare, Pt. 2: By Michel Chossudovsky, 23 September 1998. Since the 1994-95 Mexican crisis, the IMF has played a crucial role in shaping the financial environment in which the global banks and money managers wage their speculative raids. The global banks have a direct stake in the decline of national currencies. The international rules regulating the movements of money and capital (across international borders) contribute to shaping the financial battlefields on which banks and speculators wage their deadly assaults.
The IMF and Good Governance: By Carol Welch, Foreign Policy in Focus, October 1998. The IMF was created to solve short-term, external imbalances in debtor country economies, but it has moved far beyond its original mandate. The IMF has recently bestowed itself with the credentials to judge good governance, although lacking expertise.
IMF's about-turn on fiscal stimulus won't work: By Salil Tripathi in Singapore, Far Eastern Economic Review, 29 October 1998. The IMF wants Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia to rev up their fiscal engines and spend their way out of the economic blues. And if they rack up budget deficits in the process, that’s okay, too. This impetus isn’t strong enough.
Japan's Sakakibara hits out at IMF, US dominance: AFP, 23 January 1999. Japan’s influential vice finance minister has pitted himself against the IMF and what he calls its market fundamentalism and American dominance.
IMF Head Resigns to ’Pursue Happiness’: By Abid Aslam, IPS, 10 November 1999. Michel Camdessus, who championed structural adjustment programmes and who steered the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through—some would say into—the ’Asian financial crisis’, will step down early next year.
IMF on the Ropes: By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, 21 March 2000. There may be no single institution with greater pernicious influence in the world than the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Now, for the first time, the Fund faces a real challenge to its existence, at least in its current form.
Globalization, the NGOs, and the IMF: A New Dialogue: An Op-ed by Flemming Larsen, Director, Office in Europe, International Monetary Fund, Le Monde, 19 September 2000. Recent financial crises and the growing income gap between rich and poor countries have fueled intense criticism of today’s global economic and financial system from numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Much of this criticism is targeted at institutions like the IMF.
World Development Movement Report: Resistance to IMF policies in poor countries [introduction]: By Jessica Woodroffe and Mark Ellis-Jones, Global Exchange, 28 September 2000. In the global south, a deep and wide-ranging movement of protest aimed at the WTO, IMF and World Bank, has been developing for years, largely ignored by the media. [the body of this report is found in association with the countries assessed].
Failures of the 20th century: See under IMF: By Gregory Palast, The Observer (London), Sunday 8 October 2000. An internal study reveals the price rescued nations pay: dearer essentials, worse poverty and shorter lives. Rebuts Anthony Giddens' suggestion that globalisation is a fact, and it is driven by the communications revolution.