Today I present an excellent quote by David Malone on the real nature of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), taken from his book The Debt Generation (2010). This bit was written already back in 2008, but in light of the recent developments in Greece in particular, Malone’s exhortation to overthrow the tyrant is now more urgent than ever.
“The IMF is perhaps the most spectacularly, ideologically blind institution to have been inflicted upon people since the Inquisition. In fact, they have much in common. Like the Inquisition, the IMF is ruled absolutely, by ideologues who would rather we all burned in hell than admit their particular, distorted version of the ‘free market’ is wrong. They have a consistent history of insisting on economic measures that have done long-term damage to almost every country they have got their claws into. Countries that largely ignored their ‘free market’ thunderings, such as India and China, however, are doing rather well.
I listen to these ‘free market’ ideologues, and I hear medieval theologians. They are all perfectly versed in the system of thought they have swallowed. They know the hierarchies of the angels and the powers of the Seraphim and Cherubim and argue about how many angels will dance on the head of the needle.
And yet the tragedy, for us, is that none of what they know and understand corresponds with things as they really, truly are. We are led by arrogant, blind men [not to forget the arrogant, blind women – morosopher] so swaddled in the luxuries afforded to the priests of a system that they cannot think to question the catechism that rewards them.
This bloated priesthood must be humbled and overthrown. We, the people, must leave the church of the ‘free market’ and clear our minds.”
Another way to look at it is that the IMF are a bunch of thugs employed by the financial elite whose job is to go around terrorising governments to submit to the will of their masters or face the consequences. As Joseph Stiglitz has said, “when the IMF arrives in a country, they are interested in only one thing. How do we make sure the banks and financial institutions are paid? […] It is the IMF that keeps the [financial] speculators in business. They’re not interested in development, or what helps a country to get out of poverty.” And, of course, our leaders are more than ready to bend backwards to fulfill any request the IMF makes, being the spineless worms that they are.
[…] posted excerpts of this book on this blog before (here and here), and will probably post some more in the near future, but I really recommend you get the […]