Come On, Ride The Train ..

[Alyonka]

Yes, World Bank is mostly owned by the US, it is also true that its president is always an American. President of the IMF is always European. IMF is more independant from the US. US does not like a lot of what IMF does just the same way as what UN does. IMF and UN have more similarities in this respect. I know about all of the controvercy about the programs imposed by the IMF/WB. It is almost always the case where there is money and a lot of it - there will be people who will try to take advantage of it. IMF has ways to prevent it, but it does not always work unfortunately.

[A.Hidalgo]

I found this link. For those not reading spanish basically it says that the resident representative of the IMF in the DR Erik Offerdal, said that the fiscal reforms that President Fernandez presented in his speech last tuesday, was one from a menu of options presented to the government. He also says that the final decision is up to the government as the DR is a sovereign country and we are just advisors.

How cynical, when the "menu of options" whether its 1,5,10 options they are written by the IMF. There is no input from the borrower the lender is primary here. When the "options" are implemented the people end up paying with their pockets.



Proceso ::: El Periodico Digital :::

[NALs]

Originally Posted by A.Hidalgo

I found this link. For those not reading spanish basically it says that the resident representative of the IMF in the DR Erik Offerdal, said that the fiscal reforms that President Fernandez presented in his speech last tuesday, was one from a menu of options presented to the government. He also says that the final decision is up to the government as the DR is a sovereign country and we are just advisors.

How cynical, when the "menu of options" whether its 1,5,10 options they are written by the IMF. There is no input from the borrower the lender is primary here. When the "options" are implemented the people end up paying with their pockets.



Proceso ::: El Periodico Digital :::

He says the final decision is up to the Dominican government, BUT guess what happens if the DR government decides to not pick ANY of the options????

Hypocrisy at its finest!

-NALs

[A.Hidalgo]

Very interesting reading from a top economist. Gracias NALs.

Joseph Stiglitz - Homepage

[Alyonka]

More about globalization: Globalization: Threat or Opportunity? An IMF Issues Brief

[Squat]

Don't ever bash the US or the moderator will close the thread... Just keep on saying europeans and dominicans are dumb ! That seems to be politically correct with the mod...

[Squat]

Originally Posted by Squat

Don't ever bash the US or the moderator will close the thread... Just keep on saying europeans and dominicans are dumb ! That seems to be politically correct with the mod...

Ok, I am going a bit too far... No offense to the mod... I just was unhappy about the lack of answer due to another thread being closed... Anyway, sorry to the mod', I didn't want to be rude...

[Rick Snyder]

Squat thank you for your correction. We as moderators do not close threads due to a "bashing" being done against any country but rather because the rules of the board are not being followed. One of the things that makes this board so good is that the owners have implemented rules in order that the members can access the needed information neccessary without having to go through a lot of hype and misinformation.

The OP of this thread brought up and interesting topic that is in fact DR related. It was then followed by some good posts and Gary was the first poster to decide to use foul language and attack a segment of that which is being talked about. Because of that I went in and did a little editing to his post. Did you see that? I didn't delete his post nor close this thread.

Nal's in his usual form posted a long post trying to explain how the system works. While those of you seem to want to badmouth the Paris Club, IMF, WB and others I think it is interesting to note those things mentioned by Nal's;

"Those two institutions (along with the Paris Club) number one goal is to get debtor nations to pay back their loans and interest to their creditors".

What is difficult for me to understand is how those of you out there seem to think that anyone should offer a "loan" without expecting to being paid back said monies with interest? That is of course unless you are of that mentality of "Que tu puedas dar mi?

I think it should be remembered that when a country borrows money from one of these organizations they know that they are expected to pay the loan back. Typically the country finds itself in possible default and goes crying to the lending organization for help. Said organization usually says "These are possible things you could do to raise the necessary monies you owe us." The borrowing country at that point can initiate said suggestion and/or suggestions or disregard them. In reality it doesn't matter to the lending institution as long as they are paid the "monies that are owed to them".

What caused these countries to possibly enter default usually involves things like excess government spending on useless items, corruption and a host of other things. If these borrowing countries would in fact work hard to end these negative actions I think you would find that said countries could pay back their debts and grow.

Having said that then those of you out there that wish to try to pass the blame to the big bad USA or some lending institution go right ahead but try to remember where the true blame lies. Remember the last paragraph of the link supplied by the OP?

"In addition, in 2007 external debt-servicing commitments will increase, and the government is expected to begin transfers to the Central Bank in order to reduce its huge so-called quasi-fiscal deficit. This will further increase the fiscal challenges facing policymakers."

Why is that?

Rick

[something_of_the_night]

Originally Posted by Texas Bill

Dominican politicians don't know howto govern!!!
They're too interested in lining their own pockets while they're in office and this Administration is no different than the one it replaced.
All of the politicians seem to have the attitude that the country owes it to them to live in high style while the "peasants eat cake".
This was a typical attitude amoung the French Aristocracy prior to the French Revolution and look what happened to them.
Think History will repeat itself here?
If it does, the DR will go the same way France did with the insuing chaos because the replacing government will be the same.
Stupidity will reign because stupid people will take over with the self-same rhetoric as did the Russian Revolution. You all have seen it advertised on DR1 over the past year or so.
Heaven help us all if that happens.

Texas Bill

How come this gem remains untouched? Oh, I see, it's about those stupid Dominicans and good-for-nothing French.

By the way, this Franco-Dominicano has had it with that "history repeating itself" line. That does not make sense, and I don't care how "learned" you are. History repeating itself? That's just crazy. Coño, cuanto disparates!

[mondongo]

NALs, your posts in this thread are dead on accurate. I actually read them all!

Over the years, a few of us have tried to expose the IMF/WB et al as complicit in the crime of keeping impoverished nations imporverisehd.

I have done reasearch that shows there isn't a SINGLE instance where the IMF has made a long lasting positive effect.

The IMF is a predatory lending institution. What the IMF saw in the DR was a country that had relatively low taxes, natural resources that could be exploited and a government willing and able to screw its own people in order to attain the hard currency IMF loans.

As I have posted ad nauseum over the years, what happens when the IMF moves in is that it fosters an "economic environment" whereby the DR politicians are capable of borrowing even more money from International Banks.

The reason the IMF feels comfortable lending to governments such as the DR's is the exact reason you seeing play out now: the IMF knows that the DR politicians can always pay back the high interest because they have taxing power!!

BOTTOM LINE: let me say this for the up-teenth time, the IMF is NOT YOUR friend!! They are criminals too.....Just like the DR politicians!!