Wolfowitz: Has the World Bank Finally Removed It's Sheep Clothing?

[kohodog]

I have a serious distrust of the World Bank. It has ruined every country it has supposedly tried to help. The countries that prosper are the ones that don't buy in. As far as I can tell, WB gives loans with serious restrictions that often end up with privitation (Corporate ownership by Multionationals) of a country's natural resources and economy, creating order in one sense, but engendering less control and more poverty for the people.

So by appointing a unilaterally distrusted Wolfowitz, is a reaction likely to happen that will cause more understanding of the WB's agenda and therefore more cynicism and more countries standing up and refusing their "help?'

I really don't know enough about all this so please educate me.

[HereSince1628]

1. You seem to be on the right track, I don't think you need much educating

The neocons are so much in control there is no need for them to be anything but out in the open.

I am quite certain it is a very bad sign for the rest of the world.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Here is a link... and if you're serious, get "The Best Democracy

Money Can Buy" ...

http://www.gregpalast.com/columns.cfm?subject_id=3&subject_name=Globalization


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0452285674/qid=1111027568/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-6246841-4909658?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth About Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High-Finance Fraudsters
by Greg Palast

[kohodog]

3. I read it a couple of years ago and gave it to my sister

Great book but I guess I'm suffering information overload, or CRS. I'll have to get it back and check out the World Bank stuff.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. Azerbaijan.... link

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav112102.shtml


AZERBAIJAN MAKING TOUGH DECISIONS UNDER IMF WATCH
Fariz Ismailzade 11/21/02

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Azerbaijan’s recent decision to raise domestic energy prices underscores the country’s uneasy relationship with international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Government officials walk a fine line in trying to satisfy international bankers without raising domestic discontent to unsettling levels.

President Heidar Aliyev’s administration at first resisted IMF demands for an energy price hike, but eventually relented, due to Azerbaijan’s reliance on international financing for domestic programs. The IMF had recommended that Azebaijan double crude oil prices over a 12 month period, from about $45 to $80-100. Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev confirmed November 1 that the state oil company, SOCAR, would raise wholesale prices on crude oil to generate more state revenue.

Just found this... interesting how some religious types view what shrub and his buddies are up to....
http://www.justpeace.org/fp10-20.htm

[Blue Gardener]

18. Excellent Book

Greg Palast should get a medal for speaking out.

[Imperialism Inc.]

4. I'm not sure it was ever a big secret what it was really about.

I recently changed my sig line but it used to have this quote in it:

"globalization appears to increase poverty and inequality...The costs of adjusting to greater openness are borne exclusively by the poor, regardless of how long the adjustment takes" -World Bank

That is an actual quote from a World Bank report from 1999. They know quite well what they are doing and that it is harmful to the people of the world.

[lastknowngood]

5. The final PNAC step to the New World Order Government

were done.

[peacetalksforall]

6. Is it possible for some countries to 'create?build? their own Bank?

Does the earth have to have the World Bank we have now?

[applegrove]

7. Wolfie's first task - erase universal health care from all 198 countries

in the world that have it.

[burythehatchet]

10. what is your comment based on?

[applegrove]

15. The fact that neocons want all their followers to drink the very same

Kool-Aid and buy into... the corporations need no regulations at all... why they will not survive if they do not behave themselves.. ergo humans need not regulate them.

I mean you either spend money on guns or health care. Health care is expensive but well worth it. They are both perpetual. But me thinks the elites in the USA who have created the neocolonial USA where local issues and petty ideas are kept at the tribal level (morals) while important things like 'military' or 'wealth' are saved for the elites to decide on... Something tells me Wolfie will not be running around the world telling all to use market interventions like socialized health care. That is not what neocons have asked of Israel.

That is what my ideas are based on. History.

[burythehatchet]

17. I wasn't being smart, I just wanted to know if he

was on the record on this issue. As far as Wolfie's influence, first he has to get approved. Maybe he will. But if he does get approved his only goal will be to destroy the World Bank from within. Just like Bolton's goal is to destroy thr UN. Neocons do not want any competition for worldwide governance.

[applegrove]

20. I agree. But UN pretty much is Dependant on the US for funding.

Other world bodies too. And now with he whole debt thing... I mean Bush uses the term 'bilateral aid' which got a bad name because IT SUCKED POOR COUNTRIES DOWN THE TUBES.

So - yes... are they going to insist that these poor buckling under the loans of previous bilateral aid... start making new loans? Or will it simply be that each nation that has a debt forgiving by WB (or a bilateral loan paid off by WB, or a new loan given by WB) has to sign onto a whole list of policies that make them uber-capitalist and without socialist interventions at all... which in tern will make it a cake-walk for any corporations to go in and cut deals.

I mean we know that out of the biggest 100 economies in the world that 51 are corporations and 48 are American corporations. And you can bet that only South Africa, Nigeria and the most northern African nations... would have a chance at being in the top 100 economies in terms of their size.

So - simply by forcing small countries to sign on the dotted line "no market regulations to deliver public goods" in exchange for the debt relief they cannot live or grow without having it written off... they end up very much under the influence of the corporations that want their resources. If they lower tariffs around the borders... that is a good thing (free trade is on the plate in Africa anyway). But how does Africa build the roads and millions of miles of infrastructure that they need if they cannot adequately tax the rich entities in their midst? I mean the middle classes growth depends entirely on the building of good roads so that the poor can join world markets for food.

I don't know what happens if the 'highly sophisticated' capitalist market for their resources is layed down before the roads. The farmers have not even gotten of the subsistence fields. I do not see corporate America building roads & infrastructure in the USA. Those are "externalities".

And part of it too - I must say - is that in India and Africa... people will buy AIDs drug knock-offs so as to save a million people instead of 50 thousand. I do not doubt the anger of big Pharma. But again... what goes on with medicines in the poorest places ... why one could just consider that "externalities" eh? Except when it costs a corporation .. it is not an acceptable "externality".

[banana republican]

8. Read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" It will answer your questions.

[rman]

14. right: WTO, IMF exposed as big time scammers

Many people are suspicious, or 'know' things aren't right. John Perkins' book explains what and how.

online interviews with Perkins:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207&mode=thread&tid=25
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251&mode=thread&tid=25

[justiceischeap]

11. Would this move be because Shrub needs a friendly face

when World Bank calls in America's debts?

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. What makes you think the World Bank's members are happy with this?

It's Bush's idea (or Cheney's, etc.). The US has the largest holding in the World Bank, but I think it can be outvoted if enough countries oppose it.

[UTUSN]

13. Sounds Like a Perfect Fit for a Rapacious NeoCon n/t

[wellst0nev0ter]

16. The Perfect Marriage of Neoliberalism And Neoconservatism

As Arundahti Roy (sp?) said, the economic and military arm of the same modern-day imperialism.

[H2O Man]

19. From reading "Where the Right Went Wrong"

I question if the goal of the World Bank is to help create independence among small countries, or to create dependence.