Sunday, April 29, 2018

Bill Mitchell — The World Bank should be defunded

Australia is currently being shocked on a daily basis with the revelations in our Royal Commission on Banking, which show that our financial services sector (banks, insurance companies, financial planning, etc) is deeply corrupt, with criminal behaviour clearly rife. Hopefully, many of the top executives and board members of these firms will be prosecuted and do time. Another ‘bank’ that has totally lost any sense of moral compass, not to mention effectiveness, is the World Bank. Its behaviour over the years has been scandalous. Earlier this year we learned that its so-called ‘Doing Business’ strategy deliberately manipulated its reporting to undermine a democratically elected government (Chile). And, last week (April 26, 2018), the World Bank released the Working Draft of its upcoming – World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work – where it attempted to pressure governments into widespread labour market deregulation, which if carried through would further disadvantage workers and further redistribute national income towards profits. The World Bank has outlived its purpose. It is now a seriously dangerous international institution and progressive governments should set about defunding it.
The World Bank has long been criticised for its role in undermining democracy in the less developed world.…
Institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank that grew out of the Post World War 2 consensus between nation states to manage the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system and the need to reconstruct Europe and build prosperity in poorer nations have long outlived their role.
They have morphed into using their financial power over weaker nations to push a neoliberal agenda which prioritises the needs of international capital at the expense of the well-being of citizens in those nations. 
Both institutions should be defunded and a new international institutional framework created.
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The World Bank should be defunded
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

6 comments:

Matt Franko said...

They simply help to broker deals between the developed world producers of advanced products and the turd world where there does not exist the advanced technology...

So you have to figure out a new way for the first world producers to get paid in their native currency if you want to get rid of these institutions... or else let the turd world remain that way..

Andrew Anderson said...

If there's still a "turd" world, the UK and USA, supposedly Christian nations, are at fault for not being the "city on a hill" they could have been if, for example, they had not been so foolish as to discount the Bible wrt economics.

So much then for dismissing the importance of the Old Testament DESPITE New Testament admonitions NOT TO!

Matt Franko said...

Bible doesn’t say you shouldn’t demand to be paid for your work...

Matt Franko said...

Here now Venezuela is demanding to be paid by India in the new venezuelan Petro currency let’s see how this goes over:

https://twitter.com/oilandenergy/status/991031215384924160?s=21

Andrew Anderson said...

Whoever said it did?

There you go again with your typical condescending presumption, i.e. putting words in people's mouth.

My point is the UK and USA have exported an unjust, unstable fiat and credit creation model that they can't get to work properly THEMSELVES!

Matt Franko said...

Well let the shitholes go on your bible based system then... nothing is stopping them...