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International Monetary Fund & World Bank

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Excerpted from Howard Phillips' Issues & Straegy Bulletin of October 15, 2000

WTO SPANKS CONGRESS -- WHICH DOES AS IT'S TOLD BY FOREIGNERS

John McKinnon and Geoff Winestock report (Wall Street Journal, 9/14/00, p. B4) that "the House passed legislation to replace a business tax break that the World Trade Organization has deemed an illegal subsidy.

"But the bill, approved 315-109, has a long way to go in a short time. It still must pass the gridlocked Senate and be signed into law by President Clinton by Oct. 1 to meet a WTO deadline."


Excerpted from Howard Phillips' Issues & Strategy Bulletin of January 15, 2000

SPEAKER HASTERT BOASTS OF GOP'S PRO-WTO, PRO-NAFTA GLOBALIST LEADERSHIP

"Saying that the Republican Party has been unfairly called isolationist, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Monday the key to a 'global world' is free trade and a strong military presence.

"Speaking before the Mid-America Committee Leadership Luncheon, Hastert criticized Democrats as 'the true isolationist party in America today,' saying the GOP has taken a leadership role on such issues as the North American Free Trade Agreement and allowing China to join the World Trade Organization." Source: Mike Saelens report from Chicago for UPI (vny.com/cf/news, 1/11/00)


 WILL GOP CONGRESS PUNISH AMERICANS TO AID AFRICA?

The Washington Times (12/29/99, p. A16) reports that "African ambassadors share one hope for the year 2000 -- that Congress will finally pass a major trade bill for Africa that has been lingering on Capitol Hill for four years. ..."

TO WHOM DOES YOUR CONGRESSMAN REPORT?

"Mauritian Ambassador Chitmansing Jesseramsing, speaking for the African diplomatic corps, said the ambassadors are anxiously awaiting a congressional conference committee to begin work on reconciling the differences between the House and Senate versions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. ...

"'We're going into the next millennium. We need a bill that has meaning,' Mr. Jesseramsing said yesterday. 'It cannot be only American fabric.'"

YOU?

"He believes the Senate version was passed in deference to Southern senators who believe the House bill would harm the domestic textile industry in their states."

... OR CHITMANSING JESSERAMSING?

"'The Senate bill is a nonstarter,' Mr. Jesseramsing said. 'Africans would wind up subsidizing American industry instead of the other way around.'

"Both versions of the bill would apply to the 48 nations of sub-Saharan Africa. ... In his own 800-square-mile Indian Ocean island nation, the U.S. tariffs are as high as 22 percent, Mr. Jesseramsing said."

WHY ARE AFRICAN AMBASSADORS MORE INFLUENTIAL THAN U.S. TAXPAYERS?

"As they wait for the conference committee to convene on Jan. 28, the African ambassadors are proud of the progress they have made so far. Just getting the bill through the Senate, where it died last year, was an accomplishment, Mr. Jesseramsing said.

"They have an ally in the White House, where President Clinton has pressed for passage of the House version. Rosa Whitaker, assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa, called the progress of the bill a 'milestone.'

"'There is broad recognition that this giant step in U.S.-Africa relations is due, in no small part, to your tireless, effective and tenacious work,' she said in a letter to Mr. Jesseramsing."

U.S. TEXTILE WORKERS UNDER AFRICA'S TOES

"The ambassador said he believes it is a 'small step' for the United States to lift the trade barriers but a 'giant step for Africans to get their toes in the U.S. market.'"


Excerpted from Howard Phillips' Issues & Straegy Bulletin of June 30, 1999

BUCHANAN BLASTS BIG BANK ROBBERY

A statement released by Pat Buchanan (6/21/99) quotes him as saying: "The decision of the G-8 nations at Cologne to grant 'debt relief' to the 'world's poorest nations' is being painted as [an] act of international altruism. In reality, it is a great leap forward for international socialism, and an act of global grand larceny whose principal victims are the unwitting taxpayers of the United States."

BIG BANKER BAILOUT IS POLITICALLY AUTHORIZED THEFT FROM U.S. TAXPAYERS

"Of the $70 billion in debt to be 'forgiven,' for example, no less than $39 billion is owed the World Bank. But this debt will not disappear. It will simply be shifted off the books of deadbeat and bankrupt regimes onto the backs of Western taxpayers. American children yet unborn will spend their entire working lives paying off these debts."

WHO STOLE YOUR MONEY? CLINTON AND CONGRESS

"Before this $70 billion in debt is 'forgiven,' Congress should demand answers. What happened to this enormous pile of money? Who squandered or stole this incredible fortune? Who at the World Bank and IMF deceived us about the credit-worthiness of the loan recipients? Who has been investigated, prosecuted, or punished for the wipeout of all this wealth?

"Were a fraction of this sum of $70 billion foolishly lent, and lost, by a U.S. commercial bank, reputations would be ruined and heads would have rolled. Why is no one ever held accountable, or ever punished, for criminal incompetence at the World Bank or the IMF, [for] their ongoing looting of the wealth of the United States?"


IT'S YOUR MONEY: $4.5 BILLION MORE TO THE BOYS IN THE KREMLIN

The Washington Times (7/1/99, p. A15) reports that "The month-old government of Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin scored a major policy success yesterday as the International Monetary Fund signaled it will make its first loans to Russia since last summer's devaluation of the ruble.

"Deputy Finance Minister Oleg Vyugin said in Moscow that IMF officials, winding up a four-day mission to inspect new economic reforms pushed through by Mr. Stepashin's government, had agreed on a joint memorandum with Russian officials that clears the way for $4.5 billion in new loans over the next 18 months. ..."

WHOSE DEFAULT IS IT?

"The devaluation of the ruble in August set off a chain of economic crises that Russia and the IMF are still sorting out. The devaluation resulted in the government defaulting on some $40 billion in debt."

KOSOVO PAY OFF?

"Russia needs the IMF money to pay off a previous $4.2 billion debt to the fund and to clear the way for negotiations to restructure payments for some $16 billion in Soviet-era debt."


Excerpted from Howard Phillips' Issues & Straegy Bulletin of April 15, 1998

REPUBLICAN SENATE MAJORITY DELIVERS (VIA IMF) ANOTHER $18 BILLION OF YOUR MONEY TO NEW WORLD ORDER PLUTOCRATS

The Wall Street Journal reports (3/27/98, p. A2) that the "Senate overwhelmingly approved the Clinton administration's $18 billion request for the International Monetary Fund....

"The lopsided 84-16 vote gives the Treasury a badly needed boost....Senate Republicans backed the IMF by an almost 3-1 margin....

"The Treasury and IMF argue that they need the additional funding to cover future crises in developing nations. The IMF has committed tens of billions of dollars to shore up Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea...."

TRENT LOTT LEADS THE WAY

"Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R., Miss.), after winning concessions for shipbuilders at home, joined in support of the IMF....

"Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R., N.C.) lambasted the final package as ‘incredibly weak’ and mocked the IMF as a set of ‘silk-suited dilettantes’ given to a diet of ‘champagne and caviar at the expense of the American taxpayer.’"

CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS ARE LIBERAL WITH YOUR MONEY

The Senate voted 84-16 (Roll Call no. 44, 3/26/98) to provide $18 billion in supplemental appropriations for the IMF, with the following 41 Republicans voting "aye": Bennett (Utah), Bond (Mo.), Brownback (Kans.), Burns (Mont.), Chafee (R.I.), Coats (Ind.), Cochran (Miss.), Collins (Me.), Craig (Ida.), D'Amato (N.Y.), DeWine (Ohio), Domenici (N.M.), Enzi (Wyo.), Frist (Tenn.), Gorton (Wash.), Gramm (Tex.), Grams (Minn.), Grassley (Iowa), Gregg (N.H.), Hagel (Neb.), Hatch (Utah), Hutchinson (Ark.), Hutchison (Tex.), Jeffords (Vt.), Kempthorne (Ida.), Lott (Miss.), Lugar (Ind.), McCain (Ariz.), McConnell (Ky.), Murkowski (Alaska), Roberts (Kans.), Roth (Del.), Santorum (Pa.), Shelby (Ala.), Smith (Ore.), Snowe (Me.), Specter (Pa.), Stevens (Alaska), Thomas (Wyo.), Thurmond (S.C.), and Warner (Va.).

 

FEDERAL RESERVE DEPENDS ON IMF TO CAMOUFLAGE MASSIVE CURRENCY INFLATION

Jeffrey M. Herbener, senior fellow of the Von Mises Institute and teacher of economics at Grove City College, notes in The Free Market (May 1998, p. 1) that from "the end of 1990 to the end of 1996, the Fed used its open market operations to increase the monetary base (MB), which is currency plus bank reserves, by 55 percent. Currency itself increased 60 percent....

"The Fed expanded the monetary base 11 percent per year in the 1980s, but the demand to hold dollars overseas helped soak up the monetary inflation...."

U.S. DOLLAR'S RESERVE CURRENCY STATUS JEOPARDIZED BY CONGRESSIONAL DISREGARD OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS

"American supremacy in the wake of the collapse of communism allowed the Fed to fully exploit the international dollar reserve system. The new system opened up a vast new vista for overseas dollar holdings. From Russia and Eastern Europe to China and East Asia, the governments of former communist countries began to soak up dollars to hold as official reserves....

"[T]he new regime depends on foreigners' willingness to hold dollars and use them as the basis for their own domestic monetary inflation and credit expansion. Only with harmonized monetary policies can the system survive.

"Any country trying to take advantage of the fixed exchange rate of its currency against the dollar by excessive domestic monetary inflation and credit expansion will be punished...."

DOLLAR REPATRIATION AND HYPERINFLATION MAY BE COMING

"A rogue nation will be tempted to defend its currency, and stave off devaluation, by spending its dollar reserves. Any significant disgorging of dollars would threaten to ignite price inflation in America if the dollars were repatriated. Significant domestic price inflation would, at best, bring a repeat of the 1970s, and, at worst, a hyperinflation."

$18 BILLION FOR IMF IS A BAND AID, NOT A SOLUTION

"This danger explains the U.S. interest in promoting IMF austerity policies and bailouts. The bailouts are intended to soften the blow of devaluation and price inflation. In exchange for taxpayers subsidizing banks and large corporations, and other key beneficiaries of the system, the IMF can use the bailout money as leverage to impose conditions favorable for the future of the dollar-reserve system."

BANKERS NEED TOTAL POWER (AND ENDLESS BAILOUTS) TO KEEP "HOUSE OF CARDS" FROM TUMBLING

"One condition the IMF has imposed across Asia is for the recipient country to establish an ‘independent’ central bank, i.e., one independent of local political control, and therefore at liberty to harmonize monetary policy with the Federal Reserve....

"In the last three years, the system has faced a $50 billion bailout of Mexico, a $57 billion bailout of South Korea, $43 billion for Indonesia, $18 billion for Thailand, for a total of $118 billion in Asia (some estimate that it will eventually rise to $160 billion) to fend off its own destruction. But by delaying the day of reckoning with bailouts, the international mountain of dollars and debt grows, making the inevitable collapse all the more devastating...."

THE EURO MAY BE THE STRAW THAT BREAKS THE BACK OF A FRAUDULENT POLICY

"If the euro becomes the common currency of the EU, what will happen if its members replace their dollar reserves with euros? And if Japan recovers, what will happen if the yen becomes the reserve currency across Asia?"


Excerpted from Howard Phillips' Issues & Straegy Bulletin of March 31, 1998

A VOTE TO FUND THE IMF IS A VOTE TO ABROGATE YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

The Washington Times reports (3/21/98, p. 1) that the "International Monetary Fund is moving on a plan that could override national and even local limits on how and where international corporations can spend their money."

BANS ON ALIEN CONTROL WOULD BE PROHIBITED

"The proposal would amend the IMF's charter to grant the fund broad new power to force nations to eliminate restrictions on foreign ownership of land and other investments."

A BACKDOOR MAI VIA IMF

"It picks up the baton dropped last month by negotiators of the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI). The MAI, a pact being negotiated among the world's wealthiest nations, sought to override any laws – federal, state or local – that discriminated against foreign corporations or restricted corporate investment.

"Treaty talks stalled last month after being subjected to a firestorm of criticism that labeled it a corporate Bill of Rights and a subversion of states' rights.

"The IMF proposal is being called a ‘backdoor MAI’ and a desperate power grab by an agency in crisis. The planned charter amendment has generated an outcry in Congress, where lawmakers are weighing an $18 billion payment to the cash-strapped IMF."

IMF WOULD ASSUME SOVEREIGN ROLE

"‘I don't find it acceptable in the United States to abrogate our sovereignty when it comes to local and state laws that require investor performance, that require compliance with environmental and consumer protection laws, and I don't feel it would be consistent for me to export that value,’ said Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon Democrat.

"‘I don't think that degree of interference and deprivation of sovereignty is appropriate for any nation,’ he said...."

DECISION TO BE DELAYED UNTIL GOP CONGRESS DELIVERS $18 BILLION?

"‘If there is one lesson to be drawn from the events of the recent past, it is that capital account issues are here to stay,’ Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said in a recent speech at the IMF. ‘They are issues with which the fund will increasingly have to deal. Its charter ought to give it the tools to accomplish the task.’

"Next month, the fund's executive board – where the United States holds about 18 percent of the vote – will consider the amendment to the IMF's charter. If approved, the change would force the fund's member nations, including the United States, to eliminate certain restrictions on capital flows.

"Approved by the executive board, the amendment would go to the 182-nation board of governors for final approval. No date has been set for that vote."

"BUY USA" GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS WOULD BE BANNED

"IMF officials won't specify what sort of investment restrictions they want to do away with and said they plan to make decisions on a country-by-country basis. But high on the list for elimination would be limits on foreign ownership of real estate, municipal utilities and stock. The amendment also could force nations to abandon preferences for domestic companies when issuing government contracts.

"The financial free fall in South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia last year led to a $100 billion international bailout of those economies led by the IMF. The bailout tapped out the fund's cash reserves and led IMF officials to ask members for more money, including $14.5 billion in new dues from the United States. The United States already is $3.5 billion behind on its IMF dues payments."


Excerpted from Howard Phillips' Issues & Straegy Bulletin of February 15, 1998

TRENT LOTT WANTS TO GIVE IMF $18 BILLION OF YOUR TAXES

"In the Senate, Majority Leader Trent Lott said he wants to bring part of the IMF funding up for a quick vote – the $3.5 billion loan that appears to have widespread support in Congress.

"The remaining $14.5 billion would have to wait until later in the session."

TRENT LOTT'S NEW WORLD ORDER AGENDA: NATO, BOSNIA, IMF, AND FAST TRACK

National Journal's "Congress Daily" (1/23/98) reports that Senate GOP Leader Trent Lott's 1998 foreign policy objectives include "fast track trade negotiating authority, the Carribean Basin Initiative, NATO enlargement and supplemental funding for the Bosnia mission and the International Monetary Fund. Lott suggested the administration not request the entire $18 billion in IMF funds it wants in the FY98 supplemental, but divide it into ‘two or three parts;’ he also emphasized a need for reform in recipient countries."

ACTION: Let Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott (Fax: 202-224-2262) know what you think of his plan to help Bill Clinton bail out the IMF.


Excerpted from Howard Phillips' Issues & Straegy Bulletin of December 31, 1997

WILL GOP CONGRESS LET PRESIDENT CLINTON HAND U.S. TAXPAYERS MULTIBILLION DOLLAR BILL FOR BAILOUT OF ASIAN DEBTS TO GLOBALIST CREDITORS?

Senator Lauch Faircloth observes (Washington Post, 12/12/97, p. A29) that the "Clinton administration announced last week that it will commit $5 billion to the record $55 billion bailout of South Korea. This comes on the heels of the $3 billion that was committed by the United States for the $40 billion Indonesia bailout. Add this to the IMF bailouts of Thailand and the Philippines, and one might be led to think the handling of the Asian crisis was complete. If so, he would be wrong....Russia, Brazil, Malaysia and others unknown could all be next."

PROFITS ARE PRIVATIZED TO THE POWERFUL---DEBTS ARE BORNE BY WORKING AMERICAN TAXPAYERS

"What has happened is that the free market is no longer at work in the field of international finance. The legacy of the Clinton Treasury Department is that it will have given rise to a new doctrine – perhaps called the Rubin Doctrine – that international bailouts are good policy if Wall Street is not allowed to suffer any losses for its poor credit decisions. For major lenders to emerging markets, the Clinton administration has effectively privatized the profits made by these loans and socialized the losses...."

CONGRESS SURRENDERS POWER TO CLINTON---CLINTON TRANSFERS IT TO IMF COLLECTIVE

"Following the Mexico crisis, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and the IMF conceived an idea called New Arrangements on Borrowing (NAB). The idea was to establish a new fund at the IMF that would stand ready and able to lend money in emergency situations such as Mexico. In effect, the United States was no longer acting on an ad hoc basis, as it had in Mexico; it was establishing an actual policy for future bailouts. The United States was to contribute $3.5 billion, giving the IMF $40 billion in additional funds to lend."

S&L CRISIS GLOBALIZED, BUT AMERICANS STILL GET THE BILL

"Regrettably, what the Treasury Department had stumbled into was equivalent to laying the groundwork for an international crisis similar to America's savings and loan crisis. For Wall Street lenders, it was a ‘heads I win, tails the taxpayer loses’ scenario."

WALL STREET WILL CONTINUE TO GAMBLE SO LONG AS YOU BUY THE CHIPS

"Take a look at the lending in Asia for the effect of this policy. U.S. banks are owed $10.6 billion by borrowers in South Korea; $4.6 billion in Indonesia; $4.1 billion by Thailand; $2.8 billion by the Philippines; and $2.4 billion by Malaysia. To put these numbers in perspective, the U.S. banks have lent approximately $11 billion to borrowers in Canada, just $1 billion more than in Korea. Americans might be surprised to learn that U.S. banks have lent more to Indonesia than they have to such countries as Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Chile or South Africa."

NOW THE IMF WANTS $28.8 BILLION MORE FROM UNCLE SUCKER

The Wall Street Journal points out editorially (12/17/97, p. A22) that IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus is expected to soon request a huge increase in the IMF's capital base, with U.S. taxpayers and others expected to foot the bill. "Mr. Camdessus asked for a 45% hike just three months ago, and now wants to make it a bigger dollop of some 70% to 80%. That would bring the total IMF pool to roughly $360 billion, of which more than $100 billion would be readily available for further bailouts. Toward this end, the U.S. Congress will be asked to pony up some $28.8 billion, instead of the $3.5 billion that got stalled in the last session. We hope someone in Congress asks who will end up with this money. A clue: It will not end up in the pockets of Korea, but in the pockets of Korea's creditors."

KOREA OWES $10 BILLION TO WALL STREET FINANCIERS

"Korea's immediate problem is some $20 billion in foreign obligations coming due this month, of which perhaps $4 billion has already been rolled over. Overall – not just this month – Korea owes Japanese banks about $26 billion, while the U.S. and German banking systems are on the hook for $10 billion each...."

GREED IS THE PROBLEM, DEFAULT IS THE CURE

"It might even serve the world if the IMF and Mr. Rubin recognize that default – should some of these countries come to that – does not mean that a debtor goes up in smoke. For all the apocalyptic language surrounding California's Orange County, for example, it weathered default with no public aid, and emerged stronger for the experience. And lenders who made bad loans were not immunized from the consequences.

"The crony capitalists in Mexico or Indonesia, by the way, do just fine in bailouts. They are usually the first to sense a coming devaluation, and the first to put flight capital into hard currencies. They are usually also exporters, and profit from the de facto wage cut, at least until it's wiped out by the inevitable domestic inflation."

 

REPUBLICANS LACK THE MORAL, FACTUAL, AND INTELLECTUAL SELF-CONFIDENCE TO DISAGREE WITH BILL CLINTON

Robert Novak has warned in The Washington Post (12/29/97, p. A17) that there "was instant assent to the International Monetary Fund's Korean solution two weeks ago when top Republicans in Congress were briefed by President Clinton and his lieutenants. Thoughts of dissent vanished when the congressional leaders were warned that failure to bail out South Korea could trigger a communist invasion from the north....But even without the invasion scare, GOP leaders were accepting a governmental decision that carries grave repercussions.

"Why? One congressional staffer described his bosses who attended the briefing as ‘uninformed, unprepared and confused.’

"The president will not ask Congress for merely an extra $3.5 billion contribution to the International Monetary Fund (the sum not approved last year because of an unrelated battle over abortion) as originally indicated. The amount is now $35 billion and growing."


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