Your money or your life

2000 by Eric Toussaint

“Your money or your life” by Eric Toussaint.

A precise and pedagogical analysis of the present process of globalisation of the capitalist economy and the mechanism of the third world debt. The interventions and the evolution of the international financial institutions (IMF IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.

When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.

As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).

The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.

http://imf.org , Wb World Bank
WB The World Bank was founded as part of the new international monetary system set up at Bretton Woods in 1944. Its capital is provided by member states’ contributions and loans on the international money markets. It financed public and private projects in Third World and East European countries.

It consists of several closely associated institutions, among which :

1. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 189 members in 2017), which provides loans in productive sectors such as farming or energy ;

2. The International Development Association (IDA, 159 members in 1997), which provides less advanced countries with long-term loans (35-40 years) at very low interest (1%) ;

3. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides both loan and equity finance for business ventures in developing countries.

As Third World Debt gets worse, the World Bank (along with the IMF) tends to adopt a macro-economic perspective. For instance, it enforces adjustment policies that are intended to balance heavily indebted countries’ payments. The World Bank advises those countries that have to undergo the IMF’s therapy on such matters as how to reduce budget deficits, round up savings, enduce foreign investors to settle within their borders, or free prices and exchange rates.

 ,...) are accurately criticized particularly in the field of the Structural Ajustment Plans and their political, economical and social consequences. One chapter explains the origins, the evolution and the role played by the neoliberal ideology which lies beneath these politics.

The last two chapters are dedicated to alternatives : a series of “paths” and realistic proposals in order to “globalise the revendications and the fights against the globalisation of our economy”.

Three editions :

- Vikas Adhyayan Kendra - Mumbai - India, 1999
- Labour Party Pakistan Publications,
Lahore, Pakistan, 2000
- Pluto Press, London - Sterling, Virginia
Mkuki na Nyota Publishers - Dar es Salaam

Illustrated by tables, graphics plus a lexical table, a useful index and a rich bibliography.


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Author
Eric Toussaint

is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France.
He is the author of Greece 2015: there was an alternative. London: Resistance Books / IIRE / CADTM, 2020 , Debt System (Haymarket books, Chicago, 2019), Bankocracy (2015); The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man (2014); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012, etc.
See his bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Toussaint
He co-authored World debt figures 2015 with Pierre Gottiniaux, Daniel Munevar and Antonio Sanabria (2015); and with Damien Millet Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank: Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers, Monthly Review Books, New York, 2010. He was the scientific coordinator of the Greek Truth Commission on Public Debt from April 2015 to November 2015.


Other articles in english by Eric Toussaint (655)

0 | 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 | 120 | 140 | 160 | ... | 640

Other publications in English :

  • The World Bank A Critical History
    3 July 2023 - Eric Toussaint
  • Africa : the debt trap and how to get out of it
    27 March 2023 - CADTM
  • Greece 2015: There was an alternative
    6 October 2020 - Eric Toussaint
  • Impact of European policies on the Global South and possible alternatives
    8 September 2020 - ReCommons Europe
  • Package of common demands on debt and the need for citizens’ control on finance at European level - Executive summar
    3 August 2020 - CADTM, Collective

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