Tag Archives: international monetary fund

Let us start with interest rates. The month after US home sales slumped by 10.5%, the Fed under Janet Yellen announced a 0.25 rise in US interest rates to stop the economy overheating. That level of logic appears about par for the course as far as the worlds bankers and world banking are concerned. To you and me it seems  completely illogical but then we are living in the real world on planet earth.

One result of the tiny interest rate tweak has been a sharp fall in sterling from over $1.40 to the pound to $1.35, showing how strong the UK economy really is and putting a big smile on David Cameron’s face by making our exports cheaper and our imports more expensive by some 3%. This will automatically lead to a rise in inflation in the UK, thereby giving the Governor of the Bank of England the opportunity which he is so plainly seeking, to raise UK interest rates, and thereby stoke inflation even higher. So even the UK banking establishment is firmly established in the unreal land of world banking which sadly has for years involved incompetence, corruption and dishonest practices on an enormous scale.

One of the worst culprits has been our own much loved HSBC which has over the past few years been fined billions upon billions of dollars by various regulatory bodies, for its part in massive fraudulent  and dishonest practices. Indeed in some cases it has voluntarily agreed to pay huge penalties to prevent  full exposure of how naughty it has really been.

Now we have the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, facing trial on charges of criminal negligence, as a person in a position of public authority, over her handling of an alleged fraud by Bernard Tapie and involving a payment of £294. The official IMF response to its Managing Director’s invidious position, is;

The IMF ” continues to express its confidence in the Managing Directors ability to effectively carry out her duties.” i.e. irrespective of whether she has been criminally negligent or not  This is the IMF for God’s sake. Christine Lagarde  is its head. It’s not a toy town bank. There can hardly be a greater position of public authority, anywhere in the world. And the IMF believes it is not necessary to suspend her  pending her trial. Has the IMF sunk so low  that it regards itself as operating on the same level as some of of the worlds shadier sporting bodies. Perhaps only now has the IMF revealed its true character.

Oxfam saw it as early as 2011 when it described the appointment process under which Lagarde had been elected as “farcical” and argued that the lack of transparency hurt the IMF’s credibility.

One wonders what credibility it did have even then, 5 years ago – her predecessor was one Dominic Strauss Kahn. Nuff said.

Perhaps there is only one person who can save the IMF, one person with the ability, the experience and the skills which the IMF really needs and where they could both work hand in glove at the same level, .- the much maligned Sepp Blatter,  He even has the added advantage that he is under investigation for alleged fraud.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas  http://www.hiddengreece.net