[jeffkrol]

Mitchell quote:
Yesterday's post contained excerpts from an interview with Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. The post contained many of her comments, but one was so amazing, I repeat it here, to make sure you didn't miss it:

"When the world around the IMF goes downhill, we

thrive. We become extremely active because we

lend money, we earn interest and charges and all

the rest of it, and the institution does well.

When the world goes well and we’ve had years of

growth, as was the case back in 2006 and 2007,

the IMF doesn’t do so well both financially."

and otherwise."

Christine Lagarde

In short, the IMF relies on its clients doing poorly. Now, at last, you can see the motivation for the IMF's truly terrible advice -- the push for austerity and the lending to nations that should not borrow. The IMF is a clone of the crooked U.S. banks that gave all those "liars loans," which caused the great recession.

The above quote should hang on the wall of every politician in the world, as a reminder of what the "cut-government,-raise-taxes" crowd will do to ruin economies, and why they do it.

[mikemike]

Mitchell quote:
Yesterday's post contained excerpts from an interview with Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. The post contained many of her comments, but one was so amazing, I repeat it here, to make sure you didn't miss it:

In short, the IMF relies on its clients doing poorly. Now, at last, you can see the motivation for the IMF's truly terrible advice -- the push for austerity and the lending to nations that should not borrow. The IMF is a clone of the crooked U.S. banks that gave all those "liars loans," which caused the great recession.

The above quote should hang on the wall of every politician in the world, as a reminder of what the "cut-government,-raise-taxes" crowd will do to ruin economies, and why they do it.

The World Bank and the IMF have problems, but to there credit, I think the services they provided have helped keep tense financial situations from boiling over into wide scale shooting wars over the years. They have also done a lot of arm twisting to achieve transparency and better governance in countries where most of the world's people live. I have heard lots of legitimate criticisms about these international finance organizations but how are these like the "liar loans?" Are they writing loans to governments who have no income and no assets?

Do you think that a greek withdrawal or expulsion from the euro would be better for either greece or europe? I don't, I think that would probably be a precursor to another tragic war, generations of greeks being doomed to live in poverty, and/or dissolution of the common european market.

[jeffkrol]

The World Bank and the IMF have problems, but to there credit, I think the services they provided have helped keep tense financial situations from boiling over into wide scale shooting wars over the years. They have also done a lot of arm twisting to achieve transparency and better governance in countries where most of the world's people live. I have heard lots of legitimate criticisms about these international finance organizations but how are these like the "liar loans?" Are they writing loans to governments who have no income and no assets?

Do you think that a greek withdrawal or expulsion from the euro would be better for either greece or europe? I don't, I think that would probably be a precursor to another tragic war, generations of greeks being doomed to live in poverty, and/or dissolution of the common european market.

No that's almost all garbage.. Currently the "banks" want Greeks to live as wage slaves to pay off the gov. debt.. Greece declaring" bankruptcy" and return to their own currency would Cure the Greek default and return Greece to a soviergn currency nation.. WHAT would be bad (and the reason the "banks" ar efighting it) is the dominoe theory and the massive "bank" losses..

Bottom line save the people (return to independent currency) or the banks (keep impoverishing the people w/ austerity)... There is no in between yet they refuse to admit it......

I feel sorry for you if you believe the whole EU crisis it to save "the people" .. it is to save the Eurobanks...

There is only 2 paths to this evolution......... United States of Europe or return to soviergn nations...

This "depressed" evolution" is unsustainable............

How Democracy Can Save Europe by Timothy Snyder | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

Nonetheless, the prescription coming from Berlin and Frankfurt is, you guessed it, even more fiscal austerity.

This is, not to mince words, just insane. Europe has had several years of experience with harsh austerity programs, and the results are exactly what students of history told you would happen: Such programs push depressed economies even deeper into depression. And because investors look at the state of a nation's economy when assessing its ability to repay debt, austerity programs haven't even worked as a way to reduce borrowing costs.

What is the alternative? Well, in the 1930s -- an era that modern Europe is starting to replicate in ever more faithful detail -- the essential condition for recovery was an exit from the gold standard. The equivalent move now would be an exit from the euro, and restoration of national currencies. You may say that this is inconceivable, and it would indeed be a hugely disruptive event both economically and politically. But continuing on the present course, imposing ever-harsher austerity on countries that are already suffering Depression-era unemployment, is what's truly inconceivable.

So if European leaders really wanted to save the euro they would be looking for an alternative course. And the shape of such an alternative is actually fairly clear. The Continent needs more expansionary monetary policies, in the form of a willingness -- an announced willingness -- on the part of the European Central Bank to accept somewhat higher inflation; it needs more expansionary fiscal policies, in the form of budgets in Germany that offset austerity in Spain and other troubled nations around the Continent's periphery, rather than reinforcing it. Even with such policies, the peripheral nations would face years of hard times. But at least there would be some hope of recovery.

Read more here: Krugman: European leaders' obsession with austerity is insane: National Columnists | Alaska news at adn.com

IMF are idiots..............

[jeffkrol]

The only way to save the euro and get Europe out the crisis while maintaining people’s living standards is to change EU treaties to have a more integrated union, Jacques Attali said in an exclusive interview with EurActiv.

Jacques Attali is a French economist who has been chief advisor and sherpa to late French President François Mitterrand, when François Hollande was an advisor on the same team. Attali was the founder and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 2007, he was entrusted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to lead the commission on economic growth, which included Mario Monti, now Italy's premier. Attali now leads PlaNet Finance, an NGO assisting microfinance institutions across the world.

He spoke to EurActiv Managing Editor Daniela Vincenti and Publisher Christophe Leclercq.

You launched a petition campaign for a Eurofederation, calling for closer integration within the EU, proposing a common fiscal and budgetary system at the EU level. Do you really think people want more Europe, despite the euro crisis?

Please let me insist that our initiative is not only a call for a common fiscal and budgetary system, we propose a real federal Europe that will protect people against social and environmental dumping, that will have the democratic tools to boost the economic growth – that is, to create jobs – and that will speak with a single and therefore strong voice to our trading partners in the world.

http://www.euractiv.com/euro-finance/attali-federal-europe-crisis-exit-strat...terview-512208