Free Republic

As climate change negotiations get into full swing ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, debate over the basis upon which developed countries should compensate developing countries for their historic emissions intensifies. There is a possible solution – one where the ‘carbon debt’ of the over-emitting developed world is annulled in exchange for the developing world’s monetary debt. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed through the planet's natural systems. Global carbon cycle data from Nasa (see http://nasascience.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/ocean-earth-system/ocean-carbon-cycle) tell us that the land, soils and oceans absorb approximately 4 billion tonnes of carbon (C) per year, equivalent to...

It looks that a big part of Gold bars in Banks vaults are in fact tugsten plated gold , the scandal is just starting to leak and it could cause the burst of the Gold bubble. Video interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0-hGHJSgNA

Ukraine -- one of the top 10 countries most likely to fault -- will not be receiving a $3.5 billion, fourth-tranch of a loan it was slated to get from the IMF. The issue, as the NYT reports, is the government's inability to get spending under control. In terms of the larger, global ramifications, Ukraine hasn't been the concern of many folks -- not like Greece, Dubai, Ireland, and Spain have, anyway. It won't be ripping apart any currency unions if it defaults (thankfully). But as we've recently noted, the world is divided right now between those countries whose government...

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that it has sold 10 metric tons of gold to Sri Lanka, the third customer to acquire a portion of its gold holdings. The IMF in September finalized a plan to sell 403.3 metric tons of gold—an amount equivalent to about one-eighth of its total holdings. The IMF previously announced the sales of 200 metric tons of gold to India and 2 metric tons to Mauritius.

India plans to buy more gold from IMF Nov 24 2009 India is open to buying more gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It bought 200 tonnes for $6.7 billion on November 3. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may well buy IMF’s remaining hoard of 201.3 tonnes on acceptable terms, which are now under negotiation. A government official said that the additional purchase would depend on the “successful pitching by RBI”. “RBI is an independent body, and the government does not interfere in its affairs. It will get the gold if its bid is successful and at the...

India, it turns out, ended up being gold’s white knight. The world learned yesterday that India had bought 200 tons of the IMF’s gold over a two-week period in October, at an average price of $1,045 an ounce. That’s a 57% increase in Indian gold reserves… quite a statement. “The Indian transaction may be the largest single central bank purchase of gold ever,” notes Byron King. “The only comparable event was the U.S. government seizure of gold from circulation within the nation back in 1933, along with steady U.S. government purchases in the 1930s and 1940s. “I e-mailed an acquaintance...

You can put a fork in us down the road.... The U.S. currency dropped against 12 of its 16 major counterparts as the International Monetary Fund said traders are probably using the dollar to fund so-called carry trades around the world and it may still be overvalued. I hope everyone here in The United States takes a moment to understand what this means. Let me lay it out for you: When the global economy truly recovers oil will skyrocket up to or beyond the $150 where it was in late 2008. If the dollar is indeed still "overvalued" and going...

Gold futures resume climb after factory orders India central bank buys give an early lift; dollar in play By Nick Godt & Polya Lesova, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures got back their earlier gains Tuesday after a report showed the U.S. factory sector has continued to rebound, knocking the U.S. dollar further off its session highs. Gold for December delivery rose $23, or 2.2%, to $1,077 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex. Silver and copper futures turned higher. Gold had traded under $1,060 ahead of the factory orders report, coming off highs near $1,067 in European trading....

WASHINGTON, Nov 02, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- BKIAF | Quote | | News | PowerRating -- The International Monetary Fund announced on Monday the sale of 200 tons of gold to India's central bank, almost half the total sales volume of 403.3 tons that was approved by the Executive Board in September. "I strongly welcome this transaction with the Reserve Bank of India," Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement. "This transaction is an important step toward achieving the objectives of the IMF's limited gold sales program, which are to help put the Fund's finances on a sound...

Aided and abetted by imposters posing as authentic American citizens the United States of America has been taken over by an authentic dictator. How could so many millions of U. S. citizens just gently cede their heritage and birthright so easily; without more than a whimper? Assisted by genuine anti-American leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, actually elected by unknowing and uninformed lemmings, Barack Hussein Obama has surely seized the ultimate power of dictatorship and is making decisions not within the established authority of the office of President, which are opposed only by vocal chants from a gaggle of conservatives...

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN in which he issued a dire warning regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty which is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. .. Video 4:11 min

While all eyes were on the rantings of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations, the United States -- under President Obama -- was surrendering its economic sovereignty at the G-20 summit. The result of this conclave, which France's president Nicolas Sarkozy hailed as "revolutionary," was that all the nations agreed to coordinate their economic policies and programs and to submit them to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for comment and approval. While the G-20 nations and the IMF are, for now, only going to use "moral suasion" on those nations found not to be in compliance, talk of sanctions looms...

Jerome Corsi and Sean Hannity discuss how American sovereignty is being sold out. Who the main players are and their agenda to Globalization. Corsi calls Obama Post- America. Describing him as an Internationalist. Obama is going along with the agenda giving away sovereighnty in recent G20 and IMF agreements.

Corsi explains how policy-makers are manipulating the economic panic of our time to advance a "globalist" plan that would undermine American sovereighty.

Link only video at site

"What the Fed is likely to do is kill the dollar and eventually partner with the IMF, which as become the de facto global central banking institution. The IMF will fund global growth through Special Drawing Rights. The trick will be for the dollar to slowly die as the Special Drawing Rights gradually play a more and more central role in the growth of the world economy. A perfect correlation of the dollar fall and the Special Drawing Rights rise is not likely, so there will be a very difficult transition period when the United States is essentially a country...

“A year ago,” said law professor Ross Buckley on Australia’s ABC News last week, “nobody wanted to know the International Monetary Fund. Now it’s the organiser for the international stimulus package which has been sold as a stimulus package for poor countries.” The IMF may have catapulted to a more exalted status than that. According to Jim Rickards, director of market intelligence for scientific consulting firm Omnis, the unannounced purpose of last week’s G20 Summit in Pittsburgh was that “the IMF is being anointed as the global central bank.” Rickards said in a CNBC interview on September 25 that the...

Dick Morris discusses how the United States, at the G20 conference, put itself under the guidance and, ultimately, control of the International Monetary Fund even as it succeeded in turning more power in that organization over to debtor nations. The Declaration of Independence is being repealed before our eyes.

• China and India set to become established global powers • Euro and renminbi tipped to join dollar as reserve currencies • Other developing economies predicted to flourish in recovery The wrenching financial crisis of the past two years will provide the catalyst for a profound change in the global economy – which, according to the man running the World Bank, will see China and India become established centres of power, the dollar eclipsed as the sole reserve currency, and Latin America, south-east Asia and Africa emerge as new sources of growth. But as he surveys the wreckage caused by...

The International Monetary Fund is open to a plan that would see banks contribute to an insurance policy against a future economic collapse, the agency revealed on Friday. "Considering that the financial sector is creating a lot of systemic risk for the global economy," said the fund's managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, "it is just fair that such a sector would pay some part of its resources to help mitigate the risks that they are creating."

ISTANBUL -- The International Monetary Fund, acting at the behest of leaders of the Group of 20 nations, is examining how a tax on financial institutions could be applied globally. Neither the size nor use of revenue from such a tax has been decided. Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, said when ministers met in Pittsburgh recently they discussed using proceeds to help finance developing countries during crises. Another possibility, discussed in a recent IMF report, would be to "pre-finance a bailout fund" to handle financial institutions deemed "too big to fail." IMF Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky compared a prospective...

Britain's vaunted nationalized healthcare system is bankrupting the nation and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning that if the UK doesn't start charging for healthcare and raise the retirement age above 65 the country will not be able to get out from under the widening fiscal disaster. The IMF is telling the British government that she must instigate a wholesale revamping of its pensioner and healthcare system to "help keep a lid on the debt." Treasury officials admitted recently that the deficit is expected to rise "£200billion this year - £25billion more than the Chancellor predicted in the Budget."...

Student throws shoe at IMF chief in Istanbul protest Thursday, October 1 02:18 pm Selcuk Gokoluk ISTANBUL (Reuters) -A Turkish student threw a shoe at International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Thursday as he made a speech to students in Istanbul ahead of the IMF's annual meeting. Security guards dragged the student away after he threw a white sports shoe and rushed towards the stage. The shoe landed at the feet of Strauss-Kahn. "Get out of the university, thief IMF," he shouted during Strauss-Kahn's speech at Istanbul's Bilgi University. A female student tried to unfurl a protest banner....

As an almost revered subject, the question of whether central banks across the world will be buyers or sellers of gold is one usually left until after the event. Central Banks themselves are usually very unhappy to talk about their gold policy. When they do it is a once-in-several-years-event. As a result we watch the behavior patterns of the last decade to see what lies ahead. We have been waiting so long for clarity on the policy the I.M.F. are to adopt with the sale of their 403.63 tonnes of gold. The IMF Executive Board has now approved the sale...

How do you know if someone is a liberal? It is simple: Look directly into their eyes. Their eyes will always tell you the truth. Present the facts. You know you have won when they look away, become emotional, and starting crying! Hannity is like country music, I normally can’t listen more than five minutes without having to change the channel, however the above video is excellent. These two liberals probably have never worked a day in their life and don’t have a clue on reality! This is what happens when our children are taught by liberal professors that it...

No Full Recovery Until 2015, Says The IMFThe world’s leading economies will have to wait until 2015 or later for growth to return to normal rates, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. By Edmund Conway Published: 8:41PM BST 22 Sep 2009 The warning, contained in a pre-released chapter of its World Economic Outlook, undermines hopes among economists that the UK is poised for full recovery. The IMF said that past experience, based on 88 banking crises over the past four decades, showed that economies tend to sacrifice around 10pc of their economic output, and take a significant number of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will urge world leaders this week to launch a new push in November to rebalance the world economy, but there are doubts national governments will bow to external advice. A document outlining the U.S. position ahead of the September 24-25 Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh said exporters, which include China, Germany and Japan, should consume more, while debtors like the United States ought to boost savings. "The world will face anemic growth if adjustments in one part of the global economy are not matched by offsetting adjustments in other parts," said the document,...

Willard PARIS (Reuters) - Persuading Europe, the United States and China to accept International Monetary Fund advice on economic polices may be difficult, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday. The United States wants a discussion of a broad framework to solve the world's economic imbalances at a summit of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday. The IMF would be charged with sketching out a plan and then checking whether each country was making progress. But in the past many countries have ignored advice dished out in regular reviews by the IMF. G7 sources told Reuters...

BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbia will have to lay off about one-fifth of its government employees — 14,000 people — to meet conditions set by the International Monetary Fund to receive more financial aid, the country's finance minister said Monday. Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic said Serbia aims to cut spending before the government resumes its talks with the IMF on Oct. 20. The IMF has postponed giving the Balkan country access to additional funds from a euro2.8 billion ($4 billion) standby loan granted in March, demanding details on how Serbia plans to finance its growing budget deficit amid the global financial...

The tom-toms continue to beat for the implementation of a global currency -- which already exists in prototype, in the form of Special Drawing Rights, and has since Bretton Woods. The latest press release from the global currency promotion home office comes from none other than the UN, as reported in Bloomberg: The dollar’s role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, the United Nations said. Indeed. It should be noted that this blog postulated these very developments on several previous posts, including A Primer...

Fund manager, Nathan Lewis, explains how the International Monetary Fund is nothing more the collection arm of the big banks: The International Monetary Fund operates primarily as a banker bailout machine. They cajole and tempt and confuse and threaten the leaders of governments worldwide to pay off the failed bets of the big bankers using the taxpayer funds of their countries. This has been going on a long time, at least since the early 1980s. Thus, I am not in the teeniest bit surprised that the same thing is happening today in Iceland and Latvia.... Michael Hudson has some of...

But I must tell you, to IMF officials, all of these crises looked depressingly similar. Each country, of course, needed a loan, but more than that, each needed to make big changes so that the loan could really work. Almost always, countries in crisis need to learn to live within their means after a period of excess—exports must be increased, and imports cut—and the goal is to do this without the most horrible of recessions. Naturally, the fund’s economists spend time figuring out the policies—budget, money supply, and the like—that make sense in this context. Yet the economic solution is...

Following the 2009 G20 summit, plans were announced for implementing the creation of a new global currency to replace the US dollar’s role as the world reserve currency. Point 19 of the communiqué released by the G20 at the end of the Summit stated, “We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250 billion into the world economy and increase global liquidity.” SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights, are “a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund.” As the Telegraph reported, “the G20 leaders have activated the IMF’s power to create money and begin global...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has irked close allies in Congress by declaring he has the right to ignore legislation on constitutional grounds after having criticized George W. Bush for doing the same. Four senior House Democrats on Tuesday said they were "surprised" and "chagrined" by Obama's declaration in June that he doesn't have to comply with provisions in a war spending bill that puts conditions on aid provided to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In a signing statement accompanying the $106 billion bill, Obama said he wouldn't allow the legislation to interfere with his authority as...

Barney Frank puts on his indignation hat on after realizing that the President has decided he doesn't need congressional approval on funding international financial institutions including the IMF and the World Bank. Here is the ensuing response when Barney realizes that for all his posturing, he is a third (and quite overinflated at that) wheel: "During the previous administration, all of us were critical of the President’s assertion that he could pick and choose which aspects of congressional statutes he was required to enforce. We were therefore chagrined to see you appear to express a similar attitude." Most odd is...

IMF says recession is ending But a recovery isn't expected until 2010. Oil continues to fall. Investors await Alcoa's earnings after the close. G-8 summit begins in Italy.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Three international organizations canceled $1.2 billion of Haiti's debt Tuesday, freeing up millions of dollars each year for the deeply impoverished Caribbean nation that is beset by humanitarian crises. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund said their boards decided this week to forgive Haiti's obligations to the two organizations, a move that triggered previously announced debt relief from the Inter-American Development Bank. The actions erased nearly two-thirds of Haiti's outstanding debt. As of April, Haiti owned more than $1.9 billion, according to the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. "This is a pretty...

China's central bank reiterated its call for the creation of a new international currency that could replace currencies like the dollar in countries' official reserves. In its annual report on financial stability, issued Friday, the People's Bank of China said the country will push reform of the international currency system to make it more diversified and reasonable. While it didn't specifically target the U.S. currency, it said it aims to reduce over-reliance on the current reserve currencies, of which the dollar is the biggest. "To avoid the shortcomings of sovereign credit currencies acting as reserve currencies, we need to create...

The optimists that have long assumed that the dollar will continue to reign supreme due to lack of alternatives have just have their sanguine views challenged as China threw down the gauntlet on coming up with an alternative, non-country-specific, reserve currency. The US in fact had this option at the time of Bretton Woods and opted instead for a dollar fixed rate standard with the dollar backed by gold. You know how that movie ended. Being the reserve currency requires that the sponsoring nation run current account deficits to get enough currency in circulation for it to serve as a...

Obama Administration pushes IMF gold sales through House by tieing it to security bill The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill which included an expanded credit facility for the IMF and effective U.S. approval for the proposed IMF sale of 400 tons of gold. Author: Lawrence Williams Posted: Friday , 19 Jun 2009 FUNCHAL, MADEIRA - The Obama administration has pushed a bill through the U.S. House of Representatives approving $106 billion in supplemental funding, primarily for the Iraq and Afghanistan 'security' efforts, but attached to it was also an expanded credit facility for the International Monetary Fund...

FUNCHAL, MADEIRA - In a statement issued on Friday, the World Gold Council (WGC) says it welcomes the news that the U.S. House of Representatives has, in effect, finalised the process whereby the IMF can sell 403.3 tonnes of gold "in a manner that will have no impact on the smooth running of the international gold market." The approval was tied to the Military Supplemental Bill which covered additional funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts for the U.S forces and also approved $108.6 billion in funds to support the IMF in a role to prevent global economic meltdown and...

Here's just the thing for a government drowning in red ink: Wager $108 billion of your tax dollars on risky loans to corrupt governments. That's what President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner call a healthy investment. I call it a damned waste of money.

Cheeky bastards. Before the left attacks me, read what liberal blogger Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake thinks about the Democratic ploy to attach a $100 billion debate-free IMF credit line to a war supplemental funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. Take a minute to check out the citizen whip count tool they constructed to help defeat the bill. Nice work. Apparently the $35 billion in AIG payouts to over-leveraged Euro banks wasn't enough for Obama who has championed borrowing the $100 billion from your kids and the Chinese in order to give it to the IMF, so that they will rescue...

Brazil, Russia, India and China on Tuesday called for a more diversified international monetary system, but wrapped up their first full-fledged summit by avoiding any explicit criticism of the world's dominant currency, the U.S. dollar. The statement issued by the leaders from the so-called BRIC nations contained no reference to developing new reserve currencies to complement the dollar, which Russia had called for at a separate event earlier in the day. Instead, the cautious wording appeared to reflect China's concerns that any anti-dollar statements could erode the value of its currency reserves. "There is a strong need for a stable,...

Markets around the world tumbled on Monday as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said the worst of the global recession was yet to come. The FTSE 100 closed down 2.6pc or 115.9 points at 4326.01. It was the lowest close in six weeks and was driven by falls in the mining sector as a stronger dollar hit metal and oil prices. However Britain's blue chip share index has risen 25pc since hitting a six-year low in March. In the US the Dow Jones was down 187 points at 8612 while the CAC 40 in Paris and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Monday said a heavy dose of stimulus would ease the U.S. recession this year and lift growth marginally in 2010. It said the U.S. dollar was only modestly above the level implied by medium-term fundamentals and its value would depend on foreign appetite for U.S. assets. In its annual consultation with the United States, the IMF said policy-makers were correct to keep stimulus flowing for now, but would need to turn their attention to the threat of ballooning deficits once the crisis has passed. "The combination of financial strains and ongoing adjustments...

Washington, Jun 11 - Washington D.C. ( June 11, 2009) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a leader in opposition to the original TARP I and TARP II bailouts, and Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) today sent a letter to Members of Congress urging them to vote against a supplemental appropriations that may bring total funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to $108 billion. “The most plausible explanation for the request … is that the funding would be used to bail out private European banks with U.S. taxpayer money,” said Kucinich and Filner in the letter. The full text of the...

The Blue Dog Democrats are wavering on supporting H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act. How do I know? Sources tell me Rahm Emanuel is trying to sweeten the package. Remember: H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act, will provide funds to the International Monetary Fund to bail out European banks. We can stop it.

2nd article down . . . Democrats have had to put the war supplemental to fund the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on hold because they lack the votes to pass the modified bill that came out of conference. The Democrat leadership has reduced the amount of the supplemental for the troops and tacked on $108 billion in bailout funding for foreign governments through the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There is a large contingent of far left Democrats who always vote against funding our troops. Given the billions now included for the IMF global bailout, the Republicans are refusing to...