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Ah, transparency. Perhaps you've read that the new era of candor in government spending has arrived. Except, apparently, when it comes to the $750 billion that the Obama Administration and other nations have agreed to provide the International Monetary Fund. In this case, it's all opacity all the time. At the G-20 meeting in April, the world's big shots promised to provide $500 billion under credit lines to the IMF known as "new arrangements to borrow." The U.S. share was said to be $100 billion, which last week we learned is actually $108 billion. The Obama Administration is now asking...

Time to Defend the Dollar By Robert RomanoAs ALG News recently warned, helicopter money is about to be dumped onto the global economy. In fact, and unless the American people can focus their efforts to opposing it, the U.S. will squander yet another hundred billion dollars in foreign aid to help an international institution create a worldwide reserve currency, burying the U.S. dollar once and for all.Last month at the G-20 summit, Barack Obama pledged a $100 billion line of credit to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a $550 billion global effort to bolster the international bank....

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________ For Immediate Release May 13, 2009 TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 12, 2009 Dear Madam Speaker: Last month, I asked the Congress to consider changes to the level of borrowing authority for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Today, I formally transmit this request in the accompanying supplemental budget request. I urge that the Congress expand the resources available to the IMF through its New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) and approve...

IMF sees 'long, severe recession' for Asia by Bernice Han Wed May 6, 2:42 am ET SINGAPORE (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday sharply slashed its growth outlook for Asia, predicting a "long and severe recession" for the region's wealthier but export-reliant economies. The US-based institution said it now expected growth in Asia, including Japan, would slow to 1.3 percent this year after an initial forecast, made in the last quarter of 2008, of 2.7 percent growth. "The spillovers from the global crisis have impacted Asia with unexpected speed and force," the IMF said in its regional...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The IMF and World Bank have warned that the global economic crisis is turning into a "human calamity" and called on members to speed up pledged aid and give even more to help the most vulnerable. At the end of spring meetings in Washington, the two Bretton Woods institutions on Sunday told their 185 member countries that the worst global slump in generations had already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty. "The global economy has deteriorated dramatically ... Developing countries face especially serious consequences as the financial and economic crisis turns into a human...

Demonstrators clash with law enforcement officers during a protest against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Northwest on Saturday. Authorities used batons and pepper spray when activists tried to march onto a prohibited street, and several people were pushed to the ground by police. The protesters swarmed officers unexpectedly, and police had to respond, said D.C. police Capt. Jeffrey Harold Nicole Davis, 22, of Washington, who participated in one of the morning blockades outside a hotel, said police physically lifted her and nine other protesters and moved them from the street to the sidewalk. Ms. Davis said...

Tax Cheat Timmy who let the cat out of the bag by saying he had no problems with the Dollar being doomed and an international currency now says we will help the IMF who wants nothing more desperately than an international currency. The TREASON at the top should be stopped with the removal of The Resident!! Even a Dog recognizes a Skunk when they see one! The United States on Saturday pledged robust support for an overhaul of governing power within the International Monetary Fund so key emerging-market nations get more say in how the lender operates. In a speech...

The US Capitol in Washington. President Barack Obama Monday asked Congress ... G-20 Leaders Agree to Dole Out $1 Trillion to IMF & World Bank President Barack Obama Monday asked Congress to back an expansion of an IMF emergency fund by 500 billion dollars in a move designed to expand its reach to big emerging market nations. Obama also asked lawmakers to approve a US contribution to the fund to 100 billion dollars, as part of the plan to swell International Monetary Fund reserves agreed at this month's Group of 20 summit in London. The president made the request in...

Recession likely to be long, recovery slow - IMF Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:50pm BST WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - The current global recession is likely to be unusually long and severe and the recovery sluggish because it sprang from a financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday. New IMF analysis shows recessions tied to a financial crisis, like the current one that has its roots in reckless lending for the U.S. housing market, are more difficult to shake because they are often held back by weak demand. Worse still is that today's recession combines a financial crisis...

Today is a historic occasion,” said IMF First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky. “The IMF Executive Board has approved the first Flexible Credit Line arrangement and, at the same time, the largest financial arrangement in the Fund’s history. The approval of this arrangement for Mexico represents the consolidation of a major step in the process of reforming the IMF and making its lending framework more relevant to member countries’ needs.

The Quiet Coup The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent...

Harder-Edged Warnings About Britain’s Economy By LANDON THOMAS Jr. LONDON — In the dank gloom of the factory that he and his fellow workers had just occupied, John Horscroft recalled a time 30 years ago when strikes and industrial unrest in Britain were an everyday occurrence. “It feels like those days again,” said Mr. Horscroft, who with 226 colleagues was laid off when a car parts factory in North London was shut down last month after its American parent company, Visteon, put three British plants into bankruptcy protection. “We are all together now, fighting for a cause.” As job losses...

Poland Asks For $20.5 Billion Credit Line From IMF Polya Lesova NEW YORK -- Poland became the second country after Mexico to seek access to a new credit line from the International Monetary Fund that's available to strongly performing economies, the IMF said Tuesday. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in Warsaw on Tuesday that the country was interested in a one-year precautionary arrangement under the IMF's flexible credit line (FCL: 16.04, -0.62, -3.72%) for $20.5 billion.

The US and Europe were widely expected to clash at the G-20 summit in London last month over how to address the global financial crisis. Voila, in just two days the problem was solved with a joint promise to increase IMF resources by $750 billion to a total of $1 trillion. The US portion of this new commitment is more than $140 billion. Yet Congress has debated neither the amount nor the proposed use of the funds. Instead, Obama and his fellow leaders simply waved their hands like a Star Trek captain and said make it so.

According to press reports the IMF may allegedly be increasing its estimate of global bank losses to $4 trillion, a figure consistent with estimates by a variety of independent bank analysts Nouriel Roubini | Apr 10, 2009 A year ago this author predicted that losses by US financial institutions would be at least $1 trillion and possibly as high as $2 trillion. At that time the consensus such estimates as being grossly exaggerated as the naïve optimists had in mind about $200 billion of expected subprime mortgage losses. But, as was pointed out then in this forum, losses would rapidly...

World leaders at the G-20 meeting agreed to create new international money worth $250 billion. The IMF will oversee the new money called SDRs (Special Drawing Rights). Some people believe — and China fervently hopes — that SDRs will in due course replace the dollar as the main world reserve currency. I, however, am a sceptic. I doubt if the amount of SDRs will ever rival the dollar, euro or yen. Far from becoming a separate international currency, the SDR will remain a derivative of the dollar and a few other major national currencies. Before World War I, most countries...

PJB: Bailouts Without End by Patrick J. Buchanan - October 13, 1997 The IMF has become the 911 number immediately called in times of trouble by such champions of free markets as Citicorp and Goldman, Sachs. With all that IMF money, the Thailands and Mexicos are spared the consequences of their fiscal incompetence, and Wall Street’s heavy hitters are spared the consequences of their stupid investments. The global economy is a rigged game, rigged so Third World politicians, rich investors and global corporations win — and U.S. taxpayers and workers lose…

For the second time in a week, CNBC's Rick Santelli faced down one of the standard-bearers of liberalism. First, he explained to Huffington Post editor and founder Arianna Huffington on the March 31 "Squawk Box" that markets are more efficient in correcting economic hardship, in the banking and housing sectors. On CNBC's April 3 "The Call," Santelli took on University of California at Berkeley economics professor and former Secretary of Labor for President Bill Clinton, Robert Reich. According to Reich, the agreement brokered between President Barack Obama and other G20 leaders - to give the International Monetary Fund (IMF) $1.1...

The $1.1 trillion pledged by world leaders to combat the worst economic crisis since World War II effectively amounts to a rescue package for both poor and rich countries, potentially including the United States. The bulk of that money will be channeled through the Washington-based International Monetary Fund, which emerges from the summit with a vastly redefined and enhanced mission. The IMF has long focused almost exclusively on helping developing nations in crisis. As part of Thursday's agreement, it will take the extraordinary step of effectively extending a $250 billion line of credit to boost liquidity in nations hobbled by...

Leaders from the Group of 20 nations Thursday endorsed the International Monetary Fund's plan to sell 403 tons of gold to raise funds to support the world's poorest countries. The announcement from G20 leaders helped add pressures to Thursday's gold trading. Gold futures fell $20.30, or 2.2%, to $905.80 an ounce in recent trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The G20 vowed in its statement to "use the additional resources from agreed IMF gold sales for concessional finance for the poorest countries." The endorsement suggests that the IMF's gold sales plan is likely to be...

G20 agrees to global economy under the IMF (International Monetary Fund) supervision. Our President and Treasury Secretary have given away our control over our own economical decisions. We were an independent nation, without need to give away any of our sovereignty. Dick Morris appeared on Greta Van Susteran and talked about the new Global Economy established by G20, and Obama's role. See Morris video at this link: http://www.foxnews.com/ontherecord/

World leaders on Thursday heralded the G20 summit as the day the world “fought back against the recession” as they put on a show of unity that lifted global markets and mapped out a new future for financial regulation Gordon Brown, host of the summit, said the meeting marked the emergence of a “new world order”, as he unveiled what leaders claimed was a $1,100bn package of measures to tackle the global downturn, including support for lower income countries and a $250bn plan to boost the international money supply. Close inspection showed some of the $1,100bn pledged included reannouncements and...

LONDON – Global leaders pledged an additional $1 trillion to restore credit, growth and jobs in the world economy on Thursday, exceeding expectations in their plan to deal with the financial crisis. The Group of 20 nations also agreed to renounce protectionism and pledged $250 billion in trade finance over the next two years — a key measure to help struggling developing countries, whom they promised to give a greater say in world economic affairs. The G-20 also outlined a raft of policies to rebuild trust in the financial system, including a crackdown on tax havens and hedge funds and...

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner confessed on Wednesday that he had not read the plans by China's central bank governor for a "super-sovereign reserve currency" run by the International Monetary Fund, but nevertheless let slip that Washington was "open" to the idea. Whoops. This is how matters quickly escalate in geo-finance. China's suggestion – backed by Russia, Brazil, and India, and clearly aimed at breaking US dollar hegemony – is making its way onto the agenda of the G20 Summit next week. 'Dollar-dämmerung' no longer looks so far-fetched. China's paper, by Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, is couched in understated language –...

The Group of 20 nations meeting next week is a "make or break event" for the global markets, investor George Soros said on Wednesday. "Unless it comes up with practical measures to support the countries at the periphery of the global financial system, markets are going to suffer another sinking spell just as they did on February 10, 2009, when the authorities failed to produce practical measures to recapitalize the United States banking system," Soros said in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Soros said President Barack Obama could help make the G20 meeting a success by raising a...

The Kremlin published its priorities Monday for an upcoming meeting of the G20, calling for the creation of a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions as part of a reform of the global financial system. The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, as a "superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community," the Kremlin said in a statement issued on its web site. The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by...

The International Monetary Fund is poised to embark on what analysts have described as "global quantitative easing" by printing billions of dollars worth of a global "super-currency" in an unprecedented new effort to address the economic crisis. Alistair Darling and senior figures in the US Treasury have been encouraging the Fund to issue hundreds of billions of dollars worth of so-called Special Drawing Rights in the coming months as part of its campaign to prevent the recession from turning into a global depression.

Getting the IMF to take the heat — and sell its gold? Posted by Gwen Robinson on Mar 12 12:36. The latest partial solution to many problems besetting - well, all kinds of sectors and areas of the world - seems to be to pump money into the IMF (ie, to massively expand the so-called “New Arrangements to Borrow”, a system by which the fund can borrow from its richer members - or, under the EU’s new proposal, reserves-rich members) and no doubt get it to bail out Eastern Europe. /snip As the FT reports Thursday, US Treasury secretary Tim...

US calls for tripling of IMF firepower By Alan Beattie in Washington Published: March 11 2009 18:12 | Last updated: March 11 2009 21:42 The US raised the stakes in its drive for an aggressive response to the global financial crisis on Wednesday, calling for a tripling of the International Monetary Fund’s firepower and bigger fiscal stimulus measures worldwide. Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, called for the radical changes ahead of the Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting in the UK this weekend. “Lots of things that did not seem realistic in the past are not just realistic but compelling,”...

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – The United States and Britain on Wednesday called on leading economies to ramp up spending to break a global recession to complement efforts to revamp regulations to prevent future financial crises. The emphasis on economic stimulus has already been met coolly by many European nations, raising questions whether a gathering of finance chiefs from the Group of 20 rich and developing economies near London this weekend will make much headway battling a deepening downturn. In Washington, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner argued the world economy is in dire straits and requires a long-haul effort to return to health....

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Wednesday it would call on the Group of 20 nations to support their economies throughout the global economic crisis and endorse an IMF proposal to measure their efforts. Ahead of a G20 finance chiefs meeting in Britain this weekend, Washington laid out its approach to countering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and making sure such a crisis does not happen again. President Barack Obama called for a two-pronged G20 effort to fix the global economy, using stimulus and regulatory reforms. "We've got two goals in the G20," Obama said at...

The US raised the stakes in its drive for an aggressive response to the global financial crisis on Wednesday, calling for a tripling of the International Monetary Fund’s firepower and bigger fiscal stimulus measures worldwide. Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, called for the radical changes ahead of the Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting in the UK this weekend. “Lots of things that did not seem realistic in the past are not just realistic but compelling,” he told reporters. “Forceful financial sector actions are critical to rebuild confidence, restore market functioning, get credit flowing again and bring stability to the...

Obama's economic saviour savaged as Keating lets ripCannot be posted per FR policy. The article tells of the criticism of how Timothy Geithner handled the 1998 Asian economic crisis for the IMF.

Tim Geithner played the key role in his position at the IMF during the Asian crisis of 1997-98. Paul Keating, then Australia's Prime Minister, recently said that Geithner's "solution" to the crisis was dead wrong and devastated many Asian economies, in particular Indonesia. "Tim Geithner was the Treasury line officer who wrote the IMF [International Monetary Fund] program for Indonesia in 1997-98, which was to apply current account solutions to a capital account crisis." In other words, Geithner fundamentally misdiagnosed the problem. And his misdiagnosis led to a dreadfully wrong prescription...

An excerpt from the second paragraph: "The IMF . . . is suggesting governments adopt a 'binding code of conduct across nations' to coordinate how and when they would intercede in troubled firms, and how to share losses from major financial institutions that operate across borders." From further down in the article: ". . .the IMF is endorsing a G-20 idea to have financial firms overseen by 'colleges of supervisors'--essentially regulators from a financial firm's home country and other countries where it does business." more at the link.

The International Monetary Fund says the financial crisis could push as many as 16 nations into default, and that it will need to double its lending capacity to mount an appropriate response. In a 31-page report released today in Washington, the fund argues that it will need the equivalent of about $500-billion (U.S.) to prop up governments that have been crushed by the collapse of the global economy. The report specifically noted that there's a high likelihood that more nations in Eastern Europe will come to the IMF for help. “The institution's global membership, as well as its capacity to...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted heads of state and finance ministers from Europe's largest economies to try to establish a common European position on economic reforms before an April 2 summit of the Group of 20 nations. "All financial markets, products and participants including hedge funds and other private pools of capital which may pose a systematic risk must be subjected to appropriate oversight or regulation," Merkel said in a statement released on behalf of the summit members, following the talks. Top officials from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, the Netherlands and Czech Republic agreed on seven key points...

While WWII raged in 1944, 44 delegations met to create a world currency, bank, and trade organization. They fell short of that goal, but what will happen this time?   Even by the rarefied standards of wealthy New Englanders, the Mount Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, is a luxurious retreat. Built in 1902 by 250 skilled artisans for the then-princely sum of $1.7 million, the sprawling Spanish Renaissance-style resort, nestled in the shadow of Mount Washington, the northeast's highest peak, has long been a favorite of celebrities and presidents. But even the man who built it, industrialist Joseph Stickney,...

Western Europe Leaders Want to Double IMF Fund to Help Eastern Neighbors European leaders called for doubling the International Monetary Fund's war chest to $500 billion for bailing out financially stricken nations, amid new signs that Europe's former Communist east is sliding into a full-blown crisis. Europe's developing economies are facing their worst economic trauma since the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. Capital is fleeing Europe's east, sending currencies sliding and threatening the region with deep declines in output and employment, and a deluge of debt defaults. Poland's industrial output in January fell at a painful 15%...

Top nations 'water down' IMF reports, says regulator By Jennifer Hughes in London and Alan Beattie in,Washington Published: February 10 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 10 2009 02:00 Warnings from the International Monetary Fund about the risks posed by the financial system had often been "watered down", according to the head of the UK's Financial Services Authority. Powerful countries will have to avoid quashing reports they do not like if they are serious about creating a better early warning system for the global economy, said Lord Turner, chairman of the -regulator. "One of the problems the IMF has had...

Leaders of 20 major developed and emerging economies are expected during a summit in London on April 2 to ensure that their stimulus measures to address the global financial crisis will also lead to the creation of a low-carbon world economy, according to a senior British official. The Group of 20 leaders are also expected to reaffirm their commitment to advance trade liberalization to ward off protectionism, said Simon Fraser, director general for Europe and Globalization at Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. "We must make sure that the actions that we take in dealing with this crisis help to equip...

Geithner approved 13-5

After the fanfare of Barack Obama's inauguration simmers down, the Senate Finance Committee will begin hearings Wednesday for an Obama appointee already tainted by ethical concerns: Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner. The committee revealed recently that the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had failed to pay more than $34,000 in taxes during the time of his employment at the International Monetary Fund. According to documents released by the committee, an IRS audit in 2006 found that Geithner failed to pay nearly $15,000 in taxes for the years 2003-04. But Geithner was also employed in 2001-02. What of...

The U.S. tax code is complex -- every taxpayer will concede that. But that does not fully explain how Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for treasury secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in taxes over four years despite alerts from his employer that he would owe the money. Mr. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has paid the money now. But a failure to pay taxes is at best poor symbolism coming from the person who would oversee the Internal Revenue Service. At worst, the non-payment is the type of conduct that could threaten...

If Treasury Secretary designate Timothy Geithner, who owed $34,000 in taxes until he recently paid it off with interest, can't get his taxes right, then there may be serious flaws in the U.S. tax system. That's according to tax experts who say the system is too convoluted and needs to be simplified. If Geithner, who will oversee the Internal Revenue Service, "can't fill out the tax forms correctly, then we need some fundamental simplification and reform of the taxes," says Bill Ahern at the Tax Foundation, who has been following the tax system for 21 years.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thinks Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner’s tax problem is a “hiccup.” I don’t know about you, but if I had an issue with my taxes that resulted in my having to pay the IRS $42,702, I would call it more than a “hiccup.” In any event, Reid is unconcerned that Geithner failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes when he worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Reid and his colleagues in the Senate majority leadership believe Republicans should be unconcerned, too. If it were up to the leadership,...

Although it has been dismissed by some observers as a “hiccup” in an otherwise smooth confirmation process, treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner’s failure to pay self-employment taxes during the years he worked at the International Monetary Fund is causing some Republicans on Capitol Hill to ask serious questions about his actions. First among those questions is why he accepted payment from the IMF as restitution for taxes that he had not, in fact, paid. The IMF did not withhold state and federal income taxes or self-employment taxes — Social Security and Medicare — from its employees’ paychecks. But the IMF took...

Although it has been dismissed by some observers as a “hiccup” in an otherwise smooth confirmation process, treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner’s failure to pay self-employment taxes during the years he worked at the International Monetary Fund is causing some Republicans on Capitol Hill to ask serious questions about his actions. First among those questions is why he accepted payment from the IMF as restitution for taxes that he had not, in fact, paid. Documents released by the Senate Finance Committee strongly suggest that Geithner knew, or should have known, what he was doing when he did not pay self-employment taxes...

Even before Israel launched attacks on Gaza last week, Barack Obama’s incoming national security team understood that the consuming demands of crises could all too easily eclipse the transformational agenda on foreign affairs that Mr. Obama advanced during the campaign. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, instability in Pakistan and the threat of nuclear proliferation in Iran would have been more than enough to crowd out any thought of long-range planning. Now the Middle East is in flames again. And yet a wide range of foreign policy experts are urging the new president to look beyond the smoke and the...

LONDON (AFP) – Outgoing US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said that a failure to address the rise of emerging markets and resulting imbalances was partly to blame for the global financial crisis, according to an interview published Friday. Paulson told the Financial Times that imbalances between fast-growing nations which save, such as China, and those who spent were at the root of the problem. He said that in the years leading up to the crisis, savings from nations such as China and oil exporters -- at a time of low inflation and booming trade and capital flows -- exerted downward...