Arafat Stole From Imf

[Craig Read]

The IMF - another great UNO agency that dispenses money to corrupt regimes and bankrupt regimes - sheepishly announced that the Egyptian born Arafat and reborn Palestinian Protector - the Liberals second favorite person after Hussein [Allende comes in 3rd], diverted $900 Mn US to his own projects, accounts and groups. [Daily Telegraph Sept 25]

Gee, big surprise.

Other items in this release:

-"diversion of revenue from the budget to a special bank account controlled by President Arafat."

-Most of the money was invested in 69 firms controlled by Arafat and the PLA

-Total PLA budget of $1.25 billion but somehow they employ 120.000 people

The IMF suggests that Arafat did not profit personally from these missing funds.

Smile.

Yes that is what they said about the Argentinian regime after it received $7 billion before 2001 and before they went bankrupt. Somehow the $7 billion magically disappeared.

Being naive and gullible is so much fun. Ah but i digress, obviously the PLA is a wonderful group beholden to the creation of a well functioning, prosperous and livable Palestinian state.......

[nova_satori]

the IMF needs to die, in a slow horrible way.

Not only have the senetenced thousands of Africans to die, but they also force 3rd world countries to jack prices up, allow foreign companies to make monopolys, and in general screw the country.

[Craig Read]

I agree that the IMF needs reform, but your extremist 3rd world marxist interpretation of what causes ecoonomic and political turmoil is wrong.

The IMF does not cause domestic problems.

The IMF attempts to provide long term funding for those countries that experience dislocations.

It remedies include the obvious; political reform; liberalisation; transparency; banking reform; stable currency regimes; debt repayments and reduction.

The problem with the IMF is that it dispenses money BEFORE political reform creating what Friedman calls moral hazard.

This means that Western banking interests are effectively bailed out of their bad investments by taxpayers, receiving countries misuse the money and large amounts disappear.

This is what needs reform. The lender of last resort is a sound policy [every country for eg. has a central bank], but the current IMF structure is not sound.

[nova_satori]

The IMF does not cause domestic problems.

The IMF attempts to provide long term funding for those countries that experience dislocations.

Right, like they did in Tanzania? 1.3 million people are dying from Aids TODAY. Do you know how the IMF cured aids there? They MANDATED that the government charge for previously free treatment. Volia! A 53% drop in aids occured. Did the people get cured? No, they couldn't afford it, and subesequently, many died. Also, the IMF and it';s crony the World Bank, forced the governemtn tp charge fees for school, the enrollement dropped from 80% to 66%. Now, why did they do this? Unless they did the above, any loans requested would be rejected. Sign or starve. In 15 years, the GDP dropped from $309 to $210. Literally fewll and poverty jumped 51%.

IMF needs to die. Horribly.

In former USSR states, IMF and World bank plans have shoved life expentency, off a cliff. 1.4 million are added to the death rate every year.

I know you know what happened to IMF and the World's bank plan when it was enforced in Argentina. But here's some stats:

16% unempolyment

50-70% industrial production

Interests rates of up to 90%

A drop of 2.1$ in GDP

Great eh?

[Craig Read]

Well i don't know much about Tanzania so your point could be right but I would suspect that domestic reasons and lack of liberal institutions plus printing of money would be good reasons for hyperinflation.

Usually in the IMF cases i studied or read about domestic causes were predominant. South East Asia, Russia and Argentina are classic examples.

Illiberal regimes and closed economies, with corrupt monopolies and cronyism are defining features.