IMF acquires new policing powers

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has won new powers to police the world economy after its 184 member countries endorsed a new framework to monitor how the economic policies of one country affects others.

The International Monetary and Financial Committee, or IMFC, said IMF surveillance would focus on spillovers and links between countries' economic policies and reaffirm their monetary, fiscal and exchange-rates frameworks.

Rodrigo Rato, the IMF Managing Director, will have the authority to bring nations together on an ad hoc basis to thrash out any economic mis-alignments based on IMF analyses.

Officials said this would create a new forum that would better reflect the rise of Asia in the global economy for instance, and could possibly replace bodies like the Group of Seven industrial countries, which some say can no longer call all the shots.

One of the problems facing the G7 is that major economic players like China are not part of the club, even though it is the fourth-largest economy in the world.

The United States has pressured the IMF to broaden its surveillance to include the exchange rates of emerging countries, as Washington also pushes Beijing to loosen its tightly managed currency.
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Ah, the real reason...

Of interesting note, the Executive Director of the IMF is Nancy P. Jacklin, who released a statement on September 19, 2002, while she was still a nominee for the position that stated the following:

"there is a need for the IMF to improve its tools and methods for assessing when a country’s debt situation becomes unsustainable; and lastly, the IMF should seek to strengthen the framework for dealing with the situation when a country’s level of debt is unsustainable."

June 1999, THE TICKING DEBT BOMB: Why the U.S. International Financial Position Is Not Sustainable by Robert A. Blecker

Thank god the IMF will police the rest of the world to make certain that Bush and his despotic cohorts will reap millions, if not billions, while you pay through the nose for gasoline. Oh, given the current US debt position, the IMF should be policing the US...Viva Amerika.