Who This essay is about the International Monetary system and what they've done to Argentina's economy. It descusses the pro's and con's of this organization. It could probably use some more example's of the IMF's hand in other nation's economies.
Who Does the IMF Truly Benefit?
Over the course of the last fifteen years, Argentina has served as the poster child for the plusses and minuses of an economy controlled by the IMF(International Monetary Fund). In this time, disregarding the few good things the IMF has done, they have single handedly helped to destroy the economy of Argentina, as well as the economies of other countries. The IMF policies tend to go against all proven economic history and in the end, somehow seem to always deepen the pockets of "fat cats" such as the United States, who, coincidently, has a large say of what goes on in the IMF because they contribute roughly 18% of its income.
Assistant Secretary, U.S. Treasury, Harry Dexter W...
English: dark green - IMF members; light green - I...
IMF Economic Counselor and Research Department Dir...During the late 1980's, the IMF contributed many loans to Argentina, helping the government get its foreign policy, monetary policies, and government fiscal policies in order. Doing all this helped give Argentina their incredible economic growth rate of 4.5% per year. Unfortunately, this economic growth was built upon a seriously weak foundation. Along with the growth came substantial debt to private banks, the IMF, and foreign governments.
In the midst of inflation during the early 1990's, the government created a "Currency Board" whose job was to monitor and appropriately adjust the monetary value and supply. This method was very effective in fighting off inflation because they kept the monetary supply in circulation very low to help prevent rising costs. However, when a recession started to kick in, they could not stimulate economic activity by expanding the money supply.
This problem...