| The International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank were conceived by 44 nations at the Bretton
Woods Conference in 1944 with the goal of creating a stable
framework for post-war global economy. The IMF was originally
envisioned to promote steady growth and full employment by offering
unconditional loans to economies in crisis and establishing
mechanisms to stabilize exchange rates and facilitate currency
exchange. Much of that vision, however, was never born out.
Instead, pressured by US representatives, the IMF took to offering
loans based on strict conditions, later to be known as structural
adjustment or austerity measures, dictated largely by the most
powerful member nations. Critics charge that these policies
have decimated social safety nets and worsened lax labor and
environmental standards in developing countries. The World Bank
(The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development)
was created to fund the rebuilding of infrastructure in nations
ravaged by World War Two. Its vision too, however, soon changed.
In the mid 1950's, the Bank turned its attention away from Europe
to the Third World, and began funding massive industrial development
projects in Latin American, Asia, and Africa. Many scholars
and activists contend that the Bank's aggressive dealings with
developing nations, which were often ruled by dictatorial regimes,
exacerbated the developing world's growing debt crisis and devastated
local ecologies and indigenous communities. Both IMF and World
Bank policies remain a source of heated debate. |
