IMF-CIA, the dynamic duo....

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

< http://www.prospect.org >
Maker of Presidents

Quick, now: what organ of the U.S. government has taken the guy who
ran second in presidential balloting and transformed him into the
president nonetheless? Yes, yes, the Supreme Court--but we have in
mind an agency whose mischief is more recent than that. Try the
International Monetary Fund.

All right, the IMF isn't formally a part of the federal government,
but the fact that its decisions are invariably those of the U.S.
Treasury Department makes it the functional equivalent--an
ostensibly independent enforcer of Treasury's diktats. And the
presidential election in which the IMF recently reversed the
considered judgment of the electorate occurred in Argentina. There,
in 1999, free-marketeer Fernando de la Rúa defeated Peronist
Senator Eduardo Duhalde for president. De la Rúa then proceeded to
do all the IMF demanded of him--in particular, repeatedly cutting
spending and raising taxes in the midst of a depression--reassuring
foreign investors (the IMF's lookout) while ruining the lives of
millions of his countrymen. Facing national economic collapse and
violence in the streets, de la Rúa resigned in December, and after
a revolving door of interim successors passed through the
presidency, the office finally was handed to Duhalde. Like the
United States, Argentina is a land of second chances.

The IMF's presidential-substitution program offers an interesting
contrast to that of the CIA, which over the past half-century has
toppled a range of national leaders whose economic policies didn't
please our government. The rule seems to be: The CIA destabilizes
regimes we loathe; the IMF destabilizes regimes we like.

Presidents of the world, take heed: We'll get you either coming or
going.