Comments on: Blood money

By: Detlef

Detlef — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:12:05 +0000

“Yes: more voting power in the IMF. The USA is trying to secure them this, the Europeans oppose.”
Well, it looks like African countries are opposed too.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,,1861647,00.html

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 05:06:42 +0000

This Ishmael moron has been posting white supremisist garbage on a few blogs in the past weeks. Can we please ban his IP or something?
[Done. Thanks. MK.]

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 14:59:17 +0000

The short answer is given in Articles 3 and 38 of the IMF Articles of Agreement: an increase in quotas requires a three-fifths majority of the members and 85% of the existing quotas, plus the consent of the country concerned. See http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/aa/index.htm. Current quotas here: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.htm. Collectively, Europe has more votes than the USA.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 11:45:36 +0000

How do you get voting rights at the IMF? We have so many because we deposited so much gold and cash into it in 1948 when it was set up. Solution – China gets rid of a big chunk of its spare forex reserves by depositing them at the IMF, rather than backing yet more credit creation in its own banking system.
Trebles all round!