By embracing the “global plan for recovery and reform,” which is how it was officially described, Obama explicitly endorsed International Monetary Fund (IMF) surveillance of the U.S. economy, creation of a global “Financial Stability Board,” the expanded use of a new global currency called Special Drawing Rights, a new global warming treaty, and costly fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This is in addition to the explicit and reported commitment of over $1 trillion in additional taxpayer money to the IMF and the World Bank. ...
The document includes the statement that “we reaffirm our historic commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals…” This is, in fact, a disguised attempt to make then-Senator Obama’s Global Poverty Act the law of the land through executive action. This measure alone has been estimated to cost $845 billion and it was never passed by Congress because of public opposition.
“We will support, now and in the future, to candid, even-handed, and independent IMF surveillance of our economies and financial sectors, of the impact of our policies on others, and of risks facing the global economy,” the document states. There is no exception for the U.S. Hence, the IMF will now be in a position to officially monitor and pass judgment on U.S. economic policies. We have become like any other second- or third-rate power in need of global oversight and supervision.
The proposed “new Financial Stability Board (FSB)” will have a “strengthened mandate” and work with the IMF to “reshape our regulatory systems.” Among other things, its mission is to “assess vulnerabilities affecting the financial system, identify and oversee action needed to address them,” “promote co-ordination and information exchange among authorities responsible for financial stability,” and “monitor and advise on market developments and their implications for regulatory policy.”
The Financial Stability Board is the new name for a more powerful and expanded Financial Stability Forum, a body originally designed to “promote international financial stability through information exchange and international co-operation in financial supervision and surveillance.” Members of the group include the central banks of various nations, international financial institutions, and supervisors in important financial centers.
“THIRTY years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency. Prices will be quoted not in dollars, yen or D-marks but in, let's say, the phoenix. ... a few more stockmarket crashes and probably a slump or two will be needed before politicians are willing to face squarely up to that choice. ... The world phoenix supply would be fixed by a new central bank, descended perhaps from the IMF. ... The phoenix would probably start as a cocktail of national currencies, just as the Special Drawing Right is today. In time, though, its value against national currencies would cease to matter, because people would choose it for its convenience and the stability of its purchasing power. ... Pencil in the phoenix for around 2018, and welcome it when it comes.”
“I haven't read the governor's proposal. He's a remarkably -- a very thoughtful, very careful, distinguished central banker. Generally find him sensible on every issue. But as I understand his proposal, it's a proposal designed to increase the use of the IMF's special drawing rights. And we're actually quite open to that suggestion. But you should think of it as rather evolutionary, building on the current architectures, than -- rather than -- rather than moving us to global monetary union.”
“The Group of 20 leaders yesterday gave approval for the agency to raise $250 billion by issuing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, the artificial currency that the IMF uses to settle accounts among its member nations. It also agreed to put another $500 billion into the IMF’s war chest.”
Just think about how this works. People like Rubin, Summers and Gensler shuffle back and forth from the public to the private sector and back again, repeatedly switching places with their GOP counterparts in this endless public/private sector looting. When in government, they ensure that the laws and regulations are written to redound directly to the benefit of a handful of Wall St. firms, literally abolishing all safeguards and allowing them to pillage and steal. Then, when out of government, they return to those very firms and collect millions upon millions of dollars, profits made possible by the laws and regulations they implemented when in government. Then, when their party returns to power, they return back to government, where they continue to use their influence to ensure that the oligarchical circle that rewards them so massively is protected and advanced. This corruption is so tawdry and transparent -- and it has fueled and continues to fuel a fraud so enormous and destructive as to be unprecedented in both size and audacity -- that it is mystifying that it is not provoking more mass public rage.
"There is a shadow financial system comprised of tax havens, secrecy jurisdictions, disguised corporations and anonymous trusts which facilitates the movement of corrupt, criminal, and commercially tax-evading money across borders and around the world," says Raymond Baker, director of Global Financial Integrity (GFI). "This shadow financial system is at the heart of the current global economic crisis. Secrecy prevents accurate appraisal of the depths of the subprime mortgage collapse and other collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, derivatives contracts, and more. Lending has nearly collapsed since financial institutions are unable to discern the quality of assets of those needing funds."
While the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the 78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year.
'It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life’s work,' he told national newspaper The Australian.
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