Caravan/Prague - Bicycling to Utopia, Protesting Globalization
In any discussion of economics these days the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, is likely to be mentioned. This often causes alarm – it’s a powerful organization that isn’t accountable to US taxpayers, and its interventions can have significant effects on the economy. What exactly is it, what does it do and who makes the decisions?
The IMF was originally set up as a result of the 1944 Bretton Woods talks between the Allied nations. The aim was to stabilize exchange rates between nations and reduce economic uncertainty, and at first the preferred method was by tying currencies to bullion values – the Gold Standard. The IMF itself began operating on March 1, 1947; its role in the Bretton Woods system was to give loans, usually of cash, to members that had temporary payment imbalances. Since the collapse of the Gold Standard in 1971 it h
Today the IMF has 188 member states, up from an original 29, and operates in six official languages that include English, French, Spanish and Arabic. Its headquarters is in Washington, D.C. – although many people think it’s a United Nations organization it actually isn’t. Instead it’s controlled by a Board of Governors. Each member nation has one governor and one alternate governor, which it appoints itself. The Board of Governors usually meets annually, and is mostly responsible for electing members to the
Caravan/Prague - Bicycling to Utopia, Protesting Globalization