How the IMF & World Bank Exploit Poor Countries with Alex Gladstein - WBD587

Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights
Foundation. In this interview, we discuss the IMF and World Bank
- two powerful multinational institutions that have shaped the
post-war world for developed nations' benefit. Alex uncovers the
exploitation hidden from view and the ongoing real-world costs
for the developing world.


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The IMF and World Bank are two major multinational institutions
that have perhaps shaped the workings of the global economy more
than any other. The issue is that, over the course of the past
few decades, the IMF’s and World Bank’s roles and impacts have
largely been forgotten.


Whilst casual observers are distrustful of the IMF and World
Bank, in the main, people’s concern is vague, lacking facts or
evidence. It’s hard to know why this is, but it’s worth noting
that internally produced IMF and World Bank content dominates
google search results at the expense of independent content.


And yet, the impact of the IMF and World Bank has been
catastrophic for many developing nations. Specifically, it has
been problematic for those outside the gilded circles of power in
such countries who have had to carry the burden of debt through
significant assaults on public services, food security and other
fundamental quality-of-life provisions.


The reason? Neocolonialism. Extraction of resources from the
periphery for the benefit of the centre. Indebtedness has been
the tool used. A Ponzi scheme of debt relief to support debt
servicing, designed to keep countries subservient to those
controlling the IMF and World Bank. The cost is dictatorships,
corruption, environmental degradation, and the destruction of
potentially millions of lives.


It is uncertain whether Bitcoin can fix this. But, it acts as a
powerful disincentive and disruption by weakening the exorbitant
privilege of the dollar and enabling the innocent people
subjugated by the IMF and World Bank and their own elites, an
opportunity to opt-out of this system. Our role within Bitcoin is
to discuss this history and help free those still bound by its
constraints.