IMF Taking Over as Regulator and Banker

Washington's Blog - Friday, May 1, 2009

International Monetary Fund Slowly Taking Over as Global Economic Regulator and Banker

AP writes:

The Group of 20 countries have made the [IMF] the linchpin in their efforts to combat the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression

The Washington Post notes:

Global financial chiefs agreed yesterday to reshape the International Monetary Fund, moving to broaden its mission ...

The IMF, which in recent years had become largely an advisory body to nations in crisis, will now be charged with aggressive monitoring of the global economy. Underscoring that role, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday that Washington had consented to a rigorous IMF review of the U.S. financial system for the first time since the fund was created at the end of World War II.

(Actually, the IMF began the review last year - under the condition that the results not be released until Bush was out of office).

So the IMF appears to have become the world's global financial cop.

The IMF will also, apparently, sell treasury-like bonds to raise money for loans it makes to ailing countries. This ties into statements some time ago by an economist that investors would eventually buy IMF bonds as a safe-haven investment, thus quickening the shift away from the dollar and American treasuries as reserve currency and safe-haven investments.

As previously noted, the IMF's Special Drawing Rights currency may replace the dollar as world reserve currency.

Indeed, the Telegraph's lead financial writer Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues that "the world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity."

Note: I have no idea whether or not Ellen Brown is correct that the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has been, and will continue to be, the real power behind the throne.