IMF Bailout: Ghana’s team off to Washington for final talks

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Ghanaman3 9 years ago

That is all they are interested in. Why go Washington? How many?

That is all they are interested in. Why go Washington? How many?
John,Tema 9 years ago

I hope whatever money that will be given to us will be brought to Ghana,they shouldn't connive with IMF officials and keep some in Washington.

I hope whatever money that will be given to us will be brought to Ghana,they shouldn't connive with IMF officials and keep some in Washington.
vero 9 years ago

who ever goes to another person´s place to negotiate has lose. take it from me.

who ever goes to another person´s place to negotiate has lose. take it from me.
Ghanaman3 9 years ago

They just want per diem and chop chop. The deal is already sealed by IMF, it is a take it or leave it deal.

They just want per diem and chop chop. The deal is already sealed by IMF, it is a take it or leave it deal.
TorontoBoy 9 years ago

Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the IMF

What is the IMF?

Also available as a
pre-formatted flier [1].
(PDF 35kb)
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created in 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods, New ...
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Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the IMF

What is the IMF?

Also available as a
pre-formatted flier [1].
(PDF 35kb)
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created in 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and are now based in Washington, DC. The IMF was originally designed to promote international economic cooperation and provide its member countries with short term loans so they could trade with other countries (achieve balance of payments). Since the debt crisis of the 1980's, the IMF has assumed the role of bailing out countries during financial crises (caused in large part by currency speculation in the global casino economy) with emergency loan packages tied to certain conditions, often referred to as structural adjustment policies (SAPs). The IMF now acts like a global loan shark, exerting enormous leverage over the economies of more than 60 countries. These countries have to follow the IMF's policies to get loans, international assistance, and even debt relief. Thus, the IMF decides how much debtor countries can spend on education, health care, and environmental protection. The IMF is one of the most powerful institutions on Earth -- yet few know how it works.

The IMF has created an immoral system of modern day colonialism that SAPs the poor

The IMF -- along with the WTO and the World Bank -- has put the global economy on a path of greater inequality and environmental destruction. The IMF's and World Bank's structural adjustment policies (SAPs) ensure debt repayment by requiring countries to cut spending on education and health; eliminate basic food and transportation subsidies; devalue national currencies to make exports cheaper; privatize national assets; and freeze wages. Such belt-tightening measures increase poverty, reduce countries' ability to develop strong domestic economies and allow multinational corporations to exploit workers and the environment A recent IMF loan package for Argentina, for example, is tied to cuts in doctors' and teachers' salaries and decreases in social security payments.. The IMF has made elites from the Global South more accountable to First World elites than their own people, thus undermining the democratic process.

The IMF serves wealthy countries and Wall Street

Unlike a democratic system in which each member country would have an equal vote, rich countries dominate decision-making in the IMF because voting power is determined by the amount of money that each country pays into the IMF's quota system. It's a system of one dollar, one vote. The U.S. is the largest shareholder with a quota of 18 percent. Germany, Japan, France, Great Britain, and the US combined control about 38 percent. The disproportionate amount of power held by wealthy countries means that the interests of bankers, investors and corporations from industrialized countries are put above the needs of the world's poor majority.

The IMF is imposing a fundamentally flawed development model

Unlike the path historically followed by the industrialized countries, the IMF forces countries from the Global South to prioritize export production over the development of diversified domestic economies. Nearly 80 percent of all malnourished children in the developing world live in countries where farmers have been forced to shift from food production for local consumption to the production of export crops destined for wealthy countries. The IMF also requires countries to eliminate assistance to domestic industries while providing benefits for multinational corporations -- such as forcibly lowering labor costs. Small businesses and farmers can't compete. Sweatshop workers in free trade zones set up by the IMF and World Bank earn starvation wages, live in deplorable conditions, and are unable to provide for their families. The cycle of poverty is perpetuated, not eliminated, as governments' debt to the IMF grows.

The IMF is a secretive institution with no accountability

The IMF is funded with taxpayer money, yet it operates behind a veil of secrecy. Members of affected communities do not participate in designing loan packages. The IMF works with a select group of central bankers and finance ministers to make polices without input from other government agencies such as health, education and environment departments. The institution has resisted calls for public scrutiny and independent evaluation.

IMF policies promote corporate welfare

To increase exports, countries are encouraged to give tax breaks and subsidies to export industries. Public assets such as forestland and government utilities (phone, water and electricity companies) are sold off to foreign investors at rock bottom prices. In Guyana, an Asian owned timber company called Barama received a logging concession that was 1.5 times the total amount of land all the indigenous communities were granted. Barama also received a five-year tax holiday. The IMF forced Haiti to open its market to imported, highly subsidized US rice at the same time it prohibited Haiti from subsidizing its own farmers. A US corporation called Early Rice now sells nearly 50 percent of the rice consumed in Haiti.

The IMF hurts workers

The IMF and World Bank frequently advise countries to attract foreign investors by weakening their labor laws -- eliminating collective bargaining laws and suppressing wages, for example. The IMF's mantra of "labor flexibility" permits corporations to fire at whim and move where wages are cheapest. According to the 1995 UN Trade and Development Report, employers are using this extra "flexibility" in labor laws to shed workers rather than create jobs. In Haiti, the government was told to eliminate a statute in their labor code that mandated increases in the minimum wage when inflation exceeded 10 percent. By the end of 1997, Haiti's minimum wage was only $2.40 a day. Workers in the U.S. are also hurt by IMF policies because they have to compete with cheap, exploited labor. The IMF's mismanagement of the Asian financial crisis plunged South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries into deep depression that created 200 million "newly poor." The IMF advised countries to "export their way out of the crisis." Consequently, more than US 12,000 steelworkers were laid off when Asian steel was dumped in the US.

The IMF's policies hurt women the most

SAPs make it much more difficult for women to meet their families' basic needs. When education costs rise due to IMF-imposed fees for the use of public services (so-called "user fees") girls are the first to be withdrawn from schools. User fees at public clinics and hospitals make healthcare unaffordable to those who need it most. The shift to export agriculture also makes it harder for women to feed their families. Women have become more exploited as government workplace regulations are rolled back and sweatshops abuses increase.

IMF Policies hurt the environment

IMF loans and bailout packages are paving the way for natural resource exploitation on a staggering scale. The IMF does not consider the environmental impacts of lending policies, and environmental ministries and groups are not included in policy making. The focus on export growth to earn hard currency to pay back loans has led to an unsustainable liquidation of natural resources. For example, the Ivory Coast's increased reliance on cocoa exports has led to a loss of two-thirds of the country's forests.

The IMF bails out rich bankers, creating a moral hazard and greater instability in the global economy

The IMF routinely pushes countries to deregulate financial systems. The removal of regulations that might limit speculation has greatly increased capital investment in developing country financial markets. More than $1.5 trillion crosses borders every day. Most of this capital is invested short-term, putting countries at the whim of financial speculators. The Mexican 1995 peso crisis was partly a result of these IMF policies. When the bubble popped, the IMF and US government stepped in to prop up interest and exchange rates, using taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street bankers. Such bailouts encourage investors to continue making risky, speculative bets, thereby increasing the instability of national economies. During the bailout of Asian countries, the IMF required governments to assume the bad debts of private banks, thus making the public pay the costs and draining yet more resources away from social programs.

IMF bailouts deepen, rather then solve, economic crisis

During financial crises -- such as with Mexico in 1995 and South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil, and Russia in 1997 -- the IMF stepped in as the lender of last resort. Yet the IMF bailouts in the Asian financial crisis did not stop the financial panic -- rather, the crisis deepened and spread to more countries. The policies imposed as conditions of these loans were bad medicine, causing layoffs in the short run and undermining development in the long run. In South Korea, the IMF sparked a recession by raising interest rates, which led to more bankruptcies and unemployment. Under the IMF imposed economic reforms after the peso bailout in 1995, the number of Mexicans living in extreme poverty increased more than 50 percent and the national average minimum wage fell 20 percent.

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NON ALIGNED 9 years ago

Thank you for this thorough education of TRUTH!!!

Unfortunately, our blind citizens who are so much entrenched in the tribal politics of bigotry will not even bother to learn the TRUTH!!!!!!

They will rather continue wi ...
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Thank you for this thorough education of TRUTH!!!

Unfortunately, our blind citizens who are so much entrenched in the tribal politics of bigotry will not even bother to learn the TRUTH!!!!!!

They will rather continue with their gutter politics whilst the traitors in our midst run us into ABJECT POVERTY!

NKRUMAH NEVER DIES!!!!
GOD BLESS GHANA!
AFRICAN FOREVER!
Obiba Kwame 9 years ago

Anybody who still believes the western world has the economic and social well-being of black Africa as a priority is an idiot. Every policy the western world promulgates is aimed at the perpetual enslavement of black Africans ...
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Anybody who still believes the western world has the economic and social well-being of black Africa as a priority is an idiot. Every policy the western world promulgates is aimed at the perpetual enslavement of black Africans and other cultures. Those of us who have spent a ot of time in their universities and lived among them are painfully aware of this fact. Unfortunately our leaders are either too stupid or too ignorant, or both, to know this. The IMF and the other western institutions have the same agenda: to keep all other people enslaved, and dependent on the white man. It is pathetic that 57 year after independence we have a delegation of fools travelling to Washington to seek a "bail-out" and sad that the whole nation goes along with this nonsense..
Francis C. Quainoo 9 years ago

Obiba Kwame, given the reason you have stated that both the IMF and the Western Nations would only promulgate policies that would enslave the Black African, would you personally believe whether or NOT the Independence of Afri ...
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Obiba Kwame, given the reason you have stated that both the IMF and the Western Nations would only promulgate policies that would enslave the Black African, would you personally believe whether or NOT the Independence of Africa is really worth it??

I think it is in the same vein that Murderer Rawlings stated in his coup message that his AIM WAS TO ENSURE BOTH THE RICH AND THE POOR REMAINED ON THE SAME LEVEL.

My take on this is that, if you believed in both statements, then you may believe that one day, Pigs could Fly.

It is all a GREED, MISMANAGEMENT, CORRUPTION, CRONYISM, UNPATRIOTISM, THE LIST GOES ON.

After Independence, every MINERAL, etc. that attracted the White man to set foot in the then Gold Coast are still there.

Therefore, your statement is absolutely RUBBISH!!!

It is all a matter of ensuring that the Cheque Book of the Nation has been entrusted to the right sort of people who could do the job properly.

I have lived in this part of the world for about 46 years can say that Africa has more RESOURCES than these people yet they are far ahead.

The problem is, you can't set up a Factory(Government), market your own products, set up you own pricing, perpetuate your own promotion, your own Export personnel, the list goes on.

What happens afterwards is DEEP CORRUPTION.

Governments are there to collect Taxes, Improve Infrastructure and Better the conditions of the Citizenry. They are NOT there to run Business. This is completely for the PRIVATE SECTOR.

So please don't blame your inadequacies solely on the WHITE MAN.
It is true that the White Man is the greatest Land Grabber, but they do have HUMANE POLICIES FOR THEIR PEOPLES.

SO THINK AGAIN!!!

Best Regards,

Francis C. Quainoo
Western Australia
John 9 years ago

Ghana is at the IMF largely because of corruption and an acute inability to elect trustful officials.

Ghana is at the IMF largely because of corruption and an acute inability to elect trustful officials.
Animal Farm 9 years ago

Honestly,do we need the IMF to tell us to do what President Mahama is telling us now?. Many well meaning have over the years told him exactly what the IMF is telling him now but he didn't listen.Hope he will now listen and do ...
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Honestly,do we need the IMF to tell us to do what President Mahama is telling us now?. Many well meaning have over the years told him exactly what the IMF is telling him now but he didn't listen.Hope he will now listen and do what the IMF says he should do.
Ugly Akufo Addo 9 years ago

Mahama is the best President in Ghana , when npp went to IMF they failed to address our problems , they share n loot our money n land

Mahama is the best President in Ghana , when npp went to IMF they failed to address our problems , they share n loot our money n land
SHEHU 9 years ago

The Mahama NDC gov't should tell Ghanaians specifically what those five areas they have earmarked those funds would entail, in detail, what they mean by 1.reduction in wage bill 2.expenditure reduction 3.undertaking revenue m ...
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The Mahama NDC gov't should tell Ghanaians specifically what those five areas they have earmarked those funds would entail, in detail, what they mean by 1.reduction in wage bill 2.expenditure reduction 3.undertaking revenue measures 4.addressing the issue of debt stock 5. strong social development and strong social protection policies.
They should tell Ghanaians what they mean because, over the course of their administration, they have said a lot of things and appropriated funds for it, but nothing has been done, and what is coming out day in and day out, is heads of departments, ministers of state, etc, etc singing the revolting song of "the funds have been misapplied", effectively looted. This IMF programme would not be any different as espoused by Dr. Nduom when he said that, the bailout funds is very highly likely to be mismanaged, effectively looted.
ADANKO 9 years ago

WE GHANAIANS ARE MAKING A LAUGHING STOCK OF OURSELVES. THE FULL BLOWN IMF PROGRAMME CONDITIONALITIES WILLL BE VISITED UPON US. SO HELP US GOD!

WE GHANAIANS ARE MAKING A LAUGHING STOCK OF OURSELVES. THE FULL BLOWN IMF PROGRAMME CONDITIONALITIES WILLL BE VISITED UPON US. SO HELP US GOD!
Lord Tennison 9 years ago

Good news!!!!!!The FED expresses concern about the strengthening USD and its inflationary effect on US exports.
Good for the price of gold and our Cedi.
But an over-appreciated Cedi must also be of concern to Dr. Wampah.It ...
read full comment

Good news!!!!!!The FED expresses concern about the strengthening USD and its inflationary effect on US exports.
Good for the price of gold and our Cedi.
But an over-appreciated Cedi must also be of concern to Dr. Wampah.It will make our exports expensive and drive away our export customers to our competitors.Any effective monetary policy to prop up the Cedi should aim at a middle course where the value of the Cedi is neither too appreciated to make our exports expensive nor too weak to drive Ghanaians at home crazy.
NON ALIGNED 9 years ago

NKRUMAH warned against dependence on capitalist global institutions such as the Bretton Woods institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. Of the UN he reminded us that the UN is the tool of the elite states which control the ...
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NKRUMAH warned against dependence on capitalist global institutions such as the Bretton Woods institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. Of the UN he reminded us that the UN is the tool of the elite states which control the Security Council and that it was / is "just as reliable an instrument for world order and peace as the Great Powers are prepared to allow it to be." QUOTE FROM - I Speak of Freedom, preface, p xii.by NKRUMAH.........

READ SOME FACTS BELOW:
1965: Ghana Rejects IMF and World Bank Advance, Continues with Import Substitution Plan

Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah rejects IMF and World Bank recommendations to implement a economic development strategy based on non-inflationary borrowing and reduced government spending.
Ghana’s refusal to implement these reforms makes it ineligible to receive loans from the two institutions. Nkrumah continues with a policy aimed at diversifying the Ghanaian economy through import substituting industrialization (ISI). (BBC 11/4/1997; Boafo-Arthur 1999; Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004).

This led our economy being sabotaged by the West and the traitors within. And with the help of the West.....his overthrow. The GREAT MAN'S OVERTHROW FOR THIS GHANA??????

Years down the line we still have puppets as leaders, falling prey to such institutions...even though we are literally sitting on GOLD, DIAMOND, BAUXITE, COCOA, OIL......etc. you name them.

So-called leaders like JJ, Kwesi Botchwey,Dr. Joe Abbey (in the 80s), K4 and now Mahama have historically ignored the self-reliant proposals of Osagyefo and Kutu Acheampong.

Years down the line, the AFROPEANS who are constantly 'in bed' with their slave masters, lied to Ghanaians that they will not embrace the IMF-SAP permanently, but just to address structural incoherencies and displacements, while gaining us fiscal and material support in the interim.............They are still lying to Ghanaians.

Kwesi Botchwey who is a typical AFROPEAN.....lied then, and is at it again. When are we ever going to learn???

These lot do not have the citizens of our country at heart, they only think of what they and their masters would gain from all these structural adjustment programmes.

Is it not clear to us that, they have consistently undermined our state sector and private industries and bankrupted of our commodity exports?

Why do we always fall for their lies???

So, NKRUMAH was overthrown for this????? OH! GHANA!!!

NKRUMAH NEVER DIES!!!
GOD BLESS GHANA!
AFRICAN FOREVER!
KKp 9 years ago

sakawa team

sakawa team
Mahmoud 9 years ago

If I may ask, is that another communist ideological institution? Young Pioneers implanted by Nkrumah in our society did not contribute to any meaningful development in Ghana for 30years.

Our experience with the neo-commu ...
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If I may ask, is that another communist ideological institution? Young Pioneers implanted by Nkrumah in our society did not contribute to any meaningful development in Ghana for 30years.

Our experience with the neo-communists is that, they seize power criminally by making coups and counter coups and Ghanaians suffer dictatorship, tyranny, corruption and economic mismanagement under them. NDC therefore, does not have the capacity to develop the economy. As always, their fundamentals are wrong.

Under normal circumstances, political parties are formed to produce leaders democratically. But in the case of NDC, a Cuban-style communist dictator produced a party to legitimize his illegitimate regime wrongfully, with state power and resources to cling to power fraudulently. NDC is therefore an artificial, illegitimate party followed by stomach politicians and sycophants.
NON ALIGNED 9 years ago

Mahmoud, it's real shame you have no knowledge of your own history. That is only if you are a Ghanaian. If you are not. I may somehow excuse your ignorance. But if you are............

Please tell us what the neo-colonialis ...
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Mahmoud, it's real shame you have no knowledge of your own history. That is only if you are a Ghanaian. If you are not. I may somehow excuse your ignorance. But if you are............

Please tell us what the neo-colonialist puppet democratic regimes have achieved, since the overthrow of Osagyefo? They've sold you and your rich resources to your slave masters on the cheap, to enrich themselves. Right?

After the overthrow of Nkrumah, members of the Young Pioneers were jailed and any good thing about Nkrumah was banned. You and your people who overthrew him listened only to your slave masters.....not Ghanaians and yet claimed to be Ghanaians.

Please go and read proper historical facts and stop falling prey to the historical distortions concocted for you by your slave masters.........

NKRUMAH NEVER DIES!!!
GOD BLESS GHANA!
AFRICAN FOREVER!
OBTT 9 years ago

CORRECTO PERFECT0.

CORRECTO PERFECT0.
Moses 9 years ago

He has no shame to even talk about IMF bail out. President 'cassava dough'! You are simply useless.

He has no shame to even talk about IMF bail out. President 'cassava dough'! You are simply useless.
oor 9 years ago

So you trust again this dr for doctors sake then espect 1000percent inflation in the nearest future

So you trust again this dr for doctors sake then espect 1000percent inflation in the nearest future
/// 9 years ago

SAD

SAD
Charles Agbenu 9 years ago

Will they negotiate fraudulently for more EMBRAER planes?

Will they negotiate fraudulently for more EMBRAER planes?
OBTT 9 years ago

THIEVES! THIEVES!! THIEVES!!!. THIEVES CAN NEVER STOP STEALING UNTIL THEIR BONES BECOME ROTTEN IN THE GRAVE. SELL MOTHER GHANA AND BE FREE. JJ AND HIS NDC THIEVES.

THIEVES! THIEVES!! THIEVES!!!. THIEVES CAN NEVER STOP STEALING UNTIL THEIR BONES BECOME ROTTEN IN THE GRAVE. SELL MOTHER GHANA AND BE FREE. JJ AND HIS NDC THIEVES.
OBTT 9 years ago

THE THIEVES MIGHT G0 T0 THEIR GRAVES WITH ALL THEIR ILL-GOTTEN L00TINGS.

THE THIEVES MIGHT G0 T0 THEIR GRAVES WITH ALL THEIR ILL-GOTTEN L00TINGS.
KWAME KWAME 9 years ago

The Ghanaian team should not focus only on macroeconomic stability and institutional reforms as was done during the structural adjustment era of the 1980s and 90s. but should also negotiate coherent strategies to address mark ...
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The Ghanaian team should not focus only on macroeconomic stability and institutional reforms as was done during the structural adjustment era of the 1980s and 90s. but should also negotiate coherent strategies to address market failures and externalities that constrain investments, growth and economic diversification, eg. industrial policy that will address policy and market failures.
yaapoti 9 years ago

SO IMF IS GOING TO HELP THIS PEN ROBBERS TO STILL GHANA AGAIN IMF PLEASE LIVE GHANA ALONE WE HAVE EVERYTHING AND THEY TOOK EVERYTHING SO ANYTHING YOU GIVE TO THE NATION GHANA WILL GO THE SAME WAY SO WHAT IS YOUR WORRY IMF PL ...
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SO IMF IS GOING TO HELP THIS PEN ROBBERS TO STILL GHANA AGAIN IMF PLEASE LIVE GHANA ALONE WE HAVE EVERYTHING AND THEY TOOK EVERYTHING SO ANYTHING YOU GIVE TO THE NATION GHANA WILL GO THE SAME WAY SO WHAT IS YOUR WORRY IMF PLS LIVE GHANA ALONE THIS GUYS ONLESS WE KILL THEM ALL BEFORE GHANA WILL BE STRAT,WE ARE OLL MOST THERE WE HAVE GOOD PLANS FOR THEM AND IS GOING TO HAPPENING,
Gary 9 years ago

How many extra people will the bring ?
Parasites and useless people will not serve Ghana.

How many extra people will the bring ?
Parasites and useless people will not serve Ghana.
Joe Turkey 9 years ago

And the corrupt and inept NDC empty barrels make it look as if it is an achievement to borrow money from the IMF. It is only the seriously ill who visit the emergency room. IMF is the emergency ward for the terminally ill.

And the corrupt and inept NDC empty barrels make it look as if it is an achievement to borrow money from the IMF. It is only the seriously ill who visit the emergency room. IMF is the emergency ward for the terminally ill.
Ena 9 years ago

The government should give us more detailed explanation as to how he intend pursuing the three year programme of the IMF. He said the government is pursuing the programme in five areas. Namely; Wage bill reduction, Expenditur ...
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The government should give us more detailed explanation as to how he intend pursuing the three year programme of the IMF. He said the government is pursuing the programme in five areas. Namely; Wage bill reduction, Expenditure reduction, Revenue mobilization measures, Debt stock and Social development and protection policies. My interest is on the first three areas. That is, wage bill reduction, expenses reduction, and revenue mobilization. He should come clean as to how he intend reducing the wage bill, reducing expenditure and increasing revenue mobilization? Base on this, we will be in a position to make thorough analysis of the whole issue and make our critics and suggestions.

IMF Bailout: Ghana’s team off to Washington for final talks

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