Russia And China Gain Power In G-8 And IMF

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Thanks to increasing financial power, Russia and China are forcing the G-8 and IMF to change their internal rules and give them more voting power. Meanwhile, we whine about Russia using energy as a diplomatic club. Even as we bomb Muslims, we demand everyone else disarm and obey us, the bankrupt empire.

BBC:

Finance leaders of the IMF's 184 member states endorsed proposals to give the organisation a bigger role in policing the exchange-rate polices of countries.

They also backed calls to give emerging economies such as China and India a bigger say in how the IMF is run.

China has the biggest FOREX on earth. So ergo, they should have a huge vote within the IMF. Russia, who went bankrupt under Yeltsin, is rising rapidly, too, and will eventually have more to say within the IMF, especially when the USA goes bankrupt, itself.

"We resolve to make the IMF more fit for purpose in a global economy and more able to address challenges that are quite different from those of 1945, when the IMF was created," Mr Brown said.

"Specifically, we agree the IMF must focus more on crisis prevention as well as crisis resolution."

Plans to give the IMF a broader role in monitoring the exchange rates of countries - and now the economic policies of one country can affect those of others - are particularly popular in the United States.

In 1945, the USA was one of the very few countries that was fiscally sound. We straddled half of the globe, we had the biggest industrial base and everyone owed us money. Britain tried to pretend they were still an empire and went tatty slowly, now they are a mere appendage to the USA and going down the same steep fiscal slope as us. The USA wants the IMF to monitor exchange rates? Well! The dollar is causing a currency collapse! Every metal, every major manufacturing raw material and especially oil, is shooting up simultaneously! This suggests the dollar isn't worth what it was years ago, right?

It is called "inflation." Inflation feeds the stockmarkets and real estate. Everyone is happy to get money from their passive properties only it flies out the door thanks to high prices of all necessities.

WP:

RUSSIAN FOREIGN policy seems to grow more aggressive with each week that President Vladimir Putin serves as chairman of the Group of Eight nations, which consists of seven rich industrial democracies and his own resource-exporting autocracy. Last week the chairman of the state-controlled gas exporter, Gazprom, which provides a quarter of the European Union's supply, crudely threatened E.U. governments that his company will sell its product in other markets unless they give way to its "international ambitions."

Oh, how dare Russia be ambitious! How dare they threaten other nations! How dare they help nations we are threatening to nuke! Talk about hussies!

The infantilization of America continues apace. This Post editorial is a prime example. America is happy to club any and all we wish to whack and we use economic as well as military tools to ram our way into other countries and if they resist, we murder hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians including real life babies. Meanwhile, we whine that we can't control our currency. I recall a certain Prof. Friedman of the Chicago School and his silly "monetarism" poo-poo. Clever manipulation of relative values of currenices will solve our financial problems caused by America hitting our own Hubbert Oil Peak and the Vietnam war debts. Greenspan and his happy band thought they could pull the wool over the world's eyes.

The Japanese copied us and did it one better, once they figured out the con game. Now they keep their currency ridiculously low while buying off politicians here so they don't whine. The Chinese copied the Japanese and here we are, in a disasterous situation that is ridiculously easy to fix but it means changing America.

Namely, all we have to do is cut our oil imports by 50% by tacking on a VAT on foreign energy systems, use that money to fund alternative energy systems here in a rapid build-up, have an internal gas guzzler tax on all vehicles getting less than 50 mpg (yes, it is possible!) and raise interest rates until it attracts money! Like, SAVINGS! I really deeply resent the stupid rate of return on my savings presently. What incentive is that???? None!

Whining about Americans not saving is stupid if our monetarist morons keep interest rates ridiculously low. It just isn't going to change anything. If Americans save instead of spending madly, they will stop buying Chinese tschatchkas and voila! Our problems with the yuan cease! Easy as pie!

Right? And raise taxes on the rich so we won't need money from the Chinese to run our government. Right? Yeah!

Back to Putin yanking Europe's chain:

Mr. Putin's attempts to strangle Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine and to consolidate control over Belarus haven't slackened even as he prepares to host President Bush and the other G-8 leaders at a St. Petersburg summit this summer. In fact he clearly hopes the summit will ratify Russia's return as a global power with the right to its own sphere of influence. President Bush has resisted suggestions that he short-circuit this by skipping the summit or proposing Russia's removal from the G-8.

His administration did, however, take a little-noticed but important step last week toward pricking Mr. Putin's inflated ambitions. At a G-8 meeting in Moscow, U.S. and European diplomats insisted that Belarus, Georgia and Moldova be added to the agenda for discussions at preparatory meetings leading up to the summit. That should make it hard for Mr. Putin to exclude a review of his bullying at the summit itself. If St. Petersburg can become the forum at which Western leaders make clear they will not accept Russia's use of economic blackmail or military force to dominate its neighbors, or its backing of a dictatorship in Belarus, then the summit might be worth having after all.

How dare Russia bully other countries! Why, we don't do this! Heh. What will "leaders" do at St. Petersburg? "You better obey us or we are going to buy our energy from Iran!" HAHAHA. I am certain to die of laughteritus at this rate. Putin is ambitious because the West is stupid. We put our collective heads into the energy/cheap labor noose and it will now quietly strangle us. Acting like little boo-boo babies isn't going to change history or suspend the Darwinian laws of Survival of the Richest.

AP:

Rising Oil Prices Worry Finance Ministers

By JEANNINE AVERSA
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Skyrocketing oil prices and massive trade imbalances between the United States and other countries represent serious threats to global growth and most be addressed, world finance leaders say. But they concede there are not any quick solutions to either problem.

Finance ministers and central bank presidents from the world's seven major industrial countries pledged in a joint statement late Friday to work cooperatively to address these issues after a day of discussions led by U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The talks among the G-7 nations - the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada - were a prelude to broader talks on Saturday and Sunday at the 184-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending institution, the World Bank.

The G-7 are upset about #8 who is China. China also gets oil from Russia and soon, gas. Do I hear China whining? I hear crickets singing. Did the Chinese whine in Saudi Arabia yesterday? Hahaha. Guess what! They have the world's biggest FOREX and therefore, can outbid everyone for energy if they so wish. They also have nukes and Russia does, too! Russia had to give up on their expensive navy but not China and in alliance, they can be formidable. In American press, their is a constant baby whine about how China is driving up world oil prices, being the #2 buyer at this point but we keep forgetting about ourselves, in actuality, per capita as well as in aggragate, we are the violators of world oil usage! Therefore, shouldn't we be seeing meeting about getting America to curb their oil usage to bring down world prices?

Hahaha. Laughing to death still. I can't keep this up anymore.

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Comments

[Razib Ahmed]

Yes, China is becoming a major economic power house and naturally it demands more voting right. Soon, INdia will follow too. India is now on the way to become the third largest economy in the world and India will follow the way of China and Russia.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Curiosity about the universe, a desire to learn, a willingness to change or explore: these are the golden keys to a vibrant, lively culture and these are exactly the things we are losing.

[mulberry alexa]

Good stuff as per usual, thanks. I do hope this kind of thing gets more exposure.