The International Monetary Fund (IMF)

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The International Monetary Fund, is an international organization established in 1945 as part of the United Nation system. Its creation was conceived at Bretton woods, to “…regulate the rates at which currencies were exchanged among member countries; and it would help ensure international stability by making loans at times of crisis in member countries’ balance of payments.” Since its creation, the IMF have gain enormous power in the international community, specially influencing the economic policies of third world countries. Currently, the IMF have 35 member countries with advance economy or emerging markets, and approximately 153 countries with developing economies; for a total of 188 member countries. Developing countries are for the most part the ones that constantly are asking for loans to the IMF for various reason, for instance, when a country is in a financial crisis and is unable to pay is foreign debt.
In order for a country to receive a loan from the IMF, the country has to accept a set of conditionality impose by the institution. These conditionality are sets of economic policies and financial measures based on what the IMF believe will help the economy of the country and safeguard IMF resources. According to Peet, “the institution appeals to the best of neoclassical economic science backed now by fifty years of experience in the loan business” to create the conditionality impose on each country. In recent years, the IMF has been severely criticized because, these conditionality have worsen the economic situation in many countries instead of improving them and the most affected have been the working class. The focus of this paper is (1) describe the principles, purpose and structure on which the IM...

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...se crises has been appropriate…not perfect, to be sure, but far better than if the structural elements had been ignored or the fund had not been involved”.
In conclusion, the International Monetary Fund had been subject to many criticism as it became a powerful international organization. Some argued that it has been destructive to the economy of third world countries. Other have argued that without the IMF the economic situation of these country would have been even worse. What this debate should teach us, is that it does not matter who is right; what matter is that the conflict exist. This should be consider as a first step in recognizing that something is wrong, either with the institution itself or the policies that is implementing. I believe that the institution certainly needs to be reform. Abolishing it, is not the solution.

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