Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), now estimates that, in order to fully protect the European Economic Community (EEC) from cascading debt default, it will cost the IMF €3 trillion (see Lagarde Unloads). The IMF now has about €300 billion in available funds which means that it is €2.7 trillion short of this needed bailout reserve. The question then becomes ... what will it cost the United States to put this gigantic finger in the financial dike? Well the Wall Street Journal states the our additional share of this shortfall would be at least 17.1% to 19% ... or even possibly more (read the: WSJ Article).
This translates into a $618 billion to $687 billion reach into the (empty) U.S. piggy bank to bail out Europe! Wow! This is more than five times the 2008-inflation-adjusted cost of the post-World-War-II Marshall plan (see: Bailout Costs).
The operational idea behind the IMF seems to be -- "from each according to its ability, to each according to its need." Hmmm, what does this sound like? (By the bye, the world's second largest economy, China's current related IMF assessment percentage is ... I think ... below 4% ... and it may be 0% ... the IMF is not very transparent about these things.)
No comments:
Post a Comment