A Snipe Hunt

Recently I blogged a piece about the International Monetary Fund and, in it, referenced its incredible lack of transparency (see:  I.M.F...ing).  Since then I have spent time on the IMF site (see: IMF Site) trying to find out exactly how much money the United States contributes and has contributed to this fund ... and into all the various slush-fund pockets it seems to have?  Ditto for China. Ditto for Russia. Ditto for Germany and France.  Etc.  And I would also like to find out who is lent (given?) this money on a year by year basis from these various slush funds?  And how much of this money has been paid back historically?  And how much has never been paid back?  What interest rates are charged? 

How much does the IMF spend annually for operating expenses?  (The former IMF head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn spent $3,000 per night for the hotel room where he was caught in his peccadilloes.) Specific salaries (I found on the NY Times how much Strauss Kahn was paid.  He made $442,000 per annum with a $79,120 expense account ... see: NY Times Article)?  What does the IMF income statement look like?  How about its balance sheet?  A cash flow statement?  Who has contributed gold to the IMF reserves?  Has much of this gold has been sold or otherwise disposed of?

If any reader out there has a week or so to devote to this snipe hunt on the above referenced web site, I welcome your travails and answers.  Like the U.N. (see: The U.N.) and the World Bank (see: The World Bank), I suspect  that the real meaningful numbers are locked up in New York or Geneva or Washington somewhere where prying eyes such as mine will never find them.  (I just hope that the Congress has access to this data.)  The only thing that these international (unelected) agencies allow us schnooks to see is the mountains of  gibberish and spin provided on their web sites.  They are self-perpetuating bureaucratic mazes whose major function seems to be politically correct arm waving and spending someone else's moolah.  If any U.S. corporation were as opaque as these international organizations, its entire management team would be peeking out from behind bars.

International Monetary F...ing

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.)

Credit Blogging

Your blogger has somewhat anticipated this story -- the French Socialist head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been accused of attempted rape of a New York City hotel chamber maid and his DNA has been collected as evidence.  See: Dominique Strauss-Kahn).  In a post here twelve days ago it was discribed how the U.S. has lent its credit cards to the IMF and the rest of the world (see: The High Cost of Linguica). Now we find out that our credit cards are being used for $3,000 per night suites at swanky New York hotels ... but apparently not for condoms.

The High Cost of Linguica

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed to bail out the Portuguese economy to the tune of some $116 billion. See: Portugal Bailout  This is after the fact that these same parties had bailed out (with almost equally large largess) Greece and Ireland last year.  Now, seeing that the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in large part back in 2008-2009, bailed out the major European banks (see Bernanke's Secret) and that the United States is a major contributor to the IMF (See: U.S and the IMF), it seems that the United States is once again handing our (over-extended) credit card to the rest of the world. 

Not only is the United States expected to pay the very high cost of defending the free world, but now, it seems, we must pick up the tab for their profligate social-engineering policies too.  Enough!