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.
