by Peter Koenig
October 07,
2020
from
GlobalResearch Website
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst.
He
is also a water resources and environmental specialist.
He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the
World Health Organization around the world in the fields
of environment and water.
He
lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South
America.
He
writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; New Eastern
Outlook (NEO); RT; Countercurrents, Sputnik; PressTV;
The 21st Century; Greanville Post; Defend Democracy
Press; The Saker Blog, the and other internet sites.
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The
World Economic Forum's Great Global Reset is being
'paralleled' - not challenged - by
the IMF.
Both are pulling in
the same direction, shoveling more assets from the lower
echelons to a small elite, through debt enslavement - shifting
from consumer capitalism to Green (consumer) capitalism - and
all with an allure of friendliness towards the environment and
the world population.
The WEF is an NGO,
registered in a lush suburb of Geneva, with ambitions towards
worldly power command.
The IMF, created under
the UN Charter, is an official international financial organization
- one of the two Bretton Woods Institutions, the other one
being
the World Bank.
The IMF was created to watch over and regulate the world monetary
conundrum.
Both, IMF and WB, are
controlled by veto-power by the US Treasury.
The discourse of both,
the WEF and the IMF, is to,
"doing as much
good to a covid-disaster
stricken world as we can."
None of them mentions how their actions
will put the world - especially the developing world - into even
deeper 'sustainable' disaster.
The WEF's main message delivered by WEF founder and executive
chairman
Klaus Schwab, called on June 3, 2020, for:
"The world must act
jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and
economies, from education to social contracts and working
conditions…
Every country, from
the United States to China, must participate, and every
industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In
short, we need a 'Great Reset' of capitalism."
You notice,
the Great
Reset is about preserving capitalism, and what Schwab and
the elite "directors" behind him
don't say, is how to accelerate the shift of assets from the
grassroots to the oligarchs, while blinding the public's eyes and
minds with the "Sustainable Green" slogan.
That always sells...
And - consuming "green"
whatever is called green... we believe it anyway - gives a
good feeling, a good conscience.
In a formidable discovery - conclusion of a scientific study - the
WEF concludes that the evil of all evils is "affluence". Much worse
than the corona virus.
"Affluence is the biggest threat to our
world, according to a new scientific report." (See this).
The WEF got it right,
COVID-19 is of course by far
not as bad as is Affluence, namely Money Wealth
that has been accumulating over centuries, making the world an
ever more unbalanced place - with increasing poverty famine,
misery - and vulnerability to catch diseases, such as Covid.
Yes, the WEF and its
players and "Deep-State-Actors" (which represent "Affluence") behind
the scene were using Covid to the fullest to cause a total lockdown
of people as well as of the world economy.
This happened virtually
simultaneously Worldwide in almost all 193 (UN member) countries...
The few exceptions
included Sweden and Belarus.
This
mighty lockdown order, instigated
from "high-up", way above the world's governments and
the UN, and with such co-opted
"authorities", like
the WHO, has brought the world
economy down on its knees within less than 6 months:
and now to be
continued, under the transformation to a new color "Green".
As if the virus would
have hit at the same time the entire world...
Nobody in his or her
clear mind can believe this.
It never happened in the history of
mankind.
Yet, the masterminds behind this fraud are getting away
with it - with so far relatively little protest.
But with a massive all
over-arching FEAR campaign.
Fear has been
weaponized to intimidate the entire world population.
Fear, anxiety and
frustration are the core causes for most diseases.
In other words what the
false and fear propaganda does, is making us more vulnerable to all
kinds of diseases, including cancer.
This is further enhanced by the strictly ordered social distancing.
Prohibiting people getting together, socializing, 'solidarizing',
and thus reducing their level of fear, is a clever dictate of the
Masters.
Strategizing collectively
on how to get out of the dilemma and of the covid-stranglehold, has
become a virtual impossibility.
The shock slowly but surely abides among some "thinking" people and
they get together in masses, protesting, despite the prohibition -
Berlin, 1 August 2020, 1.3 million people in the streets.
Others are demonstrating
for Black Lives Matter (BLM), against police brutality and
for or against the Woke movement.
Most are funded
generously by foundations of rich oligarchs like, Ford,
Gates,
Soros,
Rockefeller - and more...
Starting in the US,
protests have now also spread to major European cities.
They are all an
exasperation and anger against repression, hence unknowingly linked
to the corona-fever, the covid-repression - raising more and more
havoc.
The Global
Great Reset
It's time for "appeasing" actions.
The WEF is there with the
global Great Reset, that propagates what the protesters knew all
along:
Affluence (wealth) is the problem.
It's as simple as that...
Some details were
released by Klaus Schwab, that endless consumerism has to stop and
that Mother Earth needs to be protected and rehabilitated - and that
more balance has to be brought into humanity.
And all that veering the
economy - mind you 'CAPITALIST economy'... - to a concept of GREEN
living.
Voilà. More details
pertaining to these noble objectives and to mechanisms on how to
achieve the objectives, will be divulged at the January 2021
Davos WEF...
Sounds good.
Do away with affluence
and promote more equality.
Concepts that sell easily, but nor the WEF or the IMF believe in them.
It's anathema to their dogma of
free-for-all capitalism, with a fundamentalist Market theory that
resolves all the world's ills.
Green
Capitalism
Now comes the IMF with its parallel dogma for shifting away from
"what didn't work" - towards another form of capitalism, a
"sustainable capitalism" - would you believe, also a Green
Capitalism,
promoting the US
Democratic (sic) Party's
Green New Deal, fashioned after
President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930's.
The Roosevelt New Deal
was officially designed as a program of relief from the 1929-1933
economic depression.
It consisted of public
work projects, financial reforms, and regulations, leading right up
to 1939, the beginning of WWII.
In her remarks to the US Chamber of Commerce,
Kristalina
Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF, announced to the
distinguished guests,
"there is no stronger
advocate for markets than a person who has lived in the highly
distorted environment of a non-market system.
I learned firsthand
the cost of bad policies, and the benefits of good policies.
In fact, it was
partly due to the IMF that Bulgaria turned a corner in the 1990s
and was able to participate in both the European Union and the
world economy."
Kristina is Bulgarian.
She went on to say,
"What does it tell us
that somebody who came from a Communist system now leads the IMF
and is invited to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?
Put simply, it tells
us that change for the better is unstoppable."
That says it all. Market
fundamentalism must continue come hell or high water.
And if the IMF has its
way, it will.
Kristina's three-point program joins closely the WEF
approach to the "new" economic paradigm, the Great Reset.
A shift
from "capitalism of affluence' to a more egalitarian "Green
Capitalism".
There is no shift that
doesn't shovel assets. And since the rich will be doing the
shoveling, the few remaining assets of the people will be shoveled
from below to the top. The usual...
The first point of "what did we learn from the crisis", leads to
stocktaking.
Ms. Georgieva points out
some of the "collateral damage" of the obligatory lockdown...
obligatory, because we were and still are fighting a deadly virus.
According to the IMF, by the end of 2020,
"170 countries -
almost 90 percent of the world - will be worse off with lower
per capita income."
This disastrous and
wanton destruction of the world economy has already prompted,
"massive fiscal
measures - totaling nine trillion dollars, globally", according
to the IMF.
In reality these
measures, including the semi-clandestine rescue packages to banks
and other financial institutions, plus, to the corporate giants,
have in the US alone exceeded 20 trillion (fiat) dollars.
Add to this what the rest
of the world, especially the EU, via the European Central Bank (ECB),
has dished out in so-called rescue money - we are reaching a huge
package of "Quantitative Easing" - QE - debt-money
made out of thin
air...
By far, most of it went
at lenient conditions to corporate finance, production and services,
and only a small percentage went to those people in most need.
In
the US, millions of unemployed received an extra US$ 600 per week
for the past few months.
But this benefit stopped
on 31 July 2020.
This is having dire consequences for millions.
Point two is "the pathway to recovery"...
Here, the IMF foresees the
great reopening of the economy.
That means a careful
approach to,
"building a recovery
that is focused on a great transformation as we emerge from this
exceptional crisis."
The WEF calls the
transformation 'massive reforms."
Reforms and
transformations are key words in the jargon of the Washington
Consensus. They reverberate well in the language of neoliberalism.
A country to be
salvaged by the IMF has to "reform", "transform" and to
"adjust"...
WEF and IMF go
hand-in-hand...
The Great
Transformation
The process of reopening is now starting across the globe - some 75
percent of countries are reopening.
So says the IMF. Now is
the moment to think carefully about what comes next.
The IMF suggests,
"building a recovery
that is focused on a Great Transformation as we emerge from this
exceptional crisis."
What precisely the
Great Transformation entails, Ms. Georgieva does not explain.
One of the opportunities the IMF sees emerging from this crisis, is,
"the digital
transformation - a big winner from this crisis".
The IMF doesn't say what
it means, but it requires foremost digitizing people's identity and
digitizing money:
total control over people's movements, health
records, cash flow, bank accounts and more.
See also 'Agenda
ID2020'...
Although, both WEF and IMF recognize that this crisis will bring,
...they both want adjustments.
And adjustments usually
target the lower income groups, the poor.
"Adjustments" is the
lingo of the IMF and the World Bank,
-
"reforming"
public administration, i.e. firing a large segment of state
employees
-
thereby
increasing unemployment, deprivation and despair
-
privatizing
public assets and services (stealing people's accumulated
assets)
-
giving
concessions to foreign corporations to exploit the
countries' national natural resources,
...and the carrot is:
An IMF or WB loan, or
both...!
Bravo...
It brings debt and debt
service... and foremost more control by the Global North over
the Global South...
Which brings us to the Third Point:
building a fairer
society, the role of the IMF...
It offers another
opportunity, going green.
The IMF does not miss its
chance to point to
the climate change which still looms over us all,
man-made climate change which went almost forgotten in the saga and
drama of the corona virus. It has to be revived.
And what better
opportunity than looking into the future... and going Green.
This is precisely what the WEF is also propagating:
a new Green Agenda
or the
Green New Deal. It costs a lot of money. It means
transforming wasteful, polluting industries to green and clean
industries - like, among others, electric cars...
It's a visible icon for a
clean and conscious society.
Where does the electricity come from for charging the
environment-destroying lithium batteries of electric cars?
In most countries
it's still made by combustion of hydrocarbons...
In this case and in many
others, the "transformation" from "black energy" to "green energy"
uses more black energy than was used before.
See also the remarkable
documentary on the subject by Michael Moore, "Planet of the
Humans" (full length feature documentary)
The IMF is ready to lend billons for so-called debt-relief and
Financial Assistance (FA) to allow new investments for the projected
transformation.
FA and Debt Relief in the jargon of the IMF is,
adding new debt to
pay off the old debt, and in rare cases, it contains some real
relief, or debt forgiveness...
The huge new transformation investments
required to go SUSTAINABLY GREEN, may come from private banking,
leveraged by World Bank loans and lending from other official and
regional lending institutions.
In fact, the IMF has put in place a Covid-19 Financial Assistance
and Debt Service Relief Program...
Under this plan, the IMF is providing FA and debt service relief to
member countries facing the economic impact of the COVID-19
pandemic.
For that purpose, the IMF's Executive Board, since late
March 2020, has approved an increase of the Catastrophe Containment
and Relief Trust (CCRT), from US$ 250 billion to US$ 1 trillion.
These funds are made available to IMF members who ask for relief
support.
So far (as of August 10, 2020), some 80 countries have
applied for relief under the CCRT.
These charts provide lists of countries by region and the
corresponding loans for financial assistance and/or debt service
relief per country.
Total FA for 80 countries amounts to US$ 87.8
billion.
Debt Relief for 28 countries amounts to US$ 251.2 million,
a fraction of what was transferred from the Global North to the
Global South in the form of new debt, new dependence - or to call it
what is, new slavehood...
It is interesting to observe that all the FA funds go to developing
countries. Debt relief is clearly for poor developing countries.
But
why would FA funds only flow south?
The industrialized north also
incurred huge amounts of covid debt, most probably sums larger by
orders of magnitude than those of developing countries.
Yet, these
"developed" countries manage to survive without help from the IMF or
WB.
Why?
Because most covid-accumulated
debt is local, internal debt and can be managed locally through
sovereign national monetary policies.
De-dollarization
Why would developing countries not handle their local debt
internally? ...one may just guess.
There is very likely a lot of
arm-twisting or outright threats and corruption going on, for those
countries to stay in the orbit of financial predators, of dependence
on the west, the Global North.
Many of their currencies are
partially or fully dollarized - and using their own sovereign money
to manage their internal debt - would require de-dollarization which
doesn't happen overnight. And especially not in an emergency.
Examples abound. Venezuela is a case in point...
That's what's at stake for most developing countries, and most of
them are rich in natural resources. De-dollarization means regaining
their national and monetary sovereignty.
It is a crucial step, if
what both the IMF and the WEF profess - more socioeconomic
equilibrium, more economic justice - were to become reality.
It's
not a question of "Black" or "Green"... it's a question of justice,
justice based on social equality.
Unfortunately, that's not meant
with the Great Reset, nor with the Great Transformation...
They are
slogans of deception...
In reality, both mean a
new Great Capitalism -
shaded green, as it were, for popularity...
Actions and professed policies of both, WEF and IMF, go into the
direction of continued unfettered capitalism. To become independent
again, rather than swelter under continued neo-colonialism, defy WEF
and IMF advice and work steadily with perseverance towards political
and financial autonomy.
De-dollarize and de-globalize and turn to
local production for local consumption with local sovereign money
and local public banking, directed by a sovereign local central bank
that works for the socioeconomic development of her country's
people, not for the faraway shareholders of a Wall Street or
internationally affiliated bank.
The IMF is ready to lend billons for so-called
debt-relief and
Financial Assistance (FA) to allow new investments for the projected
transformation.
FA and Debt Relief is jargon of the IMF, for adding
new debt to pay off the old debt, and in rare cases, it contains
some real relief, or debt forgiveness...
The huge new transformation
investments required to go SUSTAINABLY GREEN, may come from private
banking, leveraged by World Bank and IMF loans, as well as lending
from other official and regional financial institutions.
In fact, the IMF has put in place a Covid-19 Financial Assistance
and Debt Service Relief Program under this plan, the IMF is
providing FA and debt service relief to member countries facing the
economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For that purpose, the
IMF's Executive Board, late in March 2020, has approved an increase
of the Catastrophe Contain call I am sorryment and Relief Trust (CCRT),
from US$ 250 billion to US$ 1 trillion.
These funds are made
available to IMF members who ask for relief support. So far (as of
August 10, 2020), some 80 countries have applied for relief under
the CCRT.
These charts (see link below) provides lists of countries by region
and the corresponding loans for financial assistance and/or debt
service relief per country.
Total FA for 80 countries amounts to US$ 87.8 billion.
Debt Relief
(grants) for 28 countries amounts to US$ 251.2 million, a fraction
of what was transferred from the Global North to the Global South in
the form of new debt, new dependence - or to call it what is, new
colonialism.
It is interesting to observe that all the FA funds go to developing
countries.
Debt relief is clearly for poor developing countries. But
why would FA funds only flow south? The industrialized north also
incurred huge amounts of covid debt, most probably sums larger by
orders of magnitude than those of developing countries.
Yet, these
"developed" countries manage to survive without help from the IMF or
WB. Why? Because most covid-accumulated debt is local, internal
debt, and can be managed locally through sovereign national monetary
policies.
Why would developing countries not handle their local debt
internally? ...one may just guess.
There is very likely a lot of arm-twisting or outright threats and
corruption going on, for those countries to stay in the orbit of
financial predators, of dependence on the west, also the Global
North.
Many of developing countries' currencies are
partially or
fully dollarized - and using their own sovereign money to manage
their internal debt - would require de-dollarization which doesn't
happen overnight.
And especially not in an emergency. It would be
fought nail and tooth by the owners of the dollar economy.
Examples abound.
Venezuela is a
case in point...
Imagine a country like
Ecuador making her own monetary policy.
Ecuador not only is 100% dollarized but uses the actual US dollar as
its currency. Impossible...
Countries like Peru and
Nicaragua are
tacitly and partially dollarized, to the tune of about 70% and
90-plus%, respectively.
Most developing countries are to some extent
in this predicament.
It's the US Treasury that makes monetary policy
of these countries.
Take the weaker and debt-ridden southern countries of the EU's
Eurozone.
They cannot act independently.
They are euro-ized.
It's
not the directly the US Treasury, but the ECB (and IMF) that call
the shots.
Would Greece have stepped out of the Eurozone in 2008 to
2010 economic crisis, reverting to a devalued Drachma (their former
currency), called for a Paris Club renegotiation of their debt, they
would be sailing into a much brighter future today.
That's what's at stake for most of the Global South,
still rich in
natural resources.
De-dollarization means regaining their national
and monetary sovereignty.
It is a crucial step, if what both the IMF
and the WEF profess - more socioeconomic equilibrium, more economic
justice - were to become reality.
It's not a question of "Black" or
"Green" - it's a question of justice, justice based on social
equality.
Unfortunately, that's not meant with the
Great Reset, nor
with the Great Transformation.
They are slogans of
deception...
In
reality, both mean a new Great Capitalism - shaded green, as it
were, for popularity.
Actions and professed policies of both, WEF and IMF, go into the
direction of continued unfettered capitalism.
To become independent
again, rather than swelter under continued neo-colonialism, defy WEF
and IMF advice and work steadily with perseverance towards political
and financial autonomy.
De-dollarize and de-globalize and turn to local production for local
consumption with local sovereign money and local public banking,
directed by a sovereign
local central bank that works for the
socioeconomic wellbeing of her country's people, not for the faraway
shareholders of a Wall Street or internationally affiliated banks...
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