Kudos to Egypt for Ditching the IMF

[marmar]

from Dissent magazine:



Kudos to Egypt for Ditching the IMF
Mark Engler - July 11, 2011 1:30 pm


On Friday, crowds of protesters returned to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, with independent trade unions calling for the country’s yet-unfinished revolution to continue. The unionists, according to Ahram Online, “stressed the need to achieve social justice, the prosecution of all corrupt figures of the old regime, and the establishment of a full democracy.”

That activists are keeping up street pressure for democratic reforms is a positive sign. And it follows on the heels of another one: the recent, surprise decision by the country’s interim leaders to spurn the International Monetary Fund.

In late June, the BBC reported, “Egypt drop plans for (an) IMF loan amid popular distrust.” Despite the IMF’s insistence that it was offering financing on favorable terms, the story noted, “many Egyptians were unhappy, feeling it was a betrayal of the protest movement that had denounced the IMF as a tool of imperialism.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=494

[aquart]

1. Did the IMF get its widdle feelings huwrt?

[Igel]

4. Probably.

But more probably they're hurt and frustrated because their sheer wonderfulness and intelligence, their good will and ability to make live wonderful, has been dissed.

Like most technocrats, they know what's best for the people and even go so far as to say they know the people's "true" interests even if the people don't.

Too often the people foolishly stand in the way of allowing their saviors to work their magic.

Yeah, sometimse--okay, fairly often--the technocrat's plans go awry. But they can't be held accountable. The people on the ground don't implement the plans right, or the IMF failed to put sufficient resources behind a wonderful plan, or because of factors beyond their control and even knowledge their models were wrong (but they've fixed their models and can't be wrong now).

[Hydra]

2. Bad week for the bankers

They'll be back, though...

[provis99]

3. uh oh. so when does America start bombing Cairo?