What Is the IMF and Why Is It Controversial?

How the International Monetary Fund, the world's economic firefighter, works for global monetary cooperation and prosperity while using its own made-up currency, the SDR.

Topics covered include:

• What was the Bretton Woods monetary system that led to the formation of the IMF and the World Bank
• How the World Bank and IMF differ
• What does the IMF do
• How the IMF creates its own money out of thin air
• Why does Argentina, the IMF's largest borrower, keep defaulting on its debt obligation including those to the IMF
• Why the IMFs negotiating tactics are controversial

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Show Notes

Creation of the Bretton Woods System, July 1944—Federal Reserve History

The World Bank

International Monetary Fund

Sterling devalued and the IMF loan—Cabinet Papers, The National Archive

Total IMF Credit Outstanding, Movement From November 01, 2022 to November 07, 2022—IMF

Why you can’t technically default on the IMF by Izabella Kaminska—Financial Times

Implications of the IMF's SDR Allocation for Australia and the Global Economy by Ben Hollebon and Kate Hickie—Reserve Bank of Australia

The IMF cannot solve Argentina’s dysfunction—The Economist

IMF Executive Board Completes Second Review of the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility for Argentina—IMF

The IMF: The World’s Controversial Financial Firefighter—by Jonathan Masters, Andrew Chatzky, and Anshu Siripurapu—Council on Foreign Relations

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