{"id":21571,"date":"2025-04-30T08:08:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T12:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=21571"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:26:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:26:49","slug":"imf-and-world-bank-crony-covid-crackdown-enablers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/30\/imf-and-world-bank-crony-covid-crackdown-enablers\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF and World Bank: Crony Covid Crackdown Enablers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/NoIMF.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-5927 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/NoIMF.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"315\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/NoIMF.png 315w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/NoIMF-144x150.png 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/imf-and-world-bank-crony-covid-crackdown-enablers\/\">IMF and World Bank: Crony Covid Crackdown Enablers<\/a><\/h1>\n<header class=\"entry-header \">\n<div class=\"entry-meta\">By <span class=\"posted-by vcard author\"><a class=\"url fn n\" title=\"View all posts by James Bovard\" href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/author\/james-bovard\/\" rel=\"author\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"multiple_authors_guest_author_avatar avatar entered litespeed-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/jim-bovard.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/jim-bovard.jpg\" alt=\"James Bovard\" width=\"30\" height=\"30\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/jim-bovard.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/jim-bovard.jpg\" data-ll-status=\"loaded\" \/><span class=\"author-name\">James Bovard<\/span><\/a> <\/span>\u00a0 <span class=\"posted-on\"><span class=\"published\"> April 30, 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-31-at-08-34-12-brownstone-institute-logo-Google-Search.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-17877\" src=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-31-at-08-34-12-brownstone-institute-logo-Google-Search-150x72.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-31-at-08-34-12-brownstone-institute-logo-Google-Search-150x72.png 150w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-31-at-08-34-12-brownstone-institute-logo-Google-Search-768x367.png 768w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screenshot-2022-12-31-at-08-34-12-brownstone-institute-logo-Google-Search.png 788w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content clear\">\n<div class=\"heateorSsspClear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"heateor_sssp_sharing_container heateor_sssp_horizontal_sharing\" data-heateor-sssp-href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/imf-and-world-bank-crony-covid-crackdown-enablers\/\">\n<div class=\"heateor_sssp_sharing_title\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"heateorSsspClear\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"entered litespeed-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/play.ht\/embed\/?article_url=https:\/\/play.ht\/drafts\/VNtZn92Yxve7RsXivZySefxGa2k2\/unOysO2j6&amp;voice=en-US-Wavenet-J\" width=\"100%\" height=\"90px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/play.ht\/embed\/?article_url=https:\/\/play.ht\/drafts\/VNtZn92Yxve7RsXivZySefxGa2k2\/unOysO2j6&amp;voice=en-US-Wavenet-J\" data-ll-status=\"loaded\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained last week that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are suffering from \u201cmission creep.\u201d But Bessent announced that Trump will be \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2025\/04\/23\/bessent-world-bank-imf-treasury\/\">doubling down<\/a>\u201d on supporting the largest foreign aid gushers on earth. \u201cFar from stepping back, \u2018America First\u2019 seeks to expand U.S. leadership in international institutions like the I.M.F. and World Bank,\u201d Bessent declared.<\/p>\n<p>Bessent complained that the IMF \u201cdevotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues.\u201d Unfortunately, Bessent said nothing about how the IMF and World Bank bankrolled many of the worst crony Covid crackdown policies.<\/p>\n<p>But what should the US government expect when Congress and endless presidents give the World Bank and IMF billions of US tax dollars to play with? The US government is on the hook for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/crs-product\/IF11361\">$52 billion<\/a> to the World Bank. The US has a financial commitment of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/crs-product\/IF10676#:~:text=The%20United%20States%27%20financial%20commitment%20to%20the,called%20the%20New%20Arrangements%20to%20Borrow%20(NAB).&amp;text=The%20IMF%20extended%20a%20four%2Dyear%2C%20$15%20billion%20program%20to%20Ukraine%20in%20March%202023.\">$183 billion<\/a> to the IMF.<\/p>\n<p>The IMF was created in 1944 to shore up currencies and help nations with temporary balance-of-payment problems. In the decades since the IMF\u2019s founding, global capital markets and fluctuating currency exchange rates have made the IMF a relic. But too many people have gotten rich from IMF largesse to permit the curtain to be closed on this institution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The IMF enabled scores of governments that chose to pointlessly shut down their own economies after the outbreak of Covid-19<\/strong>. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva declared in April 2021, \u201cWhile the recovery [from Covid] is underway, too many countries are falling behind and economic inequality is worsening. Strong policy action is needed to give <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/en\/About\/FAQ\/imf-response-to-covid-19\">everyone a fair shot<\/a>\u2014a shot in the arm to end the pandemic everywhere, and a shot at a better future for vulnerable people and countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The IMF\u2019s \u201cfair shot\u201d consisted of its international bureaucrats providing scores of billions of dollars in \u201cemergency financing\u201d to 80 governments, most of whom exploited Covid to stretch their own power. The IMF provided emergency relief via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/en\/About\/Factsheets\/Sheets\/2016\/08\/01\/16\/49\/Catastrophe-Containment-and-Relief-Trust\">Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT)<\/a> to 29 governments to supposedly help them \u201ccombat the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d The IMF\u2019s deluge of handouts to government helped fuel the worldwide inflation surge in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>The World Bank President Ajay Banga \u201chas sought to emphasize the bank\u2019s focus on job creation<strong>\u2026<\/strong>and to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/23\/business\/bessent-imf-world-bank-overhauls.html\">prioritize private sector<\/a> involvement in projects around the world,\u201d the <em>New York Times<\/em> reported. But the World Bank\u2019s notion of the private sector has often been either a fraud or a political smokescreen. In the late 1980s, the World <a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/Bovard_Wall_Street_Journal_1988_World_Bank_Lip_Service_to_Private_Sector.htm\">Bank touted its loans to<\/a> Communist nations as private sector-oriented loans \u2013 one bait-and-switch too many, as I detailed in a 1988 <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> article. And permitting the Bank to exonerate its handouts by counting illusory jobs created is a recipe for make-work scams.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Covid pandemic provided the World Bank with the chance to play savio<\/strong>r. In the first months of the pandemic, the Bank proudly announced that its \u201cemergency operations to fight COVID-19 (coronavirus) have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/news\/press-release\/2020\/05\/19\/world-bank-group-100-countries-get-support-in-response-to-covid-19-coronavirus\">reached 100 developing<\/a> countries \u2013 home to 70% of the world\u2019s population.\u201d From April 2020 to March 2021, the World Bank \u201ccommitted over $200 billion, an unprecedented level of financial support, to public and private sector clients to fight the impacts of the pandemic.\u00a0 Our support is tailored to the\u00a0health, economic, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/news\/factsheet\/2020\/02\/11\/how-the-world-bank-group-is-helping-countries-with-covid-19-coronavirus\">social shocks<\/a> that countries\u00a0are facing.\u201d The fact that the World Bank was effectively financing governments to pointlessly shock their own nations was omitted from celebratory press releases.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The IMF and World Bank have helped turn many foreign nations into kleptocracies \u2013 governments of thieves.<\/strong> A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3083301?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents\">2002 <em>American Economic Review<\/em> analysis<\/a> concluded that \u201cincreases in [foreign] aid are associated with contemporaneous increases in corruption,\u201d and that \u201ccorruption is positively correlated with aid received from the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Most importantly, neither the IMF nor the World Bank has any qualms about bankrolling tyranny.<\/strong> A 2015 report of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/documents\/thematic-reports\/world-bank-extreme-poverty-and-human-rights-report\">United Nations\u2019 Special Rapporteur<\/a> on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, concluded that the World Bank \u201cnow stands almost alone, along with the International Monetary Fund, in insisting that human rights are matters of politics which it must, as a matter of legal principle, avoid, rather than being an integral part of the international legal order.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bank justifies this position by insisting that it cannot involve \u201citself in the partisan politics or ideological disputes that affect its member countries\u201d by improper methods such as \u201cfavoring political factions, parties or candidates in elections,\u201d or \u201cendorsing or mandating a particular form of government, political bloc or political ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But any time an international organization financially bails out a regime, it bolsters its power. After the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon coined a term that perfectly captures the effect of foreign aid: \u201cMoney as a Weapon System.\u201d The 2015 UN report noted that \u201cthe existing approach taken by the World Bank to human rights is incoherent, counterproductive and unsustainable. For most purposes, the World Bank is a human rights-free zone. In its operational policies, in particular, it treats human rights more like an infectious disease than universal values and obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The World Bank actively blindfolds itself to avoid hearing about atrocities in nations ruled by governments that it is bankrolling<\/strong>. The Special Rapporteur noted, \u201cBy refusing to take account of any information emanating from human rights sources, the Bank places itself in an artificial bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration\u2019s lust for \u201cdoubling down\u201d on the IMF and World Bank is dicey to reconcile with their <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-usaid-foreign-aid-cuts-6292f48f8d4025bed0bf5c3e9d623c16\">terminating 90% of foreign aid<\/a> contracts from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Cynics across the land rejoiced that Washington policymakers finally recognized one of the biggest swindles of the past 80 years.<\/p>\n<p>If the Trump team can\u2019t even get sound policy on the World Bank, then what hope is there of them resolving any more complex challenges? I was briefly a consultant for the World Bank in the late 1980s, getting paid to <a href=\"https:\/\/documents1.worldbank.org\/curated\/en\/603441468764993253\/pdf\/multi_page.pdf\">co-author a report<\/a> on the follies of farm subsidies. At that point, Reagan administration officials had periodically caterwauled about the Bank for almost a decade, and they were followed by sporadic howling by the US Treasury Department ever since. Secretary Bessent complained on Wednesday that the World Bank \u201cshould no longer expect blank checks for vapid, buzzword-centric marketing accompanied by halfhearted commitments to reform.\u201d But after almost a half-century of failed US attempts to reform the Bank and IMF, there is no reason to expect any boondoggles to be left behind.<\/p>\n<p>O<strong>r do Trump\u2019s appointees believe that laundering U.S. tax dollars through international entities somehow makes them beneficent? Or maybe US Treasury Department honchos want to make sure they continue to get invited to the most lavish parties in D.C. and around the world. Regardless, the IMF and World Bank financing the worst Covid policies around the globe is another reminder of why those entities should be axed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">An earlier version of this piece was published by <a href=\"https:\/\/libertarianinstitute.org\/articles\/america-should-bolt-from-the-world-bank-and-imf\/\">the Libertarian Institute<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IMF and World Bank: Crony Covid Crackdown Enablers By James Bovard \u00a0 April 30, 2025 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained last week that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are suffering from \u201cmission creep.\u201d But Bessent announced that Trump will be \u201cdoubling down\u201d on supporting the largest foreign aid gushers on earth. \u201cFar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4551,2349,98,708,252,99],"class_list":["post-21571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bessent","tag-covid","tag-imf","tag-trump","tag-tyranny","tag-world-bank"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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