World Bank

IGO, bankMonetary International Financial Organization

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File:World Bank.png
Motto	Working for a World Free of Poverty
Headquarters	Washington D.C., United States
Leader	President of the World Bank Group
Type	Monetary International Financial Organization
Sponsor of	TESEV,Center for Global Development,Abt Associates,The Asia Foundation

The World Bank is an international group that promotes neoconservatism, under cover of "poverty alleviation".

Official narrative

The group has aims to relieve poverty. The World Bank is the collective name for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA), two of five international organisations owned by the World Bank Group. It was established along with the International Monetary Fund at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.

Problems

The fact that the group's president is a USA citizen reflects its dominated by the nations of the global north. Its track record is one of effectively promoting the neoconservative agenda of neocolonialism.

Debt crisis

Full article: Debt crisis

During the 1970s, the bank made huge loans to the countries of the global south, often with corrupt leaders, that had no real impact at improving the lives of the vast majority of the people there. In the 1980s opnwards, repayments were used as an excuse for external political interference in those countries. "Structural adjustment policies" were implemented that were designed to 'streamline the economies of developing nations' (i.e. to enrich the countries of the global north). UNICEF reported in the late 1980s that the World Bank's structural adjustment programs had "reduced health, nutritional and educational levels for tens of millions of children in Asia, Latin America and Africa".

The Summers Memo

An internal memo from the then World Bank Chief Economist, Lawrence Summers, is revealing about the bank's decision making process - as is the fact that its publication did not appear to have a negative impact on his career.