Protests Keep Spotlight on IMF and World Bank Failures half a
century hardly anyone even knew these institutions existed, and
they operated in the shadows. Those days are over, although many
of their most important documents and deliberations remain
secret. Fund and the Bank operate a cartel for credit, much like
OPEC runs an oil cartel. Neither one is leak-proof, but they
both confer considerable power on the men who control them.
While OPEC uses its monopoly power simply to raise oil prices,
these financial giants use theirs to influence and often dictate
the economic policies of dozens of countries. IMF is the leader,
and a country that falls out of its favor will not be eligible
for most credit from the larger World Bank, other multilateral
lending institutions, governments, and often private sources of
credit as well. This arrangement gives the Fund (together with
the Bank) powers vastly greater than they could ever derive from
their own resources. is even more concentrated in that the IMF
is basically c