The IMF can literally conjure any amount of money out of thin air whenever they feel like it wtf how have I never heard about this

And before you ask, yes, almost all money created goes straight into the coffers of western countries instead of to the global south

  • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
    23·
    2 years ago

    If you’re interested in the whole dollar hegemony structure the book Superimperialism lays it all out. I found it quite slow reading with a lot of economics concepts I wasn’t yet familiar with, but I think understanding the underlying structures of US imperialism is quite important.

    • acabjones@lemmygrad.ml
      12·
      2 years ago

      I’m only a couple chapters in, but it already seems clear to me how fucked the u.s. (and unfortunately regular usonians) will be when the dollar scam finally stops working.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
      6·
      2 years ago

      Is this by Michael Hudson? I looked it up, but there are two books with very similar names. Did the title get updated in a newer edition or something? If not, which one are you recommending? The economic strategy of American empire or The origin and fundamentals of US world dominance? I note the latter is called the ‘new edition’ – but the new edition of what book? I hate it when publishers do this shit.

      Edit: and it turns out that the ‘third edition’ of the former title came out after the ‘new edition’ of the latter title. What do publishers have against the simplicity of ordinal numbers?

      • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
        5·
        2 years ago

        Yes there are three editions. No idea why they can’t just be called that. I read the third edition, he mostly just tacks chapters on the beginning and end.

        It’s also worth noting that there is a much older concept of “überimperialismus” (often translated as super imperialism) from Kautsky, which of course Lenin clowned in Imperialism because it’s simply wrong. I cited Hudson’s theory once and some ultra loser sent multiple text walls quoted from Imperialism. 🙄

  • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
    14·
    2 years ago

    All fiat money is “conjured out of thin air”. It’s just that this is usually the purview of governments via central banks. However with the IMF being essentially a tool of Washington to be wielded as they please this is just that - a government creating money - but with extra steps. Fundamentally money is debt, which is why it can be created at will, it is not an actual commodity despite what dumbass libertarians believe who think the glaring contradictions in modern monetary policy can be solved by something as infantile as bringing back the gold standard or with cryptocurrency. Problem is that the government of a sovereign country can never actually be forced to pay its debts, especially if they issue a globally used reserve currency like the dollar. This is the infamous “free lunch” that Michael Hudson always talks about, so long as the petrodollar stands the US can create money out of nothing at the expense of the rest of the world and never actually paying that debt back.

    • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.mlOP
      9·
      2 years ago

      True, but it’s especially egregious here because the IMF is one of the biggest institutions responsible for trapping countries in debt. But literally this entire time, it could have just created and allocated SDRs to them instead. Poofing money into existence isn’t something that a regular bank can do, but the IMF can, and I’ve never seen this aspect discussed before.

    • Rye@lemmygrad.ml
      2·
      2 years ago

      In Capital vol1, money is described as the ultimate commodity, of which all commodities gravitate around, but still debt like you said. Also take a look at the CBDC China launched, you might find it interesting. It’s neither speculative nor unregulated, think of it as a form of money used for international financial settlement (that can’t be touched by the U.S).