By following the IMF’s prescriptions, often at significant cost to national development goals, one would at least expect countries to have stabilised and avoided debt crisis. But 54 countries are now in a debt crisis and many are spending more on servicing their debt than on financing education or health.
The IMF has actively failed to prevent the present debt crisis which is today more severe than it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Indeed, this hints at a basic problem. Debt is the source of power for the IMF. It is debt that forces countries to come to the IMF as the lender of last resort. It is debt that forces countries to accept the IMF’s harsh loan conditions and coercive advice on austerity, undermining their own development goals. Without debt, the IMF would be powerless!
In openDemocracy
As researchers both specialising on Palestine, we've taken a keen interest in what they've been saying. And on the side of Israel's apologists, we’ve seen two main narratives at work.
Both are deeply flawed. The first ignores all context to portray Israel as the undeniable victim of a brutish neighbour. The second draws selectively on context to portray Hamas and Israel as more or less equal adversaries tragically unable to come to an accord. This narrative, designed to appeal to moderates and confound pro-Palestinian messaging, argues that everyone has blood on their hands in this endless cycle of violence – meaning no easy condemnation of Israel is possible.
[…]
When the capacity of one side to exert violence over the other is so overwhelmingly disproportionate, surely even to the most moderate of moderates, something rings discordant here.
At least eight MPs who spoke during a Parliamentary debate on renters’ rights yesterday were landlords, openDemocracy analysis has found.
Tenants’ groups told us they were concerned about a lack of transparency during the second reading of the Renters (Reform) Bill, with one MP forgetting to declare an interest until after the fact, while those with rental income below £10,000 a year were under no obligation to declare anything.