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24 thoughts on “IMF Joins Trump Bull Parade: IMF Timing Humor”
Gregsaid:
Groups plan butyric acid plot at inauguration. Project Veritas… drudge report.
As the The IMFand Trump try to anticipate growth and how to make things great again, they need to be reminded that historically only one person promised to make “all things new” and it won’t cost you anything if you simply believe it!!
The Trump BULL Parade is a magnificent SHOW…
and as it passes by…
please pay particular attention to that lingering odor…
as it will lead directly to celebratory souvenirs for the occasion.
They’ve only changed tune because they know they are past being able to influence anything by talking it down.
Too late to sway against Trump, too late to sway against Brexit.
When you understand what they joined in with in the Greel situation to protect the Euro you understand how poiltical and biased the IMF is.
They later admitted the risks were assymetirc but still acted to increase the misery in Greece. Basically admitted they are in love with the idea of the Euro and with French leader(s) will act to protect it.
“Do I have to go on my knees?” Ms Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund said, when asked whether she has apologised to George Osborne over the fund’s low growth forecasts and calls to adopt a ‘Plan B’ of less austerity – calls the body now accept it got wrong.
Undue Eurozone influence on the IMF should be brought to an end.
Last head was French and scandal ensued, strangely this one is French and has just come out of court etc. Coincidence? Why not give an Indian or Brazilian a chance?
Anything other than European political elite.
If the organisation is needed then it also needs a regular analysis to see if it’s still fit for purpose.
No expert on the IMF, but if what I have read so far is true then it is political in nature, and has always had the tendency to demand strong cutbacks and liberal trade policy in return for loans.
So same difference, probably coordinates EU more than EU coordinates it.
A lot of criticism around for its approach wherever it goes.
If they applied the rules equaly throughout it wouldn’t be so bad.
The risks to the Euro and Greece were assymetric and Greece should have been cut some slack even if they had been very naughty boys. They received only a beating at the hands of everyone concerned. The IMF were chief in the act because they held the Euro in such high esteem. There was an IMF report to that effect a while later. Too late but it did admit their love affair with the Euro and EU.
Together they just about make up the rules. We don’t know if they are playing good cop bad cop or what. We don’t know if the leaked dispute was intentional. We know nothing but the economic blurb that accompanies monetary,political, and financial offers/impositions.
Neither are accountable.
The original charters of EU are in the bin, and the IMF works as it pleases.
Hello LMAO There is only one question that matters to the whole human race. It is only three words long and the person who asked it is very well known. What is not very well known is that this person’s wife had a nightmarish clue not to the question but as to the answer but her husband wouldn’t listen!!
Be careful when you credit Trump for the surge in the markets.
Using that logic you’ll have to hold him accountable when the markets tank.
The reality of the matter is that at this point Trump has little control over which direction the markets move. There isn’t any doubt in my mind that over the course of the next 4 years you’ll see the investment markets crash and little will have to do with Trump. It will be a result of the policies of the previous 3 administrations.
Actually if Trump does his job correctly he will implement policies that force the markets downward to compensate for the all froth we’ve seen in the last 9 years. And he’d better do it early in his term providing room for recovery by the time he runs for reelection.
If Trump is to be believed, he doesn’t put much money into the stock market. Instead he invests in his own real estate business. I don’t see any reason to question his assertions on this point.
Given that, I don’t think Trump is spending any time worrying about the stock market — up or down.
The folks who think P/E ratios in the 20s are “reasonable” (despite the historical mean being more like 15, and that was based on a more accurate denominator).
There would be some pain for certain people (ahem, 0.5 percenters currently plotting new crimes in Davos). But having the stock market revert to its historical mean around 15x earnings would not be unprecedented.
For people who lived beyond their means, saved almost nothing, and figured they would get a free ride off the public they didn’t serve? Well, public unions will have a very rough adjustment to reality. They deserve it.
For people who tried to save for their own retirement? Getting historically normal interest rates on their bonds will be a good thing, much better than subsidizing Bernanke/Yellen failures.
And for dear old Uncle Sam… well he is over due for a reality check no matter what.
We already know that NATO is getting downgraded. Its a WW2 relic that has not adopted well to post Soviet realities.
IMF (and World Bank) were designed to administer the Bretton Woods system, which ended 40+ years ago. Technically, the World Bank still serves to offer development loans (which aids diplomacy / military efforts) — but practically speaking the banks’ financial backers are themselves in need of cash.
The IMF is no longer needed to administer the BW system. And its “lending” program is redundant to the World Bank.
Whenever the losers in Congress start looking at ways to control their over-spending, the IMF will get the ax. Congress is a bunch of politicians — they will have to cut domestic US spending, so defending a French bureaucracy is a non-starter.
The IMF is playing “smiling yes man”, hoping to delay their day of reckoning.
I don’t think the US government has the money to avoid making some tough choices, and axing the IMF is not a tough choice.
Some institution able to offer assistance and even intervene in struggling economies, where the downside is real suffering, is needed. Working properly it can do much good but the costs of doing so should be distributed properly.
No it is not necessary. The world got by for centuries without central planners.
I cannot think of a single incident where the IMF or World Bank accomplished anything other than delaying the financial collapse of bad governments… and they invariably accomplished those delays by making the suffering for Joe/Jane Q Public much worse than it would have been otherwise.
I don’t accept the empty assertion of economics professors that these corrupt institutions are necessary. The evidence actually points the other way
As for your idea that the IMF “could do good” … if (a big if) it were run competently.
Good grief. Get a connection with the real world. That is the same dumb excuse used for the Post Office and countless other cases of bureaucratic scope creep.
In an imaginary world filled with dragons who fart butterflies and rose petals, a lot of things theoretically might work. But have you ever seen one of these magic farting dragons in the real world?
No. So stop the day dreaming. In the real world, it doesn’t work and has never worked despite many different people mismanaging it. Its a failed idea, and taxpayers do not have unlimited money to keep funding failed ideas.
I’m not an expert, nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn last night, but after following Mish’s writing about the IMF, for a few years I have to ask, Why not just shit-can it entirely? It seems every country the IMF has gone to, they’ve ruined. Greece, Ukraine are good examples. Frankly, I think one could get better terms from a mafia loan shark….
The IMF is still anti-Trump. By predicting his economic success, they will then curb lending to make sure the economy falters under Trump, and finally blame Trump.
Groups plan butyric acid plot at inauguration. Project Veritas… drudge report.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As the The IMFand Trump try to anticipate growth and how to make things great again, they need to be reminded that historically only one person promised to make “all things new” and it won’t cost you anything if you simply believe it!!
LikeLike
Jeff Bezos?
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Lol. LMAO.
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Bezos? No, not Bezos.
Remember, he said it wouldn’t cost anything, not that there “wouldn’t be any profitability” for eight years or more. LOL!
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Well, we could just assume that the IMF is running out of successful alternatives to Coat Tail off of…
LikeLike
The Trump BULL Parade is a magnificent SHOW…
and as it passes by…
please pay particular attention to that lingering odor…
as it will lead directly to celebratory souvenirs for the occasion.
LikeLike
They’ve only changed tune because they know they are past being able to influence anything by talking it down.
Too late to sway against Trump, too late to sway against Brexit.
When you understand what they joined in with in the Greel situation to protect the Euro you understand how poiltical and biased the IMF is.
They later admitted the risks were assymetirc but still acted to increase the misery in Greece. Basically admitted they are in love with the idea of the Euro and with French leader(s) will act to protect it.
LikeLike
“Do I have to go on my knees?” Ms Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund said, when asked whether she has apologised to George Osborne over the fund’s low growth forecasts and calls to adopt a ‘Plan B’ of less austerity – calls the body now accept it got wrong.
TheTelegraph.
LikeLike
Undue Eurozone influence on the IMF should be brought to an end.
Last head was French and scandal ensued, strangely this one is French and has just come out of court etc. Coincidence? Why not give an Indian or Brazilian a chance?
Anything other than European political elite.
If the organisation is needed then it also needs a regular analysis to see if it’s still fit for purpose.
LikeLike
No expert on the IMF, but if what I have read so far is true then it is political in nature, and has always had the tendency to demand strong cutbacks and liberal trade policy in return for loans.
So same difference, probably coordinates EU more than EU coordinates it.
A lot of criticism around for its approach wherever it goes.
LikeLike
If they applied the rules equaly throughout it wouldn’t be so bad.
The risks to the Euro and Greece were assymetric and Greece should have been cut some slack even if they had been very naughty boys. They received only a beating at the hands of everyone concerned. The IMF were chief in the act because they held the Euro in such high esteem. There was an IMF report to that effect a while later. Too late but it did admit their love affair with the Euro and EU.
LikeLike
Together they just about make up the rules. We don’t know if they are playing good cop bad cop or what. We don’t know if the leaked dispute was intentional. We know nothing but the economic blurb that accompanies monetary,political, and financial offers/impositions.
Neither are accountable.
The original charters of EU are in the bin, and the IMF works as it pleases.
LikeLike
Hello LMAO There is only one question that matters to the whole human race. It is only three words long and the person who asked it is very well known. What is not very well known is that this person’s wife had a nightmarish clue not to the question but as to the answer but her husband wouldn’t listen!!
LikeLike
WP servers are slow , slow , slow.
LikeLike
Be careful when you credit Trump for the surge in the markets.
Using that logic you’ll have to hold him accountable when the markets tank.
The reality of the matter is that at this point Trump has little control over which direction the markets move. There isn’t any doubt in my mind that over the course of the next 4 years you’ll see the investment markets crash and little will have to do with Trump. It will be a result of the policies of the previous 3 administrations.
Actually if Trump does his job correctly he will implement policies that force the markets downward to compensate for the all froth we’ve seen in the last 9 years. And he’d better do it early in his term providing room for recovery by the time he runs for reelection.
LikeLike
If Trump is to be believed, he doesn’t put much money into the stock market. Instead he invests in his own real estate business. I don’t see any reason to question his assertions on this point.
Given that, I don’t think Trump is spending any time worrying about the stock market — up or down.
The folks who think P/E ratios in the 20s are “reasonable” (despite the historical mean being more like 15, and that was based on a more accurate denominator).
There would be some pain for certain people (ahem, 0.5 percenters currently plotting new crimes in Davos). But having the stock market revert to its historical mean around 15x earnings would not be unprecedented.
For people who lived beyond their means, saved almost nothing, and figured they would get a free ride off the public they didn’t serve? Well, public unions will have a very rough adjustment to reality. They deserve it.
For people who tried to save for their own retirement? Getting historically normal interest rates on their bonds will be a good thing, much better than subsidizing Bernanke/Yellen failures.
And for dear old Uncle Sam… well he is over due for a reality check no matter what.
LikeLike
Are you deleting my complaints about your slow servers? It’s only a friendly heads-up.
LikeLike
We already know that NATO is getting downgraded. Its a WW2 relic that has not adopted well to post Soviet realities.
IMF (and World Bank) were designed to administer the Bretton Woods system, which ended 40+ years ago. Technically, the World Bank still serves to offer development loans (which aids diplomacy / military efforts) — but practically speaking the banks’ financial backers are themselves in need of cash.
The IMF is no longer needed to administer the BW system. And its “lending” program is redundant to the World Bank.
Whenever the losers in Congress start looking at ways to control their over-spending, the IMF will get the ax. Congress is a bunch of politicians — they will have to cut domestic US spending, so defending a French bureaucracy is a non-starter.
The IMF is playing “smiling yes man”, hoping to delay their day of reckoning.
I don’t think the US government has the money to avoid making some tough choices, and axing the IMF is not a tough choice.
LikeLike
Some institution able to offer assistance and even intervene in struggling economies, where the downside is real suffering, is needed. Working properly it can do much good but the costs of doing so should be distributed properly.
LikeLike
No it is not necessary. The world got by for centuries without central planners.
I cannot think of a single incident where the IMF or World Bank accomplished anything other than delaying the financial collapse of bad governments… and they invariably accomplished those delays by making the suffering for Joe/Jane Q Public much worse than it would have been otherwise.
I don’t accept the empty assertion of economics professors that these corrupt institutions are necessary. The evidence actually points the other way
LikeLike
As for your idea that the IMF “could do good” … if (a big if) it were run competently.
Good grief. Get a connection with the real world. That is the same dumb excuse used for the Post Office and countless other cases of bureaucratic scope creep.
In an imaginary world filled with dragons who fart butterflies and rose petals, a lot of things theoretically might work. But have you ever seen one of these magic farting dragons in the real world?
No. So stop the day dreaming. In the real world, it doesn’t work and has never worked despite many different people mismanaging it. Its a failed idea, and taxpayers do not have unlimited money to keep funding failed ideas.
LikeLike
I’m not an expert, nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn last night, but after following Mish’s writing about the IMF, for a few years I have to ask, Why not just shit-can it entirely? It seems every country the IMF has gone to, they’ve ruined. Greece, Ukraine are good examples. Frankly, I think one could get better terms from a mafia loan shark….
LikeLike
The IMF is still anti-Trump. By predicting his economic success, they will then curb lending to make sure the economy falters under Trump, and finally blame Trump.
LikeLike