The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created at the Bretton Woods Meetings in 1944, where finance ministers from the countries emerging victorious from WWII met to design a new archtiecture for the modern international economy. The Bank was set up to help rebuild war-torn Europe, but soon thereafter turned its focus to the "underdeveloped" world to bring poor countries into the international economy. The IMF was to help stabilize currency exchange rates between nations.

After numerous reports blasting the IMF for worsening the Asian finanical crisis, exposing the Bank's failure to alleviate poverty (many accuse the Bank of actually creating poverty), and rampant corruption charges around both institutions, the IMF and World Bank are today under mounting public pressure to change their ways. A real debate is under way as to what role these two organizations should play in today's global economy. Many critics would like to see both the Bank and the IMF shut down completely. In contrast, the U.S. government proposes expanding the IMF as a safety net for the larger and more frequent finanical crises that are expected in today's deregulated global capital markets.

The IFG Teach-In on the IMF and the World Bank on April 14, 2000 in Washington, D.C. explained how these institutions actually work, who controls them, who wins, who loses, and what people around the planet are doing to address their negative impacts on poverty, democracy, the environment, labor, human rights and other areas.

IFG Resources on the IMF

• Jurassic Fund: Should Developing Countries Push to Decommission the IMF?
• IMF's Role in Asian Financial Crisis

• Friends of the Earth
  • On the IMF
  • On the World Bank
  • On debt
• Third World Network
  • On the Cologne Initiative
  • Bailing out countries or foreign banks?
  • On debt cancellation
  • On the IMF's new poverty focus: a hard sell
• Global Exchange
  • Facts on the IMF and World Bank
  • Questions and answers on the IMF and World Bank (from 50 Years in Enough)
• 50 Years is Enough
• Jubilee USA Network
• Jubilee 2000 Plus (UK)
• The Bank Information Center's Links to Other Organizations