The Dark Past of The BIS Part 1

Bolivia

Nearly two years (July 2020) ago the BIS was in the financial headlines because of its direction for central banks to go cashless. It is readily apparent that it never lost its power and influence over the decades.

Created at Bretton Woods in 1944, the World Bank has been dominated by international bankers, members of the Council on Foreign Relations and later by the Trilateral Commission. Corruption and self-interest run amok as public funds are converted into private hands by the billions.

According to The World Bank, it is:

a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We are not a bank in the common sense. We are made up of two unique development institutions owned by 184 member countries—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). Each institution plays a different but supportive role in our mission of global poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards. The IBRD focuses on middle-income and creditworthy poor countries, while IDA focuses on the poorest countries in the world. Together we provide low-interest loans, interest-free credit and grants to developing countries for education, health, infrastructure, communications and many other purposes.” 

The use of lofty phrases like “our mission of global poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards” may lead the reader to assume that the World Bank is a charitable and global welfare institution. Why is it that the World Bank has joined the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) as institutions that people all across the world despise? In actuality, the World Bank, together with the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements, has considerable influence in forcefully integrating smaller nations across the world into its own version of capitalist democracy.

World Bank Beginnings

The World Bank, like the IMF, sprang from the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944. The World Bank’s initial name was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which reflected its original mission: to reconstruct Europe after World War II’s destruction. The term “World Bank” did not become official until 1975.

Both the IBRD and the IMF began as autonomous specialised agencies of the United Nations, and they continue to be such today.

Because much of the Southern hemisphere was still under colonial authority at the time, the term “development” in the IBRD name was very inconsequential. Each colonial ruler was responsible for the commercial activity in their individual nations.

As a “reconstruction” bank, however, the World Bank was impotent. It ultimately loaned only $497(US) million for reconstruction projects. The Marshall Plan, by contrast, became the true engine of the reconstruction of Europe by loaning over $41(US) billion by 1953.

Structure of the World Bank

The World Bank is now made up of two main parts: the IBRD and the International Development Association (IDA), which was founded in 1960.

The IBRD only lends to creditworthy governments, meaning that there is a reasonable prospect that they will return their loans. The IDA, on the other hand, exclusively loans to governments that are not creditworthy, which are often the poorest. They combine to deliver a “one-two” blow in global financing to any country they can persuade to borrow. The United States presently gives around $1 billion in taxpayer cash to the IDA each year.

Three other affiliates combine with the World Bank, to be collectively called the World Bank Group:

  • The International Finance Corporation (IFC) – Founded in 1956, lends directly to the private sector in developing counties.
  • The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) -Founded in 1988, provides guarantees to investors in developing countries against losses caused by non-commercial risks.
  • The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) – Founded in 1966, provides international facilities for conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes.

Washington DC is the World Bank’s headquarters. It employs over 7,000 people at its Washington headquarters and another 3,000 in 109 offices throughout member countries.

The IBRD makes money by selling AAA-rated bonds and other debt instruments to other banks, pension funds, insurance companies, and enterprises all around the globe. The IDA, on the other hand, is supported by member nations’ (taxpayer) payments. Annual loan levels are about identical between the IBRD and the IDA. While the IFC raises its own funds via free markets, MIGA and ICSID rely on the World Bank for the bulk of their financing, which is mostly taxpayer-funded.

American Hegemony

It’s worth noting that the United Nations is based in the United States, on property granted to the organisation by David Rockefeller. New Hampshire hosted the Bretton Woods Conference. The United States has produced every World Bank president. It’s no surprise that the World Bank is seen as an American institution by the rest of the world.

The president of the World Bank is always an American, but the head of the IMF is always a European, according to an unwritten but long-standing tradition. Global bankers and their related global proxies have completely dominated the World Bank for its entire history. Collectively and individually, they have always operated purposefully and consistently for their own self-interested, financial gain. Why would anyone expect even one of them to act out of character (e.g., be concerned for world poverty) while directing the helm of the World Bank?

Read part 2 here.

online sources: geo-politics.com, wef.com, worldbank.org, imf.org

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