Crusaders of Capital: the IMF

Let's talk about the concentration of power, particularly the transfer of power into the private sector and its remarkable degree of concentration therein. Now it's impossible to talk about this without discussing the role of the International Monetary Fund. Now, not gonna go into the history of the IMF and Bretton Woods and all of that. You can find all of that online.

The IMF was created alongside the World Bank in 1945 as overlapping finance arms of the United Nations.

But what you need to know is that the IMF operates as a tool of American foreign policy specifically to serve the interests of business and to undermine the economic sovereignty and independence of other countries.

If you borrow from them, they take control over our economy.

This is a function of what's called neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is an approach to economics that pushes policies like the elimination of trade barriers, privatization, currency devaluation, cutting social spending and austerity, promotion of export led economies, and deregulation, particularly with regards to rules governing foreign investors. The IMF gives out loans with terms that make repayment almost impossible, and they attach conditions to those loans which require receiving countries to adopt structural adjustment reforms to their economies, which include all of the policies that I just mentioned.

I will lend you some money in a very short timeframe at full interest rate to get you out of the bank. And they then impose upon you tremendous restrictions in what you can spend.

Now all of these adjustments are designed to restructure a country's economy to suit the interests of multinational corporations and foreign investors, not in the interests of their own population. As economist Sami Amin puts it

It is asked to Congo to adjust to the need of The US, never to The US to adjust to the needs of Congo.

Now this is all packaged in the rhetoric of the glories of the free market and the benefits of free trade.

Free trade, it brings prosperity. The operation of the free market is so essential to foster harmony and peace among the peoples of the world.

Integrating your local economy into the global market by making it more attractive to foreign investors will put your country on a fast track to development and prosperity.

Globalization is a process of opening up economies so that trade between countries could take place freely. Increasing globalization has helped the expansion of opportunities for nations and benefited workers in rich and poor countries Brings positive benefits for consumers, helping to increase choice, drive down prices, improve services, and create new jobs and opportunities. Globalization can therefore be seen as a positive force for change that has the potential to raise living standards and drive economies forward.

Of course, they failed to mention that this is exactly the opposite of the way in which developed nations became developed in the first place.

Even countries like Britain and The United States, countries which people think invented free trade were actually very protectionist in the early days when they needed to catch up with other people. Between 1830 and the end of the Second World War, The United States had the highest industrial tariff rate in the world.

And they failed to mention that the free market isn't free at all. It's a fully centralized system dominated by monopolies consisting of massive corporations, banks, and asset management companies with economic power that can eclipse the GDP of any country in the developing world.

We don't have a level playing field.

They have the collective ability to dictate wages, pricing, costs, and access to credit in every conceivable sector of the global economy. Just look at what Unilever's chief financial officer Graham Pitt Ketherley told investors last month, we are the price leader. Competition is following in pricing, and we're measuring that. In other words, Unilever is so big it can hike prices at will because competition is not even a factor in most markets, and other major companies just follow Unilever's pricing. They increase their market share by proliferation and domination, not through competitive products and pricing.

The IMF, therefore, is an instrument used by the international business community to politically crack open vulnerable countries for predatory investors and corporations to devour. Just as with imperialistic conquests in the past, this is achieved in collaboration with local elites who will personally profit from selling their countries into debt slavery and corporate feudalism. As of 2011, fewer than 1,000 multinational corporations owned 80% of the wealth flowing between 37,000,000 companies and investors around the world, with fewer than 150 companies controlling almost half of that. Just three asset management companies have controlling shares in 20% of all companies listed on the S and P five hundred, including the largest corporations in the world, and together they wield control over more than $20,000,000,000,000 worth of these companies' assets. In other words, they represent a collective economic superpower greater than The United States Of America.

And with the help of the IMF, they're on a mission to hollow out governments around the world, forcing the privatization of state assets and services to make whole societies dependent and subservient to a class of neo imperialist shareholders, financiers and investors, converting national governments into enforcers of neo liberal policies that keep their nations weak and subject. Just look at what Larry Fink had to say recently in a letter to BlackRock shareholders in which he discussed the private sector banishment of Russia from the global economy. These actions taken by the private sector demonstrate the power of the capital markets, how the markets can provide capital to those who constructively work within the system and how quickly they can deny it to those who operate outside of it. This economic war shows what we can achieve when companies supported by their stakeholders come together. We see significant opportunity to continue to use our market reach and scale to drive better outcomes for our clients and results for our shareholders.

What he's saying in essence is that the private sector has the collective power to make or break a country and that companies like BlackRock are well positioned to use that power to influence global politics to benefit shareholders. And of course, he's right. So what has been gradually emerging over the past few decades is a coalition of incredibly wealthy people organizing their capital in corporations, creating a generalized monopoly over global markets and utilizing institutions like the IMF to coerce, manipulate, control and exploit states around the world. This has become an empire of capital, a sort of floating super sovereign nexus of private sector power that simultaneously expands its reach, increases interdependencies and hardens the concentration of control. BlackRock developed the most sophisticated and intricate software for data collection and analysis enabling them evaluate geopolitical trends in minute detail for the crafting of what they call a whole portfolio approach, which means formulating strategies for how, when and where to wield the private sector power they control to create conditions ideal for maximizing profits for their shareholders.

Now if this means removing 40% of the world's wheat supply from the market or most of Europe's sources of energy to facilitate crisis conditions worldwide and new conflict zone opportunities, that's something that they can do, and they even say that they can do it, and in fact they are doing it. It is crucial for Muslims to accurately understand the dynamics of power in the world today, and for our governments to protect their economic sovereignty. Our activists and NGOs have to begin to redirect their emphasis towards hostile private sector non state actors and our own companies, business people and investors have to recognize that they play a decisive political role in the security and well-being of our ummah. It is in our interests to form tactical alliances not only between Muslim states but across the global South, ideally led by our own private sector players as they have the ability to outpace government in building bridges across borders, and we need to revitalize existing institutions like the OIC and resurrect the spirit of the non aligned movement to build practical solidarity within the ummah and with developing non Muslim countries. I know it might seem insurmountable, but the truth is that the transfer of power to the private sector has made it much more susceptible to pressure.

Consider that roughly half of Unilever's revenues come from Asia, but this mega corporation is struggling in Indonesia, the biggest Muslim country in the world, because local manufacturers are less impacted by inflation and are still actually able to compete in pricing with Unilever. Domestic market is less swayed by marketing of big corporations and they prefer the local brands that they trust. This is an advantage that can be built upon and strengthened, and it's just one example. The Muslim world, Asia, the developing countries of Africa and Latin America are going to be increasingly under pressure from the Western Empire of Capital and its instruments like the IMF. Take note of the food crisis in Sri Lanka and the skyrocketing food prices in Egypt.

The prices are the prices of first necessity products, the products that are indispensable for the poor of the Egyptians, which is according to official figures, at least one third of the population. So flour have doubled in price, oil, sugar, but also foods and vegetables.

And now both of these countries are seeking new loans from the IMF.

The decision to deal with the IMF marks a policy shift. Colombo had resisted calls from experts and politicians to seek the agency's help, but it argued that asking international financial institutions for assistance could bring along conditions which could be detrimental to the country's interests.

And understand that the food crisis and global inflation are manufactured conditions directly resulting from the private sector blockade of Russia, and food shortages will get worse with famines highly likely to erupt across the world before the 2022.

The impact of this crisis is worldwide. If you look at Yemen, if you look at Lebanon, if you look at Syria, if you look at Southerian, if you look at Ethiopia, and I can keep going.

There will be more countries vulnerable to predatory loans from the IMF, and I can guarantee that BlackRock's profits will reach all time highs even as the world descends into a global economic depression. Now can you imagine Omar bin al Khattab tolerating the existence of a parallel government to rival the power of the Khilafa or any coalition of business people possessing so much power that they could impose poverty and starvation upon the Muslims? The black rocks and the unilevers of the world are not our leaders, they're not our rulers, and they have no right to enforce their will upon our ummah. We should mobilize as consumers, as workers, as business owners, as tradespeople, as investors, and among civil society to resist this corporate crusade and build unity and solidarity between the Muslims and with the oppressed.