World Bank

Revision as of 21:34, 8 April 2004 by 142.177.94.28 (talk)

The World Bank is thought by many people to be the single most destructive institution on Earth (the WTO, IMF, BIS, UN Security Council, currency markets, commodity markets, television and Internet being competing bad things that many think are worse).

It is the de facto public investment bank for the entire planet, just as the BIS and IMF operate as a sort of de facto central bank, which between them set the policies (based on GDP) that do maximum damage to life while causing maximum circulation of money.

The World Bank approves and funds extremely destructive projects in China and Congo and Brazil, which expand roads that lead to deforestation and extinction and new viruses that jump species into humans and kill large numbers of people (sometimes using factory farms as incubators on the way, though the new virus almost always comes from a newly damaged forest area or wild bird/animal population). The damage done by these projects is incredible, astonishing even, reducing nature's services to all people. For those people killed, of course, the services provided are now near zero (some space for the body or atmospheric CO2 absorption capacity for the ashes) and maybe funerals and lawyers to process wills increase GDP - all the Bank cares about.

A fairly large number of people believes that the Bankers are guilty of more than one crime against humanity, and should simply all be put on trial. See w:anti-globalization movement for more on its opposition.

Former economists at the Bank have sometimes left their jobs to take part in protests against it, Joseph Stiglitz being the most obvious example.