Howard maybe we could do a sit down. Are you anywhere near Vancouver? Let me know. We are pretty far apart, it seems we don't read the same stuff.
We both are pretty far apart but we both like Nash. That is a good sign for her campaign. Like you, I also have an interest in Saganash, although I bet we differ on Mulcair.
Thw World Bank was founded on government guarantees to back bonds issued in New York capital markets. The first presidents until McNamara were all from Wall St. for that reason.
The World Bank lent to Europe at a slightly higher rate than its borrowing costs. Borrowing costs were low because of government guarantees. Safe stuff, you pay less.The difference was its profit, which covered its operating costs
The World Bank still does this, but the Europeans have since joined the US (and other developed countries) as creditors, and now they lend to current day developing countries. The rates they offer to most developing countries are lower than the rates that those same countries are able to obtain from private credit sources.
The IMF was doing short term re-lending of foreign exchange allocated to it by governments. The first 25 percent of the borrowing quota, so called first tranche money, was what the country put in itself. it could borrow its own money back without trouble. Canada actually provided gold for some Aftican countries who joined the Fund after Independance, and had started out life without any foreign exchange or gold.
This short term balance of payments lending which was what the IMF was supposed to do under Bretton Woods did not go through capital markets.IMF money is provided directly by governments or created in very small amounts by SDR allocations.
Well, regardless of what the IMF did historically (e.g. we are no longer on the gold standard), its role still remains to ensure macroeconomic stability, mostly through monetary regimes and financial systems. It does that by offering advice to countries and providing them with emergency credit when they face default (i.e. balance of payments crises).
