Publisher Description

The IMF and World Bank were created to help countries survive financial crises and to help them develop into prosperous economic actors. But their 75-year track record shows the opposite: their loans and structural adjustment policies have plunged poor countries into impossibly large debt traps and forced the Third World to focus on producing goods for consumption in the West, instead of growing consumption and industry at home. The Bank and the Fund's "development and assistance" has been anything but. The reality is a history of neocolonial exploitation with shocking results.

Review

"In reading through Alex's brilliant and comprehensive treatise, you will be investigating the big economic lie of our world at its root: that the powerful help the weak. Following that, you will face an important choice. What system do you choose?"- Jeff Booth, Author, Price of Tomorrow, and GP, Ego Death Capital "Although Gladstein's book rages against the injustice that characterizes the neoliberal economic model and the Bretton Woods institutions, it ultimately offers a glimmer of hope by demonstrating how Bitcoin, with its liberating philosophy, decentralized technology, and immutable functionality can help free nations and peoples from the debt trap."- Farida Nabourema, Togolese writer, human rights defender, and Pan-Africanist "Alex Gladstein has written a powerful examination of an immensely important question that is usually overlooked in academia and media: What gives the World Bank and IMF such exorbitant power over the politics and finances of developing countries? By examining the monetary foundations of the question, Alex offers an astute assessment of the perverse incentives facing international financial institutions, and a compelling explanation for why the real beneficiaries of their programs are western financial institutions and governments, while the victims are the world's poorest people."- Saifedean Ammous, Author, The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard

In reading through Alex's brilliant and comprehensive treatise, you will be investigating the big economic lie of our world at its root: that the powerful help the weak. Following that, you will face an important choice. What system do you choose?-Jeff Booth, Author, Price of Tomorrow, and GP, Ego Death Capital Although Gladstein's book rages against the injustice that characterizes the neoliberal economic model and the Bretton Woods institutions, it ultimately offers a glimmer of hope by demonstrating how Bitcoin, with its liberating philosophy, decentralized technology, and immutable functionality can help free nations and peoples from the debt trap.-Farida Nabourema, Togolese writer, human rights defender, and Pan-Africanist Alex Gladstein has written a powerful examination of an immensely important question that is usually overlooked in academia and media: What gives the World Bank and IMF such exorbitant power over the politics and finances of developing countries? By examining the monetary foundations of the question, Alex offers an astute assessment of the perverse incentives facing international financial institutions, and a compelling explanation for why the real beneficiaries of their programs are western financial institutions and governments, while the victims are the world's poorest people.-Saifedean Ammous, Author, The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard

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