World Bank and IMF, how does it work?

Question

What is, and how does the World Bank and IMF work? Why are these organizations accused of being the why most third world countries are unable to get out of debt?

Answer 1

Go to the Wikipedia entries for both of these organizations -- that's a good place to learn about what they do.

This parody site of the World Bank does an excellent job of illustrating why many people believe the World Bank policies have lead to economic and social instability and a lowering of quality of life for many developing countries -- helping those at the top of the economic scale but not those at the bottom:

http://whirledbank.org

Answer 2

The WB and IMF are public international lenders that give loans to third world countries, but only if they agree to the neo-liberal agenda.  Tenants of neo-liberalism are: privatization, de-regulation, and "trade liberalization" (free trade).  They offer extremely low interests rates at first(like 5%), but then raise the interest rates to 25% in 6 months, this is why the Global South countries are heavily in debt.  This is exactly how credit card companies operate.  Also it isn't just public international lenders but private banks do this as well.  THe United States has weighted voting because it contributes the most to the IMF and WB, so if the U.S. doesn't want to give a loan to a country, it won't receive a loan.