Three years after the collapse of Argentina's economy under IMF and World Bank recipes for development, the South American country's budding recovery is stunning international observers.

John Perkins

Defying the IMF's prescriptions, president Kirchner and his economic advisers have told creditors to get in line and wait, while building the economy from the bottom up. An excellent article in the New York Times relates the story.(Use Bugmenot to get beyond the registration barrage).

The looting of Argentina by international finance and the subsequent disintegration of its economy in December 2001 is but one example of what has been official policy of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for decades: Indebt developing nations by granting humongous loans for projects that benefit foreign contractors rather than the local economy, collect repayments and when the entirely predictable financial trouble occur, put on the squeeze to "open the country to a market economy". Lower the wages, eliminate any social subsidies, open basic services to multinational competition and give away raw materials at fire sale prices.

John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community has blown the whistle on this practice.

In his book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" he describes how as a highly paid he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies. Democracynow.org has posted an interesting interview with Perkins.

Sour grapes criticism by the advocates of economic globalism paints a bleak picture indeed. The "magic solution" proposed by the economic creme de la creme is - it is hard to believe - linking the Argentine currency to the Dollar and a renewal of efforts to please international finance, but of course that is exactly what caused the trouble in the first place.

How did the Argentinians do it?

Communication Agent Sepp Hasslberger reports in detail on this story. Find out what he as to say about it.