The title of the article was "Job creation, equality top agenda of high-level conference" as published by The Jordanian Times. Every time you see the words "job creation" or "equality" or "high-level conference", you can rest assured it is going to be a gigantic waste of taxpayers' money for the benefit of current politicians and bureaucrats.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT
This meeting could not have turn out otherwise. It would seem that
"Arab policy makers"
the power elite of the region and
"International Monetary Fund officials"
the bureaucrats met in Aman (Jordan) to discuss policies to achieve
"macroeconomic stability"
to make sure they pay back the debt
"job creation"
vote maximization token policies
"better business climate"
profits for the power elite and
"transparency".
vote maximization token declaration
THE INITIATIVES
We won't bore you with all the nonsense, since your time is valuable. Let's summarize:
"Policy makers and experts stressed the need to improve government spending in Arab countries in order to achieve inclusive growth."
This is the core of it: spend, spend, spend and then spend some more. To be precise:
"In the short run, and if sufficient additional external financing can be mobilized, scaling up public investment could make an important and visible contribution to reducing unemployment, she said."
In other words, borrow, borrow, borrow and then spend, spend and spend.
Everything else is just fluff, fuzz, inconsequential gobbledygook destined to palliate the suckers also called taxpayers.
IMF's policies can be summarized in a single word: spend.
When the IMF wants to "reactivate" a market, it is borrow and spend.
When the IMF wants their money back, it is cut and spend (i.e. pay us).
And the free market? The free what? Never mind…
THE REALITY
It would be exceedingly impolite for us to call the IMF to put their numbers where their mouth is without any proof. So, let's go to the proof. You may remember our little Default Velocity Index (DVI) project, which attempted to quantify the direction and status of countries with regards to their default points. These are its color codes:
As the "high-level" conference dispensed economic advice for Arab countries, let's take a look at Arab countries' finances. The following table provides the DVI data for Arab Oil Producers.
The following table provides DVI data for Arab countries that are not Oil Producers.
Let's see if IMF's advice is sound. For 30% of oil producers, to borrow and spend is a bad idea because they are already taking debt beyond what they are taking in (considering the latest data not estimated). For 92% of non-oil producers, to borrow and spend is a bad idea for the same reasons. In other words, if you are an oil producer (i.e. a one-time deal) and therefore you can burn money, it may seem feasible for 70% of such countries. However, if you do not produce oil, it is simply not feasible for 92% of such countries because it gets you closer to your default point.
So, the great IMF advice is that if you are an oil producer, then waste your money. On the other hand, if you are not an oil producer then go ahead and borrow yourself into default.
Yup! Sound advice from the same people that engineered so many "successful" adjustment programs that went so well over so many decades.
CONCLUSION
Consider this. If it is possible to demonstrate that IMF's advice is bunk using a simple spreadsheet and data from the IMF itself, how come they can't see it? Simple; they are paid not to see it. This is not a coincidence; this is deliberate government (i.e. politician's) action. This is so because the spend, spend and spend recipe is the classic monetarist recipe that keeps buying jobs (votes) to politicians. Politicians can't afford to have local economists sing one song and international ones a different one, hence they synchronized them. Where do you think that IMF economists come from? From politician's pockets! They are appointed by politicians.
And there you have it, dear reader. Nothing but the best gobbledygook that your tax money can buy. Satisfied yet? If you are not, though cookies! There is no money-back guarantee! You should have read the fine print of your constitutional contract before buying your democratic product.
Believe it. Don't believe it. Up to you.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.