{"id":137694,"date":"2023-10-15T16:46:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T23:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=137694"},"modified":"2023-10-15T16:46:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T23:46:25","slug":"us-financial-terrorism-imf-cbsl-loot-worker-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/10\/15\/us-financial-terrorism-imf-cbsl-loot-worker-pensions\/","title":{"rendered":"US Financial Terrorism: IMF & CBSL Loot Worker\u00a0Pensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 08-14 October 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018War is robbery, commerce is generally cheating<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Benjamin Franklin (who described people as \u2018tool-making animals\u2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IMF & World Bank\u2019s \u2018tough love\u2019 and sweet hemlock about eliminating \u2018corruption\u2019 & \u2018transparency\u2019 mainly aims to sabotage a national movement focused on economic self-reliance & self-determination. The IMF\u2019s critics meanwhile fail to place the IMF & World Bank plans in a history of interference in & deindustrialization of Sri Lanka\u2019s economy from 1948 itself, nestling deep in the soul of Soulbury independence. Corruption<\/em> after all is another word for commerce<\/em>, no? What\u2019s an economy dominated by merchants & moneylenders, and the parliamentary representatives they finance, supposed to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Almost 3 decades after terrorists blew up the Central Bank, this repository of the highest number of PhDs per square foot here, is now blowing up the country. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL, designed by a US Federal Reserve operative) is now plundering \u2018half of the future incomes of the Employees\u2019 Provident Fund (EPF) & Employees\u2019 Trust Fund (ETF)\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u2018No other country has exclusively targeted pension funds in DDR (domestic debt restructuring) because no civilised administration would plunder the only means of survival of their workers after their retirement,\u2019 declares Dhanusha Pathirana, \u2018economic analyst\u2019, who fingers the hidden hand of local capitalists in this great DDR robbery. We shall have to wait to find out what exactly the EPT\/ETF has so far invested in. But Hamilton Reserve Bank lawsuit in New York claims Sri Lankans are robbing elderly US citizens pensions who generously invested in Sri Lankan bonds! Yet what did these bonds invest in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, CP Chandrasekhar, Amali Wedagedara & Charith Gunawardena of the newly minted Institute of Political Economy (IPE) <\/strong>argue that the IMF \u2018structural adjustment reforms have also destroyed opportunities for growth in local manufacturing industries & agriculture sectors.\u2019 But what would these \u2018opportunities\u2019 have amounted to in terms of actual industrial transformation? They do not describe. Instead, they lament the effect of IMF games \u2018on Sri Lanka\u2019s Poor<\/em>\u2019. \u2018Poor<\/em>\u2019 however is a 16th<\/sup> century Elizabethan construct to disguise the eviction of England\u2019s rural population \u2013 \u2018Sri Lanka\u2019s Impoverishment<\/em>\u2019 is after all what they long seek (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> also begins a <\/em>Wenhua Zongheng<\/em> series on the attempts by China to assist in Africa\u2019s industrialization. Who in this world at this time can show us how they themselves have struggled to achieve modernity? Finally, ee<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>examines Shenali Waduge\u2019s reminder that \u2018Sri Lanka Needs a Happy-Economic Model & So Does the World\u2019. We glimpse at the first major critic of modern (machine) capitalism during its first crisis \u2013 Simonde de Sismondi. Only a few analysts (as Marx, Lenin, Luxembourg earlier) have been sharp to link the great Sismondi to the present national movement\u2019s dominant romanticism, anarchism etc. Nationalists may surely object to such ideological fore-genes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Nevertheless, ee<\/em><\/strong> invokes the Communist Party of Sri Lanka\u2019s siren for socialist & nationalist forces to unite, and begins to serialize Idirimagen Idiriyata<\/em>, the CPSL\u2019s \u2018Alternative Development Program\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Almost 70% of the country works in the informal sector, with only 8% doing formal-sector jobs. So warns the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS)<\/strong> report Sri Lanka: State of Economy 2023<\/em>. But what\u2019s the problem? Workers in the informal sector \u2018have no social protection<\/strong> and, as a result Sri Lanka should look at creating more good jobs<\/strong> that will guarantee social protection like EPF\/ETF. In addition good jobs will provide adequate remuneration, rights at work\u2019. No kidding! But can IPS recommend a modern industrial plan that could provide such \u2018formal-sector\u2019 \u2018good jobs\u2019 , or do they wish more of the same shill-and-be-shilled: consumer services? Selling more workers \u2018West\u2019 (which includes US-occupied Korea & Japan)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The white man (the IMF\u2019s master) is at the same time adding fuel to the carnage in West Asia. That should make working there more lucrative no doubt. And as for the prices of that fuel, wonder what all the IMF forecasts & prognoses will be now? The IMF etc however, carries on regardless. They demand \u2018rule of law\u2019 and yet oppose \u2018elections\u2019. ee<\/em><\/strong> estimates bourgeois elections as an expensive (capitalist-media-driven) fraud but but but<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 Elections Threaten US Plans<\/strong> \u2013 Last week, after the IMF grandly \u2018suspended<\/em>\u2019 their \u2018plan<\/em>\u2019, they released their 139-page Governance Diagnostic Assessment<\/strong> (GDA), which makes 16 demands. One demand involves the government abolishing the Strategic Development Projects Act.<\/strong> It\u2019s for noble reasons no doubt: They want \u2018an explicit & transparent<\/strong> process\u2019 to evaluate proposals & costing of investment promotion conditions.\u2019 That\u2019s it? And whose projects would qualify now? MCC?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Another interesting IMF \u2018priority\u2019 demand: \u2018Corruption risks around state-owned land<\/strong>, estimated at approximately 80% of the country, are particularly severe due to the combination of lack of clarity<\/strong> around titles<\/strong>, the absence of a property registry<\/strong>, and ambiguity<\/strong> in processes for the divestiture of state property.\u2019 Alright? What land does the IMF wish to sell? And what\u2019s the hurry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     And so another team of officials from the IMF is expected next week to hold \u2018extensive discussions<\/strong>\u2019 on the \u2018suspended\u2019 \u20182nd<\/sup> tranche of the Extended Fund Facility\u2019. Hasn\u2019t their previous chatter been \u2018extensive\u2019? Has anyone counted the number & cost of the suits leaving & entering Sri Lanka whose sole purpose is to help<\/em> Sri Lanka\u2019s debt-ridden economy? Look at the number of ADB Executive Directors<\/strong> who arrived last week! The problem it turns out is, elections? And the IMF is full of democratic doom&gloom: \u2018full economic recovery is not yet assured.\u2019 And the economists echo: \u2018The most serious threat to the continuity of the IMF program arises from the elections next year.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 Just to warm things up further: \u2018Civil society groups & lawyers organized a human chain<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 on October 4, for \u201810km on the main road from Jaffna town to Maruthanarmadam in the Northern province\u2019, claiming a Mullaitivu judge was threatened to resign and flee the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     On Oct 11, India launched a ferry service connecting Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu with Kankesanthurai in SL\u2019s Northern Province \u2018to enhance connectivity\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     On Oct 15, President Ranil Wickremesinghe began his visit to China. He will address the 3rd<\/sup> Belt & Road Forum, to mark the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The President will return to a 20 October that has been declared \u2018a<\/strong> day of total shutdown<\/strong>\u2019 for Tamil political parties to \u2018unite in Jaffna to urge international powers to intervene over the continuous deprivation of justice & protection for Tamils under Sri Lanka\u2019s Sinhala Buddhist dominance\u2019. These same international powers (including India) now certainly promoting justice & protection in Palestine, no doubt?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 The IMF claims it was \u2018caught off guard<\/strong>\u2019 by the \u2018debt deal\u2019 Sri Lanka struck with China this week, which the media calls \u2018tentative\u2019, and \u2018in principle\u2019. China called on \u2018multilateral institutions & commercial creditors to take part in Sri Lanka\u2019s debt restructuring based on fair burden-sharing<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In Morocco, \u2018the IMF & creditors like Japan, the US & India\u2019 held talks on a debt restructuring plan \u2018without the participation of China, which would include safeguards to prevent favourable payment terms to China<\/strong>\u2019!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 On October 13, \u2018Sri Lankan Civil Society Initiative on Anti-Corruption Reform for Economic Recovery\u2019, hosted \u2018Pathways to Debt Sustainability & Governance Reform\u2019 \u2013 \u2018a closed-door event<\/strong> alongside the IMF Annual Meetings in Marrakesh, Morocco\u2019. Civil Society<\/em>? Closed door<\/em>? Corruption? <\/em>Well, here we go:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u2018IMF Senior Mission Chief<\/strong> for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer, US-funded Verit\u00e9 Research<\/strong> Executive Director Dr Nishan de Mel, Transparency International SL<\/strong> Executive Director Nadishani Perera & Global Sovereign Advisory Senior Research Analyst Theo Maret spoke on a panel moderated by Thomson Reuters<\/em><\/strong> Emerging Markets Correspondent<\/strong> Jorgelina do Rosario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Since it was a \u2018transparent, closed-door\u2019 event, we do not know what transpired. But they discussed the 2 recent governance diagnostics on Sri Lanka by civil society & the IMF and how the \u2018IMF, the government, & the country\u2019s creditors\u2019 (where\u2019s civil society here?) could achieve the \u2018restructuring\u2019 of Sri Lanka\u2019s debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The \u2018Civil Society Governance Diagnostic Report on the Anti-Corruption Landscape of Sri Lanka\u2019 was released in mid-September, with \u201834 governance reform recommendations for Sri Lanka aimed at addressing the root causes<\/strong> of Sri Lanka\u2019s current crisis\u2019 .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In late Sept, after its grand suspension to cause middle-class hearts to flutter & demand a crackdown on unions, etc (few people even know what the IMF is doing in Sri Lanka, according to a USAID CPA Survey) \u2013 the IMF released its governance diagnostic<\/strong> on Sri Lanka \u2013 the first ever IMF governance diagnostic in Asia \u2013 making its 16 demands. Dollar-rich \u2018civil society\u2019 and the dollar-printing & un-civil IMF wish to improve \u2018rule of law, transparency & accountability\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The 139-page-long report on \u2018Sri Lanka: Technical Assistance Report \u2013 Governance Diagnostic Assessment\u2019 unveils the country\u2019s corruption at \u2018high places<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 On October 10, the \u2018Intergovernmental Group of 24 on International Monetary Affairs & Development (G24) called on the IMF \u2018to remain a quota-based institution<\/strong> in order to bolster the voice & representation of emerging market &developing economies<\/strong>, who now account for a larger share of world GDP. And also wants: \u2018correcting regional underrepresentation<\/strong> in the IMF\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     On October 11, quite blas\u00e9 to the fires blazing in West Asia, the IMF & World Bank & its allies released the Marrakech Principles for Global Cooperation, muttering their old mantra: \u2018strengthening governance, the rule of law, trade, and the business environment to attract new investment and generate jobs. And here is the key: \u2018catalyzing private sector finance<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     And while they make no mention of their escalating wars (IMF calls Israel\u2019s economic performance \u2018impressive\u2019) they said thus: \u2018Addressing fragility<\/strong> by effectively utilizing mechanisms for supporting fragile & conflict-affected states<\/strong> and jointly addressing global sources of food & energy insecurity<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     On 7 September, US Undersecretary for International Affairs Jay Shambaugh had acknowledged (a 1st<\/sup> time for the US) the imbalance in IMF governance, by giving \u2018a bit more information on what it would take for the US to accept an increase of China\u2019s IMF quota shares\u2019. China is quite aware that the IMF is rigged, and demands that all multilateral institutions like the IMF & World Bank also restructure. These demands by China, the Anglo media steadfastly refuse to mention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 The manoeuvrings that Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign policy officials (80% dedicated to meeting India\u2019s concerns, apparently) have to squirm in, to obtain a more favorable deal from the white man, is truly cringe-worthy. Midst all manner of media buzz about a Chinese \u2018spy ship\u2019<\/strong>, a US naval ship Brunswick<\/em> sailed unheralded by the anglomaniacs into the port of Colombo for an extended visit until Oct 15, to see \u2018some of the tourist attractions in the country\u2019. The oceanic floor alone must bore them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, the Island <\/em>headlined: \u2018Govt <\/em>finally<\/em><\/strong> allows Chinese ship visit<\/em>\u2026 Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6<\/em> would arrive in Sri Lanka in late November, Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Sabry said on Monday (9). The Foreign Ministry had granted approval for the arrival of the ship, he added. The ship is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on 25 Nov. Initially, they wanted to come<\/strong> in Oct. We asked them to come in Nov. They again asked<\/strong> if they could come in late Oct. We have maintained our position <\/strong>that they must come<\/strong> in late Nov. This is the situation, now.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018It appears that the main reason why State District Court of New York<\/p>\n\n\n\n

got involved is simply that someone, somewhere<\/strong> in the US government<\/p>\n\n\n\n

took particular exception to how Hamilton Reserve Bank\u2019s lawyers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

presented the US position on sovereign debt restructurings.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Economy<\/em><\/strong>, SL\u2019s US Cavalry is Here: Too bad they didn\u2019t bring any big guns<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ee<\/em><\/strong> knows little about financial finagling, but it appears the US, England & EU want Sri Lanka to acknowledge its finances are going to be officially determined elsewhere: eg, the US Court in Southern District of New York (SDNY), in media-blindfolded Manhattan. The Financial Times <\/em>does not tell us what the US government found exceptional about HRB\u2019s take on US interference in Sri Lanka. ee<\/em><\/strong> keeps also wondering why the media keeps teasing readers about this \u2018London Club<\/strong>\u2019, who are obviously involved in Sri Lanka\u2019s debt jugglery. Yet they don\u2019t go into much detail:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In September, London Club<\/strong> came up again when France & England joined the US at the SDNY court to support Sri Lanka\u2019s request for \u2018a 6 month freeze on any litigation\u2019 on its debt, by filing an \u2018amicus brief\u2019. Occupied-Japan\u2019s Nikkei<\/em>-owned Financial Times<\/em> of London then went on to say such briefs are usually filed \u2018by people, organisations or countries that aren\u2019t themselves party to any legal case, but have a strong opinion<\/strong> on how it should go. France is naturally interested<\/strong> in the Sri Lanka lawsuit as it hosts the so-called Paris Club<\/strong>, where government-to-govt debts are restructured. England is part of the Paris Club, but presumably cosigned the amicus brief because it historically oversaw the London Club<\/strong>, the less formal group for private creditors<\/strong> to negotiate with sovereign borrowers.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     On 4 October, EconomyNext <\/em>reported on Ranil Wickremesinghe at Germany\u2019s Berlin Dialog: \u2018Sri Lanka also has to talk with private creditors. We have to talk with the Paris Club, plus India, then we\u2019ll talk to China and then go back to the London Club.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     So other than wishing to affirm we all know that the Sri Lankan economy has been taken hostage by Manhattan & London bankers & their lawyers\u2026 what else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     On 12 Oct: \u2018Sri Lanka\u2019s private creditors have sent a proposal on how to restructure $12billion of overseas debt, including a new type of bond designed to ease repayments in case of future economic pressure.\u2019 The article rather mysteriously, or designed to create mystery, quoted: \u20182 sources with direct knowledge of the matter\u2019. Further on it adds: \u2018Representatives for the government did not respond<\/strong> to a request for comment. A spokesperson representing the creditor committee did not reply<\/strong> to a request for comment.\u2019 So who is this \u2018Creditor Committee<\/em>\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     One article credited this story to Reuters and another to Channel NewsAsia, owned by Singapore national public broadcaster Mediacorp, with headline: \u2018SL bondholders sent $12bn debt rework proposal to government \u2013 sources\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u2018The proposal sent on Oct 2 provides a write-down, or haircut, on both capital & interest, added the sources who declined to be named<\/em><\/strong> because the talks are private<\/strong>. The proposal foresees new \u2018step-down\u2019, \u2018Macro Linked Bonds, which will automatically lower coupon payments starting in 2027 if Sri Lanka fails to meet some of the economic targets linked to its IMF program\u2019. \u2013 see ee Economy<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Gaming Sri Lanka\u2019s Debt<\/strong> \u2013 The London Financial Times<\/em> suggests the Hamilton Reserve Bank lawsuit<\/strong> relates to \u2018collective action clauses that allow all of the country\u2019s bonds to be aggregated for voting purposes\u2019. This apparently means a \u2018majority\u2019 decides on the terms. The HRB bond however, \u2018lacks aggregation features and has long been flagged as vulnerable to \u2018holdout\u2019 creditors\u2019. FT<\/em> observes: \u2018Delays by official creditors create a window for private creditors to exclude themselves from a bond workout\u2026 The long delays caused by official sector squabbling are creating new strategic options for private creditors<\/strong>.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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US Financial Terrorism: IMF & CBSL Loot Worker Pensions<\/a><\/blockquote>