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Five of the largest emerging nations will push the U.S. and Europe to end their 65-year monopoly on leadership positions at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, according to two diplomats who helped negotiate a statement by the countries.

The management structure of the institutions needs to reflect changes in the world economy, the draft statement by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa says, according to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified because the final text isn’t public. The section calls for a bigger role for developing countries in global institutions, a reference to concerns with how leaders are chosen at the World Bank and IMF.
“We will insist on the fact that governance at the IMF and the World Bank cannot be a systematic rotation between the U.S. and Europe, with the other countries excluded,” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told reporters in Beijing April 12. “There is no reason for that.”
The 2008 banking and credit crisis and subsequent recession in the U.S. and Western Europe eroded the influence of developed nations, a vacuum the so-called BRIC countries and other emerging nations are seeking to fill.

China is hosting a summit with Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa. Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management International, coined the term BRIC for the largest emerging markets -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- in 2001. South Africa was invited to the meeting at the southern beach side resort of Sanya as well.
Foreign currency reserves held by the five nations rose 13 percent to $3.93 trillion in the past year, accounting for more than a third of the global total, driven by their faster-growing economies. China leapfrogged Japan at the end of last year to become the world’s biggest economy after the U.S. following more than three decades of growth averaging 10 percent.
India’s GDP expanded 8.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, Brazil’s by 5 percent, Russia’s 4.5 percent and South Africa’s 3.8 percent. Growth in the U.S. was 2.8 percent in the three months to Dec. 31, while the Eurozone’s was 2 percent.

World Bank presidents have been nominated by the body’s biggest contributor, the U.S., since the international lender of last resort was founded in 1946 at the end of World War II. The 10 managing directors of the IMF have all been European.
Australian-born James D. Wolfensohn, who headed the World Bank from 1995-2005, took U.S. citizenship before he was nominated. Four Frenchmen, two Swedes, a Dutchman, a Spaniard, a German and a Belgian have been elected as managing director of the IMF, originally founded to ensure exchange rate stability.

The draft statement reflects changes already under way in global diplomatic and trade relations.
South Korea in November became the first non-western nation to host a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 countries - which itself has usurped the Group of 7 as the pre-eminent forum for world leaders.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-13/brics-said-to-seek-end-to-u-s-western-europe-monopoly-of-world-bank-imf.html

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за долара:

RT: So, you are saying essentially it hurts everybody to have the US dollar as a reserve currency?
JS: That is right. What I’ve described in the UN commission I chair, explains how we can create a global reserve currency. It is really interesting to be here at Bretton Woods talking about that because Keynes argued for this 75 years ago. In the aftermath of the Great Depression he understood how the links between the UK’s problem, UK being the reserve currency then, and that if we are going to have global economic stability we needed to move off of a single country being the reserve currency. Bretton Woods failed from his perspective, in this respect.

RT:And didn’t the US disagree and say “we want to be main reserve currency” and got their way? So, would the US have that same power, if world leaders got together today for another Bretton Woods conference?
JS: I think that if that same meeting were held here in Bretton Woods…the world is markedly different. China has close to $3 trillion of reserves, about a third of the global reserves, about $9 trillion. If you own $3 trillion you have some voice in what kind of reserve currency system you want to have. And China has been very clear that it worries about the current dollar-based reserve system right after our UN commission came out and supported it, China supported it, France supported it, Russia supported. So there is a wide understanding of the importance of this idea. And I think if the global economy remains weak, there will be more interest as one of the remedies to the current instability and weakness in the global economy.

http://rt.com/news/us-global-reserve-currency/

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17 април:

The president of the World Bank has warned that the world is "one shock away from a full-blown crisis".
Robert Zoellick cited rising food prices as the main threat to poor nations who risk "losing a generation".
He was speaking in Washington at the end of the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"The crisis in the Middle East and North Africa underscores how we need to put the conclusions from our latest world development report into practice. The report highlighted the importance of citizen security, justice and jobs," he said. He also called for the World Bank to act quickly to support reforms in the region.
"Waiting for the situation to stabilise will mean lost opportunities. In revolutionary moments the status quo is not a winning hand."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13108166

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a propos:

The US State Department has secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, according to diplomatic cables, released by WikiLeaks.

The secret project included the financing of the London-based satellite channel, Barada TV, which began broadcasting against Syria's government in April 2009. Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles. The US State department have financed the group with as much as USD 6 M, the leaked cables say, as cited by the Washington Post.
The US started financing Syrian opposition groups in 2006, under George W. Bush's presidency, when diplomatic ties with the Arab country were frozen. The financial backing has continued under President Barack Obama, even though his administration tried to revamp relations with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. It is unclear whether the State Department is still pouring money into Syrian opposition groups, but the cables reveal that the operation continued at least through September 2010.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=127408

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As global food prices rise near record highs, the World Bank warned Thursday that further spikes could push millions more people deeper into poverty.

The organization that loans money to developing nations said its global food price index was up 36% in March from levels a year earlier. The increase was driven by sharp boosts in prices for corn, wheat, soybeans and other staples.
The surge in global food prices has already driven 44 million people below the "extreme poverty line," which the World Bank defines as living on just $1.25 a day.
An additional 10% increase in food prices would cause another 10 million people to fall below the poverty line, while a 30% spike would lead to 34 million more poor, according to the World Bank.

"The numbers tell a grim story of persistent, grinding pressure on the world's poor," said World Bank president Robert Zoellick at a press conference.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/14/news/international/world_bank_food_prices/index.htm

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едно изказване по друг повод:

What is going to happen when food prices soar and millions of Americans can no longer afford to feed themselves? All hell is going to break loose in The Banana Republic of America (the Third World basketcase that used to be the United States of America). Bob Marley had a song titled “Them Belly Full”; the lyrics were “Them belly full, but we hungry/A hungry man is an angry man.” Yes, a hungry man is an angry man, and a desperate man as well. Desperate people do desperate things, and if you think large urban centers like Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore and Philadelphia are rough now, just wait. When countless Americans are going hungry, the crime problem in BRA cities will reach epic proportions. And I’m talking violent crime: armed robberies, muggings in broad daylight, brutal home invasions, Mexico City-style kidnappings (por favor, que no mates a mi esposa—voy a darte todo el dinero, te lo prometo….yo te suplico, no la mates!).

“When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.”– Gerald Celente
Signore Celente is absolutely right. Things are going to get seriously nasty in this Third World horror movie that used to be the USA. If you have a gun, be sure to keep it in a safe, secure place because you’re going to need it. The uber-rich will have bodyguards in their gated communities; the rest of us will be left to defend ourselves when the hungry, the homeless, the destitute, the angry, the hopeless and the just plain desperate come a knockin’. Gun control? As the late great Irv Homer (a Libertarian talk show host from Philly) used to say, gun control is when someone breaks into your home and you control the trigger with your finger. Self-defense will be very important when the you-know-what hits the fan in the BRA.
God help the rotting, decaying, collapsing empire known as The Banana Republic of America (formerly the USA).

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/20-signs-that-a-horrific-global-food-crisis-is-coming