Capitalism 14

Today I resigned from the staff of the International Monetary Fund after over 12 years, (…) To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. Mr Camdessus, the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers. It dries up too; it cakes all over me; sometimes I feel there is not enough soap in the whole world to cleanse me from the things that I did in your name …

David L. Budhoo (1990): Enough ist enough. Dear Mr Camdessus … Open letter of resignation to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. New York: Horizon Press.

David L. Budhoo is an economist from Grenada in the Caribbean. From 1966 he worked for the International Monetary Fund, later even as a manager. He designed structural adjustment programmes for Latin America and Africa. His 1988 resignation letter, titled "Enough is Enough," was more than 100 pages long.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the structural adjustment programmes made by the international organisations IMF and World Bank were particularly tough and neoliberal: privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation were the goals. While the official mandate of the institutions is “crisis prevention,” Bodhoo describes how he falsified statistics to justify drastic neoliberal economic measures. These statistics made countries (e.g. Trinidad and Tobago) look unstable. As a consequence they could get no or only badly conditioned credits, so that only credits from the IMF and World Bank could help out and implement their neoliberal adjustments. In 2016, the Kenyan government was due to sign the EPA free trade agreement with the EU. “When the government balked, the EU imposed import tariffs on Kenyan products. (...) The agreement itself shows what free trade between unequal partners means: while only 10% of African products are considered competitive on the world market, EPA allows 80% of European Union exports to East Africa to be exempt from tariffs allowed” (Medico International 2017).

*Naomi Klein (2007): The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Knopf Canada. *Susan Meeker-Lowry (1995): Mr. Budhoo's Bombshell: A people's alternative to Structural Adjustment. *Medico International (Anne Jung, 2017): Ostafrika. Hunger durch Handel? *David L. Budhoo (1990): Enough is enough.

1988