Abstract

The World Bank is a controversial organisation. It is widely viewed with suspicion, as the international economic arm of the US, in thrall to the President who is responsible for appointing the head of the Bank.

Eric Toussaint gives a highly readable account of just why the World Bank has become so powerful. In short, clear chapters he shows how the bank operates, who funds it, and what it sets out to promote.

The Bank's main purpose is to grant loans to all the newly independent states of the developing world, to help them on their journey to recovery after colonial occupation. In reality, the conditions imposed on these states - including enforced privatisation of all public services, and enforced neo-liberal rules on trade - mean that the Bank has become the new colonial authority in everything but name.
'Studies the evolution of the debt of Southern countries with painstaking precision and patience'
Jean Ziegler, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Author of numerous books, including L‚empire de la honte (The Empire of Shame), 2005.
'Eric Toussaint has once again provided absolutely critical information. Anyone concerned with how excessive Northern wealth flows from sustained Southern poverty needs this analysis'
Patrick Bond, Director, University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society, Durban, South Africa
Eric Toussaint has once again provided absolutely critical information. Anyone concerned with how excessive Northern wealth flows from sustained Southern poverty needs this analysis.
Patrick Bond, Director, University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society, Durban, South Africa