Anyone remember TINA - 'there is no alternative'?
In
Kiev, Crushing IMF Austerity Defended as 'Price of Independence'
Interim
Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk continues to tell Ukrainians and the
world that gutting pensions
-
Jon Queally, staff writer
4
April, 2014
The
new Ukraine government in Kiev, currently led by interim Prime
Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, continues to tell its people that the only
path forward for the country is to submit to the demands of the
international financial powers—specifically the International
Monetary Fund—by meeting their demands to implement draconian cuts
to social funding, pensions, and otherwise "liberalizing"
the economy in exchange for billions of dollars in bailout loans.
Noting
full-well the unpopularity of and crushing impact that ending fuel
subsidies and cutting both wages and pensions will have on regular
Ukrainians, Yatseniuk told Reuters in an interview published Friday
that these measures—which are set conditions for a $14-$18 billion
loan package from the IMF—are simply the "price of
independence."
He
called the plan being structured in Kiev at the behest of the western
economic powers as "tremendous step forward" even as
economists and researchers have repeatedly and consistently shown
that austerity measures like the ones now under consideration have a
destructive, long-term impact on national economies, especially those
suffering from a debt crisis.
"We
will regain trust and credibility from foreign investors," said
Yatseniuk, defending the plan. "This is the roadmap for
Ukraine."
That
may be so. But as Jack Rasmus, a professor of economics at St. Mary's
College, pointed out following the announcement of IMF conditions now
being pushed in Kiev, this roadmap might lift the street credibility
of Yatseniuk among the world's powerful financial elite (the Reuters
report says western leaders are impressed by what they term his
"clear-sightedness" on economic matters), but it's the
nation's regular citizens and workers who will ultimately pay the
price for these short-sighted policies.
"Those
who will pay will not be the bankers and multinational businessmen,
but the Ukrainian people," argued Rasmus. "That is the
essential and repeated history and legacy of IMF deals globally for
the last three decades."
CrossTalk:
Ukrainian Ricochet
The
Ukraine crisis has revealed diametrically opposing views on the
subject of European and global security. The West continues to push
NATO at Russia's expense. Is more conflict inevitable? And can
Ukraine be a bridge between the West and the East? CrossTalking with
Richard Weitz and Vladislav Krasnov.
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