International Banking Institutions

The predetermined point of discussion from the previous meeting was international banking institutions, which this discussion included, but went past. The discussion centered on various interrelated, though seemingly unrelated, issues from the international order, international economic institutions, international trade, and representative government.

Consensus formed around the existence of problems in international institutions, and generally, though not specifically, the source of those problems. Some located the problem for international economic institutions, like the International Monetary Fund, rested with who controls it, bankers from large, conglomerated banks who use the bank toward their motives. Some saw the IMF as a tool of the US government. Some saw it all as an attempt at world government, an equalization of everyone, and diminishment for human incentives; the problem rested with the control of these institutions by the "big kahunas" who run and control everything for their own personal benefit. Some discussed the bad debts these institutions created -- that developing countries took way too much in loans that they could not repay and now suffered under the weight of the debts -- but questioned the problem of control of these institutions, that if countries possessed elected government officials and those officials made decisions about these international institutions, then people are represented by these institutions. Some responded, suggesting that the mass public knew little of what went on in these institutions and the idea that people controlled the government was comical. Some responded, saying that major countries like the US could intercede to absolve debt and that micro-loaning, the act of loaning small amounts to small-scale businesses, works well.

Perhaps the question for representation and international institutions laid at a more fundamental point, representative government itself, some thought; perhaps we need to consider direct democracy as a solution. Besides, is there anything wrong with the intent of the people in control of the international banking system? Various answers were given: some thought it was an issue of developed and developing countries, and others that it was a matter of destroying the economy and increasing government oppression. Many felt that government oppression was coming, and various examples could be cited, such as black helicopters and repression of speech.