"Just like IMF "loans" many of these are given with the understanding that the receiving country will never be able to pay it back." No way. The IMF is a bene

"Just like IMF "loans" many of these are given with the understanding that the receiving country will never be able to pay it back." No way. The IMF is a benevolent entity, with benevolent principles. Because African leaders grab 15% off the top, and then squander the rest, does not make it a failing, directly of the IMF. Why do we point fingers at 'Westerners' when Africans are failed and corrupt? Yes - a pragmatic/cynical person might have 'expected' that the nation would not be able to pay it off, because they understand what's going on. Also, there are some firms trying to 'cook the books' to get in on the major deals, even when they fully well know it's not possible ... BUT - the IMF is not intentionally a weapon of economic power in this regard. America wants South Americans to be consumers of their products - not perpetually broke and unable to even make repayment loans. Nobody really wins when those IMF deals go black, other than some warlords and some dam/energy plant builders. Edit: The 'IMF Agent' mythology is one of the worst of the conspiratorial issues to be popularized by the illiterati over the last few decades - and consistent with other economic conspiracy theories: because there are definitely 'bad actors' (on all sides) that have come to be revealed, conspiracists assume that there are these nefarious overlords. Siemens bribing a surveyor to fudge data to make an investment look better does not make the IMF evil. African leaders pocketing the cash does not make the IMF evil. Their inability to actually complete the project on budget/time does not make the IMF evil. Even when projections were 'altered' - it still worked out for the better. The electricity requirements for Indonesia were fudged overstated when they were taking on loans to build electricity generation facilities. Corruption? Well, maybe. But in fact, actual electricity usage far outpaced the 'higher, fudged' numbers in the first place, thus obviating the nature of the fudge. Anyone who thinks that the IMF are evil actors should go around and hang out with some of them and see what kind of people they are. 2cnd Edit: The most obvious evidence against the 'evil IMF' claims is that the economic argument doesn't add up: making low-interest loans that are very risk in terms of default, and other things like political risk - has to be 'the worst' kind of investment one could possibly make. Make a $500M loan at lower interest than you can elsewhere, with a 25% chance you won't get paid back and a 50% chance the deal will go whacky at some point and have to be re-financed? Nobody would be willing make that investment.