The "What is Money?" Show Bitcoin as the Resistance to Hidden Repression with Alex Gladstein (WiM318)
May 26, 2023
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Global Monetary System Subsidizes The West
- The IMF and World Bank act as neo-colonial tools that siphon resources and labor from the Global South to subsidize Western living standards.
- Alex Gladstein argues this extraction causes recurring crises in the West when control over peripheral resources weakens.
Zaire As A Case Study Of Structural Adjustment
- Gladstein uses Zaire (now DRC) as a vivid example of structural adjustment and resource extraction under Western-backed rule.
- He describes IMF officials placed inside Zaire's treasury and repeated currency devaluations that crushed the local economy.
Currency Collapse From Export-Led Devaluation
- The Zaire currency went from parity with the dollar to being essentially worthless after decades of IMF-influenced policy.
- Repeated devaluations and export-led models deliberately weakened domestic economies to favor extraction.