Book Report on Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO - Peer Review

Su1

BASAK 1

Huseyin Basak

International Business Law

Prof. Alidadi

April 10, 2019

Book Report, "Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank, And WTO"

"Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank, and WTO" is a very informative book on how these triad institutions govern the global economy. It is authored by Richard Peet who collaborated with seventeen other undergraduate and graduate authors from Clark University and was initially published in 2003. The book is rich on how it tackles the dynamic issues and the 'unholy trinity ' institutions which have an enormous significance in the contemporary world. With the rise in globalization, the power held by these institutions increased leading to a huge impact on people's lives through their undemocratic operation which promotes a specific type of neoliberal capitalism to the point that it is now very severe and making governance impossible. For instance, IMF, World Bank, and WTO proposed at the Washington Consensus that an increase in inequality would end poverty. As a result, the global economy has become unstable due to huge incomes from only a small number of people posing a threat of more crisis. The authors, therefore, present the history and core idea of neoliberalism illustrating how it hijacked the 'unholy trinity' institutions concerning their development, financial and trade management roles in the globe.

The book is divided into six chapters where the hegemonic relations of IMF, World Bank, and WTO have been explored. In the first chapter, Peet gives a clear view of neoliberal globalization as the most powerful form of globalization politically, socially and economically. The power of neoliberal globalization is demonstrated in the form of policies that give priority to an export economy that is outward oriented. It also describes an economy that is organized in markets where state control is minimal, coupled with privatization, liberalism and limited state budget deficits. The combination of themes from Foucault and Gramsci brings out a clearer view of the hegemonic discourse. This is done through emphasizing on the negative operation that produces and enforces silences and themes that have been disapproved. The author pictures neoliberal globalization that integrates a combination politics of presence with that of absence. This can merely refer to a two-sided discourse where on one hand what is constructed and presented is neoliberal globalization on economic development while on the other hand counteractive neoliberal doctrine is initiated in an invisible and inevitable approach presenting no alternatives (Peet 21-24).

In the second chapter, Peet (28) has given a thorough analysis of the emergence of the economic regime. The west is a core mover in this "regime" integrating the powerful western European and the North American States. The chapter focuses on the origins of the US and the reasons for the shift in the hegemonic calculus of this unholy trinity. The concentration of power is evident with the US assuming power that it has sustained. The conditionality of the economic regime has been emphasized on geo-economic and geopolitical power which provokes damage to global development. In understanding the organizational centrality of the regime, Keynes describes how the invited nations contribute nothing but impede its ground which has been built for years (Peet 49). This shows how western hegemony has been sustained.

In the following three chapters, Peet offers the readers with a detailed investigation of how the unholy trinity institutions work to dominate finance and development across the globe. According to Peet, the power of IMF emerges from the direct and indirect control that it oversees in giving loans to states that experience crisis in their balance of payments as well as challenges in repaying the foreign debts. IMF is most likely the most potent no state entity globally (56). Peet asserts that it "should be disbanded" (222) unless it resumes its initial role as an institution where surpluses are deposited such that during economic emergencies they can be withdrawn. IMF, however, has escalated its lending role through imposing austere and damaging conditions and it through which it exercises its power.

WTO closely follows IMF and Peet, (222) describes it as a "nasty organization run by directors and a secretariat that propagate rightist elitism in the guise of consumer populism." The institution's policies portray its lack of democracy. Concerning the World Bank, Peet focuses mainly on the nature of its structural adjustment policies. The World Bank neoliberalism development has realized in phases of "good governance" (the 1980s), "social capital" (1990s) and late 1990 and beyond. This represents the broadening of the discourse to integrate the interpretation of the state's role as well as the relevance of the civil society where NGOs and social movements are summed under the term "social capital" which is not satisfactory. However, "direct loans and the setting of policy conditions... make the world and the most important development institution in the world" (Peet 111). It is from this perspective Peet "sees some hope" if the World Bank becomes democratized through giving power to the lives of those it aims to influence (Peet 222).

Peet, the undergraduates, and graduate authors give a detailed analysis and influence of the three institutions. Can they be regarded as unholy trinity? These global leading financial institutions have become financial policemen through facilitating recurrent instabilities, extremes between the rich and the poor, and have failed to solve the challenges that are facing third world countries. Therefore, their originally defined responsibilities have not been effectively carried out because of the influence of neoliberalism. These organizations have facilitated enormous depredations for instance on the most impoverished countries across the globe such that they trade little compared to how they traded during colonialism. The WTO, however, has little to do with this scenario compared to the world economy which has turned its back on the commodities from these nations. The World Bank and IMF have had the role of finding a place for the weak economies but have failed (Peet 115-116). This example and others that are given by Peet in this book are convincing on the 'unholy trinity' on the three organizations in guiding the course taken in the current economic globalization. However, it is important to recognize that there could have been other bodies that have contributed towards the widespread of neoliberal economics thoughts and practice such as the global media, national governments, higher education being globalized and the operating nature of multinational cooperation's. From this perspective, the unholy unity could only have played a single part in neoliberalism!

Works Cited

Peet, R. Unholy trinity: the IMF, World Bank, and WTO. Zed Books Ltd, 2009.