Meet the Secretive Committees that Run the Global EconomyBy Andrew Gavin Marshall With the United States at the center of the system, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Bank are the two most important American institutions in global financial governance and the Treasury Secretary and Federal Reserve Chairperson are the worlds two most powerful financial diplomats. Both institutions are headquartered in Washington, D.C., just down the street from the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group, two global financial bodies created in 1944 to manage the world economy on behalf of the rich Western nations that founded them. Twice a year, the IMF and the World Bank host large international conferences. The Spring Membership Meeting, typically held in April, and the Annual membership meeting draw a crowd consisting of most of the finance ministers and central bank governors from the IMFs 188 member nations, representing the Funds Governing Board. They descend on D.C. where the meetings are typically held (though occasionally they are hosted in other countries as well), and draw scores of journalists, academics and thousands of bankers and financiers who are eager to meet, greet, wine, dine and make deals with the political decision-makers of the global economy. The top five shareholders of the IMF (United States, Japan, Germany, France and U.K.) reflect the membership of an ad-hoc group of finance ministers that began meeting in 1973, thereafter known as the Group of Five (G-5). At the time, U.S. Treasury Secretary George Shultzdescribed the groupas a channel for informal and very frank communication on monetary and other issues, both of a long-term and more immediate character. But the G-5 was hardly the first of such groups. In 1962, the Group of Ten (G-10) was formed as a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the rich industrial nations, including the U.S., West Germany, Japan, France, U.K., Italy, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands (and eventually Switzerland, althoughthe name remainedthe same). The G-10would meetalongside the leaders of the IMF, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Following the U.S. unilateral decision to end the Bretton Woods monetary system in 1971, a series of committees and groups were established to provide forums for major economies of the world to negotiate forming a new monetary system, and to integrate developing economies into the institutional apparatus of global financial governance. The Group of Ten was utilized as one such forum. In 1972, the G-10 laid the groundwork for the establishment of a special Committee of 20 to be formed within the IMF, whose membership reflected the composition of the IMF Executive Board, but at the ministerial level giving it a much higher level of political authority than the board, whichis composedof mid-level officials from their respective national finance ministries. The committee would include most G-10 members alongside several developing country representatives, and was formallyinstitutionalizedin late 1974 as the Interim Committee of the IMF. (Although the Group of Five was formed in 1973, it wasnt until 1975 that it held the first meeting at the head of state level, with the addition of Italy to the group. The following year, Canada was invited to participate, and thereafter it was known as the Group of Seven (G-7), effectively functioning as the steering committee for the global economy.) Fast forward to the mid-1990s, when the G-7 nationsinstructedthe Group of Ten to consult with emerging market economies on ways to reform the global financial architecture in cooperation with major international organizations like the IMF, World Bank, OECD, and BIS, which were increasingly opening their membership and ownership positions to large emerging market economies. The idea was thus: If developed countries give developing countries a stake in the existing system, they wont use their new-found wealth and power to oppose that system. And all the while, the West was to remain at the center. Through crisis and collapse and rescue efforts led by the IMF, BIS and World Bank, developing and emerging market economies were encouraged to accept Western economic advice on how to manage their economies. If they wanted bailouts in the form of loans from international institutions, those countries had to follow conditions that demanded a total restructuring of their economies and societies along G-7 lines designed to transform them into modern market economies capable of integrating into the larger global economy. The groundwork was laid out over the following years, and in the course of 1999, the IMFs Interim Committee was reformed into the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC). The G-10 organized several seminars involving major emerging market economies and, together with the G-7, formed a new group known as theFinancial Stability Forum(FSF), a meeting group of central bankers, finance ministers and regulators who were handed responsibility for maintaining financial stability in the world. Finally, 1999 also saw the organizing efforts of the G-7 result in the formation of yet another forum, the Group of Twenty (G-20). The G-20 was born in December of 1999 at a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the G-7 nations, along with Russia, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Australia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina and the European Union. Theeventwas attended by top officials from the IMF, World Bank and the European Central Bank. But despite all the international noise, the G20 waslargely the initiativeof two men: Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin and U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. The G-7, or G-8 once Russia was invited in, remained the main forum for global economic leadership. But in the midst of the global financial crisis in 2008, the G-20 was the group convened by U.S. President George W. Bush, who brought together heads of state for the first meeting that took place in Washington on November 15. That meetingproduced an agreementamong G-20 nations to pump trillions of dollars into their economies in order to bail out their banking systems. In 2010, then-President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet,explainedat a meeting of the Institute of International Finance (IIF) that the G-20 had emerged as the prime group for global economic governance. Speaking to a crowd of hundreds of the worlds most powerful bankers and financiers, Trichet explained, Global economic governance embraces supranational institutions such as the IMF as well as informal groupings such as the G-7 and the G-20. Both are necessary, and both are complementary. Trichet praised the evolving system as moving decisively towards a much more inclusive system of global governance, encompassing key emerging economies as well as the industrialized countries. To this day, the hierarchy of global economic governance follows a familiar pattern. Take the IMFs meetings, where 188 of the worlds finance ministers and central bankers meet. The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) holds a meeting, functioning as the steering committee to the Fund. And prior to IMFC meetings, the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors hold a series of meetings, including a joint meeting with the IMFC, as they already have a significant crossover of membership. But before the G-20 meets, the ministers and governors of the G-7 nations typically meet privately for an hour or so, attempting to form a common position or strategy in dealing with the wider groupings of the G-20 and IMFC, in which all G-7 nations are represented at the ministerial level. The chiefs of the worlds major international organizations (IMF, World Bank, OECD, WTO, BIS) participate in almost all of these meetings, acting as advisers to and receiving high-level political direction from these groups. The hierarchy of global economic governance emanates out of the United States, in close cooperation with Germany, Japan and the other members of the Group of Seven. From there, it networks through the Group of Twenty and the IMFC, which in turn collectively function as the steering committee for the worlds major international organizations, and act as the board of directors of the global economy. Image Credit You can read more from Andrew Gavin Marshall at Occupy.com We, the people, we need a parallel economic system that works for us! A few states and/or communities have gone back to using a gold backed dollar that is independent of the Federal Reserve. Im not exactly sure how they work, but their banks and communities will be more stable than most when the Fed note collapses. We will probably have to resort to a barter system when all else fails. That or take the mark of the beast. A gold backed dollar is based on profit! produsing profit, means: abusing! We had a gold backed dollar until 1971 and it worked just fine. What doesnt work is the interest that is being charged on the Fed notes which are backed by nothing and the trillions they printed for the government to give away which devalued the money we had. You should read up on the history of money and the banking system which is the usery you are talking about. Profit is not wrong greed is! When a company makes profit they can hire more people and raise salaries which causes a chain reaction that makes for a better economy which benefits everybody. greed makes profit There is a difference even though you dont see it. Greed keeps all the profits for themselves instead of helping others with it. you forgot a few of the most powerful, most secretive and most evil secret societies existing today. * The Council of 13 * The Council of 33 * Secret Chiefs / Great White Lodge / Great White Brotherhood * Order of the Quest * Mothers of Darkness * Moriah Conquering Wind * Supreme World Council * The Committee of 300 / The Olympians * Old (Venetian) Black Nobility * SS / Third Order of the Silver Star / the Abyss * The Bilderberg Group / Committee of 500 * A.A. / the Arcana Arcanorum * the RC / Order of the Rosy Cross * Order of Palladium / New and Reformed Palladian Rite * Skull Bones Society / The Order / Brotherhood of Death / Chapter 322 * AA / Arcanum Arcanorum / Argenteum Astrum / Astron Argon * A.P.R.M.M. / Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misram * The Round Table / Rhodes-Milner Round Table / The Group * Palladian Order of Skull and Bones / Chapter 592 * the GD / Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn * Fraternitas Saturni / Brotherhood of Saturn * Order of the Trapezoid * Grand Orient de France * The Red Brotherhood * Hell Fire Club(s) * The Pilgrims Society * Le Cercle / The Circle * Supreme Council / Mother Council of the World * O.T.O. / Ordo Templi Orientis / Order of Oriental Templars * S.M.O.M. / Order of St. John / Sovereign Military Order of Malta * The Shrine / Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine * S.R.I.A. / Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia * Scottish Rite / York Rite * Fraternitas Rosae Crucis * Order of the Garter * The Temple of Set * The Bohemian Club * Order of The Hammer * Order of Nine Angles * The Black Brotherhood * Scroll and Key Society * Illuminates of Thanateros * Bnai Brith / Bnai HaNephilim * Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis * Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica / Gnostic Catholic Church * Royal Institute of International Affairs * Council on Foreign Relations * Trilateral Commission * U.S. Mafia Council * The 1001 Club * Club of Rome * JASON Group * Quill Dagger * RAND Corporation * Lucis Trust / Lucifer Trust * The MITRE Corporation * British Royal Society * Knights of Columbus * Share International * Societas Rosicruciana * The Bridge to Freedom * Phi Beta Kappa Society * Tavistock Institute For Human Relations Run The Global Economy The Wests last days are marked with the U.S. obsession with Oil. (alternate situation: will their drugs, GMOs, kill them off?) Will the Asian thrust towards newer nuclear systems and renewables overtake the Western Big Oil obsessions? Will Chinese electric bullet trains displace Western fossil fuel jet engine systems? Can Science and technology provide electric cars to displace piston engine cars? 