1. Social Institutions How do the institutions in society affect you?

2. Social Institutions Structures to provide stability to social life as well as mechanisms to assert authority, power, and control. –Family –Education –Criminal Justice –Religion –Government –Economy

3. Origins of the World Bank, IMF and WTO These institutions arose out of the plans by the US to avoid financial crisis after WWII. –World Bank was to give loans to reconstruct Europe, but gave loans to poor countries instead. –IMF gives loans and advice for dealing with short term financial crisis. –Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) became World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1996.

4. Global Political and Economic Institutions International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) –Loans for “development” projects to encourage economic growth. »http://www.worldbank.org/http://www.worldbank.org/ International Monetary Fund (IMF) –Deals with short-term economic crisis through loans and restructuring a nation’s economy. »http://www.imf.org/external/index.htmhttp://www.imf.org/external/index.htm World Trade Organization (WTO) –Oversees trade between nations to encourage the free flow of goods and growth of economies »http://www.wto.org/http://www.wto.org/

5. Goals of WB, IMF, WTO and Neoliberalism Encourage economic growth through the removal of barriers to trade. –Reduce expenses on social and governmental expenditures Cut government employees Sell off (privatize) state property such as natural resources, electricity and water to private companies Cut social services and education (in some cases) Cut health care expenditures and begin fees for care Eliminate subsidies for basic foods –Reduce regulation and encourage competition with global companies to “get prices right” –Focus your economy on “comparative advantage” Produce one, or a few, products for export –Reduce tariffs and price subsidies on goods –Discourage unions

6. Results of IMF Policies Development: IMF, Bank Wrongly Take Credit for Poverty Drop –http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/1805.html Relative Size of Argentina’s Economy (GDP) –Compared to the rest of the nations in the world –1970 = 19th –1980 = 25th –1990 = 23rd –2001 = 17th –2006 = 31st

8. Nicaragua Debt incurred by the dictators of Nicaragua still had to be repaid. Country devastated by war with “contras” who were illegally supported by US. Economic crisis arose from falling coffee prices and a bank scandal like US S&L crisis. IMF imposed conditions that forced the country to focus on repaying debt to the wealthy in Nicaragua and eliminated pay increases for teachers and public employees.

9. Nicaragua Nicaragua is now the poorest country in Latin America with the highest rate of debt per person. It spends 2 and a half times more on debt repayment than on health and education combined. –Over half of the population live below the poverty line –Two fifths of poor children are malnourished –Three quarters of the poor live in rural areas, and half of these are extremely poor, unable to meet their daily food needs