"Internationalism" - Sat. PM KTFA Thoughts, News w/ Frank26 2/16/19

by **Ssmith** Sun Feb 17, 2019 9:37 am

KTFA

DELTA » February 16th, 2019

Mawazine News. published the new pricing of customs in all ports of Iraq

custom base on international code

pricing baseon international code

(Pictures at link)

https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=34370

Frank26 » February 16th, 2019

CAN YOU SAY INTERNATIONALISM ?
YES I CAN ..................... SO CAN IRAQ !!!
AND BTW ...................... TOLD YOU SO .................... LOL

MilitiaMan » February 16th, 2019

Yep you sure did, as they clearly show yesterday and today. They moved it up from the 17th, so for those that suggest Iraq is always late, they in fact this time early.. I love that pattern change.. Bring on the lifting of the exchange rate with no lag time.. lol …Then we await the lifting of the three zeros from the exchange rate, thus, CBI should be screaming at us... lol ~ MM

Customs: We will begin the unification of customs procedures at all ports as of tomorrow

15th February, 2019

The customs authority announced on Friday that it will begin the unification of customs procedures at all ports as of Saturday.

The agency said in a statement received by Al-Maaloumah that "the implementation of the agreement concluded between the federal government and the Kurdistan region to cancel the customs points established on the federal border with the region and will begin the unification of customs procedures at all border crossings as of Saturday 2019/2/16.

The Authority added that "the agreement included the unification of all procedures and provisions of the customs tariff law and the adoption of a customs declaration in Arabic and Kurdish to work at all border crossings."

Don961 » February 16th, 2019

Read about Big Mac Index ... https://www.economist.com/news/2019/01/10/the-big-mac-index

Learn the real value of the Arabic currencies

10:55 - 16/02/2019

Follow-up - Mawazine News

The "Big Mac" index published by the magazine "Economist" British to assess the currencies of countries, that most of the currencies of the world resident against the dollar below the real value, and this retreats on the Arab currencies.

The Economist pointed out that the Egyptian pound is the most undervalued Arab currency, followed by the UAE dirham, while the index showed that the Swiss franc, the Swedish kroner and the Norwegian currency are valued above their actual value.

Economist launched the Big Mac Index in 1986, becoming a global standard and a way to measure the purchasing power of currencies to find out whether they are below or above fair value and whether they are on track.

The index is based on comparing the purchasing power of currencies in 48 countries, where hamburgers represent a unit in which the real purchasing value of currencies is measured. link

"Internationalism" - Sat. PM KTFA Thoughts, News w/ Frank26 2/16/19 A-chart_orig

"Internationalism" - Sat. PM KTFA Thoughts, News w/ Frank26 2/16/19 A-chart_orig

JJonesmx » February 16th, 2019

Captain teachers: 750 thousand teachers and teachers will participate in the strike Sunday and Monday

18:29 - 16/02/2019

Information / special ..

announced the head of the Iraqi teachers Abbas ,Sudan, Saturday, for the participation of more than 750 thousand teachers and teachers went on strike generality of Iraq on Sunday and Monday, revealing the threat of Anbar education teachers who will strike administrative sanctions manager.

"The strike will be in the general provinces of Iraq, except for the Kurdistan region and then resume normal work on Tuesday," the Sudanese said.

He added that "more than 750 thousand teachers and teachers will participate in the strike and there is consensus from all other trade unions to support the demands of the Teachers Union."

He explained that "news received that threatened the Director General of Education Anbar educational cadres in the province administrative penalties for those who participate in the strike," noting that "the union will take action in Anbar to the success of the strike."

He added that "the demands of the teachers are summed up salaries and the amendment of the curriculum and the state of school buildings and the development of the reality of teachers," noting that "the union will have positions in the event of the subsequent implementation of their demands."

He said that "the allies of the people and the Fatah told the union to support the demands of the union and work to assign them legal legislation in parliament."

https://www.almaalomah.com/2019/02/16/389158/

International Monetary Fund (Excerpts)

Alternative Title: IMF

WRITTEN BY: Lawrence McQuillan
DATE 1944 - present

AREAS OF INVOLVEMENT
Exchange rate
Liquid asset

International Monetary Fund (IMF),United Nations (UN) specialized agency, founded at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 to secure international monetary cooperation, to stabilize currency exchange rates, and to expand international liquidity (access to hard currencies).

Operation

Since its creation, the IMF’s principal activities have included stabilizing currency exchange rates, financing the short-term balance-of-payments deficits of member countries, and providing advice and technical assistance to borrowing countries

Stabilizing currency exchange rates

Under the original Articles of Agreement, the IMF supervised a modified gold standard system of pegged, or stable, currency exchange rates.

Each member declared a value for its currency relative to the U.S. dollar, and in turn the U.S. Treasury tied the dollar to gold by agreeing to buy and sell gold to other governments at $35 per ounce.

A country’s exchange ratecould vary only 1 percent above or below its declared value. Seeking to eliminate competitive devaluations, the IMF permitted exchange rate movements greater than 1 percent only for countries in “fundamental balance-of-payments disequilibrium” and only after consultation with, and approval by, the fund. In August 1971 U.S. President Richard Nixon ended this system of pegged exchange rates by refusing to sell gold to other governments at the stipulated price.

Since then each member has been permitted to choose the method it uses to determine its exchange rate:

a free float,
in which the exchange rate for a country’s currency is determined by the supply and demand of that currency on the international currency markets;

a managed float,
in which a country’s monetary officials will occasionally intervene in international currency markets to buy or sell its currency to influence short-term exchange rates;

a pegged exchange arrangement,
in which a country’s monetary officials pledge to tie their currency’s exchange rate to another currency or group of currencies;

or a fixed exchange arrangement,
in which a country’s currency exchange rate is tied to another currency and is unchanging.

After losing its authority to regulate currency exchange rates, the IMF shifted its
focus to loaning money to developing countries

Financing balance-of-payments deficits

Members with balance-of-payments deficits may borrow money in foreign currencies, which they must repay with interest, by purchasing with their own currencies the foreign currencies held by the IMF. Each member may immediately borrow up to 25 percent of its quota in this way.

The amounts available for purchase are denominated in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), whose value is calculated daily as a weighted average of four currencies: the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling.

SDRs are an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement members’ existing reserve assets of foreign currencies and gold. Countries use the SDRs that have been allocated to them by the IMF to settle international debts.

More than 20 billion SDRs were allocated to members in successive allocations from 1969 through 1981.

SDRs are not part of the quota subscriptions supplied by members, and thus they are not part of the general asset pool available for loans to members.

The IMF uses the SDR as its unit of account for all transactions. Drawing on the IMF by a country raises the fund’s holdings of that country’s currency but lowers its holdings of another country’s currency by an equal amount.

Thus the composition of the fund’s resources changes, but the total resources as measured in SDRs remains the same. The country repays the loan over a specified period (usually three to five years) by using member currencies acceptable to the IMF to repurchase its own national currency.

Only about 20 currencies are borrowed during a typical year, with most borrowers exchanging their currency for the major convertible currencies: the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen, the euro, and the British pound sterling. Countries whose currencies are borrowed by other member governments receive remuneration—about 4 percent of the amount borrowed.

Additional loans are available for members with financial difficulties that require them to borrow more than 25 percent of their quotas. The IMF uses an analytic framework known as financial programming, which was first fully formulated by IMF staff economist Jacques Polak in 1957, to determine the amount of the loan and the macroeconomic adjustments and structural reforms needed to reestablish the country’s balance-of-payments equilibrium.

The IMF has several financing programs, or facilities, for providing these loans, including a standby arrangement, which makes short-term assistance available to countries experiencing temporary or cyclical balance-of-payments deficits; an extended-fund facility, which supports medium-term relief; a supplemental-reserve facility, which provides loans in cases of extraordinary short-term deficits; and, since 1987, a poverty-reduction and growth facility.

Each facility has its own access limit, disbursement plan, maturity structure, and repayment schedule. The typical IMF loan, known as an upper-credit tranche arrangement, features an annual access limit of 100 percent of a member’s quota, quarterly disbursements, a one- to three-year maturity structure, and a three- to five-year repayment schedule. The IMF charges the same interest rate to every country that borrows from a particular financing facility. Loans typically carry annual interest charges of approximately 4.5 percent.

Each of these loans is accompanied by a “letter of intent” that specifies the macroeconomic adjustments and structural reforms required by the IMF as conditions for assistance. Loan conditions, or “conditionality,” have been explicitly authorized by the Articles of Agreement since 1968.

Typical conditionalities require borrowing governments to reduce budget deficits and rates of money growth; to eliminate monopolies, price controls, interest rate ceilings, and subsidies; to deregulate selected industries, particularly the banking sector; to lower tariffs and eliminate quotas; to remove export barriers; to maintain adequate international currency reserves; and to devalue their currencies if faced with fundamental balance-of-payments deficits.

These adjustments are intended to reduce imports and increase exports to enable the country to earn sufficient foreign exchange in the future to pay its foreign debts, including the newly incurred IMF debt. Most lending programs specify quarterly targets for key economic variables that, in theory, must be met to receive the next loan installment.

Advising borrowing governments

The IMF consults annually with each member government. Through these contacts, known as “Article IV Consultations,” the IMF attempts to assess each country’s economic health and to forestall future financial problems. The fund also operates the IMF Institute, a department that provides training in macroeconomic analysis and policy formulation for officials of member countries.

Criticism And Debate

The impact of IMF loans has been widely debated. Opponents of the IMF argue that the loans enable member countries to pursue reckless domestic economic policies knowing that, if needed, the IMF will bail them out. This safety net, critics charge, delays needed reforms and creates long-term dependency. Opponents also argue that the IMF rescues international bankers who have made bad loans, thereby encouraging them to approve ever riskier international investments.

IMF conditionalities have also been widely debated. Critics contend that IMF policy prescriptions provide uniform remedies that are not adequately tailored to each country’s unique circumstances. These standard, austere loan conditions reduce economic growth and deepen and prolong financial crises, creating severe hardships for the poorest people in borrowing countries and strengthening local opposition to the IMF.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/International-Monetary-Fund#ref913331