Roubini Calls for IMF-Led "Marshal Plan" for Mideast, I Say Nonsense http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/03/roubini-calls-for-imf-led-marshal-plan.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

In an interview posted on Al Jazeera, Nouriel Roubini Calls for "Marshal Plan" for Mideast. Please consider Global stakes of Mideast turmoil  We don’t know yet whether political contagion in the Middle East will spread to other countries. The turmoil may yet be contained and recede, sending oil prices back to lower levels. But there is a serious chance that the uprisings will spread, destabilizing Bahrain, Algeria, Oman, Jordan, Yemen, and eventually even Saudi Arabia.Roubini calls for funding from the IMF with "bilateral" support from the US and others. That is a backdoor way of saying US taxpayers.

If a Marshall Plan for the Mideast is needed, let Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq fund it entirely. For starters it's their region and their oil. They have the oil revenues, not us. Moreover, our offers of "assistance" typically come with strings attached that inevitably cause further ill from someone. There is no need to go down that path again.The IMF's track record is as bad if not worse. History clearly shows that countries that take "assistance" from the IMF live to regret it.Even if we did have the money (which we don't), we have no business telling Mideast countries how to run their economies. What the US does have is a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion and blood from butting in our noses where we do not belong.I propose a more sensible action: cut all US funding for the IMF and its economic terrorist policies that have wrecked numerous economies, the latest victim being Ireland.  Roubini needs to stick with economic and risk analysis where his analysis is generally quite good, and away from socialistic and interventionist solutions that are repeatedly and hopelessly off the mark.