A sign of our changing times: IMF says "Yes" to taxing the rich, "No" to austerity

To describe the International Monetary Fund as a profoundly conservative (and, possibly, Conservative) institution would be an impressive feat of underachievement. 

Formed in 1944, ostensibly to "foster global monetary cooperation," among other corporate-leaning things, the IMF have spent decades forcing nations around to world to adopt austerity policies in the face of economic downturns, with the predictable result that effects of those downturns were much, much, worse, and longer-lasting. The IMF is a large part of why the economies of Italy and Greece are almost entirely dependent on tourism, unlike the economies of France, Germany, the UK, and the USA.

Care to guess who normally gets to determine which policies are favoured by the IMF?

But this week, the IMF, an organization founded by rich nations to ensure that they stayed rich, while other nations stayed less rich than them, abandoned decades of cheerleading for austerity and embraced the deficit. Yes, really.

As reported by Politico.eu:

Countries should consider raising taxes on the wealthy to reduce national debts after recovering from the economic fallout of the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.

The IMF made that and other policy suggestions in its latest World Economic Outlook, which revised its global forecast upward for this year after advanced economies recovered well in the second and third quarters from lockdown.

[...]

Governments should keep spending on initiatives that promote long-term growth, such as “high-return infrastructure” that cuts down on fossil fuels, the fund added. Public money should also flow into health care and education.

And here's the best part:

Finding the balance between public spending and mounting debt will prove challenging, the IMF said, suggesting states find new revenue streams through taxes.

“Governments may need to consider raising progressive taxes on more affluent individuals,” the report said, also suggesting hikes on higher income brackets, high-end property, capital gains and wealth.

Huzzah! After decades of inflicting economic pain on the already-struggling, the IMF have finally seen the value in helping the struggling, with an eye to creating a rise tide that can lift everybody up. And all it took was a global pandemic-caused economic crisis that affected the wealthy nations, too.

Of course, for this to actually happen, the USA will need to get on board. Here's hoping Biden actually wins the election in a few weeks...