World Bank Embraces Open Access and Makes All of Its Research Freely Available

Fluffeh writes "The World Bank is taking steps toward greater transparency. It announced recently that it would be instituting a new 'Open Access policy for its research outputs and knowledge products' beginning July 1. The policy's full title is 'World Bank Open Access Policy for Formal Publications,' and the Bank says it will apply to 'manuscripts and all accompanying data sets... that result from research, analysis, economic and sector work, or development practice... that have undergone peer review or have been otherwise vetted and approved for release to the public; and... for which internal approval for release is given on or after July 1, 2012,' as well as the final reports prepared by outside parties for the Bank. Over 2,100 books and papers from 2009-2012 are already available in the repository"

Comments

Re:Great Start

[causality]

All currency is based on trust in some entity, and trust that that entity will repay their debts.

Really? So tell me, whom do I need to trust that gold coins will retain substantial value? Did someone discover an economical way to turn lead into gold that I don't know about?

No, you simply described all fiat currency. Not all currency. Even paper money is based on wealth and not debt if it's representative currency backed by gold or silver.

Why don't you take a few minutes sometime to read up on how the Federal Reserve works, how they create currency out of thin air in exchange for government IOUs called treasury bonds, how interest is attached to the money at the time it is created which means there is never enough money in circulation to repay the debt, which means the only possibility is ever-increasing debt? Just insisting really, really hard that this can't be so will not change the situation.

America got hoodwinked and America got fucked the moment the Fed was established. Many other nations followed suit. It's that simple. In fact good ol' Abraham Lincoln had a lot to say about this very subject. Do you perchance know why he issued the greenback? It was in response to bankers' attempts to establish something just like the modern Federal Reserve during his time. He knew this would mean the government losing control of the money supply and being beholden to said bankers. He issued the greenback to stop this from happening. In fact I believe that's why he was murdered, but that's another subject (amazing how people will believe that a mugger might shoot someone for the $20 in their pocket but won't believe that powerful people will murder over tremendous amounts of wealth).

This is what Lincoln said:

The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace, and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insular than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned; an era of corruption will follow and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.

Oh and here's another quote, this time from FDR:

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson. -- U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, 1933

Hey, and another rather frank one from Henry Ford:

It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be revolution before tomorrow morning.

They used to be much more open about what they want. Ever heard of the USA Banker's Magazine? Try this one:

Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers. This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished... -- USA Banker's Magazine, August 25, 1924

Thomas Jefferson was farsighted enough to see this as well. It is very much like performing a security audit of a computer system: you can dis