> consider the IMF is mostly a lender of last resort

Yep that's an important clarification indeed.

The IMF is a nation's last resort, like loan sharks would be a person's.

The documentaries referenced above seem to draw a picture of the IMF as a financial hit squad.

Haven't watched the Jamaica one yet, will schedule it for the weekend, but I'll be very surprised if it doesn't speak about a pattern of devastating IMF requirements similar to those documented in the others.

It's good that you know what's better for countries than the countries themselves. You should volunteer to help them.

If countries are in so much trouble they need the IMF they might not no better (or more likely, have the political options to do what is needed).

Yeah, I can see how you could frame it that way. But there is some basic context that is missing. Most policies used by the IMF are a result of a developing economy (country) wanting to be competitve on the international level and trade more. These loans are based on policies that dont work and are designed to put those countries into a form of servitude by struggling to repay debts (see import substitution).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import_substitution_industri...

Another method is to build infrastructure and make it impossible to pay back the interest. The IMF works in concert with the World Bank.

This model of manipulation is the way you rule the empire now. Why fight wars that arent profitable when you can manipulate economies on a macro level.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_H...