France loots former colonies
thisisafrica.me
thisisafrica.me
As a counter example, I Googled for Chinese investments in those countries, and found a lot of information / news. That seems to run against the 'Ownership of natural resources'-paragraph.
A last thought: it's about monetary operations for the workings of a common currency. You don't exactly lose money when depositing it at a central bank. The system they describe in pretty harsh terms (google it) , sounds like a scheme pretty normally practiced between banks and central banks.
On the contents: a central bank scheme indeed. And in normal circumstances your central banks profits fill the coffers of your state. In this case the problem is the profits are not divided among stakeholders, only to the shareholder (the French).
Well the solution is 'simple': start your own currency. My impression is that those countries greatly benefit from a more stable currency (haven't looked it up at Bloomberg), since there is an implicit guarantee from the French state (is there?). We need a more total picture (costs and benefits) in order to be able to form somewhat of an opinion.
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-04-17/african-mone...
[1]: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/12/us-france-graft-id...
Economic & political pressure. If they break "agreements" they might find themselves with sanctions. Now they can't sell the cocoa or the oil. Or France would play one country against each -- "start a conflict with your neighbor in exchange for ... something"
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2014/08...
This article reads like propaganda to me. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that france still has unjustified commercial priviledges,espeically in the oil business, but the monetary things reads like a complete misunderstanding of central bank monetary stability policies ( franc cfa is exceptionnaly stable compared to the poor politicial stability of the area).
Slightly related, is it true that the currencies in CFA are significantly more stable than those of surrounding countries? And are the inhabitants wealthier for it?
What we should ask: How much of the 60B Euro per month the ECB is using for QE in the Eurozone now is being put toward these African countries whom are so closely tied to the Euro?