November 17, 2008 (LPAC)--To London's great glee, a growing string of countries are being forced to line up to be sacrificed at the IMF abattoir.

One of the latest is the tiny nation of Iceland, which yesterday made the concessions necessary to get a $2.1 billion IMF loan, including agreeing to compensate individual British and Dutch savers for their personal losses in the collapse of the internet bank Icesave, which will cost Iceland some $5 billion. That's right: Iceland shells out $5 billion, in exchange for $2.1 billion! Iceland may also get Dutch and British-financed EU loans, if they behave. Next on the agenda could be Iceland joining the EU and possibly the euro zone.

Pakistan is also being bled by the IMF...and the ongoing Afghanistan regional war. Since 2004, the "war on terror" has cost them over Rs 2 trillion--about $33 billion--the Ministry of Finance reported yesterday. Pakistan is a nation of 165 million people, where two-thirds of the population lives on the equivalent of less than $2 a day--the official definition of "poverty." Inflation is now 25%, and the IMF is demanding more taxation, including on agriculture. The rupee has fallen 23% to the dollar this year, sending the costs of oil and other imports sky-high. Pakistan is slated to get a pathetic $7.6 billion from the IMF between this year and next, primarily to help the country meet external debt payments by February.

Serbia is also scheduled to get a $4 billion loan from IMF, in return for government budget cutbacks. Svenska Dagbladet today warned that the Serbian GDP could collapse by 50% next year.

Belarus is in a tug-of war with the IMF, threatening to pull out of the IMF if it refuses to grant them a $2 billion loan. President Aleksandr Lukashenko told the Wall Street Journal: "We survived without IMF loans before, during the severest of times... If they deny it now...why should we co-operate?"