Trump's Treasury Chief Calls Their Bluff: The End of the IMF Playbook?

-- Promethean Action

Susan Kokinda opens with the European Union's largest expansion of its Russia sanctions list since the war began, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling Europe's objections to the U.S.–Russia diesel deal "completely hypocritical", since Europe is still Moscow's biggest gas customer.

The episode follows the reactions to President Trump's diesel deal, from Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and Boris Johnson to the EU's foreign ministers, set against President Trump's post on the European Union paying Russia $250 billion for energy and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak's figure of $320.7 billion since 2022.

It then turns to the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, where IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said growth alone cannot fix U.S. debt and deficits, the headlines that followed, and the IMF's playbook since Bretton Woods ended in 1971.

It closes with Secretary Bessent skipping the meetings for "domestic engagements", and Peter Navarro's White House progress report on America's manufacturing investments: over 500 projects, more than $380 billion in announced investment, mapped across the country.

Promethean Action——Bio and Archives We, former collaborators of Lyndon LaRouche, many for 50 years or more, founded the Promethean Action organization in 2024, changing the name from LaRouche PAC Action. The Political Action Committee, LaRouchePAC, also changed its name, becoming Promethean PAC. Our intention is to apply the ideas of LaRouche, as we understand them, to the profound economic, political and cultural challenges now facing the United States and the world.