[...] given that structural adjustment destroyed growth rates, we can conclude that much of it came instead from the appropriation of already existing wealth. By requiring debtor countries to privatise public assets, the World Bank ad the IMF created opportunities for foreign companies to buy up telecoms, railroads, banks, hospitals, schools and every conceivable public utility at a handsome discount, and then either run them for private gain or strip them down and sell off the parts at a profit. The privatisation of public assets releases a tremendous asset into the market that was previously inaccessible to capital, creating new opportunities for profit. The World Bank alone privatised more than $2 trillion of assets in developing countries between 1984 and 2012. That amounts to an average of $72 billion per year of profitable opportunities for Western investors in addition to the $58 billion of high-interest bonds that the Bank sells on Wall Street each year.