Much of the media is holding up the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, as a white horse riding into Asia and other economically troubled parts of the world, bringing salvation in the form of U.S. dollars. But a remarkable coalition of groups as diverse as Friends of the Earth and the Heritage Foundation are uniting to challenge the IMF. They claim it’s ineffective, anti-poor and serves only to support a small and elitist agenda, financed by American taxpayers. In the next few weeks Congress may vote on an $18 billion funding increase for the IMF, of which $14.5 billion will be used to expand the fund’s operations and scope.