A suitable case for treatment? Understanding the ongoing debate about the IMF
Article Abstract:
This article discusses the history and the future of the International Monetary Fund in light of debates over its role in international finance since the economic crises in East Asia, Russia and Brazil in the late 1990s, and compares its role as a short-term finance institution to the long-term development role of the World Bank and how these two institutions have overlapped since the Fund began imposing policy based standards on loans in the early 1980s. The IMF developed out of the 1944 Bretton Woods conference on the management of economic markets and monetary policies following the global recession of the 1930s and was created as a stabilization fund to provide countries with short-to-medium term financial assistance during periods of balance of payment deficit, however, the Fund's role increased to managing the Bretton Woods' systems during the 1950s and 1960s, while failing to prevent their collapse in 1971-1973; the author concludes that the Fund should be retained but reformed, including the need for more transparency and more accountability, a clearer delineation between the Fund and the World Bank should exist with the IMF withdrawing from long-term lending in developing countries, and the IMF should also encouraging countries to avoid pegged exchange rates.
Publication Name: Third World Quarterly
Subject: International relations
ISSN: 0143-6597
Year: 2001
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Grafting stability onto globalisation? Deconstructing the IMF's recent bid for transparency
Article Abstract:
This article examines the transparency requirements of the International Monetary Fund for emerging markets economies, suggesting that these efforts are symbolic of the ideology of neoliberalism but in reality progress debtor nations toward legal obligations. The author asserts that global economic stability has been undermined by the emergence of competition states, a political economy which is non-hegemonic, and a re-marginalization process in the South; the Fund's efforts at promoting transparency requirements are viewed as an effort to maintain the status quo.
Publication Name: Third World Quarterly
Subject: International relations
ISSN: 0143-6597
Year: 2001
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Conducting macroeconomic policy in developing countries: piece of cake or mission impossible?
Article Abstract:
This article discusses whether international financial institutions should conduct macroeconomic policies in developing countries, given the results of financial crisis in East Asia and Latin America in the late 1990s. The author believes that structural reform may make traditional macroeconomic policies more effective, even within the International Monetary Fund.
Publication Name: Third World Quarterly
Subject: International relations
ISSN: 0143-6597
Year: 2001
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