Finance & Development articles from March 2000

Finance & Development archives from March 2000

From the editor.
March 1, 2000... IN FEBRUARY 2000, Michel Camdessus retired after 13 years at the helm of the International Monetary Fund. An extraordinary Managing Director in an extraordinary time, he placed a distinctive mark on both the evolution of the IMF as an...

Michel Camdessus at the IMF A Retrospective.
March 1, 2000... It may be some years until a definitive assessment of Michel Camdessus's unprecedented 13 years as Managing Director can be made. In this article, the IMF's Historian provides a preliminary evaluation. THE STORY of Michel Camdessus's long...

The Long Road to Financial Stability.
March 1, 2000... Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean weathered the economic crises of the late 1990s better than expected, thanks to the policy reforms of the past two decades. Further reform is urgently needed, however, to put the region on a...

Argentina's Structural Reforms of the 1990s.
March 1, 2000... Argentina experienced serious economic and financial difficulties in the 1980s. Hyperinflation in 1989-90 finally elicited the necessary political consensus for reform. Despite areas of concern, structural reforms implemented in the 1990s have...

Monetary Policy During the Transition to a Floating Exchange Rate.
March 1, 2000... Brazil's Recent Experience The financial crisis that erupted in Asia in 1997 quickly spread to other developing regions, as international investors panicked and pulled their capital out. In this article, the governor of Brazil's central...

Chile in the 1990s Embracing Development Opportunities.
March 1, 2000... A review of Chile's recent economic performance shows that, overall, the 1990s were a period of vigorous and unprecedented expansion, with average annual GDP growth of 6.5 percent. While 1999 was a time of economic adjustment after the fallout...

Mexico Recent Developments, Structural Reforms, and Future Challenges.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... In recent years, the Mexican government has implemented a series of economic reforms to strengthen the country's fundamentals and increase its ability to cope with external shocks. Because of the progress that has been made, the government is...

BANKING SUPERVISION.
March 1, 2000... Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, like other emerging markets, have experienced banking system difficulties that have hampered growth and generated fiscal costs as high as 10 to 20 percent of GDP and even more. Many countries have...

Poverty Reduction.
March 1, 2000... Although Latin America and the Caribbean reduced the incidence of poverty during the 1990s, population increases and the greater income inequalities that had developed during the 1980s stymied the region's efforts to reduce the number of poor...

Central America.
March 1, 2000... Adjustment and Reforms in the 1990s Following a weak performance in the 1980s, the Central American economies experienced a turnaround in the 1990s as they adopted improved policies within a more stable political environment. Now, how can...

The Dollarization DEBATE.
March 1, 2000... Full dollarization of the economy is widely discussed as a way of enabling developing countries to overcome monetary and exchange rate instability. What are the costs and benefits of dollarizing, and which developing countries are most likely...

Is the U.S. Current Account Deficit Sustainable?
March 1, 2000... The U.S. current account deficit, driven by the United States' widening trade deficit, is the largest it has ever been, both as a share of the U.S. economy and in dollar terms. How much longer can the United States continue to spend more than...

The Rise and Fall of Albania's Pyramid Schemes.
March 1, 2000... During 1996-97, Albania was con vulsed by the dramatic rise and collapse of several huge financial pyramid schemes. The article discusses the crisis and the steps other countries can take to prevent similar disasters. THE PYRAMID scheme...

Promoting Orderly and Effective Insolvency Procedures.
March 1, 2000... Insolvency laws are still viewed by many merely as mechanisms for cleaning up economic trash. However, they play a far more important role. If effectively designed and implemented, they can boost confidence in an economy, thereby fostering...

Devil Take the Hindmost.(Review)
March 1, 2000... A History of Financial Speculation Edward Chancellor Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 1999, xiv + 386 pp., $25/Can$39.95 (cloth). EDWARD CHANCELLOR has written a detailed history of financial speculation and the excesses that...

The Lexus and the Olive Tree.(Review)
March 1, 2000... Thomas L. Friedman Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 1999, xix + 394 pp., $27.50 (cloth). THE CONCEPT of globalization sprang suddenly upon the world. It is widely discussed and equally widely misunderstood. In Friedman's analysis, it...

Banker to the Poor.(Review)
March 1, 2000... Muhammad Yunus Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Public Affairs, New York, 999, ix + 258 pp., $24, [pounds]18.50, Can$35 (cloth). IT HAS ALWAYS struck me as odd that credit is considered a good thing, has positive...

The Future of the Electronic Marketplace & The Weightless World.(Review)
March 1, 2000... The Future of the Electronic Marketplace Derek Leebaert MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998, vii + 383 pp., $$38.50 (cloth), $17.50 (paper). The Weightless World Strategies for Managing the Digital Economy Diane...

Historical Dictionary of the International Monetary Fund, Second Edition.(Review)
March 1, 2000... Norman K. Humphreys Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, and London, 1999, xl + 330 pp., $60 (cloth). THIS BOOK is number 17 in the Scarecrow Press's series Historical Dictionaries of International Organizations, which debuted in 1993...