Finance & Development articles from September 2004

Finance & Development archives from September 2004

Gearing up for 2050.(From The Editor)(Editorial)
September 1, 2004... WHAT MIGHT the IMF of tomorrow look like? That's a question now stirring up debate inside, as well as outside, the institution as it marks its 60th anniversary. Of course, it's impossible to predict the future, but it is possible to consider...

Is Europe an optimum currency area?(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... One would think that Mr. Faruqee, in his article on the euro's fifth anniversary (June 2004), would have raised the most basic of questions about the relative merits of the idea of a single currency for Europe. Does Europe remotely satisfy the...

Mobilizing against disease.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... I agree that better health can result in sizable economic returns (March 2004 cover story). Developed countries have a major role to play in promoting better health in poor countries. When the United Nations (UN) world summit on sustainable...

Use the locals, not the globals.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... One can only agree that more money and more reforms would make a difference for poor countries trying to reach the Millennium Development Goals (December 2003). The country-by-country analysis on progress (or lack thereof) toward the goals is...

Ethics needed.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... I found your article on the European "conundrum" (June 2004) problematic. It speaks of the "twin impulses... toward social solidarity and equity, on the one hand, and financial discipline and economic efficiency, on the other," as if they were...

What went wrong in Argentina?
September 1, 2004... During the final days of 2001, despite exceptional support from the IMF, Argentina's economy imploded: the government defaulted on its debt and abandoned the peso's parity with the U.S. dollar, which it had maintained since 1991. For much...

30 years ago in F&D.
September 1, 2004... "At least through the 1950s, and possibly longer, the key decisions hearing on international economic relations were made by a relatively few countries. During much of the last decade, such decisions were the result of conferences among the ten...

Poverty program falling short.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... In 1999, the IMF and the World Bank adopted a new approach to their work with low-income countries to encourage greater country ownership of policies, sharpen the focus on poverty reduction, and improve collaboration between the IMF and the...

Events in 2004.(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... September 20, New York Action Against Hunger and Poverty--World Leaders Meeting October 2-3, Washington, D.C. IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings November 4-5, Washington, D.C. IMF Annual Research Conference November 18, New York Launch...

Freedom as progress: Laura Wallace interviews Nobel Prize-winner Amartya Sen.(People In Economics)(Interview)
September 1, 2004... AS AN Indian who takes inspiration from an 18th-century Scottish economist, a French mathematician, and a renowned Bengali poet, Amartya Sen is a rare species. He successfully bridges philosophy, ethics, and economics, in the process tackling...

IMF at 60: reflection on reform at the IMF and the demands of a changing world economy.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2004... ANNIVERSARIES are a time for introspection. For the IMF, July 2004 marked the 60th anniversary of the conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, when delegations from 44 allied countries drafted and agreed upon the IMF's charter. The world...

The IMF story: the IMF was created in response to the Great Depression and World War II as a way to promote monetary cooperation, financial stability, and economic growth for all countries.(International Monetary Fund)
September 1, 2004... 1919 After World War I, the Versailles peace treaty imposes reparations on Germany. 1920S Countries begin to adopt "beggar thy neighbor" policies--for example, competitive currency depreciations; U.S. Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act increases...

Forces Shaping the IMF tomorrow.(Picture This)(International Monetary Fund)
September 1, 2004... THE EVOLUTION OF the global economic and financial environment over the past 60 years has shaped the way the IMF has carried out its work. Peering into the crystal ball, one can get a sense of some of the forces likely to shape the IMF over the...

Rethinking IMF Governance: a former insider advocates overhauling the IMF's Executive Board to make it more effective and representative.(International Monetary Fund)
September 1, 2004... FOLLOWING a string of financial crises in emerging markets since 1994, the Group of Seven (G-7) major industrial countries decided at a 1999 summit in Koln to strengthen their direct involvement in managing the international monetary system....

Why Developing Countries Need a Stronger Voice: running faster at the IMF, but where's the progress?
September 1, 2004... "TAKE my hand," said the Red Queen from Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass, "and I will teach you something." And Alice took the Red Queen's hand. "Run," said the Red Queen, and Alice ran. "Faster, faster;' said the Red Queen, and...

Putting a stop to self-fulfilling crises: how debtor countries might be able to avoid the loss of confidence that often precipitates a crisis.
September 1, 2004... FINANCIAL crises, like viruses, seem to mutate along with the remedies that are designed to resolve them. This article explores how crises have changed since the early 1990s and suggests that innovative approaches will be required to cope with...

How should the IMF be reshaped? Three points of view on the IMF of the 21st century.(Point Of View)
September 1, 2004... 1 Surveillance What can be done to strengthen IMF surveillance of the global economy and all countries, including the Group of Seven (G-7) industrial countries? Any thoughts on how to find the right balance between confidential advice and...

Avoiding banking crises in Latin America: it is time to give supervisory authorities the independence to do their job.
September 1, 2004... JULIO Maria Sanguinetti, former Uruguayan president (1985-95), once commented that "the banking system will never take you to paradise, but it can bury you in hell in an afternoon." His words continue to echo in Latin America, which has been...

Reform: what pace works best? Gradual, says John McMillan, who argues for a step-by-step approach to economic reform. Rapid, says Oleh Havrylyshyn, who examines "big bang" reforms in Russia and Eastern Europe and finds that of nine rapid reformers, eight have done very well.(Point Counterpoint)
September 1, 2004... Avoid Hubris and other lessons for reformers THE PAST two decades have seen a worldwide shift to markets. Globalization has opened domestic markets to international competition. The former communist countries have converted themselves, to...

From vision to action: how to put some oomph into the Millennium Development Goals.
September 1, 2004... THE TURN of the century was a period of promise for world development. The Millennium Declaration--signed by the heads of 189 countries in September 2000--led to the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight objectives...

Foreign aid: grants versus loans: why the proposed shift of aid from loans to grants should be accompanied by a strengthening of institutions in developing countries.
September 1, 2004... TO MEET the Millennium Development Goals, including cutting global poverty in half by 2015, donor countries have been called upon to allocate 0.7 percent of their GNP for official development assistance. But this raises the question of what...

Liberalizing capital account restrictions.(Back To Basics)
September 1, 2004... WHAT accounts for the surge of cross-border capital flows over the past two decades? Capital account liberalization provides a big part of the answer. But while the increase in these flows since the mid-1980s--both between industrial countries...

Glad about globalization.(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... Martin Wolf Why Globalization Works Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2004, 398 pp., $30 (cloth) One shouldn't judge a book by its preface. Readers tempted to do so with this long book will come away with a misleading...

A score for globalization.(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... Philippe Legrain Open World The Truth About Globalization Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, Chicago, Illinois, 2004, 384 pp., $27.50 (cloth) Franklin Foer How Soccer Explains the World An Unlikely Theory of Globalization HarperCollins, New...

Why borrow from the IMF?(International Monetary Fund)(Book Review)
September 1, 2004... James Raymond Vreeland The IMF and Economic Development Cambridge University Press, New York, 2003, 216 pp., $70/45 [pounds sterling] (cloth), $21.99/16.00 [pounds sterling] (paper). Narratives of the IMF's relationship with its member...

Nigeria.(Country Focus)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... A turnaround in federal fiscal policy and higher oil revenues are projected to produce a fiscal surplus in 2004, although state and local government spending continue to grow strongly. In 2003, the economy grew at its fastest rate In many...

Assume anarchy? Why an orthodox economic model may not be the best guide for policy.(Straight Talk)
September 1, 2004... INSTITUTIONS are all the rage. The absence of institutions--such as efficient and impartial judiciaries, legal systems to protect intellectual property, tax administrations that are efficient and free of corruption, and credible central...