An insider's perspective: Stiglitz & the World Bank

Post #24,227 by kmself 1/14/02 12:43:50 AM Reply	An insider's perspective: Stiglitz & the World Bank The harshest, most biting criticism of the global monetary "relief" system has come from inside and the top: economist Joseph Stiglitz, who ran the World Bank until November, 2000. The system's broken. The reforms don't work. Salon [link\|http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/05/02/stiglitz/\|covers this well], Google [link\|http://www.google.com/search?q=IMF+stiglitz&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en\|tells much more]. For Stiglitz's own words, see [link\|http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/analysis/articles/IMF_Four_steps_Damnation.htm\|Four Steps to Damnation], also [link\|http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/10/stiglitz.htm\|The Atlantic], or [link\|http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/wbank/stigindx.htm\|a paper archive]. `-- Karsten M. Self [link\|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com\|kmself@ix.netcom.com] [link\|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/\|[link\|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/\|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/]] What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?`
Post #24,230 by static 1/14/02 5:04:21 AM Reply	I heard something about this on the radio. It was something on [link\|http://www.abc.net.au/rn/\|ABC Radio National] last week that I unfortunately only heard part of, but it was someone talking about the history of the IMF and the World Bank. Basically, there were several competing proposals for this sort of international setup and one in particular involved a credit/debit system that charged countries an amount of the balance - which side of zero it was - to stay afloat. The effect would have been to encourage countries to maintain near-zero balances. However, the US didn't like it and had proposed basically the current IMF/World Bank system. They also issued a kind of ultimatum along the lines of "do it our way or we won't participate". The rest is history. It would have been nice to hear the whole program, but I didn't have the time. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #24,232 by Ashton 1/14/02 5:42:25 AM Reply	A much better model apparently is, the Grameen Bank Formed and generally run by women (last I heard), their policies of small loans to individuals, overseen more by peer pressure than anything like Lawyers Inc. - have produced startling results. I should look up the recent history - but even a few years ago the idea was impressive enough. NPR has periodically covered them docu-style, and I have read many reports. I rather expect that the local attention span is a bit too short, for present protests to have much effect upon the autocratic, elite and arrogant institution which the World Bank has always been. As the prof. mentions - they are determinedly anti-clueful, unaccustomed to criticism even of the constructive sort. Typically of autocrats, they deem any such to be a personal attack to be defended against - blindly. Still it's nice that there is finally some semblance of a movement to keep the spotlight on these few and too powerful individuals. May I be entirely wrong about the expected results. Ashton imagining what a mere $1B grant might do for expanding the policies of Grameen.. Hah. We don't really want the natives to achieve any sort of autonomy.

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