Krugman in the New Republic

[Patrick Bond]

Krugman's weakness notwithstanding, nevertheless, Sol was right to 
say that the other orthodox positions amount to rearranging the 
deck chairs on the Titanic. Nor did Nelson Mandela had nothing 
particularly interesting to say on int'l financial regulation when he 
addressed the UN on this early in the week. 

One such orthodox approach -- limited to speed bumps -- is the  
Commonwealth commission set up to look into this, which (as I point 
out in my forthcoming LBO hard-copy article) is chaired by Chris 
Liebenberg, who as South African finance minister in March 1995 
lifted our exchange controls (a dual currency) and set the stage for 
two vicious (30%) bouts of devaluation (2-5/96 and 6-7/98). He left 
the finance ministry in 3/96 to reclaim his position as chairman of 
our fourth largest banking group (Nedbank) which was known here for 
its tendency to take wild and unsuccessful gambles in NY financial 
markets, including in mid 1996. Like asking arsonists for 
fire-fighting advice.

This report will be unveiled in Ottawa on Monday (I'll be there with 
the NGO set, whining on the sidelines). Any advice on how to spin 
this with the Commonwealth journos? Does our team have any 
alternative aside from Eatwell/Taylor?


> From:          James Devine <jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu>
> It's pretty tame stuff, though from the point of view of Stanley Fischer or
> Larry Summers, it may be heresy.