Stiglitz rebuked

Tom Lehman uswa12 at Lorainccc.edu
Wed Sep 22 07:19:06 PDT 1999


I read where Dr. Barry Asmus speaking on the economy last night, at a meeting sponsored by One Valley Bank and held at Rattlesnake U., claims that the difference between the situation in Russia and Chile is Pinochet. Dr. Asmus who USA Today calls one of the 5 most sought after speakers in America, told the crowd that Pinochet attributed his economic success to "being a humble military man".

Tom

Doug Henwood wrote:


> Financial Times - September 22, 1999
>
> WORLD BANK: Economist rebuked over Russia
> By Alan Beattie in Washington
>
> James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank, yesterday rebuked
> Joseph Stiglitz, his chief economist, saying Mr Stiglitz's views on
> the failure of market reform in Russia had been made with the benefit
> of perfect hindsight.
>
> Speaking at a press conference just before the annual meetings of the
> World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, Mr
> Wolfensohn said he did not doubt that mistakes had been made in
> implementing the liberalisation programme in Russia. "But to say
> later that you would have done it differently earlier is to be a
> little generous to yourself," he said.
>
> Mr Wolfensohn also said there was no evidence that World Bank lending
> to Russia had been misappropriated. Allegations have grown recently
> that money lent to Russia by the IMF in June last year was diverted
> to private bank accounts in New York. But Mr Wolfensohn said that a
> continuing audit process of all the Bank's lending had yet to turn up
> any evidence that money had gone missing.
>
> He added that the current investigation into the allegations of theft
> and money laundering was a positive development and should be seen as
> a chance to get the matter "into the open".
>
> Mr Wolfensohn's comments about Mr Stiglitz referred to a paper
> delivered at the World Bank's annual conference on development
> economics in Washington in April. In it, Mr Stiglitz said the
> "failures" of Russia's transition towards a market economy were not
> just due to sound policies being poorly implemented but to "a
> misunderstanding of the foundations of a market economy".
>
> Referring to his chief economist as a "free spirit", Mr Wolfensohn
> implied Mr Stiglitz's views did not reflect those of the Bank as a
> whole. "I am always interested to see what Joe is saying on behalf of
> the Bank," he said.
>
> Mr Stiglitz's views were widely believed to have caused a rift
> between the World Bank and the IMF, which was instrumental in
> implementing market reforms. Mr Stiglitz had said the "Washington
> consensus" which advocated rapid privatisation of state-owned
> enterprises and liberalisation of markets failed to take into account
> social and institutional factors, which ensured that those policies
> failed.



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