Europe gets pissy over Koch-Weser

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Mar 2 07:14:35 PST 2000


Carl Remick wrote:


>>Paul Krugman wrote:
>>
>>>Mr. Koch-Weser was the best Germany could find -- and he wasn't good enough.
>>
>>Funny, that's exactly how my source in the U.S. Treasury phrased it.
>>It's "good enough" to plunge half the world into depression though.
>>
>>Doug
>
>A bit too telegraphic, Doug. Could you clarify your second sentence here?

I'm talking about how the IMF, under Camdessus & his predecessors, have imposed savage austerity programs on well over 100 countries, with disastrous economic and social results extending over decades. Apparently Summers et al. think Koch-Weser isn't sufficiently dedicated to this program, and he's not enough of a prick. As a NYT article puts it today:


>Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers made clear from the start,
>including in conversations with Mr. Koch-Weser during meetings in
>Europe and Tokyo, that he did not favor the German's bid. The two
>had known each other when both were working at the World Bank in the
>early 1990's. Mr. Summers's main concern was that Mr. Koch-Weser was
>a specialist in poverty relief and had no expertise in finance.
>Moreover, the German was seen as a go-along-get-along type, who
>thrived at the World Bank by working well with the bureaucracy, not
>by leading it, administration officials said.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list