> But acquiring the resources from domestic savings alone is such a
> hard slog. And once one starts drawing on foreign capital, then you
> do need a hard-currency crisis lender like the IMF--both for those
> times when the international capital markets panic, and for those
> times when the domestic government digs itself into a hole.
Nonsense. All you need is a rising semi-periphery on your doorstep willing to exchange hard currency for market access to simple manufactured goods (China vis-a-vis Japan, Iberia vis-a-vis the EC, and Visegrad Europe vis-a-vis EU). The world needs a European Investment Bank writ large, to make low-interest loans in health care, education, and the environment, administered democratically, by the people on the ground who most need it. The Whirled Bank and the International Monetary F*!?ckers should be closed down and their loans cancelled. They've done quite enough damage already, don't you think?
-- Dennis