OK. Please list some specific projects or actions by the WB that have damaged less developed countries. As with to Dennis, no general mumbling or rhetoric. Specific cases, please. I am very open on this one. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Patrick Bond <pbond at wn.apc.org> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Thursday, May 25, 2000 6:06 AM Subject: Re: WB and IMF
> From: "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb at jmu.edu>
> BTW, the best study on global income inequality was put
> out by a WB staffer, as you know, Branko Milanovic (we should
> probably keep our voices down so that he does not get fired...!!!).
The best? Hey, I just spent a few days with Branko in Helsinki last week. I agree he's a nice guy and an extremely good speaker. The study you mention is a comparison of 1988 and 1993 international household surveys, so it's rather limited, though it does point to exceptionally high Ginis in many parts of the world. He didn't seem particularly predisposed to questioning the broader WashCon parameters though. Here are a couple of his paper's concluding sentences:
* "One can conjuncture [sic] that such a high inequality is sustainable [sic] precisely because world [sic] is not unified, and rich people do not mingle, meet or even know about the existence of the poor (other than in a most abstract way)." [This worries me; I'd rather see an enlightened economist worming away at the inside of the WB trying to scare the hell out of Wolfy and the others by predicting the unsustainability of inequality and the revolutionary or barbaric impulses that inequality creates, wouldn't you?] ...
* "Western Europe, North America and Oceana, and the Latin American Countries show what may be deemed `desirable' income distribution changes between 1988 and 1993. The absolute importance of both `class' (within country inequality) and `place' (between country inequality) decreased, and the overall Gini went marginally down in both regions." [I just got Doug's latest hard-copy LBO in the post today, where he argues there's been a pretty steady income Gini rise within the US. Arno Tausch was saying the same is true in Europe. So I don't know where Branko got his conclusion, and when I asked he seemed to concede a bit of space there.]
Aside from David Ellerman, what leading economists are there now at the WB who are willing and able to generate vaguely progressive arguments, Barclay?
I endorse Doug's critique of the rest of your presumptions, Barclay. I'll be happy to send some forthcoming articles to you offlist to see if the evidence is convincing. Patrick Bond email: pbond at wn.apc.org * phone: 2711-614-8088 home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094 South Africa work: University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa email: bondp at zeus.mgmt.wits.ac.za phone: 2711-488-5917 * fax: 2711-484-2729