I agree that Doug's questions to Larry S. were very sharp and appropriate. Hey, most of the issue was excellent, and most of the first article was pretty good too, despite my fussing about his mussing together the WB and IMF. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Michael Yates <mikey+ at pitt.edu> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Thursday, May 25, 2000 2:58 PM Subject: Re: Run on the Bank
>I agree with Doug. And I think the last LBO on IMF and WB is pretty
>clear. Also, congratulations are in order for the sharp questions posed
>to Summers. Doug did his duty as a left journalist.
>
>Michael Yates
>
>Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>> J. Barkley Rosser, Jr wrote:
>>
>> > What damage has the "Whirled Bank" done?
>> >Please be precise, no general mumbling about
>> >"globalization" or "world capitalism," please.
>>
>> I try not to use the word "globalization," but why not "world
>> capitalism"? The WB is one of the primary institutions that work to
>> incorporate countries into the global economic hierarchy. "Oh, need
>> hard currency do you? Here, take a loan. Reform your agricultural
>> sector (i.e., reorient it toward market-driven exports) or build a
>> dam (to provide power to an export-oriented industrial zone). Then
>> earn some FX to you can pay back your loan. Need schools? Environment
>> a wreck? Gender relations all screwy? Borrow some more - we got
>> special facilities for all of them. Of course, you'll have to export
>> even more to service the loans, but, hey, that's the cost of doing
>> business." In other words, the WB is central to a whole array of
>> temptation and constraints, carrots and sticks, that keep poorer
>> countries from networking with each other first, rather than their
>> creditors, and hooked on the whole export model, which is, of coure,
>> a nice holdover from colonial days.
>>
>> Doug
>