>A couple of years ago everyone seemed to agree that the
>international financial institutions needed major reform--even
>though half of critics (the Jeffrey Sachs-Joseph Stiglitz wing)
>believed the institutions were too scrooge-like, and the other half
>(the Ralph Nader-Wall Street Journal wing) believed the institutions
>were too generous and liberal. The IMF was forcing countries into
>deflationary policies that caused severe depressions, or the IMF's
>generosity had encouraged overlending and overproduction that had
>caused widespread crisis. But even though the directions of the
>proposed reforms were directly opposed, everyone seemed to agree
>that such major reforms were absolutely necessary: all agreed that,
>in the words of William Greider of the Nation, "the usual financial
>remedies [would] lead only to failure."
>
>Yet here we are. So what went right?
>
>What went right was that our global institutions did a much better
>job of handling the crises of the 1990s than the folk wisdom holds.
How blissful it is to live in this best of all possible worlds.
Doug