Summers: The Horse's Mouth

[Michael Pollak]

Financial Times

Wednesday, March 28, 2001

SUMMERS SAYS US INFLUENCE DEPENDS ON RESPONSE TO GLOBAL CRISES

Larry Summers, the former US Teasury secretary, said yesterday that if the
US became wary of spearheading responses to international economic crises
its influence overseas would decline, writes Rahul Jacob in Hong Kong.

"If the US embraces the doctrine that financial stability is something
best left only to markets then . . . that will have consequences for the
US in the [Asian] region that go well beyond the financial sphere," Mr
Summers said.

In comments made on the sidelines of an institutional investors'
conference in Hong Kong, Mr Summers defended the Clinton administration's
activitst role in fashioning responses to the Asian financial crisis, for
instance, as being the "most cost-effective way of mounting a forward
defence of US interests".  The perception that the International Monetary
Fund's responses to the crisis was heavily influenced by the US
administration led to rgional calls for an Asian monetary fund, which
eventually foundered.

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__________________________________________________________________________
Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com