Taylor: abolish IMF

[Carl Remick]

>Washington Post - February 8, 2001
>
>Taylor Advocated Killing IMF
>Prospect for Global Job at Treasury Gave Views in '98
>
>By Paul Blustein
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>
>In a sign that the Bush administration may take a dimmer view of
>international bailouts than its predecessor, an interview transcript
>shows that the leading candidate for the Treasury Department's top
>international job once advocated terminating the International
>Monetary Fund.
>
>John Taylor, a Stanford University economist, said in a television
>program filmed on Dec. 15, 1998, that the IMF "should be abolished."...
>
>Taylor said the $50 billion bailout of Mexico, which was organized in
>early 1995 by the IMF and the Clinton administration's Treasury
>Department, saved rich foreign investors from losses on their Mexican
>bonds but didn't do the country's economy any good. The result was
>that lenders and investors poured money even more recklessly into
>Asian countries that later suffered crises, he suggested. ...
>
>He also faulted the IMF for its "insistence that
>[crisis-stricken] countries move to very tight monetary policies,"
>which he said "made the situation worse."

Credit where it's due -- this guy sounds promising.

Carl

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