Really? When the IMF reports came to the Treasury, my bosses took them seriously enough to put me and two other economists to work. We spent about three days each year (a) talking to the IMF staff in Article IV conversations, (b) writing memos about what things that the IMF said were right and should lead us to alter our policy, and (c) writing memos about what things that the IMF said were wrong.
The judgment--Bentsen's, Rubin's, and Summers's--was that the IMF had some pretty smart people who thought differently than we did, and we should think about why, and that it was in everyone's long-run interest for the IMF staff to know that the Treasury staff took them seriously (or, at least, that it was worth my time to demonstrate this).
I suppose Stiglitz threw my memos away too...
Brad DeLong