[lbo-talk] IMF warns the US

Brad DeLong jbdelong at uclink.berkeley.edu
Mon Sep 22 11:35:55 PDT 2003



>Brad DeLong wrote:
>
>>I suppose Stiglitz threw my memos away too...
>
>Didn't you have some nasty things to say about Stiggy on your
>website recently?
>
>Doug

Yes indeedy: Stiglitz's globalization book needed an editor. He needed to decide whether its criticism of the IMF was:

--that the IMF, horribly, infringes on national sovereignty by only lending after putting constraints on what a national leader (like Suharto) can do with its money, and should lend freely to governments without conditions in the interest of respecting developing-country sovereignty.

--that the IMF, horribly, props up kleptocrats (like Suharto) by lending their governments any money at all.

--that the IMF, horribly, did not recognize that a kleptocrat (like Suharto) is better than near-anarchy, and did not do enough to keep Suharto in power.

--that the IMF, horribly, encouraged private investment in Indonesia, even though private investment under a kleptocrat (like Suharto) is likely to reduce the welfare of the recipient country.

I think there's a rule that you are allowed to make only two of these points in the same book.

Brad DeLong



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