... Uni­ versity Press, 2001). Reengineering the Volatility Machine H ow the IMF Can H elp Prevent Financial Crises M ichael Pettis In October 1997, shortly after the economic percent. Not surprisingly, the IMF shelved collapse of Thailand and Indonesia...

... that Argentina would itself from hyperinflation and despair by default on its loans within three years and a pegging its peso to the dollar, it found itself virtual certainty that it would do so within in desperate straits once more? Had the five years. The IMF, which regularly exam­ loans...

... party, the IMF. The G-20 has delegated a growing list of monitoring functions to the IMF, including determining if a member country’s fiscal policies will contribute to “strong, sustainable, and balanced growth.” In doing so, the G-20 selected a favored mechanism of horizontal coordination—peer review...

.... The IMF has tra­ ing on social programs, but the exigencies ditionally seen itself as the world’s economic of the situation (recession and high debt) “firefighter,” ready to extinguish any finan­ meant the government could not deliver. cial crisis that might erupt.25 In the 1990s, Alianza leaders...

.... Meanwhile, the government continued to deny inflation was rising, even fining Orlando Ferreres and Associates for providing what it called elevated estimates of inflation. Not long after, Argentina became the first country in the world to be censured by the IMF for under-reporting its inflation...

..., the U.S. Treasury, and the interna­ eign debt problems remain a serious threat tional financial institutions, or multilaterals, to the global economy. A default in, say, Ar­ including the International Monetary Fund gentina, could set off a chain reaction: losses (IMF), the World Bank...

.... Foreign capi­ ing spending on education, health care, and tal was able to flow in so vigorously because other social services. the IMF had strongly encouraged the re­ moval of capital controls long before the The East Asian...

... underline the necessity of frugality for all. One factor working in Greece’s favor is the cushioning effect of its EU and Eurozone memberships, a luxury not enjoyed by other countries that went through IMF interventions, such as Argentina. The systemic risk and disastrous political consequences...

... the IMF revealed its World Economic Outlook. Even in a mediocre environment where global GDP is expected to expand a bit over 3 percent in 2015, the numbers for Latin America were dismal. The region’s economy is expected to contract 0.3 percent this year and to grow by less than 1 percent in 2016...

..., not with innovation. Not only are the three major international economic organizations—the IMF, World Bank, and WTO—ill-equipped to take on new forms of unfair or counterproductive behavior but also, by sins of omission and commission, they perpetuate the problems. These institutions do little to promote innovation...

... branded him an “ill-informed stooge of the nomic nationalism offered up by Prime IMF and other foreign interests” and made Minister Mahathir, frank in its assessment of him the scapegoat for the austerity pro­ the limits of capital controls, and fully cog­ grams the government...

... them almost stock market collapses, and the country’s irrelevant. subsequent financial crisis. While continuing its insistence on re­ Our book shows that Malaysian bank­ strictive monetary measures and open capi­ ing regulations had been more prudent than tal accounts, the IMF...

... institutions like the World Bank and IMF for developing countries in crisis. After years of following the advice of the IMF, Volberg says, “Argentina ended up in one of the worst economic crises in its history. The past decade has been a response to that. Cristina Kirchner launched herself...

... in Turkmenistan, most have shied sible modern Islamic-nationalist response to away, as have the IMF and other multina­ Islamic fundamentalism. tional donors. In the guise of hewing to a Uzbekistan has been the economic pow­ neutral foreign policy, Niyazov has isolated erhouse of Central Asia. Tashkent...

... WORLD POLICY JOURNAL • FALL 2002 The International Criminal Court (icc), control.) The World Bank—officially the the most significant advance in international International Bank for Reconstruction and law in at least half a century, begins life this Develoment—and the IMF were born...

... is the most prominent victim. With some 70 percent of government spending funded by oil and gas revenues, pegged at $100 a barrel of oil for all or most of 2015, the country has a lot of ground to make up. The big hit, though, has been to the ruble, as the IMF suggested in January when economists Rabah Arezki...

... for stabilizing the country. Since then, the cessful economic performance before Inter­ prolonged intifada, Ariel Sharon’s electoral national Monetary Fund and World Bank victory, Bashar al-Assad’s pronounced ani­ funds are released. Thus, while an approved mosity toward Israel, Hizbullah’s provo­ IMF...

.... SPRING 2016 67 PORTFOLIO Property prices were over- valued to an extent that severely affected the levels of debt owed by mortgagors. e IMF and OECD both stated as early as 2004 that “the housing market was being overvalued at between 20 and 30 percent...

... members and the IMF have offered Greece help, without which it would have sunk, but only to the extent that they protect their own interests while forcing a woefully unprepared Greece to undergo a revolution of deprivation. In addition, the imbalances caused by the varying tension between national...

... their poverty, and support sustainable develop­ economic reform programs and improve ment. These fine words were then dis­ governance, and on the developed countries tilled— after consultation with the Interna­ to step up their support by providing more tional Monetary Fund (IMF), the World aid...