Word: imf
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...Mahbubani argues that the U.S. and the international institutions it effectively runs (the IMF, for example) always confuse America's own interests with what's good for everyone. This is true no matter who is in power, Mahbubani says. Indeed, the architects of the U.S. response to the Asian financial crisis were then Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin?now practically worshipped in the U.S. as the man behind the Clinton boom years?and Larry Summers, who succeeded Rubin as Treasury Secretary. Devout Bushies they are not, but neither saw the disconnect that to many Thais seemed utterly obvious after the fact...
...Brazil, economic policymaking has been almost paralyzed by the grave illness of Tancredo Neves, the first civilian to be elected as the country's President after 21 years of military rule. Meanwhile, the IMF has suspended $1.5 billion in loans that the country had expected to receive from the fund. Following the IMF's stern lead, banks in the U.S. and Western Europe halted talks with Brazil about rescheduling payments on its $102 billion debt. One of the main reasons for the IMF's action was that Brazil's annual inflation rate has been running higher than 230%, far above...
...IMF has also shut off credit to Argentina, which owes $48 billion in loans. Although the country promised the IMF last September that it would slash inflation from a 687% annual rate to 300%, prices are now rising at an 851% pace. The government is trying to slow the whirlwind by limiting wage hikes to 90% of the previous month's cost of living increases, but that policy has led to a series of strikes, which threaten to stall economic growth. Admits President Raúl Alfonsín: "The government is multiplying its efforts to get the country back on its feet...
Africans are becoming increasingly impatient with the austerity measures that the IMF demands in exchange for its loans. Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere calls the IMF a "substitute for colonialism," charging that it and other international institutions have become "tools of the rich nations to control the economies of poor nations." The fund has been particularly unpopular in Sudan, where a military coup toppled the government three weeks ago. Before his overthrow, President Gaafar Nimeiri had been unable to fashion an economic program that satisfied the IMF. As a result, aid from creditor nations was cut off, and a lack...
...last week's IMF-World Bank meeting, the debtor nations pressed anew their demands for increased official aid and commercial loans. The U.S. and other industrial countries resisted, arguing that only a long period of strong growth in the world economy can resolve the debt crisis. The IMF's staff optimistically projected that the major industrial countries could average 3% growth annually, after adjustment for inflation, from 1985 to 1990, up from 2% in the first four years of the decade. That growth rate, said the IMF, could help developing countries boost exports by 5% to 6% each year...