Book Description
"The IMF and the World Bank have integrated a large number of countries into the world economy by requiring governments to open up to global trade, investment, and capital. They have not done this out of pure economic zeal. Politics and their own rules and habits explain much of why they have presented globalization as a solution to challenges they have faced in the world economy."--from the Introduction
The greatest success of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has been as globalizers. But at whose cost? Would borrowing countries be better off without the IMF and World Bank? This book takes readers inside these institutions and the governments they work with. Ngaire Woods brilliantly decodes what they do and why they do it, using original research, extensive interviews carried out across many countries and institutions, and scholarship from the fields of economics, law, and politics.
The Globalizers focuses on both the political context of IMF and World Bank actions and their impact on the countries in which they intervene. After describing the important debates between U.S. planners and the Allies in the 1944 foundation at Bretton Woods, she analyzes understandings of their missions over the last quarter century. She traces the impact of the Bank and the Fund in the recent economic history of Mexico, of post-Soviet Russia, and in the independent states of Africa. Woods concludes by proposing a range of reforms that would make the World Bank and the IMF more effective, equitable, and just.
Customer Reviews:
Hard to read but incisive, 200 pages of tightly packed information.......2007-02-21
This book is definitely not in any way pop-nonfiction -- it is written more like a scientifical publification -- so it is tough to comprehend it at times (especially for a non-native with only average English skills). The book is highly rewarding nontheless -- the most balanced and insighting introduction of these two institutions I have read.
It studies the IMF/World Bank effect in Mexico, Russia and Africa, gives a bit of a background of the globalizers and finally comes up with actual ways in how they could be reformed.
If you don't want to be radically pro- or anti-globalization -- only know about it -- this might be the book you should get. It helps if you have some kind of a previous idea about IMF and World Bank.
Book Description
Why do governments turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and with what effects? In this book, James Vreeland examines this question by analyzing cross-national time-series data from throughout the world. Vreeland argues that governments enter into IMF programs for economic and political reasons, and he finds that the programs hurt economic growth and redistribute income upward. By bringing in the IMF, governments gain political leverage - via conditionality - to push through unpopular policies. For certain constituencies, these policies dampen the effects of bad economic performance by redistributing income. But IMF programs doubly hurt others who are less well off: They lower growth and exacerbate income inequality.
Customer Reviews:
Is the IMF really as bad as they say?.......2003-10-21
The growing movement against neo-liberal policies needs more books like this, one that really examine if their propaganda matches up tough scrutiny. As Vreeland discusses to much of supposed statistical studies showing the harms of IMF policies mearly state "countries in IMF conditionalities do worse in criteria X than countries that do not" which he cmpares to simply saying people who go to a doctor are found to be sicker than those who do not. This book - not the final answer to the question - provides a first good study of the effects of IMF programs. While he dose find that IMF programs do negatively effect growth I believe many who have organized against the IMF will be surprised by how small the difference is. His findings that the programs exacerbate economic inequality are hardly new yet are a nice new addition to the literature. Most interesting - and where this book is a serious and importantant contribution is inhis studies on the what determines a countries participation in the IMF program. Combiming anecdotal evidence, logical anlysis and statistical studies he shows that it is largely determined by desire of the executive branch to have the conditions imposed on their country. To the extent that this is accuarate then the anti-IMF movement might need to rewrite its propaganda of the IMF being about class war of the first world nations against the third world countries to being about class war from the world capitalist against the world's workers.
Sound Analysis.......2003-04-08
In this book Vreeland offers a cogent analysis of why governments enter into IMF agreements, and identifies startling effects of the effect of such programs on host country economic performance.
Unlike Stiglitz in "Globalization and Its Discontents," Vreeland takes a quantitative approach in measuring the effects of IMF programs. His work seems less concerned with the empty rhetoric that surrounds the anti-globalization movement that have pre-occupied many IMF crtics, and instead draws heavily upon statstical evidence.
Not the only book published recently about the IMF in academia, but certainly one of the better ones.
Book Description
Written by leading economists including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, this collection combines rigorous economic analysis with insider perspectives on key policy debates surrounding the future of the International Monetary Fund. As the role of the IMF and the "Washington Consensus" have come under intense scrutiny, this collection offers a valuable wide-ranging overview of the debate, making it an essential reference for anyone interested in the role of international financial institutions in our globalized economy.
Book Description
Our lives are all affected by three hugely powerful and well financed, but undemocratic, organizations: the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. These institutions share a common ideology. They aggressively promote "corporate" capitalism, neoliberalism, giving free rein to the interests of a small number of transnational corporations. This book presents the history and fundamental ideas of this economic ideology. Describing each member of the "unholy trinity," it shows how neoliberalism hijacked the IMF, World Bank and WTO in relation to their global financial, development and trade management roles.
Customer Reviews:
Whose Hitler?.......2007-04-04
In a word, if you like living in a sovereign nation, then write your Congressional representive, your Senators, and have the US removed from these organizations. There is a real bad element here. World domination bad.
good class action.......2005-10-03
This is what university work should be like: a professor leading a group of studnets in common action and collectieley publishing their work. Well done. Lots of good points which the unholy trinity should answer in some forum or other. All three organs are dominated by the US as Stiglitz, Bellamy and others have pointed out. Whether US hegemony is a good or bad thing is a different question.
I felt the book could have done without Foucault, who has little to contribute on the parameters of discourse or much else. The fact is the budgets of these institutions dwarf all others and it makes a welcome change to see an articulate counter point of view, especially as it was a grassroots student project. Definitely worth a read.
good overview of the IMF, World Bank & WTO.......2005-03-29
Any one looking for a good, critical overview of the history of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization--the major institutions of international economic governance, the institutional guardians and promoters of neoliberal globalization--should check this book out. It reviews the history of these three organizations in depth. Most analyses of these organizations that I've seen just look at their current policies and critique them. Peet (and the junior student authors who assisted him) add a great deal of historical depth to this, looking at the conditions under which the unhol trinity were founded at the end of World War II, how their missions have changed over time, and the power structures in which these organizations are embedded and part of. He looks at how the changing ways the US government has used these organizations to advance the interests of the US political-economic elite (what Peet et al. call the Washington-Wall Street Alliance) on the world stage. This book also provides a progressive critique of their impact, although other sources probably go into deeper depth on that score. Since Peet is a social scientist, he doesn't just put the problem down to bad intentions, but down to bad social structures--a refreshing change from some of the simple-minded demonization of the elite you can find in some quarters. Peet particularly analyzes how the role of people's beliefs in shaping their actions within these institutions. In some ways, this is the weakest part of the book. He tries to use an analysis of discourse a la Foucault to explain the working of these organizations, explaining how the hegemony of neoclassical economics shuts out any debates of alternatives. While this is valuable, discourse analysis along can not bear the full weight of analyzing the problems with the unholy trinity--you need some sort of political-economic analysis in the lines of world-systems theory or something to make full sense of these organizations. Indeed, Peet lays out his Foucauldian analysis in the first chapter--and then those ideas barely show up again. Honestly, I would suggest anyone who's not an academic just skip the first chapter and read the rest of the book. You won't miss much. After the first chapter though, the book provides a solid overview of the history of the IMF, World Bank and WTO--and through them much of the process of globalization.
The Politics of Writing.......2004-05-19
The Writers of books like Unholy Trnity make very little money for their hard work (usually a few hundred dollars a year for 3-4 years). They write books like this out of political commitment. And then people like "Not Right" (though he or she probably is, Right Wing) criticize the author for responding to an obviously political critique! This book, as the Publishers Weekly review says, provides a scholarly grounding for the anti-WTO, IMF and World Bank protests. The group of students and faculty who worked on it did a splendid job. Read it and you will see.
Not Right.......2004-05-11
I think that it is pathetic for one of the authors to actually review and rate his own book. It seems as if this person is obsessed with selling as many copies of his book as possible. This type of greed is exactly what he pretends to be writing against. It is also wrong for someone (perhaps also one of the authors), to attack another reviewer, just because he/she did not like the book. These things say a lot about the author/s of this volume.
Book Description
Stanley Fischer served as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from 1994 to 2001. IMF Essays from a Time of Crisis collects sixteen essays written for the most part during his time at the IMF, each updated with Fischer's later reflections on the issues raised. The IMF drew much criticism for some of its actions during Fischer's tenure, and he vigorously defends the "battlefield medicine" practiced by the IMF during a series of economic crises, which included the problems of economic transition in the former Soviet bloc and the Asian financial crisis. Fischer addresses the subsequent calls for reform of the international financial system and makes the case for the IMF as an international lender of last resort.
The first section of essays, "The Role of the IMF and the Reform of the International Financial System," considers the IMF's role in the international financial system in light of the crises of the 1990s. The second section, "Macroeconomic Policy, Stabilization, and Transition," examines such topics as exchange rate regimes, inflation, and Eastern Europe's relation to the European Union. The final section, "Poverty and Development," reflects Fischer's basic belief that economic policies should explicitly target poverty reduction. These engaging and accessible essays will appeal not only to economics students, economists, and policymakers but also to the general reader interested in the international monetary system.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful!.......2004-04-23
This lucid, plain, straightforward book is not necessarily the sort of thing one expects from an economist, yet author Stanley Fischer is one of our era's greatest economists. His work at the International Monetary Fund put him on the front lines during some of the twentieth century's most serious economic crises and panics. He has a unique and valuable perspective. His timely discussion of the IMF and the World Bank provides a sobering antidote to the rhetoric of both globalization and anti-globalization. Fischer reminds us that the IMF's many glaring failures and imperfections are the stumbles and flaws of an organization that has done good work to further a noble purpose. It also has proven willing and able to change when the facts do. For good reason, Fischer's essays sometimes read like the arguments of a defense attorney countering prosecutorial accusations. The IMF has come in for so much criticism in recent years that it is refreshing to discover so many points in its favor, and we find it both fair and prudent to consider them carefully.
Insightful!.......2004-03-09
This lucid, plain, straightforward book is not necessarily the sort of thing one expects from an economist, yet author Stanley Fischer is one of our era's greatest economists. His work at the International Monetary Fund put him on the front lines during some of the twentieth century's most serious economic crises and panics. He has a unique and valuable perspective. His timely discussion of the IMF and the World Bank provides a sobering antidote to the rhetoric of both globalization and anti-globalization. Fischer reminds us that the IMF's many glaring failures and imperfections are the stumbles and flaws of an organization that has done good work to further a noble purpose. It also has proven willing and able to change when the facts do. For good reason, Fischer's essays sometimes read like the arguments of a defense attorney countering prosecutorial accusations. The IMF has come in for so much criticism in recent years that it is refreshing to discover so many points in its favor, and we find it both fair and prudent to consider them carefully.
Average customer rating:
|
Current Developments in Monetary And Financial Law
Manufacturer: International Monetary Fund
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Military
| Specialties
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Military
| Specialties
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Finance
| Accounting & Finance
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Current Developments in Monetary and Financial Law, Vol. 2
ASIN: 1589063341 |
Average customer rating:
- disappointing
- Timely thoughts from a real economist
- Very Good thoughts on the eve of the Millennium
- A devastating critique of neoliberalism
|
The Globalisation of Poverty: Impacts of Imf and World Bank Reforms
Michel Chossudovsky
Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Development & Growth
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Economic Policy & Development
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Macroeconomics
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1856494012 |
Customer Reviews:
disappointing.......2004-05-31
This book is often thought-provoking, but ultimately too shallow. Too many of its conclusions are just stated without enough justification. Although not quite as quick to read, Stiglitz' "Globalization and its discontents" goes much deeper and has a more balanced point of view.
Timely thoughts from a real economist.......2000-03-28
Free thinking economists such as Mr Chossudovsky are few and far between. Please take the time to read about the reality of what we have been lured into.
Very Good thoughts on the eve of the Millennium.......1999-10-27
These are some wonderful thougts that have stimulated my mind into asking the question "CanAfricansThink?".This book exposes the disguise of mainstream economics which leaves human society's precious values at the hands of economic lust.All Africans need to know about this big con job being operated under the disguise of macro economics.
A devastating critique of neoliberalism.......1999-05-02
Looking at case studies from around the developing world, backed up with a strong theoretical analysis of the IMF and World Bank's role in the international economy, the globalisation of poverty brings the reader to one stark conclusion: 'Poverty is an input on the supply side, (of the global economy.)' Particularly interesting is Chossudovsky's explanation of the economic 'miracle' of Vietnam, while his analysis of the Yugoslav disaster, co-sponsored by the IMF and international financial investors, is very timely indeed. As Chossudovsky explains, the IMF and World Bank reforms have not merely suppressed populist and socialist economic measures and achievements; they have also prevented the development of national capitalisms, by creating economies directed towards the needs of the capitalist core states, rather than to the national market. For those harbouring any illusions about the economic order which governs humanity at the end of this century, this book is a necessary read. It's a pity that Chossudovsky works at the University of Ottawa and not the LSE, an institution that definitely needs realistic economists like him.
Average customer rating:
|
Current Developments in Monetary and Financial Law, Vol. 1
Manufacturer: International Monetary Fund
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
International
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Banking
| Business
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Military
| Specialties
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Taxation
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| International Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Financial
| English Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Banking
| Business
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Military
| Specialties
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1557757968 |
Book Description
The papers published in this volume are based on an IMF seminar held in 1998 covering a broad range of topics dealing with monetary and financial law. Topics presented at the seminar focused on the liberalization of capital movements, data dissemination, the IMF's goals in financial surveillance and architecture, and responses to the financial crises in Asia and Latin America. Recent issues in the financial sector were addressed including the supervision of banks and the major international effort—the Basle Core Principles of Banking Supervision. Updates on insolvency and liquidation of banks as well as lender-of-last-resort issues were presented along with how payment systems are adjusting to continuous financial modernization and the resulting legal issues. The activities of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) were discussed from several viewpoints as was the issue of good governance. Information was also provided on the developments in the enforcement of bank claims and the law of security.
Average customer rating:
|
Reforming the Governance of the IMF and the World Bank (Anthem Studies in Development and Globalization)
Manufacturer: Anthem Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Development & Growth
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Economic Policy & Development
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
International
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Banks & Banking
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Globalization
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Banks & Banking
| Finance
| International
| Accounting & Finance
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1843312115 |
Average customer rating:
|
Delivering on Debt Relief: From IMF Gold to a New Aid Architecture
Nancy Birdsall ,
John Williamson , and
Brian Deese
Manufacturer: Peterson Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Policy & Current Events
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Development & Growth
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Economic Policy & Development
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
International
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Finance
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
| Banks & Banking
| Corporate Finance
| Foreign Exchange
| Inflation
| Interest
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0881323314 |
Book Description
The idea of extending debt relief to the world's poorest countries has been hotly debated over the past few years. That debate has moved into the glare of the spotlight now that Bono, lead-singer of the Grammy-award winning band U2, has begun an earnest campaign to marshal assistance through a series of meetings with top government officials and visits to needy countries.
In keeping with its mission to analyze the latest trends in international economics, the Institute for International Economics has teamed up with a brand new think tank, the Center for Global Development (CGD) to produce a new study, Delivering on Debt Relief: From IMF Gold to a New Aid Architecture.
This study brings readers up to date on the complicated and controversial subject of debt relief for the poorest countries of the world. What has actually been achieved? Has debt relief provided truly additional resources to fight poverty? How will the design and timing of the "enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative" affect the development prospects of the world's poorest countries and their people?
The study then moves on to address several broader policy questions. Is debt relief a step toward more efficient and equitable government spending, building better institutions, and attracting productive private investment in the poorest countries? Who pays for debt relief? Is there a case for further relief? Most importantly, how can the case for debt relief be sustained in a broader effort to combat poverty in the poorest countries?
Books:
- The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third (Johns Hopkins Paperbacks)
- The Handbook of Structured Finance
- The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.
- The Master Cleanser
- The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development, Second Edition
- The Purchasing Machine: How the Top Ten Companies Use Best Practices to Manage Their Supply Chains
- The Standard & Poor's Guide to Measuring and Managing Credit Risk
- The Toyota Way
- The Trusted Advisor
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Lean Mean Thirteen
- Come the Spring
- Simplified Design for Building Sound Control
- The Houseplant Encyclopedia
- Touching Spirit Bear
- Effective Group Facilitation in Education: How to Energize Meetings and Manage Difficult Groups
- At Bertram's Hotel
- Solar House: A Guide for the Solar Designer
- The New Classics: Fresh Ideas for Rooms that Endure
- THE PLANT HUNTERS OR ADVENTURES AMONG THE HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS
Rules For The World: International Organizations In Global Politics
The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
International Organizations: The Politics and Processes of Global Governance
Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
Delegation and Agency in International Organizations (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
