Well, I'm with you there on all points. Many of the IMF actions have unintended side-effects that seem to come from not thoroughly thinking through the consequences of loans and conditions. There are a series of posts with news releases on the Asia Forum thread about a month ago that show a botched IMF job in Korea in the first quarter, amazing stupidity as I recall thinking.
For a start, one loan condition could be the keeping of accurate, clear, and open systems of accounting and reporting, with independent auditing on an ongoing basis. Even large banks in many countries have no better reporting than bulletin board stocks in North America.
That's at least partly because it's the rateros who get handed the money in many cases, and who also make the local laws. Which is also true on the other side of it - Joe Taxpayer of the US is not making the decision to loan the money, his legislators are, and they will do it on the basis of political horse-trading, not on the merits of the deal as a business decision. Which is Russ' point, I think - we as a bunch of old farts bitching on the internet aren't going to make a great deal of difference in the short term.
I wonder how much IMF money to Indonesia finds itself very quickly in the pockets of Suharto, his family, and his friends - and how much is left over for the big New York banks .... ah, but we may never know - we don't get to see the books. ........... cheers |
