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To: MikeM54321 who wrote (2153)	8/24/1998 4:01:00 PM
From: Tom	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2951

Mike: "...you don't think the IMF should not be artificially supporting economies...." The two negatives canceling one another translates to my indicating that the IMF should be supporting economies. I don't see where I did that. "...you want "market forces" to determine how an economy fares. Currency speculation is just a "market force," isn't it?" A significant amount of the speculation is fueled artificially and put upon a market that is not. "I may not be understanding what you mean regarding your feelings towards, "currency speculators." Oh...I get it! You are not saying you are against currency speculators, but the IMF that artificially gives them economies/currencies to attack. Now that makes a lot of sense." Indeed. I have tried to understand the original intention of the IMF's charter and why it has been permitted to serve as long as it has. Probably because I believe in the concept, but not in its current incarnation. The concept may have been reinforced some years later (circa 1955) by certain U.S. pressure organisations, and even peripherally at the Uruguay Round, with the correct assumption that IMF assistance could prevent the bloodshed and useless loss of life that too many times is the result of national economic and financial chaos. But, like other well-intended formations, its purpose was corrupted once some people realised the collateral benefits that IMF activity offered their own enterprise. Being familiar as we East Asian observers are with institutionalised corruption, we know how reluctant the benefactors / corruptors are to ever tamper with the source. Akin to killing the goose.... The source in this instance is the IMF, and the reluctance translates into the repeated application of an inflexible policy that may well be their undoing. Consistent, but does not move well to his left.