Imf

No champagne corks are popping to celebrate the golden anniversaries of the World Bank and the International Monetary dTC Fund. These two global financial institutions, created by World War II allies at Bretton Woods, N.H., 50 years ago, are under attack from left and right, from environmentalists and libertarians, from economists with conflicting ideologies who nevertheless see the power of private financial markets overwhelming these government-supported behemoths.Consider,...

When I told a woman I know that the jailed French economist who headed the International Monetary Fund was known in the French press as "the Great Seducer," she said that judging from what she has seen of him on television, he must have come up with that nickname himself. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, released on bail Thursday after being held under suicide watch in the notorious Riker's Island lock-up in New York City, certainly hasn't looked his best since cops hauled him off an Air France flight bound for Paris and charged him with the attempted rape and sodomizing of a chambermaid at a snazzy Manhattan hotel last weekend.

SINGAPORE -- International Monetary Fund members approved yesterday the first stage of a voting overhaul to give China, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico a bigger voice at the fund to reflect their growing influence in the global economy. In a poll that won 90.6 percent support, the IMF said its members agreed to increase votes for the four countries in the face of opposition from some Latin American and Asian nations. "The state of the world has changed very rapidly over the past 20 years and it's only right that the institutions that manage it change to reflect that," said Paul Donovan, senior global economist at UBS AG in London.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Asif Ali Zardari returned from China late Friday without a commitment for hard cash needed to shore up Pakistan's crumbling economy, leaving him with the politically unpopular prospect of having to ask the International Monetary Fund for help. Pakistan was seeking the aid from China, an important ally, as it faces the possibility of defaulting on its current account payments. With the United States and other nations preoccupied with a financial crisis, and Saudi Arabia, another traditional ally, refusing to offer concessions on oil, China was seen as the last port of call before the IMF. Accepting a rescue package from the IMF would be seen as a humiliating step for Zardari's government, which took office last month.

WASHINGTON -- After two years of marching out of step, the major industrial countries have finally fallen together in a pattern that could reinforce a still-sluggish international recovery, according to the International Monetary Fund.With the U.S. economy growing slowly, with Europe lowering interest rates, and with Japan trying to boost domestic demand, the policies of the world's three economic powerhouses appear to be converging. These "mutually reinforcing" measures should spread across the industrial world later this year or, more likely, next year.

WASHINGTON -- The world's finance ministers and central bankers ended their annual get-together yesterday still divided on policy priorities, defeated by the European currency crisis and taught a lesson on economic growth by the developing nations.Overwhelmed by recent events, the meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank was unable to devote anything more than lip service to the urgent need to promote global economic growth and stabilize currency markets.So unexpected was the virtual collapse of the European exchange rate mechanism that the issues briefing book, prepared for IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus before the meeting opened last week, did not contain a single reference to currency markets.

THE FARM BELT could become the next victim of the spreading financial meltdown. Customers in Asia and Russia lack the funds to buy U.S. grains and chicken.That is just one sign of Congress' folly in preventing the United States from making $17.9 billion available to the International Monetary Fund, which lends money to overextended governments in return for reforms.The gyration of stock markets shows that globalization has occurred ahead of institutions to curb its excesses. The IMF may not be the best tool, but it is the only one that exists.

With the financial crises festering in Eastern Europe and East and Southeast Asia, the moneyed cavalry of the International Monetary Fund finds its saddlebags are emptying fast. The recent mission to save Russia bought some time, but it will be a long time before the new republic escapes the ruins of the old Soviet Union.The newest rescue of Moscow - $17.1 billion over two years from the IMF, World Bank and Japan - was timely given the atmosphere of international financial tension. But, next door, the next-largest former Soviet republic, Ukraine - a potential economic powerhouse - is desperately in need of help.

THE THIRD TIME that President Suharto promised the International Monetary Fund to make economic reforms, he may have meant it.Twice before, Indonesia's elderly dictator agreed to close insolvent banks and end cartels and monopolies enjoyed by his family, if the IMF and rich countries would lend money to cover $74 billion in private-sector international debts.Twice he reneged, made his government more crony-infested and pushed his daughter Siti Hardijanti Rukmana (better known as Tutut) forward as heir apparent.

WHETHER the Asian financial crisis will abate, following the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit of 18 powers, is an open question. The decisions went Washington's way. Congress may have tied President Clinton's hands, but it was not evident at Vancouver.Basically, two decisions were made. The first is that any bailouts will be through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), not bilaterally or through a new and more lenient emergency fund. The $57 billion IMF commitments to Thailand and Indonesia, and the $20 billion more that South Korea seeks, carry strings.

SINGAPORE -- International Monetary Fund members approved yesterday the first stage of a voting overhaul to give China, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico a bigger voice at the fund to reflect their growing influence in the global economy. In a poll that won 90.6 percent support, the IMF said its members agreed to increase votes for the four countries in the face of opposition from some Latin American and Asian nations. "The state of the world has changed very rapidly over the past 20 years and it's only right that the institutions that manage it change to reflect that," said Paul Donovan, senior global economist at UBS AG in London.

WASHINGTON - World finance leaders agreed yesterday on the need to continue canceling the debts of poor countries and to provide more aid in the form of grants rather than loans, but critics said their pledges fell short of what was needed. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank concluded two days of deliberations by declaring their intent to expand an existing debt-relief program and secure more funds to help developing countries achieve poverty-reduction goals. The recommendations, endorsed by members of a joint policymaking committee, will be taken up by the full membership of the two institutions in the fall.

WASHINGTON - The world's wealthy nations promised yesterday to take new steps to promote growth in the global economy as financial leaders launched two days of deliberations at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. "We share the increased optimism regarding the global recovery," said Sudan Finance Minister Elzubier Ahmed Elhassan, briefing reporters inside the IMF headquarters. "But we need to remain vigilant. ... Poverty is a major contributor to global instability." Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven industrial nations emerged from a morning summit to declare that the global recovery was gathering speed, but remained subject to such risks as high oil prices, rising interest rates, geopolitical conflicts and signs of economic overheating in China.

WASHINGTON - With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report made public yesterday by the International Monetary Fund. In nearly 60 pages of carefully worded analysis, the report sounds a loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States, questioning the wisdom of the Bush administration's tax cuts and warning that large budget deficits posed "significant risks" not just for the United States but for the rest of the world.

WASHINGTON - There is an adage about borrowing: If you owe the bank $50,000 and can't pay it, you have a problem; but if you owe the bank $50 million, then the bank has a problem. This may well describe the situation facing Argentina and the International Monetary Fund as they try to conclude negotiations for a new agreement this month. The pressure on both sides will be intense, and the outcome could have a serious impact on future economic policy in Latin America and developing countries generally.

WASHINGTON - Palestinian solidarity dominated a wide-ranging and largely peaceful protest yesterday, as thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of the capital wearing T-shirts that read "We Are All Palestinians," chanting "Free! Free! Palestine!" and hoisting signs proclaiming "Freedom Fighters Are Not Terrorists." The rally coincided with a protest of the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But protesters accusing those institutions of creating misery and debt in the Third World were drowned out by pro-Palestinian crowds attacking U.S. financial and diplomatic support of Israel.

WASHINGTON -- Russia's recent economic history has been a series of flirtations with disaster. It has repeatedly gone to the brink, requiring assistance from the International Monetary Fund.But if its economy requires large-scale help anytime soon, it is not clear where the assistance might come from.Pinned down in Asia, the IMF -- the world's lender of last resort -- says it is strapped for cash. The IMF estimates that it has only $10 billion to $15 billion easily available to fight another national meltdown.

THE WORLD got a look over the weekend at U.S. policing that was about as good as it can get. Credit goes to Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and cooperating agencies for balancing firmness with restraint. The negotiated arrest Monday of 400 demonstrators was a masterpiece of street theater. The demonstrators failed to halt the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings. They did temporarily shut down George Washington University, the power company and other institutions with which they had no quarrel.

WASHINGTON - The thousands of demonstrators expected to converge on the capital this weekend to protest U.S. corporate and military interests have found a fresh issue to rally around, and will use the occasion to voice solidarity with the Palestinian people. Demonstrations against the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have shifted in focus. Though activists still plan to denounce the policies of international financial institutions, they also will seize on anti-war themes and rally behind the Palestinians, whom they see as an oppressed minority.

WASHINGTON -- As the United States drifts deeper into the Colombian quagmire of drugs and war, policy-makers need to take a new look at the problems of poverty, joblessness and hopelessness that have made that country such a trouble spot. And if they explore how unemployment in Colombia nearly doubled from 10.5 percent in 1990 to 19.7 percent in 2000, they will find a surprising pair of culprits -- not drug kingpins and leftist guerrillas, but the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.