Crises and the Bretton Woods Institutions and the Crises of the Bretton Woods

Institutions1

Paper Prepared for the Conference

Impacts, Responses & Initial Lessons of the Financial Crisis for Low Income Countries
Danish Institute for International Studies
Copenhagen 14, 15 October 2010
By
Howard Stein
Professor
Center for Afroamerican and African Studies
University of Michigan,
4700 Haven Hall
505 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
howstein@umich.edu
propaganda

“Today, the only crisis faced by the IMF is a crisis of identity. Countries rescued in the 1990s have
mostly repaid their debts. With a shrunken loan portfolio, the institution that lectures others about
finances has lost operating income and is running a deficit. It faces cuts in its staff and salaries and is even
considering the sale of its gold bullion reserves. ‘What might be at stake today is the very existence of the
I.M.F…’ (Dominique Strauss-Kahn” Steven Wiseman “IMF Faces a Question of Identity” New York
Times, Sept. 28, 2007)

“Today is the proof that the I.M.F. is back.” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Director, IMF following the
completion of the G20 meeting(Landler and Sanger, New York Times, April 2, 2009)

“Strauss-Kahn says the days of "one size fits all" policies have changed and that the institution has
learned from its mistakes and criticisms. He says his IMF teams are far more adapting and flexible to the
peculiarities of each country.”( Interview with CNN reporter Robyn Curnow, March 3, 2010)

1. Introduction

The daily focus in the media on the financial crisis in the United States and Europe has
overshadowed discussions of the impact of the crisis on the poorest regions of the world where
millions of people live on the edge of an abyss that threatens their survival. Moreover, in the
wake of the crisis, and as a result of recent G20 meetings, there has been an unprecedented
expansion in the resources and authority of the Bretton Woods Institutions with barely a whisper

1
The paper draws on work presented in seminars and conferences at Columbia University, University of
Amsterdam, Luiss University, Rome, Cambridge University and European Parliament in Brussels in 2009 and 2010.
An earlier version will be published in Philip Arestis, Rogerio Sobreira and Jose Luis Oreiro eds.The 2008
Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation and Global Impact: (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2011) I appreciate the
comments of Claudia Kedar on various versions of this paper.
 2

about their role in promoting an agenda which has been largely antithetical to the development
process. Countries that had sworn they would not deal with the Fund have reversed course and
are back at the door of the IMF now heavily supported by the G20. This paper will focus on
recent lending patterns of the Bank and Fund, the impact of the new crisis on Bank and Fund
policy, and the role of the G20. The paper will argue that reforms in the governance and policy
structures of the Fund and Bank have been wholly inadequate in view of the miserable track
record of these institutions. There are dangers in continuing with the past trajectory of the Bank
and Fund whose strategies have left poor countries structurally enfeebled and susceptible to the
vicissitudes of the global economy. We will begin with a brief background with a focus on recent
Bank and Fund lending patterns.

2. IMF and World Bank Lending Patterns

The lending from the World Bank’s two main groups the IBRD (International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development) and IDA (International Development Association-poor
lending arm of the Bank) grew rapidly in the 1980s and peaked in Fiscal Year 1999 at around
$29billion. Table 1 presents approved loans from 1992 through fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2010).

Table 1: IBRD and IDA Lending 1998-2010 (millions dollars)

Year* 92-97 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

IBRD 15,368 21,086 22,182 10,919 10,487 11,452 11,231 14,135 12,829 13,468 32,900 44,200

IDA 6,174 7,508 6,812 4,358 6,764 8,068 7,283 9,506 11,867 11,235 14,000 14,500

Total 21,543 28,.594 28,996 15,276 17,251 19,519 18,513 23,641 24,696 24,703 48,900 58,700

Source: World Bank, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2009a, 2010c

*Fiscal Year ending in June

In the wake of the Asian crisis in 1997, IBRD lending in 1998 and 1999 dramatically increased
by roughly a third and then fell off as countries especially those in the middle range of incomes
repaid their loans after the economic recovery. Lending through 2008 by the IBRD never
returned to the levels of the pre-crisis 92 to 97 period as middle-income developing countries got
access to alternative financial sources without the burden of neo-liberal conditionality. The
option was not available for poorer countries. IDA loans as a portion of lending rose from 29%
of the total loans in the 92 to 97 period to 47% in 2007-8.

Table 2
 3

IMF Resources, Disbursements, Repayments, Income and Outstanding Credit Billions

SDRs , 1998-2010

General Resource Account PRGF-ESF

Time Useable Disburs. Repay. Out. Useable Disb Repay Out Income
Res. Crd Res. Crd.
1998 53.6 20.6 6.7 60.5 9.5 .9 .6 6.3 2.52
1999 94.9 10.0 19.4 51.1 10.3 .7 .6 6.4 2.61
2000 109.7 7.2 15.2 43.0 11.4 .5 .6 6.3 2.41
2001 102.5 23.8 13.3 53.5 14.5 .9 .8 6.4 2.20
2002 100.2 25.2 15.1 63.6 15.8 1.3 .9 6.9 2.29
2003 100.7 20.3 18.9 65.0 15.8 .8 .8 6.9 2.40
2004 111.4 4.2 13.8 55.4 15.8 .8 .9 6.8 2.34
2005 145.2 2.3 29.2 28.4 15.8 .4 .9 6.3 2.23
2006 161.2 2.4 21.0 9.8 15.8 .5 2.9 3.8 1.14
2007 165.4 1.0 4.7 6.0 15.8 .3 .4 3.8 .48
2008 152.4 13.4 1.9 17.5 15.8 .6 .5 4.0 .62
2009 290.2 20.4 .7 37.2. 16.8 1.6 .5 5.1 .53
2010* 308** 11.2 .8 47.5 17.8 .6 .8 4.9 .38
Sources: IMF (various years), 2010a
*Figures on income are through June, 30, 2010. All others are through July 15, 2010
** Includes borrowing agreements with Japan (US$100 billion), Canada (US$10 billion), Norges
Bank (SDR 3 billion), the United Kingdom (SDR 9.92 billion), Deutsche Bundesbank (EUR 15
billion), De Nederlandsche Bank NV (EUR 5.31 billion); and note purchase agreement with
People's Bank of China (SDR 32 billion).

A similar pattern can be observed in the loans from the IMF. Table 2 presents the lending data
from 1998 through the first half of 2010. Between1992 and 1997, concessional lending (to low
income countries) as a portion of total outstanding credit averaged 13.6% (IMF, various years).
By 2007 the portion reached 39% of the total. After 2003 the peak year for outstanding GRA
(general resource account) levels, countries rapidly repurchased their GRA balances and avoided
additional borrowing an option not available to poor countries who had no access to commercial
credit. Starting in 2005 there was some decline in outstanding debt of the poorest country
through MDRI(Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative) for countries reaching the HIPC completion
point (with all its neo-liberal conditionality).

Outstanding GRA credit, largely going to middle income countries fell by an unprecedented 91%
by 2007 from SDR 65 billion to a mere SDR 6 billion a level not seen since the 1970s. The
revolt began in 2005 when Argentina and Brazil denounced the neo-liberal agenda of the Fund
and began repaying nearly $25 billion in loans. This was followed by repayments from large
 4

debtors including Indonesia, Philippines, Serbia and Turkey. The unprecedented decline in the
use of IMF resources through the GRA, the major source of income for the Fund, led to the
threat of large losses and the announcement of $100 million dollar cost reduction plan at the
Fund in April, 2008 (IMF, 2008a).

If lending is any indicator, the economic crisis has changed the fortunes of the Bank and Fund.
Table one shows the World Bank has seen a huge jump of IBRD lending from $13.5 billion in
fiscal year 2008 to $32.9 billion in fiscal year 2009 to $44.2 billion in fiscal year 2010 The
largest increase in 2009 went to Latin American and Caribbean countries which took on an
additional $9.5 billion in IBRD loans (World Bank, 2009a).

Between September, 2008 and July, 2010, the Fund approved loans from its GRA account to
more than 28 countries.2 As we can see in the table above, disbursements from the GRA grew
from merely SDR1 billion in 2007 to a total of SDR 20.4 billion in 2009.

3. Bank and Fund Policies and Their Impact

Critics like Joe Stiglitz (2002) have long complained about the theoretical and ideological
narrowness of the IMF with its almost pathological focus on the state as the source of economic
crises. From the IMF factsheet on “Crisis and IMF Lending” from November 2008 (IMF,
2008b), it is argued that “the domestic sources” of economic crises can only come from
“excessive monetary creation, unsustainable fiscal deficits, an overvalued domestic currency,
political instability, and natural disasters.” Nothing is mentioned about the behavior of any
domestic private sector actors.3

The focus on these domestic causes of crises occurs largely because of the theoretical
underpinnings of the IMF approach which is based on the Polak model (Polak, 1957). The
approach relies on a monetarist formulation that ties credit growth to the balance of payments
and comes out of the fixed exchange world of the Bretton Woods era. Like the monetarists, it
assumes full employment of resources. There are two key parts to the model: money supply and
a fixed exchange rate. Money supply is defined as the domestic credit to the private and public
sector plus a country’s monetary reserves. Changes in reserves are tied to the country’s balance
of trade on goods and services and non-traded related currency flows. According to the model,
money demand occurs only for use in transactions and not for other reasons. Since the supply

2
The lists includes Armenia, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Belarus, Bosnia , Columbia, Costa Rica, Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Jamaica, Latvia, Maldives, Mexico,
Moldova, Mongolia Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Ukraine.(IMF, various years)
3
More recent versions of the Fact sheet have been renamed “IMF Crisis Lending” and have added “weak financial
systems” to the list without specifying which part of the financial system (state or private) or its causes. As many
have argued the IMF, itself, has contributed to the weakening of financial systems by encouraging developing
countries to deregulate their financial systems. See Stiglitz, 2002.
 5

and demand for money are assumed to be in equilibrium, any increase in government borrowing
would lead to an increase in prices and nominal income, which in turn would increase the
demand for imports. This would occur since government borrowing is essentially an increase in
the money supply, which must be met with an increase in money demand if equilibrium is to be
maintained.

The nominal rise in income would lead to an increase in imports because domestic production of
goods would not have changed. Imports would cause the terms of trade to worsen since the
country would now move closer to a trade deficit. Likewise, reserves would also fall, as the
country’s central bank would have to use its reserves to buy extra domestic currency in order to
keep the exchange rate fixed. The subsequent lowering of reserves would eventually offset the
rise in the money supply. However, a country in this situation would be left with higher prices,
worsening balance of payments, and lowered reserves. The lower reserves would encourage
speculation against the currency and thereby threaten the stability of the fixed exchange rate of
the country.

In exchange for accessing IMF loans, countries were expected to reach financial targets aimed at
improving the balance of payments, lowering prices, raising reserves, and thus ultimately
maintaining the integrity of the fixed exchange system. Whether the causes of the crises were
domestic or external, the model dictated austerity through domestic expenditure contractions,
which would be achieved by fiscal retrenchment and credit reductions.

The real world of developing countries, is of course replete with large-scale unemployment.
Employing such a model, which takes as given that all resources, including labor, are fully
utilized, is to put it mildly problematic. There is an extensive literature examining the
consequences of IMF loans and associated conditionality on social, political and economic
indicators. There seems to be considerable evidence that reforms increase unemployment and
poverty rates, exacerbate income equality and reduce social services (Kurtz, 2004, Stallings and
Peres, 2000, Crisp and Kelly 1999 , Garuda, 2000 and Vreeland 2003). The impact on political
stability and democracy is also important. Brown (2009) examines the impact of IMF loans in 23
Latin America countries between 1998 and 2003 on democratic variables like political freedom
and civil liberties and finds that democracy levels decline with time and the number and types of
conditionality. Arguably, the main focus of the IMF is on improving a narrow set of economic
indicators. How has the IMF done?

Bird (2001) summarizes the empirical work from 1978-2000 on the economic dimensions (using
a variety of methodologies) including the impact on balance of payments, current account,
inflation and economic growth. He finds a mixed picture on the balance of payments and current
account, neutral or exacerbation of inflation and a mixed picture on economic growth. In some
cases such as Killick (1995), the results are rather surprising in view of data indicated a clear
decline in investment levels. Overall, he suggests that one explanation for the differentiated
results might be that countries do not fully implement the programs. However, other authors
have tested whether full compliance and implementation make a difference. Dreher (2006) uses
panel data from 98 countries from 1978-2000 to examine the impact of IMF programs on
economic growth. He finds that economic growth declines by about 1.7% per year within the
first five years of a program. There is little difference with full compliance with average declines
 6

of around 1.6% per year. More recent empirical studies have illustrated the negative impact of
IMF conditionality on economic growth (Przeworski and Vreeland, 2000; Barro and Lee, 2002;
and Vreeland 2003).4

In the case of the Asia crisis the imposition of austerity on governments with largely balanced
budgets and tight control of the money supply helped turn a panic from a private sector
speculation into a disaster. In a recent interview of Wing Thye Woo of the Brookings Institute in
the Chinese Daily summed up the feeling in East Asia:

Asian countries, especially those in East Asia, have a deep distrust for the Fund, given its
"poor track record" during the 1997 Asian financial crisis and "no proof" that it has
improved its competence over the years… at the moment no Malaysian, Indonesian and
South Korean government could go to the IMF and expect to survive.(China Daily, Dec.
3, 2008)

South Korea, for example, which desperately wanted to avoid going to the IMF was bailed out in
October , 2008 with a $30 billion swap arrangement with the US Fed. Other close US allies
including Singapore, Brazil and Mexico received the same arrangement (Merco Press, 2008).
More recently Turkey walked away from negotiations in March, 2010 when it felt the Fund was
demanding excessively onerous fiscal constraint (Wade, 2010).
What of the World Bank? In recent decades, the Bank has had a mix of project and program aid.
The latter became more important after the Bank committed to an agenda focused on
neoliberalism as it worked more closely with the IMF in the 1980s. The Bank expanded its
programs over time to incorporate a host of new conditions related to their programs including
governance. Stein (2008) reviews an extensive literature testing the impact of structural
adjustment loans on Africa using a variety of different techniques and finds little consistent
evidence that economies have improved from World Bank lending and considerable evidence
that the region has done poorly in the adjustment era.5
What of the impact on governance which became increasingly central in World Bank loans after
the middle of the 1990s? In the late 1990s, the World Bank Institute and the Research
Department of the World Bank initiated a research program on governance indicators and there
economic impact. The effort was aimed at illustrating ex post the positive impact of governance
on economic growth. In other words improvements in governance indicators have a positive
impact on economic growth. The enterprise was on the surface a bit strange since governance
had already been operationalized for a number of years. However, this is not unusual in the
history of the Bank which often used empirics as an exercise in verification rather than as a
mechanism of policy formulation (Stein, 2008). The World Governance Indicators (WGI) have
gone through numerous permutations which are beyond the scope of this paper to review. 6 Even

4
Even Williamson (2008) of Washington Consensus fame admits that economic growth has not improved under
IMF programs.
5
For negative trends on income distribution and poverty on the continent and their relationship to World Bank
agricultural policies see Stein (2010b).
6
The latest iteration is in “Governance Matters VIII” released in June, 2009. See Kaufmann et al., 2009.
 7

with all the variations over time, the causal link between better governance and economic growth
has not been established.

Generally WGI measures use a variety of surveys from multiple counties along six lines:
1. Voice and Accountability – measuring political, civil and human rights

2. Political Instability and Violence – measuring the likelihood of violent threats to, or changes
in,government, including terrorism

3. Government Effectiveness – measuring the competence of the bureaucracy and the quality of
public service delivery

4. Regulatory Burden – measuring the incidence of market-unfriendly policies

5. Rule of Law – measuring the quality of contract enforcement, the police, and the courts, as
well as the likelihood of crime and violence

6. Control of Corruption – measuring the exercise of public power for private gain, including
both petty and grand corruption and state capture (Khan, 2007)

The data include more than 300 individual variables provided by more than 30 organizations.
Each of those organizations has its own methodology and scale. For comparability, Kaufman et
al. (2005) normalize these scores into a 0–1 scale and then use them to produce normally
distributed indicators. The estimates for each indicator are then the result of a maximum
likelihood function. As such, 99% of the values are between −2.5 and 2.5 with higher scores
corresponding to better outcomes.

The literature, to put it mildly has been very critical of the way the indicators are constructed
since they are combining radically different largely subjective surveys using different
methodologies into single indicators (Apaza, 2009). It is hard to know what objectively is being
measured. For example the corruption index is a composite of views of corruption in public
officials, accountability, transparency and corruption in rural areas and a political risk index
measuring things like perceptions of nationalism, corruption and nepotism. It arises from
information from the Economist Intelligence Unit, IFAD (international fund for agricultural
development) rural sector performance assessments and business environment risk intelligence
(BERI) put out by Business Risk Service. They all use radically different methods. One person’s
bribe is another person’s way of doing business. There is no way of disaggregating what is
important and what is trivial. Moreover, the indicators are overwhelmed by business
perceptions. Businesses will likely see governments in a more positive light if there are fewer
regulations and lower taxes. In contrast citizens who are poorly represented in these surveys
might see the opposite. So what is governance?

In addition, there is strong evidence that countries that are doing well economically are perceived
as having better governance. Rich countries get better scores precisely because they are rich. In
fact, a study by Kurtz and Shrank (2007) find a strong link in their econometric testing between
previous high levels of economic growth and government effectiveness. This raises the entire
question of direction of causation.
 8

Kaufmann et al, 2005 have found positive relationships between their governance indicators and
economic growth. Khan (2007) questions the results which he argues are significant but weak.
Using a standard scatter diagram he clearly shows that positive relationship is overwhelming
among developed countries and argues if you remove the developed countries the relationship
disappears. It also shows the likely opposite direction of causation eg.higher growth and income
leads to better governance. Moreover for developing countries, nations with similar governance
indicators are equally divided between those with above average (convergence countries) and
below average (divergent countries) suggesting that cause of economic growth is something
different than governance.

4. G20 and the “Resurrection” of the IMF and World Bank

The G20 in meetings in April and September 2009 and June, 2010 allocated unprecedented new
powers to the IMF. Among other things, the lending capacity of the Fund tripled to $750 billion
while its SDR allocation was increased by an additional $250 billion. In July, 2010, it was
reported that Strauss-Kahn would press for yet an additional $250 billion at the G-20 meeting in
Seoul in November, 2010 (Seo, 2010).

The expansion was possible through the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) in which funds
were allocated by G20 countries with a promise of a future reallocation of voting rights.
However SDRs would be allocated on the current quota system meaning that two-thirds of the
total would go to the rich countries of the world. By the September 2009 meeting, the G20
announced it had fulfilled its obligations of $500 billion in new funds under the NAB (G20,
2009). As of April, 2010, Japan had allocated $100 billion, European Union $178 billion,
Norway $4.5 billion, Canada $10 billion, Switzerland, $10 billion, US $100 billion, Korea $10
billion, Australia 5.7 billion, Russia,$10 billion, China $50 billion, Brazil $10 billion, India $10
billion, Singapore $1.5 billion and Chile 1.6 billion (IMF, 2010b)

The expansion of the SDRs occurs at a time when China and others are pressing to to create a
new global reserve currency to replace the US dollar. China’s influential Central Bank governor
Xiaochuan Zhou called for SDRs to go beyond its current IMF accounting role to become a
means of payment in international trade and financial transactions (Zhou, 2009).

The September G20 meeting also gave unprecedented power to the IMF to advise when to
reverse fiscal expansion, to analyze how the financial sector can contribute to the burden of
intervening in financial systems, to monitor the global economy and to report on the efforts to
coordinate country economic activity in the new Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and
Balanced Growth. The latter includes the economic assessment of individual G20 countries to
ensure they are consistent with a balanced trajectory for the global economy(G20, 2009). In
June, 2010, in Toronto, the IMF delivered its first G-20 mutual assessment process report (MAP)
that called for significant fiscal contraction in deficit countries which would be “growth friendly”
based on the typical monetarist formulation that private spending would be “crowded in” as the
“credibility of fiscal policy increases over time”.
 9

In the same report, the IMF argued growth would respond to neo-liberal type “structural reform
packages” which included deregulation of product markets and wage cuts through “reducing the
minimum cost of labor’, “reducing wage indexation” “reforming the employment insurance
system” and “removing the financial disincentives to work” (IMF, 2010c). Despite the
uncertainty of the global recovery, the G-20 adopted most of the IMF’s recommendations on
fiscal austerity and much of the same language. 7 In the Toronto meeting, the G20 also
empowered the IMF to work with the Financial Stability Board to issue a report to the October,
2010 meeting of the G20s Finance Minister’s and Central Bankers to strengthen financial
supervision and oversight. In addition at the central component of the G20 sponsored reform
program is the IMF/World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP)which will be the
main mechanism to evaluate the financial sector of member countries (G20, 2010). The FSAP
was launched in 1999 to assess the vulnerabilities and risk of the financial systems with more
than 125 countries evaluated. In September, 2009, the program was revamped for better cross
country comparisons and to increase the frequency of evaluations (IMF, 2010d). As we will see
below, their track record of predicting the current financial crisis is less than stellar which is
worrisome given their new anointed role as watch guard for international crises.

There is little doubt that the G20 is heavily focused on strengthening the IMF. Beyond the effort
to increase its resources and responsibilities has been an attempt to alter its image through the
reform of the governance structure:

Modernizing the IMF’s governance is a core element of our effort to improve the IMF’s
credibility, legitimacy, and effectiveness… To this end, we are committed to a shift in
quota share to dynamic emerging market and developing countries of at least five percent
from over-represented to under-represented countries using the current IMF quota
formula as the basis to work from…. Today we build on our earlier commitment to open,
transparent and merit-based selection processes for the heads and senior leadership of all
the IFIs. We will strengthen the selection processes in the lead up to the Seoul Summit in
the context of broader reform. (G20, 2010)

Beyond the FSAP, the resources and importance of the World Bank has also been enhanced by
the G20. The G20 asked the Bank to raise lending limits to large countries and to make more
money available to poor countries with “sustainable debt positions and sound policies” (G20,
2009). In the September 2009 meeting, the G20 recommended expansion of the capital base of
the Bank. In April, 2010, the capital base of the IBRD was significantly increased by $86 billion
to $276 billion which was the first time in more than 20 years. The IFC was also given an

7
We agreed today on: ...’growth friendly’ fiscal consolidation plans in advanced countries that will be implemented
going forward…There is a risk that synchronized fiscal adjustment across several major economies could adversely
impact the recovery. There is also a risk that the failure to implement consolidation where necessary would
undermine confidence and hamper growth. Reflecting this balance, advance economies have committed to fiscal
plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016.”
Elsewhere, the declaration commits itself to “product, service and labor market reforms…” which includes better
wage bargaining systems, changes in unemployment insurance schemes, reducing barriers to foreign competition
and simplifying product market regulations (G20, 2010).
 10

additional $200 million. In June, 2010 the G20 asserted that they had fulfilled the Pittsburgh
summit commitment to increase the capital base of the multilateral development banks by $350
billion, and further agreed to fulfill their obligations to ambitiously replenish the IDA and the
African Development Fund (G20, 2010).

In line with the expansion in the capital base was a shift of 3.13% of voting power to developing
and transitional countries The largest recipients were to members of the G20 including China
(1.64), South Korea (.58), Turkey (.55), and Mexico (.5). Power was mostly taken from
countries like Japan, the UK and France. Like all previous reallocations of power, there is no
challenge to the veto position of the US which remains well above the 15% threshold (15.85%)
(G20, 2010, World Bank, 2010a,b). 8 The World Bank claims that the voting share of developed
countries has fallen to 53%. However, their numbers are generated using a rather questionable
taxonomy. The actual total is still close to 61% using the “high income” country category of the
IMF (Bretton Woods Project, 2010).

5 Have the World Bank and IMF Reformed?

World Bank
The World Bank claims that as part of its post crisis reform mandate it will be “sharpening its
strategic focus” emphasizing: 1) Targeting the poor and vulnerable… 2) Creating opportunities
for growth with a special focus on agriculture and infrastructure; 3) Promoting global collective
action on issues from climate change and trade to agriculture, food security, energy, water and
health; 4) Strengthening governance and anti-corruption efforts; and, 5) Preparing for crises’
(World Bank, 2010a).” In essence, the Bank intends to expand its purvey in some areas while
continuing to focus on many of the same issues, with no discussion of changing the strategies
which it has pursued in recent years with such problematic results.

In April, 2010, Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank delivered an important speech at
the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. He stressed the world has become multipolar
and multilateral development banks had to adjust. In response, he argued “we have launched the
most comprehensive reforms in the institution’s history” (Zoellick, 2010). What are the focal
points of the reform? First, he points to the move to 47% developing country voting share and
the commitment to review this every five years (discussed above). Second, they intend to
“modernize” their products and services by further decentralizing their operations. Third, they
will strengthen their anti-corruption and governance efforts, become more accountable and
introduce a new access to information policy. To Zoellick, in the new world “Development is no
longer North-South…Nor is it about ideological panaceas, blue-prints or one size fits
all…development is about pragmatism [and] learning from experience…”

8
Key changes in the operation of the Bank and Fund require a vote exceeding 85%. Since their inception, the US as
always maintained a voting power exceeding 15% providing it with veto power.
 11

Zoellick claims the reforms are “transformational”. However, how does the reality measure up?
Elsewhere in the speech he seems to reaffirm a strong commitment to the neo-liberal policies of
the past. He claims that new financial regulations being proposed “could choke off the financial
sector, innovation and risk management in developing countries” and “make it hader to invest
across national borders”. He talks of the need to listen to developing countries but claims “[t]hey
want free markets to create jobs, higher productivity and growth [and] are exploring how to use
the innovation and efficiency of private markets to help provide and maintain public sector
infrastructure and services.” He talks of the need for Africans to produce their own consumer
goods but instead of calling for industrial policy he calls on increasing the demand from farmers
for the products by recognizing their property rights and for the Chinese to move to Africa’s
industrial zones. To any long term of observer of the Bank all of this seems to be a reaffirmation
of the neo-liberal policies of the past with its emphasis on financial and market deregulation,
privatization and free trade. Where is the avoidance of “ideological panaceas” and the “one-size
fits all” approaches?

What of the other proposals? Emphasis on governance and anti-corruption has been a mainstay
of the Bank since mid-1990s as is the increasing access of the public to Bank documents and
information. Decentralization has also been in place for some time. As Wade (2010) points out
the Bank already significantly decentralized in the Wolfenshohn reorganization of 1997-98. At
this point already 60% of its 5,200 regional staff already operate in 120 countries throughout the
world.

So what is this about? Zoellick pretty much gives it away in his speech: “We will need
resources to support renewed growth and to make a modernized multilateralism work in this new
multipolar world economy.” This is to be done through the first capital increase in 20 years with
over half the resources coming from developing countries. What is important here is the
appearance of change and the reallocation of voting right to developing countries without a
fundamental alteration in the agenda of the World Bank. What of the IMF?

IMF and Financial Sector Assessment Program

As we saw above the IMF and World Bank have been allocated an increasing role in assessing
the vulnerabilities and risk of the financial systems in individual countries. The IMF and World
Bank claimed that they revamped their program in September, 2009, “to improve the quality of
assessments and incorporate the lessons from the recent crisis.” (IMF, 2010d).

One can only hope this is the case. Perhaps due to an unwarranted belief that the private financial
sector will be self-correcting, the FSAP reports were woefully inadequate in predicting the crisis
or suggesting measures to prevent it. Take the FSAP report on Iceland which was based on an
assessment in August, 2008 only a few short weeks prior to the full blow financial crisis of
 12

October, 2008.. The report which had a few minor worries about the financial system felt that the
regulatory system was up to the task:

Iceland has strengthened its legal framework for effective banking supervision
and enhanced the FME’s capacity to supervise credit institutions. All the issues raised in
the BCP assessment of 2003 have been addressed and the legal framework for banking
supervision provides the FME with sufficient legal powers to perform its prudential
tasks.”(IMF, 2008c, p.27)

Even more worrisome was the view that the two largest private sector banks had taken very
positive measures to strengthen their balance sheets largely through the expansion of foreign
deposits which proved so costly later:

Funding risk is a critical vulnerability for the Icelandic banks…The banks have taken
steps to manage this risk. All three have diversified their funding structure, developing
new deposit bases through the establishment of deposit-taking businesses abroad,
particularly through the marketing of internet banking products. Both Kaupthing and
Landsbanki have been particularly successful, with new deposits growing by 90 percent
and 112 percent. Banks have also begun to contract and rationalize their asset structures,
selling subsidiaries and reducing loan portfolios in noncore areas.”(IMF, 2008c, p.18)

Two months later, in October, 2008, the two banks that they indicated were handling things well
collapsed and were nationalized. The foreign deposits the IMF was hailing as a great solution to
stabilizing the balance sheets of the banks has created a huge headache for Iceland largely
because the supervision by the authorities was so weak.

“The Icelandic financial regulators failed to assert any meaningful control over
Landsbanki's rapid ascension in the 2000s. When the house of cards began to fall after
Lehman Brothers’ default, Landsbanki offered high interest saving accounts over the
internet for depositors in a last-ditch effort to maintain liquidity. The Icelandic
government at least implicitly guaranteed the deposits, as required under European
Economic Area (EEA) rules, but failed to properly evaluate the level of risk or to charge
the bank an appropriate premium. As a result, the deposit insurance fund was incapable
of meeting the 20,887 euro guarantee, or about 3.7 billion euros for the non-Icelandic
accounts. The British and Dutch governments seized Landbanki assets within their
countries, immediately paid their domestic depositors to avoid a run on their banks, then
asked how Iceland intended to repay them.” (Erlingsgottir, 2010)

Iceland's voters in a referendum overwhelming rejected plans to settle their country's dispute
with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands regarding the government's liability for losses
 13

suffered by the depositors of the IceSave accounts when its parent--Landsbanki--collapsed in

2008. As one commentor put it:

In the end, however, I am reminded of King Pyrrhus's response to congratulatory

messages he received after suffering heavy losses while defeating the Roman army at
Asculum in 279 BC: "Another such victory and I am undone….It is almost certain that
Iceland's access to desperately-needed capital will be cut off. It is unlikely that the IMF
(or anyone else) will provide any additional funds until the matter is resolved. Iceland's
already low sovereign rating will be downgraded even further, requiring the government
to pay even higher interest rates. Iceland will never get into the European Union without
support from the United Kingdom and Holland. (Erlingsgottir, 2010)

Pro vs. Countercyclical Policies

After the start of the crisis, the Fund argued they would shift from their normal position and
support an increase in fiscal expenditures to deal with the collapse. This is quite explicit in a
now widely quoted IMF paper by Antonio Spilimbergo et al (2008),9 There is little doubt from
the discussion surrounding the IMFs G20 Mutual Assesssment Process that we are back
to‘business as usual” with the IMF again promoting deficit reduction in the belief that it will
crowd-in private spending. Along those lines, recent authors have pointed to the idea that if the
Fund has supported fiscal expansion it has been ephemeral.
Van Waeyenberge et al (2010) review IMF programs in 13 poor countries signed between 2007
and 2009. They find that six have fiscal tightening and seven very moderate increases averaging
2.5% of GDP in 2009. Overall, while there was an initial projection of a rise of deficits of 1.5%
of GDP in 2007 to 3.7% in 2009, the latest figures show a rise of only 1.5% in 2009. By 2010
almost all countries are expected to tighten their belts with an anticipated average decline of .5%
of GDP. They conclude “endorsed increase has not only been moderate, but also restricted to the
short term”. Moreover, all 13 countries are expected to reduce inflation between 2008 and 2010.
Although the run up in prices in 2008 was mostly from rising food and commodity prices, the
focus in the IMF programs is to curtail aggregate demand through freezing wage and monetary
contraction and increases in interest rates. These measures are likely to worsen the recession and
harm the standard of living of the poor.

How much evidence was there on even this short-term commitment to counter cyclical monetary
and fisal policy? Weisbrot et al. (2009) examine 41 IMF accords signed in the wake of the
economic downturn and find 31 of them with pro-cyclical fiscal (increasing surpluses or
lowering deficits) and/or monetary policies (increasing interest rates). In only one country was

9
They argue that the economic downturn was driven both by a financial crisis and the collapse in aggregate
demand., They indicated the usual option for addressing aggregate demand through devaluations, which is to
stimulate exports through monetary policy, was not available. The former because it is a global phenomena and will
only lead to competitive devaluations and the latter because it has already been fully utilized in many countries or
because the financial sectors have become too dysfunctional for it to work. They argued “in these circumstances, the
Managing Director of the IMF has called for a sizable fiscal response at the global level…” Spilimbergo et al (2008)
 14

there both anti-cyclical fiscal and monetary policy (Tanzania), five others had either counter-
cyclical fiscal or monetary policy alone (Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Guatemala,
Zambia and Niger) and the other four had neither. However, a closer reading of the IMF
agreements indicates that even this interpretation can be considered generous. Let us work
through three examples.

Tanzania received an ESF of SDR 210 million in May 2009 and was allowed to have monetary
and fiscal expansion. The IMF claims in a press relief that ‘expansionary fiscal and monetary
policies in the current situation are appropriate to cushion the effects of the crisis’(IMF, 2009a).
One might get the impression that they are fully supporting the expansionary policies necessary
to deal with the severity of the economic downturn. However, a deeper reading indicates a less
than robust intervention and the existence of embedded targets that are rather contrary to
counter-cyclical fiscal and monetary policy. For example, Tanzania is expected to reduce
inflation to 5 per cent in 2009-2010 compared to 11 per cent in 2008-2009, government revenue
is expected to rise to 16.8 per cent of GDP in 2010-2011 compared to 15.8 per cent in 2008-
2009, and credit is supposed to diminish by roughly 10 per cent in 2009-2010. These would
indicate the usual IMF austerity through fiscal and monetary contraction.

So where is the evidence in support of policy expansion? Government spending is projected to

increase to 26.3 per cent of GDP in 2008-09 compared to 24.4 in 2007-08. In 2009-2010 they are
to rise to 27.2 per cent. This sounds like fiscal expansion. However, the figure matches the
planned level of 2008-2009 that fell short. By 2010-2011, the percentage is expected fall below
the planned 2008-09, meaning we are back on the path to austerity.

The deficit is permitted to rise to 1.2 of GDP in 2008-09 and 1.6 per cent in 2009-10 but then
expected to fall again by 2010-11 (to 1 per cent of GDP). Interest rates on newly issued treasure
bills are to be 12 per cent in 2009-10 down from 13.2 per cent the previous year. In real terms
this is a huge jump in interest rate levels! Since inflation is targeted to decline from 11 to 6 per
cent, this means a jump from 2.2 per cent to 6 per cent—hardly a way to stimulate the economy
through monetary expansion(IMF, 2009b).

Weisbrot et al. (2009) argue that in Zambia the “IMF allowed monetary policy to ease in 2008
in order to accommodate higher food and oil prices…authorities expect to bring inflation down
to 10 percent in 2009, while allowing for positive rates of growth of real broad money and real
credit to the private sector.” The interpretation is questionable. The IMF’s PRGF third year
review states:

“Monetary policy is to be geared to bringing inflation firmly to the single digit range by
the end of the year 2010” (IMF, 2010e)

Growth of credit to the private sector in 2010 is expected to be less than 2007 and 2008.
Commercial bank rates for loans have been steadily rising through the crisis period and averaged
22% in 2009 (IMF, 2010f). Not surprisingly, recent data indicates that broad money growth has
plummeted from 45% in 2006 to only 8% in 2009 and has fallen relative to GDP(IMF, 2010f).
One can hardly call this countercyclical monetary expansion.
 15

In Mozambique, Weisbrot et al.(2009) state that the IMF is permitting moderate fiscal expansion
because, “the fiscal program is revised to incorporate higher levels of domestic financing, which
are increasing by about 1.1 percent of GDP.” In the executive summary of the June, 2009 ESF
agreement the IMF claims that “Fiscal policy has been eased to maintain priority spending in the
face of lower domestic revenues” GDP (IMF, 2009c).

This characterization is suspect when examined more closely. The deficit figures for 2008
actually show a decline due to rising revenue and falling spending relative to GDP (IMF, 2010f).
In the December, 2009 review of the ESF, the IMF confesses that fiscal policy was “less
accommodating than expected”. Moreover, the IMF emphasizes “The return to a prudent fiscal
policy stance will be conducive to preserving Mozambique’s low debt indicators and low risk of
debt distress.” In the same memo, the government emphasized that the growth of the deficit by
about 2% in 2009 was partly due to policies to reduce wage compression in the civil service
(which has been a big priority of the Bank and Fund10), was kept low by a “temporary cut in
priority expenditures” and that in 2010 it fully expects to reduce the deficit.. In essence, the
slight rise in the deficit for only a single year was largely a product of fulfilling other IMF/World
Bank priorities rather than a serious commitment to countercyclical policies. They assured the
IMF that “The Government remains committed to its medium-term fiscal strategy geared toward
preserving debt sustainability, containing inflationary pressures, and limiting recourse to
domestic financing to make room for sustainable private sector credit growth.” (IMF, 2009d).

In sum, arguments that the IMF has become an adherent of anti-cyclical policies seems overly
generous. What of other reform efforts?

From Ex Post to Ex Ante Conditionality: Do we have real reform?

At the core of the IMF claim of “modernizing conditionality” are the new Flexible Credit Lines
with their purported move from ex poste to ex ante conditionality. The Fund will also shift from
structural performance criteria to program reviews (IMF, 2009e). The extent to which this is a
real change is certainly subject to debate. If lending is short-term (FCLs are renewed annually),
the difference between an ex ante and ex post approach seems to blur. If country policies indicate
slippage the credit arrangement will simply not be renewed. How is this any different than
multiyear lending, the most common IMF facility, with annual reviews and benchmarks?

The FCL agreement with Mexico in April, 2009 heavily emphasized the “very strong
fundamentals” including low inflation and an anti-inflationary bias of the central bank, large
reserves, a balanced budget fiscal rule, cutbacks in government debt and a flexible exchange rate.
Despite the rapidly deteriorating growth, the IMF was confident of“ the public debt in Mexico
remaining manageable under all scenarios, with public sector gross financing requirements set to
continue their trend decline as a share of GDP” (IMF, 2009f, p.15). Expecting a further decline
in the deficit under this scenario is almost identical to imposing austerity as part of a package of
conditionality. If the deficit moves in the other direction, then this can lead to a blocking of the

10
Reversing wage compression is a central par of the civil service reform component of the World Bank’s poverty
reduction support credits to Mozambique (World Bank, 2009b)
 16

renewal of the FCL. The Mexico government was clearly aware of this and replaced falling oil
revenues with new taxes allowing the IMF to renew the FCL in March, 2010 (IMF, 2010g).

7. Summary and Conclusions

A number of the policy strategies in the US and elsewhere that generated the current global crisis
(financial liberalization, deregulation, state retraction in social spending, privatization,
internationalization of banking, etc.) are similar to those imposed by the Bank and Fund on the
least developed countries for more than a quarter of a century. While developed countries are
fearfully focused on the possibility of a depression, the least developed countries have been in a
Great Depression for decades as a result of these policies.

Sub-Saharan Africa per capita income fell by more than 40% from 1980 to 2002 (World Bank,
2005). The number of people living under $1.25, the international poverty benchmark, increased
from 213 million in 1981 to 390 million people in 2005 and constituted more than half the
population of the continent (Chen and Ravallion, 2008). While there was a increase in GDP
growth after 2002, the boom was largely as a result of a temporary increase in commodity prices
particularly in oil which has not funneled down to the most of the population. The region has felt
the full effects of the global downturn. In 2009 SSA GDP growth fell by 4.4% compared to the
rates of 2004-08(IMF, 2010h).

In a manner similar to the crisis of 1997-98, the Bank and Fund have now been re-empowered
and resurrected into a more central role in the global economy. Middle income countries will at
some point in the future again exit from the tentacles of the Fund and Bank. However, poor
developing countries that are caught in a permanent debt trap with few alternative sources of
financing will continue to be dependent on the Bretton Woods twins.

Changing the policy strategies will mean a fundamental reconceptualization of what generates
growth and development. Evidence supporting Zoellick’s claims that reforms in the World Bank
are “transformational” or Strauss-Kahn’s claims that the IMF has “learned from its mistakes”
and “flexible to the peculiarities of each country’ seems rather hollow in view of the above
evidence. The road to reform is daunting but imperative. Like the depression of the 1930s, we
must use this moment to intrepidly challenge entrenched interests and the policies that for far too
long have been perpetuated at the expense of the poor and dispossessed.
 17

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