Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The increased international debt crises of the Third World has brought the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the nerve center of the international financial system to the limelight, and with it has come a lot of criticism. This is one of the latest books to repeat these criticisms-that the IMF has become a tool to serve the interest of multinational banks and the capitalist West at the expense of the development interest of Third World; that IMF conditionality always leads to deflation without solving the balance of payments problem; and that the adjustment problem is borne entirely by the lower classes in the debtor country. Arguing that the debt crisis is partly the result of an international economic system dominated by the West, the authors suggest that the IMF should be restructured to give debtors more voice in policy formulation; that conditionality should be development-oriented with emphasis on the provision of basic needs; that the adjustment period should be lengthened, and that adjustment burden should be borne equally by debtor and creditor nations. The book considers the political and social implications of IMF policies with very little regard to economic efficiency and the feasibility of its proposals. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and general readers.-K. Gyimah-Brempong, New College of the University of South Florida