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4 - The Report of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission: comments on the critics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2009

Allan H. Meltzer
Affiliation:
Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University; Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute in Washington
David Vines
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Christopher L. Gilbert
Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
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Summary

When the US Congress approved $18 billion of additional funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November 1998, it authorised a study of international financial institutions. Congressional concerns included the growing frequency, severity and cost of financial disturbances, the fragility of the international monetary system, the ineffectiveness of development banks, and corruption in Russia, Indonesia, Africa and elsewhere. But Congress also expressed concern about whether international financial institutions (IFIs) had adapted appropriately to the many changes since the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944.

In July 1999, Congress completed appointment of the members of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission (usually called the Meltzer Commission). Between 9 September 1999 and 8 March 2000, the Commission met twelve times and, in addition, held three days of public hearings. On 8 March 2000, it presented its Report to the Speaker and the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives (International Advisory Commission, 2000). The Report stimulated active discussion of issues that might have been addressed at the fiftieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference, in 1994, but were not.

Discussion was overdue. As the US Congress recognised, the world economy and the international financial system are very different from the world envisioned at Bretton Woods in 1944. The principal international financial institutions responded to many past changes and crises by expanding their mandate and adding new facilities and programmes. New regional institutions opened to serve the needs of regional populations.

Type
Chapter
Information
The IMF and its Critics
Reform of Global Financial Architecture
, pp. 106 - 123
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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References

Burnside, C. and Dollar, D. (2000). ‘Aid Policies and Growth’, American Economic Review, 90, 847–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Economist, The (2000). ‘Emerging Market Indicators’, 4 November, 118
Frankel, J. A. and N. Roubini (2001). ‘The Role of Industrial Country Policies in Emerging Market Crises’, National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper, 8634, 1–110CrossRef
Gilbert, C. L., Powell, A. and Vines, D. (1999). ‘Positioning the World Bank’, Economic Journal, 109, F598–F633CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Advisory Commission (2000). Report of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office
International Monetary Fund (2002). ‘IMF ConditionalityIMF Survey, 31(1), 14 January, 14–16
Lerrick, A. (2000). ‘Development Grant Financing: More Aid per Dollar’, Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Washington, DC, Government Printing Office, 12 April
Reform of the International Monetary Fund (2000). Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Trade and Finance, 106th Congress, 2nd session. Washington, DC, Government Printing Office, 27 April
US Treasury (2000). Response to the Report of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, Washington, DC, Department of the Treasury, 9 June
World Bank (1992) (Wapenhans Report). ‘Effective Implementation: Key to Development Impact’, World Bank, internal document

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