Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Meltzer, Allan H

Titel

Asian Problems and the IMF

Ist Teil von

• The Cato journal, 1998-01, Vol.17 (3), p.267-267

Ort / Verlag

San Francisco, Calif: Cato Institute

Erscheinungsjahr

1998

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

PAIS Index

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Between 1990 and 1996, capital inflows to emerging market countries rose from $60 billion to $194 billion. No one carefully monitored those capital flows. When problems developed in Asia in 1997, neither the International Monetary Fund (IMF) nor the private lenders knew the true magnitude of the debts of some of those countries. Firms borrowed directly and through their subsidiaries. Often the total was not shown on any balance sheet. The provision of the IMF Articles of Agreement requiring surveillance, and the decision to strengthen surveillance following the 1995 Mexican problem, proved to be of little use. Though important, the IMF's failure to monitor seems small beside the elementary mistakes of private lenders. The lenders ignored three principles of prudent behavior that history has shown repeatedly to be a major reason for financial failure.