Full Stop saves you time, stress and money in achieving your goal of the perfect communiqué.
The IMF was originally created for noble ends – to support the global economy in areas where it is weak. One of those key areas is the collapse of exchange rates. Noble beginnings aside, the IMF's post-communist Russian involvement offers a classic case study of how to rape a people financially. It works like this. The currency is about to collapse and needs to be devalued. The IMF comes in with an aid package (that will obviously be paid back by the country over many years). The billions donated by the international community then hold the exchange rate in place long enough for the money men to pull their billions out in obscure island bank accounts. Once the fleecing is done, the currency collapses anyway, is devalued, and the citizens are stuck with enough debt (in Dollars, of course) to last several life times. Neat, eh?
From the collapse of the Asian Markets to the brutal shift to a market economy that set Russia back decades, Stiglitz writes in a balanced and thoughtful way, even though what he is saying sometimes makes one question the meaning of life.
It's clear from this book that it is not capitalism or globalisation that are inherently evil – these are merely the ways we advanced apes choose to structure our interactions. What gives them their savage edge is the ethos of the Western financial community. You can call it market fundamentalism, you can call it conquest, you can call it a kick in the head. Ultimately, it ends up being the same thing. Wrong.
Regardless, read the book and find out how little you know about what the men in suits really do in those offices.
Andrew Miller
