International Financial Institution Advisory Commission

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, also known as the Meltzer Commission — named for its chair, Professor

WTO"[1] as part of legislation authorizing $18 billion of U.S. funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
.

Majority Report

The Commission's majority report proposed changes to the operations of the International Monetary Fund and especially to those of the World Bank, which the majority recommended should withdraw from lending to so-called "middle income countries". Four (out of 5) Commission members nominated by the then-minority Congressional Democrats filed a dissent from the majority's recommendations (Bergsten, Huber, Levinson and Torres), though one of the four (Huber) both voted for the majority report and joined the dissent. The official vote tally in favor was thus recorded as 8 to 3.

Challenges

Controversy over the majority's arguments and recommendations continued after the report's publication. Critics, including

David de Ferranti, a former Vice President at the World Bank, argued inter alia that the majority report reflected ideological preconceptions rather than any demonstrated understanding of how the World Bank actually works, including the extensive complementarities between World Bank programs and private sector investment in developing countries. The majority's core recommendations are defended by Chairman Meltzer's chief advisor Adam Lerrick and critiqued by de Ferranti in their respective chapters in an edited volume published by the Center for Global Development and fully accessible on the web.[2]

A Different Viewpoint

An alternative perspective is offered by

HIPCs. For instance, the commission charged the IMF with giving too little attention to improving financial structures in developing countries and too much to expensive rescue operations."[3]

Outcome

The report's recommendations were not, in the event, adopted by subsequent U.S. administrations of either party.

References

  1. S2CID 145322307
    .
  2. ^ "Rescuing the World Bank".
  3. S2CID 145322307
    .

External links
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