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Article: Not out of the Woods
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 28, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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BUREAUCRACIES are by their nature unlovable. The 50th birthday
of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is proving as
much an occasion for critical scrutiny as for a celebration of
their longevity.
The IMF and the World Bank were spawned in 1944 by the Bretton
Woods monetary conference, at which the representatives of 44
countries met in a New Hampshire hotel and laid out a blueprint for
the post-war international economic order. But the economic
environment has changed out of all recognition since then, forcing
the Bretton Woods institutions to evolve in ways that their
founders could not have anticipated.
The IMF was created to police a system of fixed but adjustable
exchange ...