Hi Ed, Ray and Karen, On a point of fact, I must make a correction to my posting of yesterday where I wrote: <<<< Therefore, quite besides the cultural/conceptual features (which they may share with larger regions or "gyres") each country has a unique economic structure, and needs a unique solution if it wants to emerge into reasonable prosperity. But who can supply this? Certainly (in my mind) the World Bank or the IMF can't. Despite the fact that each of these institutions has thousands of bureaucrats I'm quite certain that they don't have enough specialists who speak the language and understand the history of each of the countries which approach them for help. >>>>
I've just begun to read "Globalization and Its Discontents" by Joe Stiglitz and although I am finding that my own stumblings towards understanding, such as the above, are very much in line with the eminent economist, I am wrong about the staff of World Bank. On page 24, he writes: "While both [World Bank and IMF] have teams of economists flying into developing countries for three-week missions, the World Bank has worked hard to make sure that a substantial fraction of its staff live permanently in the country they are trying to assist; the IMF generally has only a single "resident representative" whose powers are limited." Keith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
