As former Director of Research and a founding member of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund, Jacques J. Polak has advised theoreticians and policymakers worldwide. This collection brings together his most current writings, and is published under the auspices of the IMF. The hallmark of Dr. Polak's recent research has been his ability to draw on decades of personal experience and reflection to comprehend and describe the context for current policy debates. In the past decade, he has contributed much to the debates on international financial policy and the role of the IMF, and this volume brings together most of these recent papers to make them accessible to a broader audience.

The life of a major figure in twentieth-century economic history whose impact has long been clouded by dubious allegations "Harry Dexter White has always been the mystery man at the center of America's international economic policy in the 1930s and 1940s. James Boughton helps demystify him in this rich, enlightening, and most interesting volume."-Douglas Irwin, author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy Although Harry Dexter White (1892-1948) was arguably the most important U.S. government economist of the twentieth century, he is remembered more for having been accused of being a Soviet agent. During the Second World War, he became chief advisor on international financial policy to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, a role that would take him to Bretton Woods, where he would make a lasting impact on the architecture of postwar international finance. However, charges of espionage, followed by his dramatic testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and death from a heart attack a few days later, obscured his importance in setting the terms for the modern global economy. In this book, James Boughton rehabilitates White, delving into his life and work and returning him to a central role as the architect of the world's financial system.

This pamphlet is an adapted and updated version of the prologue to Tearing Down Walls: The International Monetary Fund 1990-1999 , by the same author. That book examines a tumultuous decade in which the IMF faced difficult challenges and took on new and expanded roles. Among these were assisting countries that had long operated under central planning to manage transitions toward market economies, helping countries in financial crisis after sudden loss of support from private financial markets, adapting surveillance to reflect the growing acceptance of international standards for economic and financial policies, helping low-income countries grow and begin to eradicate poverty while staying within its mandate as a monetary institution, and providing adequate financial assistance to members in an age of limited official resources.

This volume - the fifth in a series of histories of the International Monetary Fund - examines the 1990s, a tumultuous decade in which the IMF faced difficult challenges and took on new and expanded roles. Among these were assisting countries that had long operated under central planning to manage transitions toward market economies, helping countries in financial crisis after sudden loss of support from private financial markets, adapting surveillance to reflect the growing acceptance of international standards for economic and financial policies, helping low-income countries grow and begin to eradicate poverty while staying within its mandate as a monetary institution, and providing adequate financial assistance to members in an age of limited official resources. The IMF's successes and setbacks in facing these challenges provide valuable lessons for an uncertain future.

This book provides an assessment of the role of the International Monetary Fund in poor countries. In recent years, a large portion of the work of the IMF has focused on the economies of low-income countries by aiming to create conditions conducive to poverty reduction and stable economic growth. More than two fifths of the IMF's 185 members are low-income countries and many others have substantial pockets of poverty in their populations. Since economic development and the reduction of poverty are the most important economic challenges that these countries face, how can the IMF best help them? How can the imperative of macroeconomic and financial stability be reconciled with the requirements for sustained economic growth? This volume brings together the research of leading economists, political scientists, and historians to suggest ways for the IMF to address these issues effectively