Anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the last several months
has heard of the International Monetary Fund. This relatively
obscure yet immensely powerful institution has been sprung to
the front pages of the worlds newspapers by the Asia financial
crisis and the funds role in bailing out the economies of
Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea. The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) was created in 1944 to oversee the global financial
system and to extend short-term loans to countries facing
liquidity problems. In the last several decades, however, the
IMF increasingly has become involved in "structural reform" of
its borrowing nations. While still providing short-term
assistance, the IMF also attaches loan conditions that require
fundamental changes in national economic policies. Even more
recently, the IMF has begun to attach "good governance"
conditions to its loans. This deeper role has sparked a great
deal of controversy. Critics from the Right argue that the IMF
is interfering with the market by providing