Moisés Naím / International Monetary Fund
What changes more often, the fashion designs coming from Paris and Milan or the economic policy designs Washington and Wall Street prescribe to countries that are less developed or that are emerging from decades of communism? While this comparison may seem frivolous, a review of the ideas that have guided thinking and action about economic reforms in this decade shows that they are as faddish as skirt lengths and tie widths. The difference, of course, is that economic policy fashions affect the way millions of people live and define their children's chances for a better future.
Read moreMoisés Naím and Nancy Birdsall / South China Morning Post
The once-frantic debate about international financial architecture is ending in a whimper. The departure of Secretary Robert Rubin from the United States Treasury spells its death knell. This is too bad for Asian voters and for Asian democracies.
Read moreMoisés Naím / Foreign Affairs
Bewildered by the bizarre turn of events in Mexico, novelist Gabriel García Márquez told his colleague Carlos Fuentes that they should throw their books into the sea. "We have been totally defeated by reality," said García Márquez.
Read moreMoisés Naím / Brown Journal of World Affairs
Why, in the 1990s, has corruption suddenly become such a political lightning rod? From India to Italy, from Japan to Brazil-why have societies which have traditionally tolerated corruption at the highest levels in government and the private sector suddenly lost their patience, their citizens willing to take to the streets to topple high officials accused of wrongdoing?
Read moreMoisés Naím / The World Bank: Its Role, Governance and Organizational Culture
The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Bretton Woods institutions in 1994 prompted a flood of initiatives aimed at assessing the role played by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and debating their future. Most of such reassessments begin by stressing how much the world has changed in the 50 years since both organizations were established. From the collapse of communism to the communications and transportation revolution, and from the radical transformation of financial markets to the population explosion, the inventory of the new conditions under which the Bretton Woods institutions have to operate is certainly long. The implication, of course, is that the institutions should adapt their goals and policies to the new realities and then reorganize accordingly.
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