International Financial Institution Advisory Commission
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The 'International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, also known as the Meltzer Commission — named for its chair, Professor Allan Meltzer — was established by the United States Congress in November 1998 "to recommend future US policy toward several multilateral institutions: the IMF, the World Bank Group, the regional development banks such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, and the WTO"[1] as part of legislation authorizing $18 billion of U.S. funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Commission's majority report proposed changes to the operations of the International Monetary Fund and especially to those of development banks such as the World Bank, which the majority recommended should withdraw from lending to so-called "middle income countries". Most of the Commission members nominated by the then-minority Congressional Democrats dissented from the majority's recommendations. Subsequently, some critics of the Meltzer Commission majority's recommendations have claimed that Meltzer and especially his very close associate Adam Lerrick (who served as Meltzer's senior advisor during the Commission's work, and now occupies an academic position with Meltzer at Carnegie-Mellon University funded by the "friends of Allan H. Meltzer") have made questionable use of statistics to back what the critics contend is their ideologically-based opposition to public development lending. [1]
An alternative perspective is offered by Susanne Soederberg, Associate Professor, Development Studies, Queen's University (Ontario): "The Meltzer Commission drew public attention to the shortcomings of the IFIs but also heightened the legitimacy crisis of neoliberal restructuring of the global South, especially in HIPCs. For instance, the commission charged the IMF with giving too little attention to improving financial structures in developing countries and too much to expensive rescue operations." [2]
[edit] External Links
- What is the Meltzer Commission Report?University of Iowa Center for International Finance & Development
- http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/9957 Book published by the Center for Global Development entitled "Rescuing the World Bank," which includes an exchange on the Meltzer Commission majority's report between Meltzer's associate Adam Lerrick and one of the Commission's critics, David de Ferranti.
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