Alas, Mr. Krugman's particular legend was really not as clear-cut as it
seemed. Robert Naiman, a policy analyst with the Center for Economic and
Policy Research, tried to set the record straight with Krugman's editors
at the Times. They refused to run his detailed response. But in October
2000, Jon Jeter of the Washington Post set the record straight. Jeter
found that Mozambique's cashew-nut farmers were indeed hurt by the IMF and
World Bank's policy. He reported that 8,500 of the 12,000 Mozambiquans
employed in the industry lost their jobs thanks to the IMF-World Bank
intervention.
The IMF executive board clearly acknowledged its mistake when, on December
18, 2000, it agreed to a restoration of Mozambique's protections for the
cashew industry.
Mr. Krugman, intent as he was in his original article to settle on "the
truth behind this legend," hasn't seen fit to follow the IMF's example by
correcting the legend behind his erroneous "truth."
The Statistical Assessment Service -- a non-profit group dedicated to the
accurate use of scientific research in policy debates -- gave Krugman an
award for one of top-ten silliest or most misleading stories of the year.
To paraphrase his original snide op-ed piece, we might say Mr. Krugman has
an annoying problem: the facts aren't on his side.