Re: Argentina and the IMF

["Gunnar Tomasson" <gunnar.tomasson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Re. the following:

> Does this mean that people can't change? Or do you have any inside
> information about how Stiglitz is just being opportunistic?

In my view, economists of the caliber of Stiglitz and Davidson have two
options insofar as service to the cause of economic science is concerned -
(1) self-serving and (2) selfless.

We all know that, by choosing option (2) - as did Keynes and Galbraith
before him - Paul Davidson has paid a heavy price.  That, of course, is why
the Keynes-Galbraith-Davidsons of the profession are few and far between
and, as noted by Paul Davidson in an earlier message today, their
intellectual challenges are dismissed as "off the wall" by economists of
type (1).

> Personally, I don't know if  in the long run Stiglitz will turn out to
have
> been opportunistic. For right now, I can tell you that many here
> (Argentina) are thankful to have someone who was on the "inside"
> denounce  the lunacy of IMF and US Treasury policy prescriptions in the
> mainstream US media.

As for what you term the "lunacy of IMF and US Treasury policy
prescriptions", these are arrived at by conscientious career economists at
the IMF and US Treasury wearing intellectual blinders of the triple kind
which Paul Davidson enumerated in his message - so long as such blinders are
not successfully challenged, soothing words is all that the Argentines of
the world can expect from those whose intellectual capital is invested
therein.

Gunnar

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Cibils" <abcibils@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Gunnar Tomasson" <gunnar.tomasson@xxxxxxxxxxx>; "Henry C.K. Liu"
<hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 9:10 AM
Subject: Re: Argentina and the IMF


> At  5/14/2002, Gunnar Tomasson wrote:
> >Henry:
> >
> >I don't know Stiglitz from Adam - ....
> >
> >
> >Where the hell was Stiglitz when it counted?
> >
> >Gunnar
>
> Does this mean that people can't change? Or do you have any inside
> information about how Stiglitz is just being opportunistic?
>
> Personally, I don't know if  in the long run Stiglitz will turn out to
have
> been opportunistic. For right now, I can tell you that many here
> (Argentina) are thankful to have someone who was on the "inside"
> denounce  the lunacy of IMF and US Treasury policy prescriptions in the
> mainstream US media.
>
> Alan
>