Monday 9 March 2009

Lizard of Oz on the IMF and Geithner

Bob Murphy, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, posts on former Australian PM Paul Keating blaming Obama’s Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner for Directly Messing Up Indonesia, and Indirectly for Contributing to the US Housing Boom.

Snappy title, Bob. 

Lucky his analysis of Keating’s speech, and of the IMF, is right on the money. So to speak.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The IMF Executive Board has the final sign off on major country programs, as the Rt. Hon. P Keating will know full well. In 1997 and 1998 Australia had an executive director on the Board (replacing one with another during 1997), and they would have been taking their instructions directly from Canberra. The Rt. Hon P.K. is another revisionist, and ascribing altogether too much influence to the Mr. Geithner of a decade ago.

J. Russel Wurzelsprout

Anonymous said...

Mr Wurzelsprout

You allow far too much power and control to Canberra, let alone the Australian PM.

Keating would have had about as much control over the IMF as PrimeMinister Key has over the US Fed.

LGM

Anonymous said...

LGM - you misunderstand me sir. The Rt. Hon P.K. would have had full control over Australia's executive director, who would have been expected to say so if he (on Canberra's behalf) disagreed with any proposal on the table. That's the way it worked then, and works now.

J. Russel Wurzelsprout

Anonymous said...

I understand you alright and you are wrong.

The Aust PM would have had about as much control over the executive director as he had over the NSW Commissioner of Prisons. That is, a strictly limited influence diluted by departmental advice, reporting structures and ruling policy controlled, set and executed by unelecetd career civil servants. You assume to much in expecting that the PM was made aware of what was going on and had it clearly explained to him. That is not necessarily the case at all. Once again, it is the actions of the civil service that would have determined what the PM knew or did not know, what was recommended and what was not recommended, what was presented as a priority for consideration and what was not (similarly, senior management within the IMF would determine what was reported to the IMF board). You would need to read the briefing papers and minutes of the time to know what was presented to Keating and/or his cabinet. Have you undertaken that task...

Even had the executive director been issued with a direct instruction from the PM, said executive director is merely one vote on a board- a minority of one. Further, should said director have opposed the program, there would have been (and remain) powerful political reasons not to be backed into a position where Australia's "representative" would be an opposition of one- isolated. Anyway, to know what actually occurred you'd need to read the board papers and minutes of the board's meetings. Have you..?

LGM

Anonymous said...

LGM: Yes. And it appears I know rather more than you do about how the IMF Board operates, and the extent to which major decisions such as that to which the Rt. Hon P.K was referring are, indeed, subject to political consideration at the highest levels.

J. Russel Wurzelsprout

Anonymous said...

Mr Wurzelsprout

Have you really read all the relevant cabinet papers and minutes? Did you read the briefing papers that were presented to the cabinet and to the PM? Have you read the minutes for the relevant IMF board meetings? Have you actually read the briefing papers and reports presented to the IMF Board? Did you really read Keating's instructions to the Australian representative?

Come on now. You've got yourself deep into furphies. Tell the truth! You're merely repeating your assertion again and again.

LGM

Anonymous said...

LGM, your point that I said yes to was "to know what actually occurred you'd need to read the board papers and minutes of the board's meetings. Have you..?" The Board papers and minutes are not made public, but are accessible within the organization. The public papers can be found at
http://www.imf.org/external/country/IDN/index.htm?pn=15
Naturally I have no access to any papers generated in Australia, and I was not claiming to have read them.
Sincerely
J. Russel Wurzelsprout