引き続き、30日エントリで紹介した各種記事の紹介。
● The Odd Couple of Global Finance(FT 2002/07/06)
Global Policy Forumという自称“国連の政策決定を監視する団体”があるが、そこにはスティグリッツの特集ページみたいなものがあり、30日エントリで紹介したスティグリッツ関係の記事も多くはここで拾った。この記事もその一つで、以前はこのURLにあったが、現在は無くなっていたので、30日エントリではリンクを付けなかった。ただ、探してみると、ここで読める*1
内容的には、昨日のエントリで取り上げたロゴフの記事を紹介しつつ、IMFと世銀の関係を分析したもの。その中から興味深いと思われた記述、とりわけ、両者の特色を表した記述をピックアップしてみる。
Both the fund and the bank are quick to point out that Prof Stiglitz is a long way from representing the World Bank's official position...He may make his points more strongly than his former colleagues, but there can be no doubt that he is reflecting widely shared and long-standing tensions, which at times have had serious consequences.
山形さんの言うようにスティグリッツが世銀で「浮いていた」のも一面の事実かと思うが、これを読むと、まったく世銀の「世論」から遊離していたわけでもないらしい。
The roots of their differences go back to the origins of the fund and the bank in the 1940s. Conceived together at Bretton Woods, they were given quite distinct objectives: the bank to support economic development, the fund to maintain the stability of the global economy. These two different objectives have given the two institutions very different cultures: disciplined crisis managers versus reflective idealists.
そもそもの設立目的の違いが両者の性格の違いをもたらしたとの由。
"I always compare the IMF to the Communist Party: a vanguard, very ideological, very top-down. When they make decisions, things really happen," says Justin Forsyth, policy director of Oxfam, who has dealt with both institutions for many years. "The World Bank is more complex, more like a university. Lots of different ideas are bubbling away, and you can never really be sure of the connection between the decision-making and the organisation."
市場主義、資本主義の尖兵たるIMFが、組織としては共産党っぽいというのは面白い。
Charles Wyplosz, of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, who has worked as a visiting scholar at the IMF, says the fund is like the Prussian army, the bank like the Mexican army. "IMF staff tend to think of themselves as smart and select, and to look down on World Bank people," he says. "And it is true that the IMF's recruitment is very homogenous: the staff tend to be economics PhDs from leading universities. The World Bank recruits a much wider range of people."
こちらではIMFはプロシアの軍隊に譬えられている。上では大学みたいと評された世銀が、ここではメキシコの軍隊に譬えられているというのは、悪く言えば烏合の衆みたいということか。
What turns these cultural differences into flashpoints is when the activities of the fund and bank conflict. It can be infuriating, for example, for a World Bank manager who has spent years trying to help small businesses in a developing country to be told that the IMF has recommended a sharp rise in interest rates or taxes that will force those businesses to close.
マクロとミクロの衝突ということか。
To make matters worse, since the 1970s, the dividing line between the two institutions' functions has become blurred. The IMF has taken on long-term lending to the poorest countries, and begun making policy recommendations on structural issues, such as social security systems. The World Bank, meanwhile, was heavily involved in the bail-outs for Mexico in 1995 and South Korea in 1997 and 1998.
最近では両者の境界が曖昧になってきたとの由。
*1:とはいえ、URLからすると、Berkeley Labで誰かが個人的に好き勝手な資料をアップしているページのようなので、いつ消えてもおかしくはなさそう。
