Watch out for Argentina's President, he bites...

give 'em hell, Néstor...

President Néstor Kirchner, addressing the UN’s 60th General Assembly in New York, yesterday accused the IMF of supporting the neoconservative policies that he blames for Argentina’s worst-ever economic crisis. And Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, speaking on behalf of the Rio Group of Latin American nations, said in another forum within the General Assembly that the IMF’s "irresponsibly fostered and pressured developing nations into adopting policies that, far from improving their economic and social situation, plunged them into deeper poverty."

Néstor's got all the same problems back home in Argentina that plague the presidents of every country, not the least of which is a very cynical citizenry...but, he's definitely got a point... Argentina was IMF's poster child for many years but at least part of the blame for their economic collapse can be laid directly at IMF's door... Joseph Stiglitz, neither a slouch, nor a dummy, nor an ax-grinder, in his book, Globalization and Its Discontents, paints this picture...

Stiglitz recounts his experiences in such places as Ethiopia, Thailand, and Russia. He finds repeatedly that the International Monetary Fund puts the interests of its "largest shareholder," the United States, above those of the poorer nations it was designed to serve.

in the book, he discussed argentina at length... and, yes, Stiglitz has the credentials to back him up...

Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics. He is the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton administration.

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