[It's a blow to one's narcissism not to be named, but hey, all for the struggle!]
Financial Times - August 21, 2002 Avenue of the Americas Starting over It could safely be said that relations between the International Monetary Fund and Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of its sister institution the World Bank, aren't all sweetness and light. Stiglitz, one of the IMF's harshest critics for years, was recently the subject of a diatribe by Kenneth Rogoff, IMF chief economist, over his persistent attacks on the fund. Far from being convinced of the error of his ways, however, it seems that Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel prize-winner for economics, now thinks the world would be better off by starting all over again. "I used to say that since we are going to need these institutions it is better to reform them than to start from scratch. I'm beginning to have second thoughts," he said during a recent interview on radio station WBAI, New York. In remarks not calculated to soothe ruffled feathers on 19th St in Washington, the indefatigable Stiglitz continued: "I'm beginning to ask 'has the credibility of the IMF been so eroded that maybe it's better to start from scratch? Is the institution so resistant to learning to change, to becoming a more democratic institution, that maybe it is time to think about creating some new institutions that really reflect today's reality, today's greater sense of democracy' . . . it is really time to re-ask the question: 'should we reform or should we build from start?'" In the exceedingly improbable eventuality that the international community hands Stiglitz the task of rebuilding the IMF from the bottom up, it can safely be assumed that one notable difference will be the absence of his bete noire Rogoff from the chief economist's seat.
