International Financial Institution Advisory Commission
Encyclopedia
The International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, also known as the Meltzer Commission — named for its chair, Professor Allan Meltzer
Allan Meltzer
Allan H. Meltzer is an American economist and professor of Political Economy at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was born February 6, 1928, in Boston, Massachusetts...

 — was established by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 in November 1998 "to recommend future US policy toward several multilateral institutions: the IMF
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

, the World Bank Group
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...

, the regional development banks such as the Inter-American Development Bank
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...

, the Bank for International Settlements
Bank for International Settlements
The Bank for International Settlements is an intergovernmental organization of central banks which "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks." It is not accountable to any national government...

, and the WTO" as part of legislation authorizing $18 billion of U.S. funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

.

Majority Report

The Commission's majority report proposed changes to the operations of the International Monetary Fund and especially to those of the World Bank, which the majority recommended should withdraw from lending to so-called "middle income countries". Four (out of 5) Commission members nominated by the then-minority Congressional Democrats filed a dissent from the majority's recommendations (Bergsten, Huber, Levinson and Torres), though one of the four (Huber) both voted for the majority report and joined the dissent. The official vote tally in favor was thus recorded as 8 to 3.

Challenges

Controversy over the majority's arguments and recommendations continued after the report's publication: the majority's core recommendations are defended by Chairman Meltzer's chief advisor Adam Lerrick, and challenged by one of the Commission's critics (David de Ferranti), in their respective chapters in an edited volume published by the Center for Global Development and fully accessible on the web .

A Different Viewpoint

An alternative perspective is offered by Susanne Soederberg, Associate Professor, Development Studies, Queen's University (Ontario): "The Meltzer Commission drew public attention to the shortcomings of the IFIs
International financial institutions
International financial institutions are financial institutions that have been established by more than one country, and hence are subjects of international law. Their owners or shareholders are generally national governments, although other international institutions and other organisations...

 but also heightened the legitimacy crisis of neoliberal restructuring of the global South, especially in HIPCs
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries is a group of 40 developing countries with high levels of poverty and debt overhang which are eligible for special assistance from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.- History and structure :...

. For instance, the commission charged the IMF with giving too little attention to improving financial structures in developing countries and too much to expensive rescue operations."

External links

  • What is the Meltzer Commission Report? University of Iowa Center for International Finance & Development
  • http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/9957 Book published by the Center for Global Development entitled "Rescuing the World Bank," which includes a debate on the Meltzer Commission majority's central recommendations between Meltzer's associate Adam Lerrick and one of the Commission's critics, David de Ferranti.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK