2020-10-10
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If international institutions held a global popularity contest, there's little doubt the International Monetary Fund would finish last. Over the past 30 years, the Washington-based agency has aroused fear and loathing throughout much of Africa, Asia and Latin America because of the tough conditions it imposed on governments as the price for its financial assistance. When its role dwindled to near-irrelevance earlier this decade as the world economy expanded strongly, few tears were shed. Its newly-elected managing director warned that what might be at stake nowadays is the very existence of the IMF.
Yet suddenly the IMF is the center of attention again, and this time in a new and unaccustomed role: as the hero of the hour, the institution seen as best able to rescue the collapsing world economy. A principal outcome of the G-20 leaders’ meeting in London was an agreement to triple the IMF's resources to $750 billion, and to allow it to issue a further $250 billion on its own. Part of that money is supposed to go to countries suddenlyin financial straits, and part is designed to serve as a more general liquidity boost to the contracting world economy.
Along with the new resources come, at least in theory, important changes in the way the IMF functions. In the future, European countries will no longer have an automatic right to pick its managing director, as they do at present. And through a reform of its arcane shareholding or "quota" system, the domination of policy by the U.S. and other developed economies will give way to a more balanced system of governance, under which developing countries such as Brazil, China and Russia will have a greater say. The IMF's focus is supposed to shift, too: the G-20 wants it to play a more active role as global economic cop, monitoring policy among the major advanced economies as well as the poorer ones, and blowing a whistle when it sees dangerous behavior. In theory, the IMF should reflect both the changing global economic order and the crisis-induced shift towards greater financial regulation.
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Change is long overdue. "Who can possibly justify the fact that Belgium has a substantially larger quota than India, Brazil or Mexico?" asks an official with the Mexican Council for International Affairs. The IMF's legions of critics even include other international agencies. Another official has recently blasted the IMF in an article that described its performance as "less than evenhanded or effective," and accused it of being asleep at the wheel in the months before the current economic turmoil. "The IMF was uncharacteristically disengaged from the debate on growing economic and financial vulnerabilities during the run-up to the present crisis. It offered little concrete policy advice to countries on how to manage oncethe crisis broke. "
The big question is whether the IMF is upto the job being thrust upon it. The huge boost to its reserves exists on paper, but it's not yet clear where all that money will come from. At a time when governments are financially overstretched, that's no small sum. Moreover, the thorny issues involved in reforming the IMF's governance structure have been kicked back to the organization; the G-20 simply said they should be sorted out, but gave no guidance about how. For all these unanswered questions, the vote of confidence given to the IMF partly reflects its performance over the past few months.
Even in its revamped form, the IMF will be less of a significant player on the world stage than its founders intended at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944. Back then, the resources allocated to the IMF amounted to more than half of the world's current account payments. Today, its resources amount to about 3%, according to Buira. Still, if the G-20 intentions are put into practice and the IMF does take on a more active – and more accepted – role as a stabilizing force in the world economy, it will be much closer to the original vision of its role as outlined in the 1940s. The IMF is not a Red Cross philanthropic relief scheme, by which the rich countries come to the rescue of the poor. Rather, it should be a highly necessary mechanism, which is at least as useful to the creditor as to the debtor. Rediscovering that sense of equal exchange will be key to the IMF's rebirth.
P. Gumbel. The Time
Practicum 7.13
Translate the italicized parts of Text 7b into Russian
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Practicum 7.14 
Practicum 7.15
Practice Assessing as Probable / Improbable strategy in the following situation (to be done in writing)
On behalf of Burkina Faso you are seeking financial assistance with the IMF. Draft a statement of purpose / application to the IMF board stressing which social and political problems you are going to tackle with this aid. Assess your chances of receiving assistance.
Practicum 7.16
Match the collocations with loan with their Russian equivalents
| short-term loan | беспроцентная ссуда |
| to secure a loan (to get a loan against the security of) | просьба о предоставлении займа |
| interest-free loan | договариваться об условиях займа |
| to get / receive a loan | ссуда под низкий процент |
| to negotiate a loan | выдать ссуду |
| to pay off / repay a loan | потребительский кредит (выданный частному лицу для оплаты покупки потребительских товаров длительного пользования) |
| foreign loan | получить ссуду |
| application for loan (cf. to apply for a loan) | внутренний заем |
| delinquent loan | краткосрочная ссуда |
| consumer loan | заем, полученный за границей |
| to grant a loan | обеспечить ссуду, предоставить обеспечение по ссуде |
| low-interest loan | неуплаченная в срок ссуда |
| home loan | вернуть ссуду |
Practicum 7.17
Translate from Russian into English, relying on the terms from Practicum 7.16
1. Займы, полученные за границей, облагаются налогом.
2. Поскольку наши спонсоры не смогли вовремя предоставить деньги, нам пришлось обратиться в банк за краткосрочным кредитом.
3. О беспроцентной ссуде не может быть и речи.
4. Заемщику пришлось предоставить в качестве обеспечения по ссуде дом.
5. Неоплаченная в срок ссуда стала причиной отказа заемщику в предоставлении нового кредита.
6. Для того чтобы получить заем, вам необходимо написать заявление о предоставлении займа.
III. Communication Practice
Brainstorming
A research team with the IMF whose task is to allocate financial aid to support countries suddenly in financial straits. You have to work out a set of criteria to rely on when allocating resources to claimants (social and economic development of the country, size, natural resources, GDP, etc.). Do brainstorming, relying on Assessing as Probable / Improbable strategy.
PROGRESS TEST 7 
