WARNING SIGNS: Tokyo residents hold aloft candles in protest during last November's G-20 summit in Tokyo. For years the IMF has been decried for the power it exerted over emerging economies
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. Taking over as managing director in 2007, Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned its directors that, "what might be at stake today is the very existence of the...
