FOREIGN EXCHANGE: Fund Failure

The International Monetary Fund was founded in 1945 with lofty goals and an $8 billion kitty. The goals: complete removal of strangulating trade restrictions by March 1952 and stabilization of world currency. But last week, as the fund's governors gathered in Washington for their annual meeting, the $8 billion was still virtually untouched, the goals far distant.

Last week's meeting started with a hopeful, high-sounding statement from Harry Truman: "I am sure . . . that none of the members of the fund will [try] to justify restrictions on trade and exchange which are not actually needed." But hardly were those...

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