Sachs calls for Camdessus's resignation (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

IMF boss should resign over failed Russia intervention: economist
Date: Thu Sep 10 19:31:55 CDT 1998
                                         
   PARIS, Sept 10 (AFP) - A leading US economist has called on IMF
head Michel Camdessus to resign over the institute's poor handling
of the Russian economic crisis, saying the IMF's actions had
contributed to the chaos. 
   Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Harvard Institute for
International Development, told the French daily Le Figaro that
Camdessus should step down from his post as executive director of
the International Monetary Fund. 
   "The IMF completely failed in its intervention in Russia from
the start", Sachs told Le Figaro in an interview to appear Friday. 
   "They have contributed to this debacle", he said, calling on the
G7 group of industrialised nations to respond in a "creative
manner" to the crisis -- which would not include sending the IMF
back to Moscow. 
   He specifically criticised the IMF's insistence that Russia did
not need financial aid in 1992, and its failure to intervene in
1995-1996 while Moscow embarked on a "highly corrupt privatisation
programme". 
   A world-wide recession could now be avoided through a
"coordinated reduction in interest rates" in the United States,
Europe and Japan, he advised.