The Chastening: Inside the Crisis That Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the Imf

By Paul Blustein

Book Overview

Lauded by reviewers and scholars alike, Paul Blustein's The Chastening examines the role of the International Monetary Fund in the series of economic crises that rocked the globe in the last decade. Based on hundreds of interviews with officials at the IMF, the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the White House, and many foreign governments, The Chastening offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Fund during an extraordinarily turbulent period in modern economic history and at a time when the IMF has become the object of intense political controversy. While the IMF and its overseers at the Treasury and the Fed have sought to cultivate an image of economic masterminds coolly dispensing effective economic remedies, the reality is that as markets were sinking and defaults looming, the guardians of global financial stability were often floundering, improvising, and feuding among themselves. The Chastening casts serious doubt on the IMF's ability to combat of investor panics at a time when massive flows of money traverse borders and oceans. A readable, compelling account of the deeply flawed workings of the international political system, The Chastening is vital reading for students and scholars of international diplomacy, government, and economic and public policy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586481819
• ISBN13: 9781586481810
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Engaging like a James Bond movie

Enter the world of high international finance. Mr. Blustein has managed to present an extremely readable (fun, dramatic, engaging) account of the tragic economic crises that are now called the "first of the XXI century".Not only will you learn the economic details of the crises in Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil and Long-Term Capital Management. You will also find yourself in the rooms where IMF staff negotiated with authorities. You will take a glimpse at the halls of the Treasury and the Fed, where Rubin, Greenspan and Co., proved their genius as policymakers. You will be humbled by the ferocity of international capital and about "how close we where".Still the great lesson is that we need not oppose globalization to build a better future. Rather you will fell as having read the first steps of a new world which we are only beggining to understand. Hence the need to understand what happened to build a stronger international financial architecture with stronger institutions.

Good read on a tragic epoch

I read this book after reading Dr. Stiglitz criticism on the IMF. Actually, Stiglitz quotes him. Contrary to Stiglitz', Mr. Blustein's book reads fast, makes some of the same criticism Stiglitz does but one does not feel he has an ax to grind. If you want to read a good book on the Asian financial crisis and Russia's default on its own ruble debt, this is the book for you. Very informative and entertaining.

An excellent book

As an economics professor, I'm always skeptical of books about economics written by journalists. Economics can be quite complicated, and far too often journalists without serious (graduate-level) training in economics show a remarkable lack of understanding of even basic economic issues. They pose as "experts" but they don't really know what they're talking about...So I was very pleasantly surprised when I picked up this book. Blustein does a really impressive job of examining in detail the crisis of 1997-1998 and the role of the IMF. The economics is impeccable and he explains it clearly. And he's tremendously effective at bringing to life the "drama" of the crisis and the very difficult decisions that policy-makers face during a crisis like this one.I also appreciated the fact that, while being quite critical of the IMF, Blustein is also balanced in his assessment, and careful about avoiding gratuitous "IMF bashing" and about making it clear that there are a lot of very smart people at the IMF who work very hard to do their job well.This is a great book for anybody who wants to gain a greater understanding of the international financial system and of the role of the IMF. Lively, accurate, never boring, it's one of the best non-technical books about an economic event that I've ever read.

Economics Doesn't Get More Exciting Than This

This is a highly readable account about a serious economic crisis that most Americans missed. But Blustein makes you care--and makes you understand why the so-called Committee to Save the World (Greenspan, Rubin and Summers) made some poor choices and only through sheer luck managed to escape with their reputations enhanced. Blustein's description of the International Monetary Fund is eye-opening, and he will make you think twice the next time you read a story buried in the business section about another IMF loan to a struggling country. Blustein knows his stuff and has done his homework. This is a rare book that teaches you something new--and makes you think.

better than Woodward or Friedman

This superb book should become the standard popular reference on the International Monetary Fund and the financial crises that swept the globe in 1997-98. Paul Blustein has a background in economics and first-hand experience in Asia where the crises originated. The book is well documented: Blustein conducted hundreds of interviews (unlike his Washington Post colleague Woodward, he actually names his sources) and is familiar with the academic literature on the subject. Indeed, this entertaining book does a marvelous job of explaining the substantive economic issues while at the same time conveying the very human disorder of crisis management as practiced during these episodes. It is less doctrinaire than Friedman's cheerleading for globalization in "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" and is far better informed on economic policy making than Woodward's "Maestro." (Simply compare Blustein's highly informative descriptions of the Korean and Long Term Capital Management crises with the complete hash of the same episodes that Woodward produced in "Maestro.") Highly recommended.