HOW THE IMF CHANGES POLICY DIRECTION

• Training plus appointment changes• IMF: not always neoliberal• Neoclassical-keyensian synthesis• -eviscerated the revolutionary implications of Keynes’

theory and therefore exposed itself to the neoclassical resurgence

• -this percolated deeply into the profession during the 1970s: epistemic (Chicago, Hayek) plus political (business, think tanks) attacks against the background of a crisis that appeared to give Keynesianism a hard time.

• -capital account liberalization as an IMF policy is part of this systemic transformation in the profession

• BUT…• -the profession ain’t a batallion of Nazi soldiers marching

in goosestep; its internal fractures can make a difference as long as (a) appointments change (b) policy failures feed critics and (c) main creditors bicker.

Whar are capital controls (wiki)• 1. exchange controls that prevent or limit the buying and

selling of a national currency at the market rate, caps on the allowed volume for the international sale or purchase of various financial assets, transaction taxes such as the proposed Tobin tax,

• 2. minimum stay requirements, • 3. requirements for mandatory approval, or even limits on

the amount of money a private citizen is allowed to remove from the country.