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  3. Economist John Maynard Keynes once suggested that when the International Mone

Economist John Maynard Keynes once suggested that when the International Mone

游客2025-03-30  4
问题    Economist John Maynard Keynes once suggested that when the International Monetary Fund imposed strict conditions on a nation seeking help for its ailing economy, the fund was merely "being grandmotherly". But Thais and other Asians who had to turn to the Fund for help after the 1997 financial crisis complain that grandmother was never like this. Some of the structural changes the IMF demanded not only inflicted unnecessary pain on these countries’ populations but failed to achieve the intended effect. Recovery everywhere has been slow and uneven. The IMF, critics also charge, has attempted to reform the economies of developing countries into the image and likeness of Western industrial nations—a new kind of imperialism.
   A well-researched report issued this month by Morris Goldstein, a former IMF staffer, argues that some of these complaints have merits. The Fund bungled bank closures in Indonesia and caused a harmful credit crunch in South Korea and Thailand by demanding increases in bank capitalization. But Goldstein also contends that some of the IMF’s actions worldwide, while unpalatable, were effective and necessary. Had the Fund not administered its painful medicine, many of the economies would have collapsed. In some cases, the governments involved were unwilling to impose difficult reforms themselves because they feared the political consequences. Blaming foreign pressure and the IMF for the hardship is a convenient out.
   What Goldstein also finds, though, is that while the Fund has been setting out harsh conditions for its loans since its inception, in recent years — and during the 1997 crisis in particular — its experts have begun to micromanage the economies they have come to rescue. In Indonesia, the IMF demanded measures that phased out the local content programs of motor vehicles and eliminated the monopolistic Clove Marketing Board. In South Korea, the Fund insisted on trade liberalization programs that favored imports and battered small local industries that were already struggling from the effects of a faltering economy.
   Goldstein says that where the Fund went wrong was in becoming "excessive in both scope and detail." There was no need, he says, for the Fund to require Thailand to remove real-estate taxes on foreign purchases of condominiums or to insist on privatization of state enterprises as part of its conditions for getting its aid. The IMF justified this on the grounds that it increased competition and internationalized the economy. These were commendable goals, says Goldstein, but they created serious political problems and deflected the IMF’s attention away from its main task: rescuing and reforming the financial institutions of the crisis nations.
   Goldstein concedes that the task of setting reasonable guidelines for the IMF will be complicated. Horst Kohler, the Fund’s new head, says he wants to reform its procedures. But economists are far from unanimous on precisely which measures imposed during the crisis were helpful. [br] The IMF was complained because all of the following EXCEPT that______.
选项 A、it imposes imperialism on developing nations
B、some of its conditions are unnecessary
C、it is not successful
D、it cannot help promote politics
答案 D
解析 本题为细节理解题。本题细节定位于第一段第三句“Some of the structural changes the IMF demanded not only inflicted unnecessary pain on these countries’populations but failed to achieve the intended effect．”由此可知，国际货币基金组织(IMF)所要求的一些结构性改变不仅给这些国家的人们带来了不必要的痛苦，而且未能达到预期的效果。B，C两项符合原文意思，故不选。根据第一段最后一句“The IMF，critics also charge，has attempted to reform the economies of developing countries into the image and likeness of Western industrial nations—a new kind of imperialism．”可知，批评者也指责IMF试图将发展中国家的经济按照西方国家的形象和喜好进行改造，这是一种新型帝国主义。A项“将帝国主义强加于发展中国家”符合原文内容。D项“它无法帮助促进政治”属于无中生有，因此选择D项。
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