1998). The focus is on taking advantage of the crisis to make internal changes in countries which are not operating in the free-market fashion favored by the United States. Thus, critics insist that the IMF should not simply provide monetary assistance, but should provide strict surveillance and technical support, with the intent of making fundamental political and economic changes (Ravich and Bandow, 1998).
There are other segments of the population who favor the IMF's policies. American investors working in emerging markets certainly have a vested interest in shoring up those economies. Posen (1998) noted that the existence of the IMF is an important safeguard for American investors in those markets. Bailing out these economies also ensures a limit on the fall-out of failing Asian economics on the economy in the United States (Ravich and Bandow, 1998).
...