The Life and Times of Finance & Development
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Anna Postelnyak
- Published: June 3, 2024
Origins and mission
- Launched in June 1964 as The Fund and Bank Review: Finance & Development to reach government officials, bankers, journalists, and students.
- Intended as a “less technical periodical” proposed by IMF Deputy Managing Director Frank A. Southard Jr.; initially a joint Bank–Fund publication after World Bank President George Woods’s suggestion.
- Early mission: inform the general reader about the World Bank and the IMF, including origins, financial structures, operations, and explanations of Fund jargon (for example, Stand-By Arrangements, balance of payments deficits, multiple currency practices).
The 1960s: beginnings and expansion
- Coverage highlights:
- Project lending for infrastructure and industry as a response to decolonization and development aspirations.
- Illustrated covers beginning March 1968 (Kenyan water tap) and September 1968 (irrigation dams in Mexico).
- Discussion of Bretton Woods strains and the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDRs) featured on the December 1969 cover.
- Circulation and format:
- Circulation in English, French, and Spanish rose from 20,000 to 85,000 between 1964 and 1968.
- Increasing use of photographs, maps, charts, and illustrations.
The 1970s: turbulence and broadened scope
- Global context: collapse of Bretton Woods, massive oil price shocks, international terrorism.
- Institutional changes and coverage:
- Second Amendment to the IMF’s Articles of Agreement (1978) allowed members to choose fixed or floating exchange rate regimes; June 1976 F&D discussed its implications.
- Expansion of IMF surveillance to include domestic policy and stability, opening scope to topics such as gender equality, governance, and climate change.
- IMF instruments and responses: Extended Fund Facility, first concessional lending via a trust fund (prominent in December 1976 issue), recycling of petrodollars to supplement quota resources.
- World Bank shift toward tackling absolute poverty and multi-faceted operations for small farmers; coverage of Nairobi Annual Meetings (1973).
- Editions and editorial experimentation:
- F&D added an Arabic language edition in June 1975.
- Editors began experimenting with fonts, formats, and novel topics including weather and women’s role in development.
The 1980s: the “lost decade”
- Macroeconomic shocks:
- Tight US monetary policy at the end of the 1970s led to soaring global interest rates and debt crises in developing economies.
- Policy emphasis and debate:
- Rise of “conditionality” at the IMF and structural adjustment lending at the World Bank (budget support for economic reforms).
- Promotion of devaluation, privatization, liberalization, and fiscal and monetary discipline.
- Recognition of distributive impacts: need to protect the vulnerable to sustain political support for adjustment.
- Evolution of international debt strategy:
- From adjustment emphasis to the Baker Plan (1985) and eventual acceptance of debt relief under the 1989 Brady Plan and Paris Club Toronto terms.
- Institutional and editorial developments:
- World Bank engagement with environmental issues expanded during Barber Conable’s presidency (1986–91).
- Opening to external authors beginning with Nicholas Kaldor in June 1983; F&D started publishing in Chinese in June 1983.
The 1990s: transition and recalibration
- Major themes:
- Fall of communism and transition reforms; debate over “shock-therapy” versus gradualism (A Study of the Soviet Economy; March 1990 cover).
- Adoption of liberalization ideas in developing and emerging markets, with caveats about state intervention and “good governance” (East Asian Miracle referenced on March 1994 cover).
- Financial globalization and crises:
- 1994–late 1990s emerging market crises (Mexico 1994; later Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Türkiye) highlighted balance sheet mismatches and capital flow reversals.
- 1997–98 Asian Crisis prompted IMF reforms (detailed in June 1998 F&D) and initiatives such as standards and codes, Financial Sector Assessment Program, and early-warning systems.
- Poverty focus and institutional change:
- Shift to poverty reduction as an explicit goal: Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility became the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (How We Can Help the Poor, December 2000).
- Debt relief frameworks for low-income countries: Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and later Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative.
- World Bank departed the F&D partnership after 1995; the IMF continued financing F&D alone.
- Print to digital transition: March 1996 supplementing print editions with digital content.
- Circulation:
- F&D reached 110,000+ subscribers during this period.
2000s and the global financial crisis
- Emerging markets rise:
- Asia’s recovery and the ascent of China and India; major emerging markets increasing share of world output while holding a minority of IMF quotas.
- Trade and globalization championed (Trading Up, September 2002); tensions over job losses and protectionism.
- Global imbalances and triple-bubble diagnosis (mid-2000s):
- Asia’s excess saving and production financing the US current account deficit.
- Stagnating real wages and declining labor share in the US sustained by consumer credit and housing equity withdrawals.
- Euro area north–south imbalances.
- Financial sector excesses enabled by poor regulation.
- Crisis timeline and IMF response:
- June 2008 F&D warned about opaque mortgage-backed securities, excessive leverage, and regulatory failures.
- Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008 and global contagion covered in December 2008 issue.
- IMF actions: overhauled lending toolkit, improved surveillance (including spillovers), collaborated with Financial Stability Board, provided additional support to low-income countries, and revived SDRs (first allocation since the 1970s).
Recovery, aftershocks, and societal impacts
- Policy responses:
- Emergency fiscal stimulus advocated by IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
- Central bank actions: emergency liquidity, cross-border swap lines, quantitative easing; China’s fiscal expansion as a global locomotive.
- Lasting scars and topics of concern:
- Structural unemployment, income inequality, protectionism, and anti-globalization sentiment.
- F&D coverage addressed jobs, migration, outsourcing, technology, trade (Jobs on the Line); noted policy dilemmas such as redistribution versus retraining.
- December 2009: “worst of the storm had passed” but long-term issues persisted.
The 2010s–2020s: fragmentation, pandemics, war, and new domains
- Political fragmentation and populism:
- 2016 UK vote to leave the EU as a marker of fragmentation; rise of nationalism, protectionism, and antiestablishment movements.
- F&D issues diagnosing hollowing out of middle class (December 2016), secular stagnation debates (March 2017), and Age of Insecurity (December 2018).
- COVID-19 pandemic and response:
- IMF deployed crisis playbook, emergency financing to unprecedented number of countries, record SDR issuance, and the 2022 Resilience and Sustainability Trust as a partial workaround to allocation concerns.
- F&D examined pandemic impacts on economic opportunity, inequality, technology, health, and fiscal praxis; urged using the crisis to “build back a better world” (September 2020).
- Noted “vaccine protectionism” as a divisive outcome.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
- Resulted in refugees, supply-chain disruptions, food and energy shortages, high inflation, and unstable financial markets.
- Reinforced geopolitical fragmentation and US–China rivalry; F&D explored effects on policymaking, energy insecurity, and trade disintegration.
- Expanding editorial scope:
- F&D is covering health, demographics, inequality, digital currency, artificial intelligence, and implications for the economics discipline.
Legacy, evolution, and role going forward
- Enduring purpose:
- From a Bank–Fund newsletter to a forum for debate among the world’s leading experts while keeping readers informed about IMF and World Bank developments.
- Noted foresight:
- F&D has been ahead of the curve on topics such as the environment, the role of women, and the rise of China.
- Editorial milestones and symbolic pieces:
- June 2019 carried a fictional account of John Maynard Keynes visiting the Fund on its 75th anniversary, reflecting continuity of institutional purpose.
- Institutional implication:
- To fulfill its multilateral mission in a shock-prone world, the IMF and its staff need to broaden their analytical lens beyond traditional domains; F&D contributes by delving into interdisciplinary and emerging topics.
Content based on "The Life and Times of Finance & Development" by Anna Postelnyak, June 2024.
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