Lin is chief economist at the World Bank. You will find the forum here and it includes responses by Antoinette Schoer, Ross Levine, Abhijit Banerjee, Luigi Zingales, Mark Thoma, and others. My comment is here. Excerpt:
I can't decide whether I agree with everything in this essay or disagree with everything in this essay.
I
see Mr Lin using the words “should”, “need to”, and phrases like “what
matter most” or “not the way to go”. But who or what is the active
agent here? The country’s home government? The World Bank? When it
comes to all these banking systems, are we simply rooting for
particular paths and outcomes–such as small and simple banks–or is Mr
Lin making policy recommendations about how to get there? We never
know.
Meanwhile, via Kottke, here is the World Cup Stacking Record (recommended).
No idea, but our government spent $18 million to upgrade the website that explains that the stimulus money isn’t being wasted.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/07/18m-being-spent-to-redesign-recoverygov-web-site.html
Maybe we can add a fiscal responsibility website so other countries can learn our mad skills. There should be plenty of bankers looking for work we can send over there.
“basic research on important topics”
Thanks for the cup check.
Eddie,
You’re right about the need for basic research. In the last paragraph of his comment to JL’s column, Tyler says “When it comes to financial reform and growth, each country really is different.” In more than 20 years as an economic adviser, I always started by explaining to my advisee why the particular situation that he wanted to change was different from all other past situations that appeared to be relevant to its analysis. And I remember that all my colleagues at the WB used to have the same approach for advising on any reform, not just financial reform. I have yet to meet a professional adviser that intentionally ignores the “initial conditions” that make a situation what it is, a combination of circumstances at a given moment.
Yeah, In the developing countries the banking is not much affected by the crisis.
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