KB,
    For a non-economist like my humble self, you have clearly made very
impressive thumbnail sketch of the main thrusts of the issues raised.
    Indeed you are spot on when you discerned that I have not exhausted the
issue of "hot money" that is very central to many of the financial meltdowns
of recent memory. However, my lack of exhaustion on the issue is due to my
scepticism and lack clarity on how much control is necessary on these
so-called "hot moneys". Indeed this is the same type of scepticism expressed
by renowned MIT economist Paul Krugman when he wrote: "Well, as long as
countries are wide open to massive movements of hot money--to huge inflows
when the markets like them, then to equally large outflows when confidence is
shaken for some reason--the answer is no. As long as capital flows freely,
nations will be vulnerable to self-fulfilling speculative attacks, and
policymakers will be forced to play the confidence game. And so we come to
the question of whether capital should really be allowed to flow so freely.
Of course it is not easy to limit the international movement of
capital-atleast not without threatening to strangulate international trade as
well."
    But again James Tobin and Gustav Ranis has a suggestion worthy of mention
here. They suggested that:
    "To avoid attracting hot money, a Chile-type tax or special deposit could
be required of inflows. In the longer run, an internationally negotiated tax
on currency transactions might deserve consideration."
    This suggestion could be a starting point towards harnessing most of the
greedy swashbuckling speculators who have wreak so much havoc on financial
systems in recent memory.
    On the whole, I think most of the stuff that the Meltzer Report
recommended would stealthily work towards a very impotent and lackadaisical
Fund and her sister institutions an eventually a conceivable abolition of the
Fund in the name of free trade.
    On the issue of Jammeh, I am afraid I wouldn't buy into any scheme well
meaning as it might sound and be; this idea of the use of force to get rid of
Jammeh if need be. If sceptics like me are now convinced that electorally
Jammeh can be emptied into the dustbin of history, surely you should also go
with the flow. Just check out the public reaction after the 10th. and 11th.
April murder of school kids by Jammeh. The Gambian People are simply
disgusted with this tyranny and are showing signs of it. April 10th. and
11th. might turn out to be just Jammeh's Waterloo.
    I have to go now. Hope you join the peaceful efforts in emptying Jammeh
in the trashbin of history where he deserves to be with his lickspittles.
 Good morning
 Hamjatta Kanteh




hkanteh

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------