But Greenspan, German Bundesbank president Hans Tietmeyer and Bank of England governor Eddie George have all squelched the idea. IMF-style financial packages have become harder to put together as well. The fading credibility of its policies aside, the Fund is running dangerously low on money. And revelations from Russia that billions in previous IMF and World Bank funds were misused or stolen make fresh funding less likely. That would lift market sentiment and, by removing Brazil from the immediate critical list, help ward off further turmoil in U.S. financial markets.
Analysts say the speed and virulence of the contagion have stunned markets and policymakers.
Talk is even growing of a crisis in global capitalism. Even so, the world is probably safe for some time. Russell Jones, chief economist at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, says that while Asia itself verges on depression, the world will not suffer a 1930s-type collapse without huge and unlikely policy errors in the U.S. and Europe. That offers scant comfort to Asia and other beleaguered regions. But the avoidance of a full-blown recession is basically taken out of the pound of flesh of the developing world.