The International Monetary Fund is always at the epicenter of the globalization debate. During the past few years, the IMF has experienced a public relations roller-coaster ride and has been blamed for just about every rough spot in the global economy. Recently, the waters have seemed to calm a bit. Globalization is not new.
Economic globalization is as old as history a reflection of the human drive to seek new horizons.
Rather than being somehow the architect or promoter of globalization, we really are trying to understand it and, to some extent, be a factor to moderate the downsides of globalization. Whatever we do with crisis management, the most important thing to achieve is sustained growth in the world economy. Ours is the first generation in history that finds itself in the position of being called upon to influence global affairs not from a position of military conquest or imperial power, but through voluntary international cooperation. Globalization is not painless. Economists talk in the abstract about labor moving from low productivity to high productivity uses.