Publication

This paper examines three major developments that affected the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 2005 and 2009 and shed light on the controversies that flared over the Fund's role in the eurozone crisis. These include: 1) the struggle the IMF went through to justify its existence during the seemingly crisis free economic environment prior to the global financial crisis; 2) the failure of the IMF to perceive or raise sufficient alarm about forces that would eventually trigger the crisis; and 3) the Fund being relegated for the first time to the status of “junior partner” when the crisis erupted in Latvia.