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Rating: 
Summary: IMF revealed!
Review: A very thorough review of the IMF and how it handles a country in financial crisis. It was eye opening to say the least, and quite informative to say the most. Well researched and documented by first person interviewing of IMF and World Bank, as well as geopolitical officials. Read this one, and "Tug Of War", as well as "The Vandals Crown", and you'll come away with a deeper understanding of how the IMF, World Bank, and currency markets really work.
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Summary: Engaging like a James Bond movie
Review: Enter the world of high international finance. Mr. Blustein has managed to present an extremely readable (fun, dramatic, engaging) account of the tragic economic crises that are now called the "first of the XXI century".Not only will you learn the economic details of the crises in Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil and Long-Term Capital Management. You will also find yourself in the rooms where IMF staff negotiated with authorities. You will take a glimpse at the halls of the Treasury and the Fed, where Rubin, Greenspan and Co., proved their genius as policymakers. You will be humbled by the ferocity of international capital and about "how close we where". Still the great lesson is that we need not oppose globalization to build a better future. Rather you will fell as having read the first steps of a new world which we are only beggining to understand. Hence the need to understand what happened to build a stronger international financial architecture with stronger institutions.
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Summary: The Chastening by Paul Blustein
Review: Here's an amazingly well written book on an obtuse subject (the IMF and the economics of currencies) that tells a compelling story of the attempts to deal with the contagion crises in the late 90's. The book is very non-idelogical as it demonstrates the best efforts made by the IMF, World Bank, US Treasury & Fed, as well as the Central Banks of Europe and Japan to deal with the appearence of currency runs as they struck various developing nations. While the book is not hawking a political slant, it is very honest about the fact that the IMF's solutions were at best partly successful. It addresses the very real concern that attempts to bail out countries in crises is really bailing Wall Street investors who took foolish risks with taxpayer money. For a subject that has little coverage outside of technical studies this is a very good book.
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Summary: Engaging like a James Bond movie
Review: I read this book after reading Dr. Stiglitz criticism on the IMF. Actually, Stiglitz quotes him. Contrary to Stiglitz', Mr. Blustein's book reads fast, makes some of the same criticism Stiglitz does but one does not feel he has an ax to grind. If you want to read a good book on the Asian financial crisis and Russia's default on its own ruble debt, this is the book for you. Very informative and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: The Chastening by Paul Blustein
Review: One of the best book ever written. Insightful, clever, informative, articulate, sometimes even humorious. Mr. Blustein fully grasp the human psychology as well as how the IMF functions. It is great book for people from all background, its easy to read and absorb. He explains all concept carefully and often using analogy to make them easy to understand. I learned more from this book than my summer research on IMF as well as all other books and articles written on IMF and their policies. One of the BEST book I ever read. A+++
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Summary: The authoritative book on the Asian Crisis of 1997
Review: Paul Blustein weaves a tale of incompetent IMF officials, reckless Asian governments, and wild-eyed currency speculators. The result is a book that is eminently readable, but at the same time doesn't skimp on in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of the crisis.
The description of currency regimes is nuanced, but not too arcane as to be forbidding to the unitiated. Moreover, the potential solutions presented in the final chapter are credible, unlike the boilerplate calls for more regulation found in other books of this type.
In my view, this is the most authoritative book yet on the Asian Crisis of 1997.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: This book did a great job of covering the pure factual information regarding the failure of the IMF. However, its main weak point comes in the fact that, despite recounting the events surrounding the Asian crisis, it does not contain enough information that is new and never-before told. When I read a book on world economic issues, I expect to learn a variety of new opinions and little-known facts, and Blustein did not do enough of this. The book was not an eye-opener to the workings of the IMF, and this was a huge dissapointment as far as I am concerned. I actually fell asleep midway through due to the monontonous meanderings of Blustein's antics, and I would suggest getting it out of the library before even considering adding it to your collection. I really expected more from it, and was struck by just how uninspiring it was.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs a Little More
Review: This book did a great job of covering the pure factual information regarding the failure of the IMF. However, its main weak point comes in the fact that, despite recounting the events surrounding the Asian crisis, it does not contain enough information that is new and never-before told. When I read a book on world economic issues, I expect to learn a variety of new opinions and little-known facts, and Blustein did not do enough of this. The book was not an eye-opener to the workings of the IMF, and this was a huge dissapointment as far as I am concerned. I actually fell asleep midway through due to the monontonous meanderings of Blustein's antics, and I would suggest getting it out of the library before even considering adding it to your collection. I really expected more from it, and was struck by just how uninspiring it was.
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Summary: Top Notch Economic Journalism
Review: This is a superb journalistic account of the financial crises that rocked Asia, Russia, and Brazil in 1997-98. It has enough journalism to be an exciting read, and enough economics to inform readers about modern international finance. It's hard to put down -- which is something that can be said about very few books dealing with the IMF. There are two schools of thought about the crises of the late 1990s. One school -- call it the Markets-Don't-Err school -- blames poor economic management in the stricken countries. In this view, investors lost confidence in emerging markets after government deficits put downward pressure on exchange rates and poor banking practices led to corporate overindebtedness. The second school -- call it the Markets-as-Herd school -- blames the dynamics of international capital itself. Investors, having recklessly plowed money into emerging markets in the early 1990s, got cold feet when Thailand's currency collapsed in 1997. They then stampeded to liquidate their positions in other emerging-market currencies, punishing countries willy-nilly regardless of their underlying economic fundamentals. It's a measure of the book's success that members of both schools can find evidence to support their position. My only complaint -- not serious enough to give the book less than 5 stars -- is the patchy quality of the narrative. Malaysia is barely mentioned at all, for example. I suspect this is because sections of the book were recycled from Washington Post articles.
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Summary: better than Woodward or Friedman
Review: This superb book should become the standard popular reference on the International Monetary Fund and the financial crises that swept the globe in 1997-98. Paul Blustein has a background in economics and first-hand experience in Asia where the crises originated. The book is well documented: Blustein conducted hundreds of interviews (unlike his Washington Post colleague Woodward, he actually names his sources) and is familiar with the academic literature on the subject. Indeed, this entertaining book does a marvelous job of explaining the substantive economic issues while at the same time conveying the very human disorder of crisis management as practiced during these episodes. It is less doctrinaire than Friedman's cheerleading for globalization in "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" and is far better informed on economic policy making than Woodward's "Maestro." (Simply compare Blustein's highly informative descriptions of the Korean and Long Term Capital Management crises with the complete hash of the same episodes that Woodward produced in "Maestro.") Highly recommended.
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