May 2005

Kunibert Raffer

Dear Julia,
Dear Walden,

Thanks for your mail.
.I am very glad to see that we agree, and that my guess about my possibly misreading your phrasing was correct. I would see things differently if a weak proposal improving the lot of debtors would have been killed - then I might formulate as you did.

The SDRM would, however, have deteriorated the position of debtors on top of being inefficient (which I believe accounted for much of Wall Street resistance agianst what Ann and I called, I believe, a new multilateral Brady Plan or so) as far a finding solutions is concerned. Especially the idea that the IMF might "sanction" developing countries makes my hair stand up straight. So far the IMF has no such authority.

I am glad about your intention of making your point clearer, and I thank you for your thoughtful reaction. All the best for your very valuable work, which I have always followed with a great deal of interest.

Best regards

Kuni

Kunibert Raffer