The campus community will have a chance this week to learn about the inner workings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from a leading member of the international organization.<\/p>\n
Olivier Blanchard, a native of France who is chief economist and director of research for the IMF, will give a talk on \u201cWhat the IMF Really Does\u201d Friday, Oct. 17, at 4:15 p.m. in Weinstein Auditorium.<\/p>\n
Blanchard, a renowned scholar <\/a>who taught at Harvard University and is the Robert M. Solow professor emeritus of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will deliver the annual economics department lecture at Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n He will describe \u201cwhat the IMF does and how it has changed over time,\u201d said Smith economics professor Roger Kaufman, who has known Blanchard since they were in graduate school together at MIT. \u201cHe\u2019ll also talk about how the IMF decides which economic policies to prescribe for a particular country.\u201d<\/p>\n Those policies are controversial, Kaufman noted, sparking protests by students at Smith\u2014and others around the world \u2014who feel the IMF has become too powerful and too quick to impose austerity measures to end debt crises among its 188 member countries.<\/p>\n Kaufman emphasized that Blanchard is among those who have helped lead the IMF to adopt a more flexible approach.<\/p>\n \u201cOlivier has been a leader in arguing for greater economic stimulus during the recent global financial crisis,\u201d Kaufman said.<\/p>\n Last spring, IMF director Christine Lagarde withdrew as commencement speaker at Smith. A few days later, Kaufman received an email from Blanchard suggesting, \u201cMaybe you should invite me for a talk?\u201d<\/p>\n Kaufman said his department is pleased to be able to do just that on October 17, when Blanchard will speak in Weinstein Auditorium and then take questions from the audience.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that economics students can learn more about how the IMF works and that people who have concerns about the organization can get a meaningful response to those concerns,\u201d Kaufman said.<\/p>\n Blanchard, who has been at the IMF since 2008, \u201cis someone who is committed to applying economics to real-world problems,\u201d Kaufman said.<\/p>\n Another IMF leader will visit Smith on Tuesday, Oct. 28, when Petya Koeva Brooks \u201996, a senior economist in the organization\u2019s European Department, will speak to students enrolled in the Introduction to Global Financial Markets course.<\/p>\n