The Effect of Cliques on High School Students Essay -- Essays Papers

The Effect of Cliques on High School Students Most college freshman can still vividly remember their high school days. These days included ruling the school as seniors, or running from the seniors as lowly ninth graders. These days included having lunch with friends, and gossiping in the hallways between classes. Whatever was done, it was usually done with a friend or a group of friends. Most of these groups can be considered cliques. Cliques are groups where there is some kind of common factor among all members, whether everyone is a cheerleader, or everyone is in the chess club. These cliques have their own unique way of doing things: their own table to sit at during lunch, their own desks in a classroom, and their own parking places in the lot. Most cliques also have another group of people that they look down upon: the cheerleaders don’t like the chess club, and the band members don’t like the FFA (Future Farmers of America) guys. Each club has its own label as well: football jock, band geek, drama fairy (The Cliques, 1 Dec. 2001). These labels, as well as the constant name calling and degrading remarks about others not in the group, are to blame for constant fighting between cliques. The fact that some groups hate others so much has left a permanent affect on some high school students, scaring them and leaving them unable to function in society because of the way they were treated in sch ool, just because of what they did or didn’t like. Being a high school student isn’t easy. The classes can be rough, teachers have a reputation of being mean or nice or mean to some and nice to others, and all the while, there’s the question of a girlfriend or boyfriend, who’s having a party tonight, what should be worn, and so on and so on. Adding on the pressure of having to be involved in the right group, and it starts to become stressful. Because if a student isn’t in the right group; then there is nothing to live for. Of course, this is a little over exaggerated, but this is what high school students have to put up with. There is the constant peer pressure to fit in, to be part of the crowd, up until the point where it is almost impossible to be an individual. This is what cliques have done to high schools (Surviving School, 27 October, 2001). They have turned them into places where designer labels rule, and those that don’t fit in, whe... ...cliques re-think their total control of the school. The influence of a clique should be challenged every once in a while (Surviving School, 27 October, 2001). The world of cliques is a dangerous and confusing one. There are good groups of course, groups that help out around the community, or the school, or give some kind of entertainment to others. But for the most part, the average stuck up clique can be dangerous if they are crossed. High school students have enough to worry about, and the clique is just an added burden. Cliques are as much a part of high school as is the English department, but something should be done to make sure they don’t ruin the lives of the innocent who are just a little bit different than those that are part of the group. Works Cited Surviving School. 30 August, 2000. 27, October, 2001. http://www.surviveschool.com. chaotic_2. The Cliques. 18 July, 2000. 2 December, 2001. http://www.expage.com/page/loner3cliques. Marquette General Hospital's Women's & Children's Center. Cliques Power and Pain. Spring 1998. Marquette General Hospital. 26 October, 2001. http://www.mgh.org/wcc/teensite/adults/articles/cliques.html

Compare Contrast Perfect Compettiton Essay

A market is any place where the sellers of a particular good or service can meet with the buyers of that goods and service where there is a potential for a transaction to take place. The buyers must have something they can offer in exchange for there to be a potential transaction. Market structure: Market structure refers to the factors, such as size of the market, technological, cost and demand conditions and the barriers to entry and exit, that would affect the effectiveness of managerial decisions. We can also consider the market structure as describing the state of the market with respect to competition. Market structures Monopoly Perfect competition Imperfect competition Monopolistic competition c Oligopoly Overview: Perfect competition is a theoretical market structure. It is primarily used as a benchmark against which other market structures are  compared. The industry  that best reflects perfect competition in real life is the agricultural industry. For example , As there are millions of farmers who would produce rice & there are millions of consumers who would consume rice. In this case not a single buyer or seller could influence the price of rice. Perfect competition is a competitive market. Economist uses the term† competitive market â€Å"to describe a market in which there are so many buyers & so many sellers that each has a negligible impact on the market price. Characteristics of perfectly competitive market- 1. Large number of buyers & sellers: In perfect competition, there must be large number of buyers and sellers. Each buyer buys a small quantity of the total amount. Each seller is so large that no single buyer or seller can influence the price and affect the market. According to Scitovsky buyers and sellers are price takers in the purely competitive market. Each seller (or firm) sells its products at the price determined by the market. Similarly, each buyer buys the commodity at the price determined by the market. 2. Homogeneous product: Under perfect competition, the product offered for sale by all sellers must be identical in every respect. The goods offered for sale are perfect substitutes of one another. Buyers have no special preference for the product of a particular seller. No seller can raise the price above the prevailing price or lower the price below the prevailing price. 3. Free entry and exit: Under perfect competition, there will be no restriction on the entry and exit of both buyers and sellers. If the existing sellers start making abnormal profits, new sellers should be able to enter the market freely. This will bring down the abnormal profits to the normal level. Similarly, when losses will occur existing sellers may leave the market. However, such free entry or free exit is possible only in the long run, but not in the short-run. 4. Perfect knowledge: Perfect competition implies perfect knowledge on the part of buyers and sellers regarding the market conditions. As results, no buyer will be prepared to pay a price higher than the prevailing price. Sellers will not charge a price higher or lower than the prevailing price. In this market, advertisement has no scope. 5. Perfect mobility of factors of production: The second perfection mobility of factors of production from one use to another use. This feature ensures that all sellers or firms get equal advantages so far as services of factors of production are concerned. This is essential to enable the firms and industry to achieve equilibrium 6. Absence of transport cost: Under perfect competition transport, cost does not exist. Since commodities have, the same price it logically follows that there will be no transport cost. In the event of the presence of cost of transport, there will be no single price in the market. Transport cost occurs when there is no perfect knowledge of the market conditions on the part of buyers and sellers. . No attachment: There is no attachment between the buyers and sellers under perfect competition. Since products of all sellers are identical and their prices are the same a buyer is free to buy the commodity from any seller he likes. He has no special inclination for the product of any seller as in case of monopolistic competition or oligopoly. Theoretically, perfect competition is irrelevant. In reality, it does not exist. So it is a myth Profit maximization for a competitive firm: The goal of any competitive firm is to make profit. Three general rules for profit maximization under perfect competition are stated as follows: -If the marginal revenue is greater then marginal cost the firm should increase the output -If marginal cost is greater then greater then marginal cost the firm should decrease output -At profit maximizing level of output, marginal revenue & marginal cost are exactly same Example: Profit maximization for a perfectly competitive market.

One flew over the cuckoos nest

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the director refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratchet and McCarthy, the movie explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Forman makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: different situations patients overcome, human dignity, and the pressures we face from society to conform.Through these points, Forman encourages the viewer to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the viewer realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as â€Å"crazy. † Nurse Ratchet Is notorious for her desire to exercise complete control over the men who are under her Jurisdiction on the psych ward, both as patients and as employees. In doing so, Nurse Ratchet becomes a metaphor for the entir e mental institution, the government, society at large or any and every powerful institution that exists to regulate, control, and categorize groups of people.The institutions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest claim that they categorize the patients as insane in order to â€Å"treat† and â€Å"rehabilitate† them. But it quickly becomes clear in the novel that this rehabilitation is more controlling than it is helpful for any mental ailment: the shock treatment table, the red pills that cause memory loss, the daily meetings that pit men against each other, and the list on Nurse Ratchet's desk to record and reward the men for betraying each other's secrets are all ways to force people to obey, not to sake them well.There Is no recreation outdoors. There Is little exposure to the outside world. All stateless and therapy sessions are scheduled with precision, and to deviate from that schedule is to be a nuisance to Nurse Ratchet. This is exactly as Nurse Ratchet prefers i t to be, because she can strip the humanity of her patients in order to be in complete control and run her ward like a machine. The hospital, Just like society, suppresses the individuality of the patients by gaining control of their lives and forcing them to conform.In the movie, the mental hospital is metaphor for the oppression Forman sees in modern society. Through Chief, we see how his way of interpreting the world emphasizes the oppressive social pressure to conform. He sees modern society as a machinelike, oppressive force and the hospital as a repair shop from the people who do not fit Into their role as cogs in the machine. Those who do not conform to society's rules and conventions are considered defective products and are labeled mentally Ill and sent for treatment. In the movie, the hospital is portrayed as a dangerous place.The patients Charlie Seasick, Chief, gettable. He sees Nurse Ratchet as a â€Å"watchful robot, mechanically controlling the ward†. The hospi tal is not about healing, but about dehumidifying and manipulating the patients until they are weak and willing to conform. Another way in which this is done is through the nurses' need to keep the patients medicated. McCarthy, the protagonist, battles against letting the oppressive society make him into a machinelike drone. He manages to maintain his individuality until his ultimate objective- bringing his individuality to others- is complete.However, when his oldness is provoked one too many times by Nurse Ratchet, he ends up being destroyed by modern society's machines of oppression. Through the points Forman is making in the movie, we begin to see the different situations in which the patients struggle to overcome. Whether insane or not, the hospital is undeniably in control of the fates of its patients. Through the points Forman is making in the movie about the hospital's ways of gaining control of the patients, we see how this parallels with the ways in which society gains con trol over individuals.Musher's character is essential to the novel because he battles against the oppressive society, and holds characteristics that clash with ward- representing sexuality, freedom, and self-determination. Throughout the movie, the sane actions of men collides with the insane actions of the institution. Through Chief, the movie establishes that McCarthy is not, in fact, crazy, but rather that he is trying to manipulate the system to his advantage. Musher's trajectory through the novel is the opposite of Chief's: he starts out sane and powerful but ends up a helpless vegetable, having sacrificed himself for the benefit of all the patients.Even though Bromide's comparisons of the hospital with machinery may seem â€Å"crazy† to readers at the beginning of the movie, they actually reveal his insight into the hospital's large power over the patients. In Mills Formant's One Flew over the Cuckoo's NestÃ'› the movie explores the themes of individuality and rebelli on against conformity. Forman makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points again are these different situations patients overcome, human dignity, and the pressures we face from society to conform.The director notes that Nurse is eke a â€Å"motor pulling too big a load,† hinting at the fact that society cannot contain all of its hidden secrets. Any attempt would overload the system with the amount of people known as â€Å"unstable† and would cause this motor to explode under the pressure. But the point remains that modern society needs no such thing. Instead, individuality and diversity should be embraced, since globalization and the melting pots that cities have become threaten the variety of people that was once so common. People can only learn from diversity and allow the society prospers with fair opportunity for all. One flew over the cuckoos nest One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the director refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratchet and McCarthy, the movie explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Forman makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: different situations patients overcome, human dignity, and the pressures we face from society to conform.Through these points, Forman encourages the viewer to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the viewer realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as â€Å"crazy. † Nurse Ratchet Is notorious for her desire to exercise complete control over the men who are under her Jurisdiction on the psych ward, both as patients and as employees. In doing so, Nurse Ratchet becomes a metaphor for the entir e mental institution, the government, society at large or any and every powerful institution that exists to regulate, control, and categorize groups of people.The institutions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest claim that they categorize the patients as insane in order to â€Å"treat† and â€Å"rehabilitate† them. But it quickly becomes clear in the novel that this rehabilitation is more controlling than it is helpful for any mental ailment: the shock treatment table, the red pills that cause memory loss, the daily meetings that pit men against each other, and the list on Nurse Ratchet's desk to record and reward the men for betraying each other's secrets are all ways to force people to obey, not to sake them well.There Is no recreation outdoors. There Is little exposure to the outside world. All stateless and therapy sessions are scheduled with precision, and to deviate from that schedule is to be a nuisance to Nurse Ratchet. This is exactly as Nurse Ratchet prefers i t to be, because she can strip the humanity of her patients in order to be in complete control and run her ward like a machine. The hospital, Just like society, suppresses the individuality of the patients by gaining control of their lives and forcing them to conform.In the movie, the mental hospital is metaphor for the oppression Forman sees in modern society. Through Chief, we see how his way of interpreting the world emphasizes the oppressive social pressure to conform. He sees modern society as a machinelike, oppressive force and the hospital as a repair shop from the people who do not fit Into their role as cogs in the machine. Those who do not conform to society's rules and conventions are considered defective products and are labeled mentally Ill and sent for treatment. In the movie, the hospital is portrayed as a dangerous place.The patients Charlie Seasick, Chief, gettable. He sees Nurse Ratchet as a â€Å"watchful robot, mechanically controlling the ward†. The hospi tal is not about healing, but about dehumidifying and manipulating the patients until they are weak and willing to conform. Another way in which this is done is through the nurses' need to keep the patients medicated. McCarthy, the protagonist, battles against letting the oppressive society make him into a machinelike drone. He manages to maintain his individuality until his ultimate objective- bringing his individuality to others- is complete.However, when his oldness is provoked one too many times by Nurse Ratchet, he ends up being destroyed by modern society's machines of oppression. Through the points Forman is making in the movie, we begin to see the different situations in which the patients struggle to overcome. Whether insane or not, the hospital is undeniably in control of the fates of its patients. Through the points Forman is making in the movie about the hospital's ways of gaining control of the patients, we see how this parallels with the ways in which society gains con trol over individuals.Musher's character is essential to the novel because he battles against the oppressive society, and holds characteristics that clash with ward- representing sexuality, freedom, and self-determination. Throughout the movie, the sane actions of men collides with the insane actions of the institution. Through Chief, the movie establishes that McCarthy is not, in fact, crazy, but rather that he is trying to manipulate the system to his advantage. Musher's trajectory through the novel is the opposite of Chief's: he starts out sane and powerful but ends up a helpless vegetable, having sacrificed himself for the benefit of all the patients.Even though Bromide's comparisons of the hospital with machinery may seem â€Å"crazy† to readers at the beginning of the movie, they actually reveal his insight into the hospital's large power over the patients. In Mills Formant's One Flew over the Cuckoo's NestÃ'› the movie explores the themes of individuality and rebelli on against conformity. Forman makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points again are these different situations patients overcome, human dignity, and the pressures we face from society to conform.The director notes that Nurse is eke a â€Å"motor pulling too big a load,† hinting at the fact that society cannot contain all of its hidden secrets. Any attempt would overload the system with the amount of people known as â€Å"unstable† and would cause this motor to explode under the pressure. But the point remains that modern society needs no such thing. Instead, individuality and diversity should be embraced, since globalization and the melting pots that cities have become threaten the variety of people that was once so common. People can only learn from diversity and allow the society prospers with fair opportunity for all. One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest In Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, society consideres the patients as insane individuals with only the hopes of being treated. Dale Harding, one of the acutes, stated â€Å"Never before did I realiz that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become†, by this Harding realizes that mental illness has the power to bring fear, and the power to manipulate people. Due to their mental illnesses, both characters, Chief Bromden and Billy Bibbit, appear to be weak and powerless. However both have the aspect of true power, and with that their potential for freedom is greater. Chief Bromden uses the power of silence to his advantage. Everyone on the ward thinks that he is deaf and dumb, however, their perception on the Cheif is wrong, because of what happenes in the novel’s end. Chief Bromden is a very large man who unfortunetly thinks of himself as being miniscule. His silece provides positive effects; he is able to hear everything that goes on in the meetings where the doctors and nurses discuss the future of the patients. The doctors and nurses don’t think that Chief Bromden can hear what they are saying, so therefor they don’t hesitate to say anything in front of him. â€Å"They don’t bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when I’m nearby because they think I’m deaf and dumb†(10). This is very beneficial because Chief Bromden knows what takes place in the ward, and knows what it takes to survive. Although he appears powerless, he actually has a lot of power because of all the knowledge he’s gained through observation and listening in on conversations. Chief states that the world is like a great big machine, Combine, and everybody is just part of that machine. The parts that are broken are sent to this hospital to be â€Å"fixed† again – to be wired back into this machine. He doesn’t want to be part of it, and hides in the fog. He resists it and part of the resistance is pretending to be deaf and speechless. He describes the Big Nurse in machine, â€Å"she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load†¦. her gestures are] precise, automatic [and] her face is smooth, calculated, and precision-made. † (p. 5). Eventually, Chief shows that he can speak and hear perfectly. He tries to protect McMurphy by explaining how the system works based on what he has observed. He tells McMurphy that the nurse will go to prevent McMurphy from gaining power. But, McMurphy is too confident. Chief tries to protect McMurphy again wh en he gets into a fight with the black boys. And he tries to protect McMurphy again when they go to the disturbed ward and are subjected to electroshock therapy; the only ways of keeping the asylum patients controlled. When McMurphy finally returns to the ward as a vegetable, Chief frees him from the physical pain of his body and sofocates him with a pillow. Because of McMurphy, Chief finally has the true power and courage to break free from the hospital through a window after breaking it the way McMurphy trained him to do so. Ironically, the Cheif's insanity allowed him to attain a power beyond his limits; a power that gave him freedom and allowed him to escape the crazy world in the hospital. One flew over the cuckoos nest One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the director refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratchet and McCarthy, the movie explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Forman makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: different situations patients overcome, human dignity, and the pressures we face from society to conform.Through these points, Forman encourages the viewer to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the viewer realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as â€Å"crazy. † Nurse Ratchet Is notorious for her desire to exercise complete control over the men who are under her Jurisdiction on the psych ward, both as patients and as employees. In doing so, Nurse Ratchet becomes a metaphor for the entir e mental institution, the government, society at large or any and every powerful institution that exists to regulate, control, and categorize groups of people.The institutions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest claim that they categorize the patients as insane in order to â€Å"treat† and â€Å"rehabilitate† them. But it quickly becomes clear in the novel that this rehabilitation is more controlling than it is helpful for any mental ailment: the shock treatment table, the red pills that cause memory loss, the daily meetings that pit men against each other, and the list on Nurse Ratchet's desk to record and reward the men for betraying each other's secrets are all ways to force people to obey, not to sake them well.There Is no recreation outdoors. There Is little exposure to the outside world. All stateless and therapy sessions are scheduled with precision, and to deviate from that schedule is to be a nuisance to Nurse Ratchet. This is exactly as Nurse Ratchet prefers i t to be, because she can strip the humanity of her patients in order to be in complete control and run her ward like a machine. The hospital, Just like society, suppresses the individuality of the patients by gaining control of their lives and forcing them to conform.In the movie, the mental hospital is metaphor for the oppression Forman sees in modern society. Through Chief, we see how his way of interpreting the world emphasizes the oppressive social pressure to conform. He sees modern society as a machinelike, oppressive force and the hospital as a repair shop from the people who do not fit Into their role as cogs in the machine. Those who do not conform to society's rules and conventions are considered defective products and are labeled mentally Ill and sent for treatment. In the movie, the hospital is portrayed as a dangerous place.The patients Charlie Seasick, Chief, gettable. He sees Nurse Ratchet as a â€Å"watchful robot, mechanically controlling the ward†. The hospi tal is not about healing, but about dehumidifying and manipulating the patients until they are weak and willing to conform. Another way in which this is done is through the nurses' need to keep the patients medicated. McCarthy, the protagonist, battles against letting the oppressive society make him into a machinelike drone. He manages to maintain his individuality until his ultimate objective- bringing his individuality to others- is complete.However, when his oldness is provoked one too many times by Nurse Ratchet, he ends up being destroyed by modern society's machines of oppression. Through the points Forman is making in the movie, we begin to see the different situations in which the patients struggle to overcome. Whether insane or not, the hospital is undeniably in control of the fates of its patients. Through the points Forman is making in the movie about the hospital's ways of gaining control of the patients, we see how this parallels with the ways in which society gains con trol over individuals.Musher's character is essential to the novel because he battles against the oppressive society, and holds characteristics that clash with ward- representing sexuality, freedom, and self-determination. Throughout the movie, the sane actions of men collides with the insane actions of the institution. Through Chief, the movie establishes that McCarthy is not, in fact, crazy, but rather that he is trying to manipulate the system to his advantage. Musher's trajectory through the novel is the opposite of Chief's: he starts out sane and powerful but ends up a helpless vegetable, having sacrificed himself for the benefit of all the patients.Even though Bromide's comparisons of the hospital with machinery may seem â€Å"crazy† to readers at the beginning of the movie, they actually reveal his insight into the hospital's large power over the patients. In Mills Formant's One Flew over the Cuckoo's NestÃ'› the movie explores the themes of individuality and rebelli on against conformity. Forman makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points again are these different situations patients overcome, human dignity, and the pressures we face from society to conform.The director notes that Nurse is eke a â€Å"motor pulling too big a load,† hinting at the fact that society cannot contain all of its hidden secrets. Any attempt would overload the system with the amount of people known as â€Å"unstable† and would cause this motor to explode under the pressure. But the point remains that modern society needs no such thing. Instead, individuality and diversity should be embraced, since globalization and the melting pots that cities have become threaten the variety of people that was once so common. People can only learn from diversity and allow the society prospers with fair opportunity for all.

Criticisms of IMF

â€Å"The fund believes it is fulfilling the tasks assigned to it: promoting global stability, helping developing countries in transition achieve not only stability but also growth. † â€Å"I believe, however, that it has failed in its mission, that the failures are not just accidental but the consequences of how it has understood its mission. † This is what Stiglitz states in his book, and is also his platform on how he feels about the International Monetary Fund. He believes that the IMF has a narrow view stating that â€Å"what the financial community views as good for the global economy is good for the global economy and should be done†.Stiglitz criticizes that the IMF has done great damage to the countries wherein they prescribe economic policies that must be followed in order to qualify for an IMF loan, or for loans from banks and other private-sector lenders that look to the IMF to indicate whether a borrower is creditworthy. Stiglitz argues that the Inter national Monetary Fund and its officials have ignored the ramifications of having incomplete information, inadequate markets, and unworkable situations, all of which are particularly present characteristics of newly developing countries.Stiglitz states that the International Monetary Fund called for policies that conform to logical textbook economics, however, they do not make sense to the country that the policies are going towards to provide relief. â€Å"Stiglitz seeks to show that the consequences of these misguided policies have been disastrous, not just according to abstract statistical measures but in real human suffering, in the countries that have followed the. † (Stiglitz, 2003).The most traditional and perhaps best-known IMF policy recommendation is for a country to cut government spending or raise taxes. Either one of these actions, or both would be used to balance a country’s budget and eliminate the need for government borrowing. Most people believe that a lot of government spending is wasteful anyway. Stiglitz accuses the IMF for reverting to Herbert Hoover's economics in imposing these policies on countries during deep recessions.The deficit, at this time, is mostly the result of a stimulated decline in revenues. Stiglitz argues that cuts in spending or tax hikes only make the downturn worse. He also emphasizes the social cost of cutting back on various kinds of government programs, such as eliminating food subsidies for the poor, which Indonesia did at the IMF's request in 1998, only to be engulfed by food riots. Another standard IMF recommendation is high interest rates, which make deposits and other assets denominated in the currency more attractive to hold.Most countries go to the IMF because they find themselves having trouble maintaining the exchange value of their currencies. Stiglitz argues that the high interest rates imposed on many countries by the IMF have made their economic downward spirals even worse. Countries are intended to battle inflation that was not a serious problem to begin with. â€Å"Stiglitz repeatedly claims that the IMF's policies stem not from economic analysis and observation but from ideology—specifically, an ideological commitment to free markets and a concomitant antipathy to government.† In part, Stiglitz complaint is that the International Monetary Fund did not understand or even try to understand, his and other economists' theoretical work depicting that markets that are pretty much unregulated do not necessarily deliver positive results when information or market structures are incomplete (Stiglitz, 2003). A country that currently has loans from the International Monetary Fund is the country of Venezuela. Venezuela first negotiated an economic program with the International Monetary Fund in the year of 1989. In the mid 1970s, oil prices soared and seemed unstoppable.Venezuela is a country very rich in oil, so at this time, they accumulated a lot of money fr om oil revenues, but also from loans from international banks. The government then used this money to expand state-owned industries, however, the government ended up supporting the least efficient enterprises, which came to rely on government credits and direct subsidies. Government investments were fruitless from 1974 – 1989. As government expenses continued to increase, the gross domestic product grew very little as a ratio of the government expenditures.The excess amount of money supply, created by government spending, raised the price index by a factor of 15, interest rates 3. 7 times and the devaluation of the national currency by a factor of 10, all happening during the same period. In addition to all of this, Venezuela’s foreign debt increased to a record level of $33 billion and their payments could not be honored. Venezuela undertook negotiations with the IMF when they were under all of this pressure from the decreasing oil prices and the rapidly rising intere st rates on their immense foreign debt.They had tried to borrow money to finance some of their debt; however, the international markets had been apprehensive for Venezuela had refused to work with the IMF. Venezuela had first turned to American banks for proposed financing because it did not want to agree with an economic program with the International Monetary Fund. The International Monetary Fund cleared a loan of about $453 million to the country of Venezuela. Officials declared the loan as a first installment of what is expected to be a credit package that may total as much as $4.6 billion from the international agency to support Venezuela’s economic reform program over the next three years. They believe that Venezuela’s economic adjustment program should â€Å"encourage a substantial reflow of private capital† to the South American country. The planned economic reforms were aimed at freeing and unifying Venezuela’s foreign exchange rates, deregulatin g interest rates and opening the country’s economy to foreign trade by removing quotas and tariffs. The austerity program is the price that Venezuela had to pay for the aid in financing from the IMF.Domestic interest rates were allowed to rise substantially and the government had cut several important subsidies as part of a proposed economic program with the IMF. Since Venezuela agreed on an economic program with the IMF, commercial bankers seem a lot more ready to compromise with them. The IMF reform program included many policies. As a result â€Å"The per capita gross domestic product fell almost 8% from 1989 to 1993; the inflation index rose almost 10 fold; the outstanding foreign debt increased by $5 billion and the banking crisis that burst out in 1994 erased 10% of the GNP and $6 billion of the country’s international reserves.† What the Venezuelan government basically did was sign an agreement that led to a transfer of money from private sectors to the à ¢â‚¬Å"pockets of the wasteful government†. The government attempted to balance its accounts through its citizens, by increasing the taxes and increasing the interest rates. Little attention was given to increasing the productive capacity of the nation, but was all focused on the fiscal demands of the state. In recent years, Venezuela's economy has gone from bad to worse. Its deterioration corresponded with the implementation of policies recommended by the International Monetary Fund.Venezuela has gone through two IMF aid packages beginning in 1989. Since the implementation of the most recent package in 1996, Venezuela’s interest rates have more than doubled to 68 percent annually. The national currency, the Bolivar, has been devalued by 94 percent, accumulated inflation has reached 218 percent and production output has stalled. Capital flight has exhausted more than $2 billion from Venezuela’s international reserves, which are much lower now, than they were befor e the International Monetary Fund package was signed.The fiscal deficit has been declared unmanageable and Venezuela’s stock market is down more than 50 percent. This downward spiral was the result of the tax increases, devaluation, few privatizations and public service rate hikes in the 1996 IMF package. The repeated devaluations have increased costs to the private sector and ignited inflation. The IMF also allowed the government to delay reforms of ineffectual state hospitals and public schools. In the case of the country of Venezuela, Stiglitz’s criticisms of the IMF do apply.The IMF’s policies do not take into account the economic and social circumstances that currently exist in the country where it is applied to. As per usual, the International Monetary Fund used its traditional methods on Venezuela. Increase taxes, and have higher interest rates. The positive effects of any loan obtained from the IMF or other financial institutes are useless because of the collection of interest and the rising interest rates. For developing countries such as Venezuela, the benefits from an agreement with the IMF cannot be seen for the large burden of clearing away their large foreign debt blocks their view.The IMF did not take into consideration the social implications that would be caused when such harsh adjustment measures are put into operation. The poor are always the most affected. Their frustration was seen in Venezuela, as outbreaks of violence. The Venezuelan currency kept being devalued constantly therefore workers had to pay more for their essential needs, as their wages began to decline. The unemployment rate would then rise and that is why it is no surprise to why the people of Venezuela turned to violence. When bitterness and despair take hold, sometimes violence may be the only way to be heard.It becomes imperative in times like this to have concrete negotiations on a debt plan to achieve a substantial reduction in debt and in interest payments. While losing many of its systemic functions, the Fund’s operations during the 1980s became dominated by dealing with the debt difficulties faced by a relatively small group of highly indebted developing countries. All the Fund’s lending was to developing countries, and the majority of it was to the highly indebted countries, even though the majority of programmes remained with low-income countries.The Fund frequently became depicted as a development agency offering concessional assistance to developing countries. Even some of its staff bemoaned what they saw as the loss of its monetary characteristics and consequently much of its financial reputation (Finch, 1988). The least subtle criticisms of this type tended to use the phrase ‘development agency’ almost as a term of abuse. What the Fund was doing was perceived as being bad in and of itself. The more subtle criticism was that the Fund had largely been pushed by political pressure into lowering its own financial standards.The criticism here was not so much that development assistance is inappropriate, but rather that the IMF is an inappropriate institution through which to give it. This argument sees it as important to retain the revolving character of Fund resources, as well as the Fund’s short-term monetary perspective—features, so it is claimed, that will be lost if the Fund is forced to lend over the long term on the basis of unviable programmes and unachievable targets. The plea has been strongly articulated to ‘let the IMF be the IMF’ (Finch, 1988).An extension of this argument is that unsuccessful programmes will damage the reputation and credibility of the Fund and adversely affect its catalytic role. The claim that financial standards have been sacrificed is intimately related to the debt crisis. In essence, it is that the governments of countries where the private banks are located, and in particular the United States, encouraged the F und to lend to the highly indebted countries in order to reduce the probability of default. In the early years of the debt crisis, the argument could be made that such action was sustaining the stability of the international banking system.But as the banks themselves adjusted to the crisis by reducing their exposure, strengthening their capital adequacy, provisioning, and expanding other lines of business, this systemic argument for lending by the IMF disappeared. Even critics who approach the issue from a rather different angle, having more in common with the ‘traditional’ criticisms of Fund conditionality, have concluded that the main beneficiaries of Fund lending to highly indebted developing countries during the 1980s were the international banks.Simply put, the claim is that it was positive net transfers from the Fund that financed negative net transfers with the banks. This is a claim that is at least superficially consistent with the evidence at aggregate level, but it is not an interpretation that finds ready acceptance—publicly at least—inside the Fund, where the accusation that it had bailed out the banks has been, often staunchly, rejected. Yet the criticism that the Fund failed in its dealings with the highly indebted countries during the 1980s has more dimensions to it than this.First, there is the argument that, along with others, the Fund misinterpreted the very nature of the debt crisis by treating it either as a liquidity crisis or as one of short-term internal adjustment rather than as a more deep-seated problem of structural adjustment which required important supply-side responses as well as the appropriate management of demand. This meant that the Fund opted to support new financing which assisted countries in meeting their outstanding debt-servicing obligations but which did little to restore medium-term viability to their balance of payments.The nature of the programmes supported by the Fund has, in relation to this, been criticized for an overemphasis on devaluation resulting from a desire to strengthen the tradable sector of the economy and thereby to facilitate debt servicing, and an over-ambitious attempt to achieve stabilization and liberalization simultaneously. A long-standing worry associated with the use of devaluation is that a shift in the nominal exchange rate will fail to alter the real exchange rate because of the inflation it generates.Devaluation is seen as destroying the ‘nominal anchor’, or to use the older jargon ‘reserve discipline’, that a fixed exchange rate provides. Is this not a particular worry in highly indebted countries where the inflation record is frequently very poor and where the reputation of governments as inflation fighters is often weak? Just as the counter-inflationary merits of fixed exchange rates were being acknowledged and accentuated in the context of the European Monetary System, were they not being neglected by the IMF ?Critics of the Fund’s approach to conditionality within the highly indebted countries have argued that, whereas devaluation may certainly be appropriate in some circumstances it may be inappropriate where the fiscal deficit is under control and where the income redistributive effects, particularly in terms of lowering the urban real wage, spark off political unrest and measures to restore real wages. In these circumstances, the price of non-tradeables may also rise, with the result that the relative price effect of devaluation on the internal terms of trade is lost.The dangers of a vicious circle, whereby inflation leads to devaluation which then leads to further inflation, have long been acknowledged in Latin American economies where there is a legacy of rapid inflation and a low degree of money illusion. Indeed, in the context of forward-looking models of economic policy which emphasise the importance of the government’s reputation, the vicious circle can take on an additional twist.Here the use of devaluation damages a government’s anti-inflation credentials; private agents anticipate devaluation and mark up prices ahead of it; the inflation thereby caused itself forces the government to devalue. Expectations become self-fulfilling and generate their own internal dynamics. The Fund has also been seen as being over-ambitious. Its stabilisation and liberalisation objectives have been interpreted as paying inadequate regard to the potential inconsistencies that may exist between them.Within developing countries, in particular, revenue from tariffs may be an important element in total government income. Tariff reduction can therefore exert a significant adverse impact on the fiscal balance unless this source of revenue is replenished by other tax changes. Evidence suggesting a falling rate of success in achieving programme targets is cited as supporting the claim that Fund-supported programmes in highly indebted countries have been unreali stic.In the case of intermediate targets, relating, for example, to aspects of credit creation, such a record reflects an increasing problem of non-compliance. Countries have often simply not complied with strategic elements in Fund-supported programmes. Some authors have again sought to explain this phenomenon in terms of the specifics of the debt problems with which highly indebted countries have been faced, the argument being that Fund-supported programmes have offered little domestic rate of return. The principal beneficiaries have instead been private foreign creditors.The distribution of the costs and benefits of the programmes has established a set of incentives that is antagonistic towards a high degree of compliance. The debt overhang has had the effect of weakening Fund conditionality through acting as a tax on necessary reforms, with one implication being that it has become increasingly difficult to muster the necessary domestic political support for such reforms (Sachs, 1989; Krugman, 1988). In this context it is claimed that debt relief is needed to create the necessary incentive structure to adjust.The Fund has been criticised for failing to recognise this. Indeed, its policy of ‘assured financing’, whereby IMF support was predicated on countries continuing to meet their outstanding obligations to the banks, has been interpreted as systemically discouraging the provision of debt relief by the banks and thereby impeding the resolution of the debt crisis. At the beginning of the crisis the Fund had some success in encouraging new commercial money inflows by making these a precondition of its support, but this insistence faltered as the banks’ reluctance to lend became more pronounced.Moreover, it is argued that the Fund’s inappropriate approach to the debt problem was reflected by its apparent neglect of the distinction between new financing and debt reduction—a distinction which was being accentuated in the academ ic literature as the 1980s progressed (Krugman, 1988). Critics suggested that this neglect again showed the Fund as being primarily concerned with cash flow rather than medium and longer-term problems.Yet, even in a short-run context, the different expectational responses to new money and debt reduction can cause different effects, with new money leading to further indebtedness and therefore the prospects of additional domestic fiscal and monetary problems. Statements emanating from the Fund about its own perception of its role in the debt crisis tended to side-step these analytical issues and stick with broader organizational ones, which emphasized its strategic importance as an ‘honest broker’ or catalyst (Nowzad, 1999).The Fund described its objective as that of normalising creditor-debtor relations and restoring country access to sustainable flows and spontaneous lending. The means to this end were to be vigorous and sustained adjustment efforts by the debtors, and a co-operative concerted approach involving creditors, the Paris Club, commercial banks and the export credit agencies. While recognising that progress had been uneven and vulnerable, by the mid-1980s the Fund was interpreting its overall record on the debt problem as ‘encouraging’ (Nowzad, 1999).At the same time, however, critics were assessing that, ‘the IMF’s recent record in the debtor countries is one of failure’ (Sachs, 1989a). Such disagreement persists because there is no universally accepted set of criteria by which the Fund may be judged. Apart from anything else, there is always the basic problem of the counterfactual: what would have happened if the Fund had done things differently?Accepting this difficulty, a superficial review of the empirical evidence suggests that the Fund’s record in terms of dealing with the debt problem of the 1980s was, at best, mixed. Certainly it managed to help avoid a major systemic international financ ial failure and this was no small achievement. But, by other criteria, no substantial or sustained degree of success can be claimed. By the end of the decade, creditor-debtor relations had not been normalised, and access to spontaneous lending had not been restored.Indeed, the creditworthiness of the highly indebted countries, as represented by the secondary market price of their debt, had continued to fall; net transfers to highly indebted countries were still significantly negative; a concerted and co-operative approach to the debt problem had not emerged; most debt indicators failed to show any notable or sustained improvement; and macroeconomic performance in the highly indebted countries was poor and often deteriorating, with forward-looking indicators such as the investment ratio and import volume suggesting bleak prospects for the 1990s.Even IMF-specific indicators were discouraging, with declining programme compliance, rising arrears and the increasing use of waivers. Episod ic successes existed but the overall picture was not reassuring. During a decade in which open economy macroeconomics became more sophisticated, the accusation was increasingly made that the model underpinning the Fund’s operations had failed to be modified and that it was out of date and inappropriate. Research of an excellent academic standard conducted within the Fund’s own Research Department was, according to this view, no longer having a significant operational impact.Indeed, and again at a superficial level, the empirical evidence seemed to suggest that the conventional caricature of a Fund-supported programme involving a combination of exchange rate devaluation and the deflation of aggregate demand through credit control was more accurate during the 1980s than it had been before (Edwards, 1989). At the same time as Fund-supported programmes were being criticised for lacking intellectual sophistication, evidence as to their adverse social and human implications was also being more systematically collected and coherently presented (Cornia et al., 1997; Demery and Addison, 1997).Increasing infant mortality and morbidity, malnutrition and falling life expectancy were now being attributed, at least in part, to IMF-backed programmes. And the design of programmes which emphasised reduced government expenditure rather than increased tax revenue was being seen not only as endangering important welfare schemes in developing countries, but also as reflecting the dominant current politico-economic paradigm within the developed countries, where the role of the state was under stark review.This in turn highlighted another area—the sequencing of reform—in which the Fund came in for criticism. Merely designing an appropriate programme of policies was now seen as inadequate; more consideration needed to be given to the order and inter-temporal distribution of elements of an adjustment programme, particularly as even research conducted within the Fund itself was beginning to suggest that Fund-supported programmes could have a negative effect on output, at least in the short run (Khan et al., 1996; Vines, 1990).Earlier models, which formed the basis for financial programming within the Fund, most notoriously the Polak model, had basically assumed away such an effect by making output exogenous. Yet even the more outspoken critics of the Fund’s handling of the debt crisis suggest that its approach changed towards the end of the 1980s, particularly after Michel Camdessus took over as Managing Director in 1987.This change of approach found expression in terms of a softening attitude towards debt relief, a change in the treatment of arrears, with the Fund becoming prepared to make loans while countries were in arrears with the banks, and an increasing concern for the effects of Fund-supported programmes on income distribution and the related recognition that income distributive effects might be important in determining the political, and therefore practical, feasibility of programmes.Although criticisms still remained, for example that the Fund placed too much reliance on voluntary forms of debt reduction which, given the associated free rider problems, should instead be treated as a public good, they became slightly more muted. If the Fund was still not coming up with right answers, at least, according to some critics, it seemed to be asking more relevant questions. Moreover, some of the broader criticisms relating to the input of the Research Department were suspended awaiting the impact of the appointment of a new Managing Director.On top of this there appeared to be a growing acceptance that macroeconomic stability was a necessary precondition for sustained economic development, and this took some of the sting out of the old debate about IMF conditionality. At the beginning of the 1990s private capital began to return to some of the lightly indebted countries, to the extent that some commenta tors claimed that the Latin American debt crisis was over. This was not the case in Africa, and it is unclear as to how significant the Fund’s input was in generating capital inflows. References Cornia, G. A. , Jolly, R. and Stewart, F. (eds) (1997)Adjustment with a Human Face: Protecting the Vulnerable and Promoting Growth, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Demery, Lionel and Addison, Tony. 1997. The Alleviation of Poverty Under Structural Adjustment, Washington, DC: World Bank. Edwards, S. 1989. ‘The International Monetary Fund and the Developing Countries: A Critical Evaluation’, Carnegie Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 31. Finch, David C. 1988. ‘Let the IMF be the IMF’, International Economy, January/February. Krugman, Paul. 1988. ‘Financing versus Forgiving a Debt Overhang’. Journal of Development Economics 29.Khan, Mohsin, Montiel, Peter and Ul Haque, Nadeem (1996) ‘Adjustment with Growth: Relating the Analytical Approaches of the World Bank and the IMF’, World Bank Discussion Paper, Washington, DC: World Bank. Nowzad, B. (1999) ‘The Debt Problem and the IMF’s Perspective’, in Graham Bird (ed. ), Third World Debt: The Search for a Solution, London: Edward Elgar. Sachs, Jeffrey D. 1989a. ‘Strengthening IMF Programmes in Highly Indebted Countries’, in C. Gwin and R. Feinberg (eds).The International Monetary Fund in a Multipolar World: Pulling Together, US-Third World Policy Perspectives No. 13, Washington, DC: Overseas Development Council. Sachs, Jeffrey D. 1989b. ‘Conditionality, Debt Relief, and the Developing Country Debt Crisis’, in Jeffrey D. Sachs (ed. ), Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Vol. 1. International Financial System, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2003. Globalization and its Discontents. New York: Norton. Vines, David. 1990. ‘Growth Oriented Adjustment Programmes; A Recons ideration’, London: Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Paper No. 406, March.

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