
The Economist's Tale
A Consultant Encounters Hunger and the World Bank
By: Peter Griffiths
eBook | 15 November 2015 | Edition Number 1
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What really happens when the World Bank imposes its policies on a country? This is an insider's view of one aid-made crisis. Peter Griffiths was at the interface between government and the Bank.
In this ruthlessly honest, day by day account of a mission he undertook in Sierra Leone, he uses his diary to tell the story of how the World Bank, obsessed with the free market, imposed a secret agreement on the government, banning all government food imports or subsidies. The collapsing economy meant that the private sector would not import. Famine loomed. No ministry, no state marketing organization, no aid organization could reverse the agreement. It had to be a top-level government decision, whether Sierra Leone could afford to annoy minor World Bank officials.
This is a rare and important portrait of the aid world which insiders will recognize, but of which the general public seldom get a glimpse.
Industry Reviews
'This is a delightful read, a real page turner as the pressure builds and an antidote to the popular belief that for a book on economics to be taken seriously it must be difficult. Every school should have a copy. Persuade your school or college librarian now.'
The Journal of the Economics & Business Education Association
'Written in diary form, The Economists's Tale is a lightly fictionized account (to avoid libel) of Mr Griffiths' struggle to make the government defy the World Bank. Sparkling in his role as a conscience-stricken double agent, he fights intrigue and physical danger to triumph in the end.'
The Economist
'Griffiths paints a picture in which World Bank staff are promoted only for implementing rigid orthodoxies while whistleblowers questioning government corruption are expelled.'
The Observer
'Passionately written and backed up by knowledge and experience.'
New Agriculturist
'Unputdownable - as thrilling as any thriller... I've never read an account of the life of an economic consultant which came anywhere near it in the vividness of the observation or the pace of the action.'
Clive Dewey Emeritus Reader in Economic History, University of Leicester
'The Economist's Tale brings economics alive.'
David Needham, author of Business Studies
'It is rare to find such a detailed, vivid, helpful account of what it is like to do development work.'
Review of Radical Political Economy
on
2. The Task Ahead
3. Meeting the Minister
4. The Expats
5. Meeting the Officials
6. The Casablanca
7. Exchange Rates
8. The United Nations
9. Doing Business in Freetown
10. Finding the Facts
11. The Casablanca
12. The Weekend
13. In the Markets
14. Vanishing Rice
15. Military Coups
16. Planning My Expedition
17. Alarm at the World Bank
18. Into the Interior
19. Visiting the Projects
20. The Resthouse
21. More Projects
22. The University
23. Trekking On
24. Finding the Facts
25. The Southern Province
26. Colonialism
27. Home Again
28. Financing the System
29. What Happened to the Money?
30. Freetown
31. Getting Information
32. How Civil Servants Survive
33. Trickle Down
34. How Much Food is There?
35. The World Bank Reform
36. Cash Flow Problems
37. The Agricultural Marketing Board
38. Of Coups and Rumours of Coups
39. How Much Rice is Imported?
40. Who Will Import?
41. How Do I Get Action?
42. The Casablanca
43. Cabinet Paper
44. Getting it to the Decision Makers
45. Handing It Over
46. On Trek Again
47. Mother Theresa
48. Waiting For Action
49. The Marketing Board
50. A Sundowner
51. Revisiting the Importers
52. A Second Cabinet Paper
53. Dishonest Expatriates
54. Alerting the World Food Programme
55. Breaking the Rules
56. The Showdown
57. And Then What?
ISBN: 9781783607822
ISBN-10: 1783607823
Published: 15th November 2015
Format: ePUB
Language: English
Audience: Professional and Scholarly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Edition Number: 1
























