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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: An excellent book
Review: As an economics professor, I'm always skeptical of books about economics written by journalists. Economics can be quite complicated, and far too often journalists without serious (graduate-level) training in economics show a remarkable lack of understanding of even basic economic issues. They pose as "experts" but they don't really know what they're talking about...So I was very pleasantly surprised when I picked up this book. Blustein does a really impressive job of examining in detail the crisis of 1997-1998 and the role of the IMF. The economics is impeccable and he explains it clearly. And he's tremendously effective at bringing to life the "drama" of the crisis and the very difficult decisions that policy-makers face during a crisis like this one. I also appreciated the fact that, while being quite critical of the IMF, Blustein is also balanced in his assessment, and careful about avoiding gratuitous "IMF bashing" and about making it clear that there are a lot of very smart people at the IMF who work very hard to do their job well. This is a great book for anybody who wants to gain a greater understanding of the international financial system and of the role of the IMF. Lively, accurate, never boring, it's one of the best non-technical books about an economic event that I've ever read.
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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: Good read on a tragic epoch
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.
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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.
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