The poster from Iceland mentioned this in relation to the crisis there, & then there's this, from Baker & Weisbrot - two economists who didn't support the useless *bailout*.
>>Global Financial Stability: What Role for the IMF?
The recent crisis in global financial markets can largely be attributed to a lack of appropriate oversight and regulation, including in the U.S. the accumulation of a more than $8 trillion housing bubble. The bailout for Wall Street approved last week in Congress does not include remedies for preventing another similar crisis. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has offered "to coordinate the global reform process, which could begin next month when finance ministers and central bankers convene in Washington for the annual IMF/World Bank meetings on October 11-13." This is because, according to IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, "The IMF is the right place to organize a global response to weaknesses in the global financial system."
...The IMF's failure to provide advance warning of most of the major financial crises of the last 15 years and its record of suggesting inappropriate remedies after the fact raise serious questions about its ability to perform this function.
Dean Baker was one of the first economists in the United States to warn about the dangers of the $8 trillion housing bubble, and he urged the Federal Reserve Board to take steps to rein in the bubble before it grew to such dangerous proportions... He has also been a prominent critic of the bailout package recently passed by the U.S. Congress. He is the author of numerous research papers and articles on the housing bubble and the credit crisis, including, most recently, his “Statement on Congressional Approval of Bailout.”
Mark Weisbrot has written... on the International Monetary Fund's recommended macroeconomic policies .... His criticisms of the Fund’s policy advice have been joined increasingly by world leaders, most recently at the United Nation’s 63rd General Assembly meetings in September, where this policy advice was contrasted with the massive provision of liquidity and record-breaking nationalizations taken by the U.S. government in recent months.<<
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/event:-global-financial-stability:-what-role-for-the-imf/ I don't think we'll like their (the IMF) *solutions*.