The Demonstrators

The signs that the demonstrators carried in Washington last week indiscriminately condemned ail the major international economic institutions—the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (Bank), and the World Trade Organization. Like the demonstrators, the institutions are a mixture of good and bad, right and wrong. Their judgments are mainly well-intentioned, but often mistaken. And both demonstrators and the institutions suffer from the major Washington affliction, excessive hubris represented by the firm conviction that they know the best interests of the countries and people that they claim to assist.