Reply received from LEW who

Reply received from LEW who wrote the book review:The review noted that The Political Economy of Development provided detailed evidence of the failures of the World Bank and the neo-liberal assumptions which still guide its activities. But we ask again: What of the alternative? ln a chapter co-authored by Fine, it is argued that “lt is insufficient simply to inform of more appropriate analytical frameworks and content” and that progress crucially depends upon “‘activism’ against the Bank’s roles in advocacy, scholarship and policy” (p.45; original emphasis). In the book’s Concluding Remarks, also co-authored by Fine, a number of recommendations are made with regard to the Bank’s roles, particularly in the way it carries out its research (p.281-282).Leaving to one side the nature of those recommendations, it is clear that the contributors to this book see a continuing role for banks in general and the World Bank in particular. In that case it is inevitable that they will follow one monetary policy or another. When it comes to monetary policy there is only either the neo-liberal ideology of “sound money” (what used to be called “monetarism”) or broadly defined keynesianism which according to the original review is governments spending their way out of trouble. (This probably does an injustice to Keynes but it is how Keynesiansim is generally understood.) In other words, either the currency is issued sufficient for capitalism to operate or the currency issue is inflated for political ends.The contributors to the book reject neo-liberalism; Fine now says the book does not propose Keynesian approaches or solutions, though that is not stated or implied anywhere in the book. Perhaps Ben Fine can explain what monetary policy he does favour?