Foreign exchange auctioning as a measure of economic liberalisation for adjustment in Zambia: problems and prospects for African economies

Abstract

Last week, on the 27th of February 1987, a certain local newspaper, having been informed of the topic for tonight's meeting , decided to place on its strategic page four, a long article in which a World Bank official - well-cushioned in his career because of the spoils derived from the looting of Developing countries by the institution he works for - issued what the paper called the 'prosecution's case' against the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the paper the agreed facts were: that the economic pains of Sub-Saharan Africa were self-inflicted through wrong-headed policies adopted since independence; that these countries inherited healthy economies at independence (implying that colonialism had the mission of creating - 'good' economy) which were harmed by grievous errors, the most telling of which were: a) the rejection of capitalism and replacing it with statism; and b) buying political power and popularity by parastatalizing or nationalising 'successful' private enterprises and turning them into loss-making bases of politics and patronage; that these facts - which are the charges - aggravated the facts of lack of skill and lack of capital and technology. But there is the greatest crime - and here lies the 'prosecution's' final blow - the Africans ignored the basic fact that the human animal is selfish - and this failure led to the failure to utilise this basic attribute of human nature to the common good. Said the official: "The way to turn this selfishness to common good is not to ignore it, condemn it, or preach against it, but to tap it for the benefit of the country by letting it produce the goods and services first and then taxing away some of these benefits for the use of the nation as a whole".Typically, the prosecution - perhaps sensing that, actually, it is the one which should be the accused - runs away from its crime by a philosophical argument - that - philosophically speaking - human nature is basically selfish , therefore, there can be no prima facie case against the World Bank and the IMF for selfishly looting developing countries - for selfishly bringing upon Zambia, intolerable conditions for so-called adjustment.