Poland Will Apply for IMF Membership

On November 10, Poland formally applied for membership in the international Monetary Fund (IMF). The financially desperate government is looking to the IMF for funds to pay back its $27 billion in debts to Western banks and governments.

Bankers were delighted. "An audible sigh of relief was heard in the banking community" when the news was announced, noted the Journal of Commerce, a daily banking and business paper in an editorial three days later. The Journal of Commerce reflects one strain of thought within the business community which believes there are roles which private enterprise cannot or will not fulfill, which must therefore be covered by multilateral lending institutions-while the Wall Street Journal, which represents a militantly anti-public funding line, headlined an editorial condemning Poland's application "The Kremlin Bailout."

Multinational Monitor's cover story six months ago dealt with the possibilities and ramifications of Poland's participation in the IMF (see MM April, 1981). Author Wendy Cooper thus put the Monitor well ahead of the Journal of Commerce, Wall Street Journal, and the rest of the nation's business press.