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In recent years, the IMF has released a growing number of reports and other documents covering economic and financial developments and trends in member countries. Each report, prepared by a staff team after discussions with government officials, is published at the option of the member country

For the latest thinking about the international financial system, monetary policy, economic development, poverty reduction, and other critical issues, subscribe to Finance & Development (F&D). This lively quarterly magazine brings you in-depth analyses of these and other subjects by the IMF's own staff as well as by prominent international experts. Articles are written for lay readers who want to enrich their understanding of the workings of the global economy and the policies and activities of the IMF

Cracks in the System: World Economy Under Stress"" explores the rapidly changing institutional and policymaking landscape around a financial crisis that now threatens a deep and prolonged global recession. The lead article looks at how the world got into the mess and what to do about it, both now and over the medium term. Other articles review options for changing the rules of world finance, examine the case for modernizing the way countries coordinate their policies, and try to draw some lessons from past financial crises. The ""other crisis"" of high food and fuel prices is also assessed, as

""Africa's Middle-Class Motor"" finds growing evidence that a recent resurgence in the continent's economic well-being has staying power. In his overview article, Harvard professor Calestous Juma says the emphasis for too long has been on eradicating poverty through aid rather than promoting prosperity through improved infrastructure, education, entrepreneurship, and trade. That is now changing: there is a growing emphasis on policies that produce a middle class. The new African middle class may not have the buying power of a Western middle class but it demands enough goods and services to sup

'Wising Up to the Costs of Aging' looks at how falling fertility and rising life expectancy have combined to threaten the ability of many countries to provide a decent standard of living for the old without imposing a crushing burden on the young. In our lead article, Ronald Lee and Andrew Mason say that while population aging in rich industrial countries as well as in some middle- and lower-income countries will challenge public and private budgets in many ways, a combination of reduced consumption, postponed retirement, increased asset holdings, and greater investment in human capital should

Key witnesses shed light on an essential part of the history of music. "In the Soviet Union, from 1917 to 1990, in an extremely difficult context, one of terror even, there developed one of the most intense and richest musical environments of the 20th century...," writes Bruno Monsaingeon. A fascinating mystery that Monsaingeon attempts to elucidate in his film. This essential period of music history is recounted through conductor Guennadi Rojdestvenski, the last remaining representative of these fabulous performers of the Soviet era (he was born in 1931). He is full of humour and it is a treat to watch him explain why there are two page-295's in the biography of Prokofiev published in 1957 and to hear him talk about Tikhon Khrenikov, the terrifying secretary general of the Union of Composers who was in office for forty years... Other witnesses include the conductor Rudolf Barshai "One day, I said to myself, enough is enough, and I decided to leave", the pianist Viktoria Postnikova: "Even seated in the plane, they could come and fetch you and say, Out!" and the central figure of composer, Dimitri Shostakovich: "If I look back, I only see ashes and bodies."

The first analysis in Russian international legal doctrine of the legal status of the waters surrounding the Spitsbergen Archipelago, together with a consideration of the land territories of the various islands and related hydrocarbon and marine bioresource issues. Relevant international legal documents and diplomatic correspondence, including a number previously unpublished, are appended together with four maps and charts of the areas concerned. The authors are experienced Arctic and law of the sea specialists: Professor Vylegzhanin is the Director of the Center for Legal Problems of the Coun