We Had a Chance

As Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from January 1987 to February 2000, Michel Camdessus spent thirteen turbulent years among the powerful of this world, when history completely changed. Constantly running around the globe, he fought global financial imbalances, tried to reconcile financial orthodoxy with solidarity, supported the transition of the former USSR, canceled the debts of the poorest countries and tackled the crises which threatened the stability of the global economy.The pages that he is proposing here are not his memoirs in the traditional sense. This is a compelling narrative without clich about his meetings, at the heart of crises, with the leaders who were running the world. From Boris Yeltsin to Bill Clinton, from Margaret Thatcher to Mobutu, from Suharto to Pope John Paul II, as well as Jacques Chirac, Franois Mitterrand and many others, he returns to the toughness of these head-to-heads.These encounters are all portraits of a challenging truth. Along the way, he outlines with clarity the role, function, influence, and sometimes powerlessness of an indispensable institution.

As Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from January 1987 to February 2000, Michel Camdessus spent thirteen turbulent years among the powerful of this world, when history completely changed. Constantly running around the globe, he fought global financial imbalances, tried to reconcile financial orthodoxy with solidarity, supported the transition of the former USSR, canceled the debts of the poorest countries and tackled the crises which threatened the stability of the global economy.The pages that he is proposing here are not his memoirs in the traditional sense. This is a compelling narrative without clich about his meetings, at the heart of crises, with the leaders who were running the world. From Boris Yeltsin to Bill Clinton, from Margaret Thatcher to Mobutu, from Suharto to Pope John Paul II, as well as Jacques Chirac, Franois Mitterrand and many others, he returns to the toughness of these head-to-heads.These encounters are all portraits of a challenging truth. Along the way, he outlines with clarity the role, function, influence, and sometimes powerlessness of an indispensable institution.