Fact check
Is it true: Washington Consensus / IMF structural adjustment programs (1989-present)?
Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.
The Washington Consensus as applied through IMF and World Bank conditionality is fully documented. Joseph Stiglitz (World Bank Chief Economist) publicly argued the prescriptions harmed Indonesia, Thailand, and South Korea during the 1997-98 Asian crisis. Argentina's 2001-02 default followed IMF-endorsed policies. Williamson himself argued in 2004 that his original formulation was misrepresented as "neoliberalism" by critics and that capital-account liberalisation was not part of his original list.
The claim
In 1989, economist John Williamson coined the term "Washington Consensus" in a paper listing ten policy prescriptions he observed as common ground among the IMF, World Bank, and US Treasury for Latin
Key evidence
Williamson 1989 paper coined the term and is the primary source document
Williamson 2004: the term was misrepresented as "neoliberalism" by critics
Conspirafy steelmans each claim, then follows the evidence. How we reach a verdict · Check another claim