An article in the Economist magazine in mid- 2010 observed: [The] debate about how to save Europe's single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone's dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonisation within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonise. What is "harmonization"? What does it have to do with whether the euro will survive?
a. What is the IMF? What does it mean to say that the IMF is "bailing out" a country?
b. Why would the IMF have been bailing out South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand in 1997? What was the purpose of the bailouts?