How to Read Afghanistan: Rebuilding the Central Bank after 9/11--My Travels to Kabul (Warren's Travels Book 2) DOC
What currency and monetary policy should the new government in post Taliban Afghanistan adopt? How should one of the world’s largest bank failures (Kabulbank) be resolved? Warren Coats, a retired IMF post conflict monetary policy expert, provides a travel log like adventure through the physical, economic, and political terrane of post 9/11 Afghanistan. Between January 2002 and December 2013 Dr. Coats traveled to Kabul 19 times spending a total of 212 days in the country. Having visited Kabul individually, but usually as part of an IMF technical assistance or program team, Dr. Coats shares his experiences working in a war-torn country with a young and eager group of Afghan employees and officials of Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), Afghanistan’s central bank. As America recovered from the 9/11 attacks of Al Qaeda terrorists directed from Afghanistan, Afghanistan itself struggled to rebuild after years of civil war and to adopt the ways of modern market economies. Dr. Coats explores with both Afghan and American friends the question of how Islam should be understood, a question being debated within Islam itself. He gives considerable attention to the details of the Kabulbank scandal and its resolution.Coats shares life in the IMF guesthouse in Kabul, and work with DAB staff in the central bank. His work ranged from discussing the choice of monetary policy regimes, the resolution of Kabulbank (the country’s largest bank), the gradual reform of DABs operations to the rapid embrace by its staff of modern merit based personal policies. But the path is uneven and the outcome still to be determined. He built strong bonds with his team members and DAB staff and officials. The work was not without tragedy, but you will enjoy the journey.
