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Behind the jargon at the IMF
Behind the jargon at the IMF

Given the chance to be a fly on the wall at any institution, few would choose the International Monetary Fund. As part of a series from the Writers in Residence nonprofit organization, novelist Geoff Dyer spent a fortnight on a U.S. aircraft carrier, the George HW Bush. Douglas Coupland, a Canadian writer, chose Alcatel-Lucent, the French telecom company. With the IMF as his subject, author Liaquat Ahamed seems to have opted for a palette of grays — although that is not how he sees it. For Ahamed, best known for "Lords of Finance," his 2010 Pulitzer-winning book about the 1930s financial crisis, the IMF conjures romantic memories. It was there that he met his...