Neat timing permits the editor to write an open letter to the new president of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development that emphasizes the problems and opportunities the World Bank will have if governments follow through on suggestions that it play a much greater part in the international debt problem than it has done so far. Naturally, seven contributors generate a great deal of advice, much of it about the delicacies of "policy-based" lending and some of it plainly intended to moderate the impact of some policies of the International Monetary Fund, the Bank's twin organization.