global economic disasters during the late 1970s: the oil crisis, debt crisis, multiple economic depressions, and stagflation. These fiscal disasters led policy makers to decide that deeper intervention was necessary to improve a country's overall well-being. In 2002, SAPs underwent another transition, the introduction of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. PRSPs were introduced as a result of the bank's beliefs that "successful economic policy programs must be founded on strong country ownership". In addition, SAPs with their emphasis on poverty reduction have attempted to further align themselves with the Millennium Development Goals. As a result of PRSPs, a more flexible and creative approach to policy creation has been implemented at the IMF and World Bank. While the main focus of SAPs has continued to be the balancing of external debts and trade deficits, the reasons for those debts have undergone a transition. Today, SAPs and their lending institutions have increased their sphere of influence by providing relief to countries experiencing economic problems due to natural disasters or economic mismanagement. Since their inception, SAPs have been adopted by a number of other international financial institutions. Some studies suggest that they have been "weakly associated with growth and reform did seem to reduce inflation." Others have argued, however, that "the outcomes associated with frequent structural adjustment lending are poor." Some have argued that, based on only mild improvement of growth in the 1990s from the 1980s, that the IMF should focus more on remedying management of a country's balance of payments position as originally envisaged by the IMF instead of its focusing on structural adjustments. One study pointed towards deleterious effects on countries in Latin America's democratic practices, suggesting that reforms may create an economically and politically marginalized population who views democratic government as unresponsive to its needs and thus less legitimate. However, the existence of the IMF loan itself has not led to any change away from democracy itself. Critics (often from the left) accuse such policies to be "not-so-thinly-disguised wedge[s] for capitalist interests." South Korea after 1997 Take South Korea after 1997 as an example. Since the loan conditions have a huge influence on the economy of the recipient countries, there are many arguments about the loan conditions. When the Asian financial crisis occurred in 1997, South Korea accepted various loan conditions while accepting the largest financial assistance in the history of the International Monetary Fund. The United States and the