Kenneth Rogoff, the head of research at the International Monetary Fund, has made an extraordinarily outspoken and personal attack on Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning former chief economist of the World Bank. At a lunchtime debate last Friday at the World Bank in Washington to launch Professor Stiglitz's new book, Mr Rogoff responded to Prof Stiglitz's opening words with criticism of his ideas, opinions and record at the bank, and suggested that the book should be withdrawn. The World Bank is putting a video recording of the debate on its website.

The text of Mr Rogoff's remarks, obtained by the FT, sums up with the words: "Joe, as an academic, you are a towering genius. Like your fellow Nobel prize winner John Nash, you have a 'beautiful mind'. As a policymaker, however, you were just a bit less impressive." Speaking in London yesterday, Prof Stiglitz said he had been "quite dumbfounded" by the attack. "Ken Rogoff is normally a relatively mild-mannered person. This was nothing to do with what I said, nothing to do with the substantive issues. It was 90 per cent a personal diatribe."

Mr Rogoff, who has spent most of his career in academia and is an international chess grand master, is personally charming, softly-spoken and generally courteous. But his views on Prof Stiglitz reflect many years of pent-up institutional resentment. Even before resigning from the bank late in 1999, Prof Stiglitz had become known as a critic of the IMF. His book, Globalization and its Discontents, depicts the fund as hidebound by "a curious blend of ideology and bad economics", prescribing "standard" solutions to economic crises "without considering the effects they would have on the people in the countries told to follow these policies." At Friday's debate, in front of an audience mostly made up of World Bank and IMF staff, Mr Rogoff hit back, paying tribute first to his colleagues at the IMF as "superb professionals" who, he said, had been shot at, worked in brutal conditions and contracted tropical diseases while doing their jobs.

"Their dedication humbles me but in your speeches, in your book, you feel free to carelessly slander them," he said. Mr Rogoff drew attention to a passage about Stanley Fischer, the former first deputy managing director of the fund who is now a vice-chairman at Citigroup. The book says: "One could only ask, was Fischer being richly rewarded for having faithfully executed what he was told to do?" Mr Rogoff said: "Of all the false inferences and innuendos in the book, this is the most outrageous" and suggested the book should be withdrawn "until this slander is corrected". Prof Stiglitz said he was making a point about the perception of conflicts of interest, not making any accusations about Mr Fischer personally.

Mr Rogoff also challenged Prof Stiglitz's policy prescriptions, which reject cutting budget deficits and raising rates as remedies for countries in crisis. "We earthlings have found that when a country in fiscal distress tries to escape by printing more money, inflation rises, often uncontrollably," he said. "The laws of economics may be different in your part of the gamma quadrant." One member of the audience on Friday described the mood as "a bit flabbergasted" by Mr Rogoff's tone. Although Prof Stiglitz's relations with the bank have not always been smooth - James Wolfensohn, its president, described him as a "free spirit" shortly before his departure - he is still well-regarded there, and is a member of a panel of independent advisers to Nicholas Stern, his successor as chief economist.

The first question for Mr Rogoff came from a bank economist who expressed concern at the personal nature of his attack. Prof Stiglitz said yesterday: "The IMF was, in front of the World Bank, confirming the view that they are not willing to engage in a substantive discussion