“Profound and complete disappointment”
Simon Johnson thinks the G-20 could scarcely have gone worse from the U.S. Treasury’s standpoint. He notes the failure to achieve anything concrete on exchange rates, but also a curious omission from the final communique. A previous statement that the IMF managing director would be chosen on the basis of merit (rather than geography) was ...
Simon Johnson thinks the G-20 could scarcely have gone worse from the U.S. Treasury's standpoint. He notes the failure to achieve anything concrete on exchange rates, but also a curious omission from the final communique. A previous statement that the IMF managing director would be chosen on the basis of merit (rather than geography) was gone.
Simon Johnson thinks the G-20 could scarcely have gone worse from the U.S. Treasury’s standpoint. He notes the failure to achieve anything concrete on exchange rates, but also a curious omission from the final communique. A previous statement that the IMF managing director would be chosen on the basis of merit (rather than geography) was gone.
On IMF governance, over which there was substantial fanfare in advance, it turns out there has been a major step backwards. The Europeans have apparently signaled they are no longer willing to give up the job of Managing Director – they have always controlled this job and this is a major reason why IMF legitimacy remains weak. Unless and until an emerging market person gets this position, no one (outside of Europe) will want to rely on the IMF in an emergency.
When I spoke with a German IMF official earlier this month, he signaled that any progress on this issue would have to be coupled with a U.S. willingness to relinquish its hold on the World Bank presidency.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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